Photograph Credit: Flickr (Angie Torres)
As I review my February goals, I cringe since I fell flat on my face on most of these goals. It was a tough month.
After being away from home, grieving, and returning to a mountain of responsibilities, I am getting back on track. With a clean slate, I am ready to start again and make progress on my goals.
My goals stem from Crystal Paine’s book The Money Saving Mom’s Budget, where Crystal breaks down the steps to reach your financial goals. I have included my financial and other goals as I seek to change and improve.
Though I do not meet every goal, I love that I am not where I was at the beginning of February. Progress, no matter how small, is still moving closer to my goals.
Physical
Drink 2 glasses of water per day. I did not meet this goal every day, so I will be keeping this same goal for March.
Eat breakfast each morning. Good, but I still need more work. When I got a cold, I did not eat much, but I am making progress.
Exercise for 20 minutes at least 3 times a week. Exercise? What’s that? I need to find a consistent time in my schedule to fit this goal. Keeping this goal though I have not succeeded yet.
Family
Plan at least one family outing/activity each week. Accomplished! I love this goal! Our family enjoyed building projects at Lowe’s and Home Depot, participating in a Kidgit’s event, playing putt-putt golf, jumping in inflatable bounce houses, eating free pancakes at IHOP, and spending lots of family time on our 12-hour trip to and from my mom’s home. Keeping our family relationships close remains a top priority.
Spend 10 minutes with each child each day. Better this month. My preschool daughter has learned to write her name. (Woo Hoo!) How exciting to watch her enthusiasm increase with her accomplishments!
Allow children to help with a household task each week. My kids enjoy this goal. They continue to ask how they can help. By working in extra time for training, we cook, clean, sort, stack, decorate, and pickup throughout our day. My children love contributing to our family while I enjoy using time wisely with them.
Financial
Follow Crystal’s year-long plan to reach my goals. On Track. The main rooms of my home are clutter-free. I still have 2 closets and 2 storage areas to organize, but the bulk of February’s task is complete.
For March (Month 3), Crystal has chosen tracking food purchases. I use this spreadsheet which helps me budget all my household purchases. With the formulas commuted, I only need to add the numbers from my receipts which saves me energy and time.
Our food budget remains at $80 per week for our family of 5. (If you are just starting, Crystal recommends $40 per person per week. As you track your spending, you can adjust as needed.)
Purchase dressers for my daughters’ room. This goal is ongoing. We saved $20 for these dressers in February. 🙂
Purchase upgraded computers for hubby and me. This goal is also ongoing. We saved $30 towards this goal in February. 🙂
Business
Write posts one week in advance. Fell short AGAIN on this goal. Not only am I not ahead, but I also fell behind. (Bummer!) To help with a framework, I printed this calendar and have planned my posts for March. This plan helps focus my time at the computer which, hopefully, will help me get ahead. I will keep this goal for March.
Follow Blogelina’s daily/monthly tasks. Failed. Found these tasks on her Facebook page. However, I do not check often enough to keep up with the tasks. I completed 3 of the 4 sessions of the on-line course and will complete the 4th session in March.
I am changing this goal to “Making one improvement to Using Time Wisely this month.” For February, I participated in Blogelina’s 100 comments event. Though I did not get 100 comments, I did get 76 unique comments which thrilled me. Thank you for participating and encouraging me along this blogging journey.
Read two chapters of blog book each month. Accomplished! Finished 2 more chapters, but I have not applied what I have read . . . yet.
My goals are working for me. With some easy goals and others challenging, the balance works. By plugging along slowly and steadily, I am making progress. If you are struggling with your goals, then adjust. Small steps are still steps in the right direction. Keep going!
Question: How are your goals coming along?
I’m reading the same book. And $80 for a family of 5…wow. I think I spend that much on baby food lol. I participated in Blogelina’s 100 comment thing too and I think I got around 75 as well. That’s ok though, it’s more than I had before. And I found great new blogs to follow (like this one!)
Awesome, Stephanie! Glad you are here. I hope to get an e-book out this year on how I save at the grocery store. Stay tuned because I will need readers to review it prior to publishing. Thanks for following, and I’m so glad you received lots of comments through Blogelina.