February 2013 Goals
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February 2013 Goals
| Tue, 01-29-2013 - 11:59am |
hello all! This is a thread for everyone to participate in. Please share your goals with us, no matter how big or small, so we can cheer you on & offer support & encouragement!
How did January go for you? Did you set goals? Were there some surprises? Or pretty much what you expected?
What do you plan to accomplish during the month of February?
Good luck everyone!
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My goals for january were:
* Begin my savings plan. Set aside money in each of the above mentioned categories until all are met. I don't think I will get them all done, it's a lot! ~~I saved in my vacation fund ($500), Christmas fund ($1000), and my home repair fund ($1500). I also set aside $2800 in my ROTH IRA. Every year, I have vacation time I cash in, so I put it to good use and bulk up my savings goals.
* Continue my healthy eating and exercising. I have lost 29 pounds so far and am so excited about this! I am still at it, and have lost an add'l 5.6 pounds in January.
My February Goals are:
*Continue to meet my savings goals. I should be able to complete my ROTH IRA 2013 contribution, an add'l $2700. After that goal has been met, I have a "bulk savings" account, something I created to ease my mind. My goal for 2013 is to save $15K.
* Continue on with my healthy eating and exercise. I want to add to my exercise routine and step out of my comfort zone - a little, lol! also, a mini goal when I reach 40 lbs lost, get a pedicure!
* Work on a list of home improvements and repairs that are needed for my house. To get started in the spring, most likely. Estimate cost of each & prioritize.
* I have two vacation days in February. Enjoy, but keep costs to a minimum. Someday I will use money from that vacation fund......someday.
Good luck everyone!
http://www.TickerFactory.com/savings/
Nice progress Dollar!!
Lets see how Jan went!
Jan 2013 Goals:
1. Put $500 extra on my roof loan. This is not guaranteed but I'm going to try.
I did do this. It felt good.
2. don't go overboard on groceries, try to use up what I have, make sure things don't get freezer burnt.
I have been going through the freezers and using things up. I don't think I have gone overboard in Jan.
3. Keep the bonspeil to a minimum for spending.
We did pretty good and had fun.
4. Try to go on a date night, my girl friend wants to babysitt!
We have not done this yet however....
Feb Goals:
1. Try not to dig into savings too badly this month. We have 3 birthdays to take care of, a bonspiel and a trip to Costco and Ikea coming up in the first two weeks of Feb. We have decided to use some savings for this as we will not be able to do all that on regular pay.
2. Put $500 onto roof loan if possible.
3. Keep using the older freezer food first and learning new recipes and cooking here at home. So far since I have been off I have made perogies, home made bread and a cheese cake. I have never done those things before!
Jan Goals were:
Goal #1: Get bills paid this month, minimum on debts, as house insurance is due, as are cabin taxes. All paid.
Goal #2: Get house refinanced. Been dancing on this one since October, and we are now approved. We can complete this month, but our payment will increase as we are going from 21 to 15 years and including escrow we never did before for taxes and insurance. Taxes are paid until September, but see Goal #1 as house insurance bill needs to show as paid prior to refi. Refi is closing on Thursday, 15 year at 2.99% - lower than expected, NO closing costs.
Goal #3: Keep the budget tight. Use return bottles and holiday gifts money for groceries. Did except for DH's b-day weekend and really did not spend much other than that.
Goal #4: Keep my educational trip costs to a minimum. It will be nice to walk around in warmer weather, and I do need this trip, but we need to keep the extra travel costs really low as DH is coming with me at my expense. We did not spend much at all, good job for us!
Just feeling like year 5 of this debt repayment is the hardest yet. We have paid off over $100,000 of CCs, mortgage, cars, and my student loan, but there is still a bit of a mountain to climb.
February Goals:
-Marie
We did reach our goals for Jan, but add me to the list of people feeling a little discouraged these days . . .
I already did my Feb budget and my only real goal was to put $2,000 toward the student loans.
But .. . . I just did my taxes and we owe $2,300, plus I really need to buy a new replacement wall oven and now, a hot water heater too, soon since this is the time of year to find good sales. Plust I need $400 of dental work done (not bad at all) and Dh needs about $1200 worth the dental done.
So I may need to revise my plan.
1) I can put my dental work off until I have the cash saved, but Dh really needs his work done now. The dentist offers a 6% discount for cash up front, so I think I will dip into my e/f for that (I know even though it really isn't an emergency). We will have the final answers on this by tomorrow.
2) I'll be looking for the best possible sale prices on the appliances and see if I can get one of those credit without interest and make a payment plan to payoff asap.
3) I'll have to budget in March for the taxes owed (which means no additional flakes toward the student loan that month).
4) I'll have to reimburse the e/f (for the dental work) with some of my student loan monies from this month.
Really this isn't so bad. None of this really is an emergency. I mean it's stuff that you have to plan for, right? Though the tax thing kind of sucks, because Dh's employer is sosososo bad at this sort of thing. They should have withheld appropriately. Never the less, it's money we owe, and I should just be glad that we have the resources to pay it. I just wish I had a ton of extra cash stashed, and could cover everything without having to plan for every little detail of life, ya know?
I am glad January is almost done. I need it to be done..so.... blah.
February goals:
File my taxes ASAP...we will be getting a refund this year, and we need it. (I still need a few things including something from Sharebuilder which doesn't have to go out before 2/15)
Commit one day per week to baking...it is a great way to make everyone want to eat at home, it is also good for making snacks for the kids' lunches.
Do not spend more than $25 at Kohls for the month. Seriously. I work there...we SHOP there. We don't NEED to shop...at least not in February!
Spend two hours per week looking for a new job. I want to improve our situation, and my minimum wage job isn't really helping that much. I'm not down on myself, but I know I would feel even better about life if I could find a job that suits me.
Try to buy only what we will need for the month, grocery wise. I do not need a stockpile...I need to trim the budget. I am going to start by taking $80 for the week starting Friday...I have meat in the house, so this should be doable!
We have a bump in the road coming up...my daughter's meds have to be refilled this month...we will be putting it on a cc..to the tune of two thousandish dollars. It sucks. We will get it back from our HSA eventually, but we don't have that much in there yet.
Good luck, everyone!!!
In January I stayed on budget in every category. Which I usually do since I use the envelope system. I was able to pay an additional $461 towards our snowball..that's above the $300 I budget for!! :) Very happy about that.
February is our busy birthday month! Actually it started yesterday. We have 7 birthdays between January 29 and March 5th.
February Goals:
1 - Pay a minimum of $300 towards snowball...hopefully more. I'm laid off thru March and we never know how much hubby will bring home.
2 - We are going to try to eat out only 3 times in February.
3 - Track every penny we spend in February
4 - Try to spend less at the grocery and use up the food in our freezers and cabinets
5 - When we get our tax refund (no matter how big or small)...25% goes in savings, 25% goes towards snowball, 25% goes to car fund, 25% is to be divided evenly between Christmas/gift fund, vacation fund, camping fund
6 - Save all of our change to deposit in our never to be touched account
Yikes, my Jan goals were pretty simple:
Update my budget and flake to my target debt (LOC).
Success! I did both and have paid off just under $900 this year. I increased my contributions to my sinking funds and increased the automatic debt payment which was nice.
Now I need to focus on February. My goals are as follows:
1) Increase the "other" sinking funds and the "dog" sinking funds by splitting up any extra money 50% debt, 25% dogs 25% other. The dogs are due for ALL their vaccinations in April of this year so that is going to be a mother of a bill. I'm going to have to really focus on saving for it. They have about $250 in there now but food also comes out of this so if I just stick with my current flakes, it won't be enough (also working on cheaper alternatives for their food to save a bit of money as well);
2) Pay off another $1K in debt. This is going to be a stretch goal, but I think I can do it if I focus!
3) Cancel my gym membership. I am currently donating $45 a month to the gym! I am kickboxing now and loving it so there isn't a heck of a lot of time left over for the gym . I also have equipment in the basement if I really need it. That $45 will help boost the dogs funds as well until I have enough to cover their shots.
Let's see how successful I am!
Bex -
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