Christmas!
I could probably make a list of a hundred things I'd love to work on, improve, quit, or start in my day to day existence. Yet, that sounds too exhausting. I did a really good job of fulfilling the goals I set out for myself last year (read that here if you are interested). This years goals are pretty basic. Nothing fancy. Nothing too fantastical. They are realistic...practical...important to me.
1. Focus on health...again. This embodies a couple elements...increasing physical activity and increasing veggie consumption are two biggies here.
2. Study harder...not longer. (Goal is to study every night.)
3. Work on developing the loving marriage I share with my rad hubs :-)
4. Hone in my spending even more. With Tommy taking the job as our baby girl's caretaker, we will be on one income for quite a while. This terrifies me...especially with the student loan debt monster that comes knocking. This means budgeting every penny. I've never tracked our spending that close. I'm intimidated, but determined to make this work.
5. Make time for friends...new and old. I'm thinking hosting dinner gatherings monthly with neighbors and friends in our building. Also, I'd like to be more diligent about keeping in better contact with my friends back home.
What do you think? Do-able? Did you make any resolutions this year???
Mint.com is an incredibly helpful (and free) website for budgeting. We started using it a year ago and it has made a huge difference in the way we track our spending, especially since between the two of us we have several different accounts with different institutions. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI can testify to how horrible it is at first to track your spending. If your grocery bill surprises you in a bad way, you aren't alone!
ReplyDeleteI think those are really good new years resolutions! I didnt make too many, but mine consist of working on health (foods and excersing) and budgeting too.
ReplyDeletefor sure do-able! you go girl! the increasing physical activity and veggie consumption are on my list as well :) when i did a year of americorps (no salary, just small living stipend) i was really good at tracking my expenses. i had a tiny pad i kept in my purse and wrote down EVERY CENT exactly. literally. even 50 cent highway tolls or 78 cents pocket change given to a homeless man. people laughed at me. but it got to be easy habit very quickly and it was very insightful. i started a new page each month with categories like food, car/gas, rent, tithe/church, fun/misc., and at the end of the month totaled each category and then a total total. i didn't have a budget to keep in each category per se and i had savings in the bank as a backup but i tried to not dip into those. it was a sort of experiment. since finsishing that, ive been fairly lax, but it's a good habit to get into i think. good luck!
ReplyDeleteTotally doable! You will rock these. The spending one does seem scary but in reality non-negotiable right? So rock on with your bad self!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the mint.com advice. The only thing I would say is that you do still have to be involved in the tracking because they don't always automatically categorize correctly and sometimes you need to re-classify. But, that's good because it keeps you aware.
ReplyDeleteGreat resolutions! If only I could get so motivated to identify some for myself...
Those are big ones. Can I add a resolution for you.
ReplyDeleteBonus resolution for Jes: Be kind and patient with yourself, no matter what.
Ha! Can you tell I'm the big sister in the family, all bossy and whatnot.
I have been trying to get in the habit of tracking our budget. I am trying http://sparksavings.com/ right now. Seems good so far, and it's free. Plus you don't have to put in any personal bank information, so it feels better to me than other sites that require that. In the past, I have also used Microsoft Money, which I have also liked.
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