February Goals

Without further ado, here are my February Goals:

1) Credit Card charges of less than $1000: Everything goes on my credit card, except my mortgage, IRA payment, and electric bill (and sometimes gas.)

2) Develop a running plan that involves running 5k per week and follow it!!! (Follow it meaning at least get out there and run. If I don't actually run the whole mileage plan, I at least walk it or make the distance in the following day or two)

3) Get my taxes done! I should have a refund, so that's motivation.

4) Get office ORGANIZED... this is a huge undertaking, but I desperately need to do it.

5) Have March calendar planned out


And of course, I'll keep tabs on the 2010 goals as well...

February's Focus: Money!

The last two months, I have spent way more money than usual. While most of the big expenses were ones I don't regret, I still need to reign it in and revamp my sayings. I wrote about my money stress in more detail here.

So in February, I am going to really watch my spending. My brother is coming to town and I know there will be a few expenses with that, but my mom has offered to take the four of us to a nice dinner as our Valentine's Day gift. I am going to work on cleaning out the pantry instead of buying food, eating at home more, maybe having a few game nights, and just keeping the money side low key.

I'll keep updates on my progress here. Thanks for any support!

Goal #10: Organize my Life

Truth be told, I'm a wanna be Type A person... on the grand scheme, I'm more Type A than not, but I end up over-scheduling and things just get out of hand. For this goal, I've spent most of the month trying to figure out how exactly to quantify this. Do I write goal of concrete things to do; or is it more a goal of "when I can do X without having to worry/reschedule" It's probably going to be a little of both. This is also going to be something that I need to continually work on. I want to set up systems to keep things organized, but I can't seem to find the time to. (Go figure!)

So here are some of my general goals to go with it:

a) No working past 7:30pm. This is usually the latest any of my private business goes to, and I need to stay onto of work so I don't procrastinate and end up working half the night. This will also allow for more time for T and I.

b) Be everywhere 5-10 minutes early: This one has not happened in January, so I need to focus on it now. I will get up plenty early and end up bustling around around just trying to get ONE more thing done. Then I'm late. I'm not usually super late that it has effected my job or anything, but just enough that it drives me nuts.

c) Each month gather one trash bag of Goodwill and one of trash

d) Find a better way to organize incoming papers... I had an inbox but I only cleaned it out every few months (read: 9 months?!)

I think I also need specific goals and parts of the house to work on each month:

January: Bathroom & Bedroom; we re-cleaned out the bathroom and go that back together, but the bedroom still has a ways to go. That's on this weekends agenda.

February: Office!!! (this is the worst!)

I just want to not feel overwhelmed like I do so much of the time!!! Any suggestions are welcomed, encouraged!!!

Goal #9: Streamline My Work

I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how exactly to accomplish this goal. My private business is rather small, just me and a couple of independent contractors. This year I have a couple of things I need to get, including insurance and looking at what would be needed to turn my contractors into employees. I also would like to offer a few more things with my business.

Office job wise I just found out I am doing a great job this year, but of course, I feel like I could always do better. My office is a bit of a mess right now and I really need to come up with a way to keep myself organized. I think I have mastered using my outlook calendar, but now it's a matter of keeping track of everything else!

In order to accomplish this goal, I decided I needed monthly goals instead of a yearly one.

January: Business:
1) Make new invoices and timesheets that are pre-filled in as much as possible for the first 6 month
2) Pick one client per month to provide a yearly report

January: Office:
1) Clean out drawers with random papers and file them
2) Sort through and organize the new set of materials I just received

Living Paycheck to Paycheck

I had a fun realization this month that I am, at the moment, living paycheck to paycheck. There are a number of factors contributing to this: paid for solar panels this month, christmas, travel during christmas, scuba lessons, paying for flights for my brother and his girlfriend to come visit, an unexpected interview trip I had to buy a flight for, paying my business quarterly payment, going on an extended vacation this month, and not working half of Dec. These factors have all left me scrambling a little bit to make all of my payments this month.

Lucky for me, I not only live with an amazing man who was willing to give me February's rent early, but I am still able to pay all my bills and not go into any debt. Yes, technically I'm fine, nothing will default. However, this has really shocked me into revisiting a budget and fully concentrating on my savings.

So I have looked ahead, we get back next week and I shouldn't have any additional costs once we get back except gas. I am going to start to try having no spent days and focus on keeping my costs as low as possible. I'm also going to try and get my taxes done as I should have a refund coming my way. Finally, I'm going through my house and looking for things to sell and give away.

Any suggestions? What strategies have you used to go on a money diet after a bit of binging?!

Weekly To Do's: Jan 18-21

Around midnight Thursday we are heading off on our vacation... between now and then there is a lot to get done!! Here's the list of private business and personal To Do's:

1) Get February private business calendar hammered out (completed 2/18)

2) Start 30 Day Shred (schedule for Monday or Tuesday) - due to being sick, putting this on hold

3) Finish posting remaining two goals for 2010

4) Get in some quality dog time!

5) PACK!

6) Reserve our place to stay on vacation

7) Go through pile on coffee table and process (this involves a couple of small mailings, some magazines, business cards for emails) (finished 2/18)

8) Get all invoices for private for the first half of the year prepped

9) At office, start working on next big presentation (mid-Feb.)

10) Mail in car registration check/form (completed 2/19)

11) Return dive equipment (completed 2/19)

12) Mail out 1099's for private business - I can do 3, the rest are back ordered...

Goal #8: Save Money

This past year involved a lot of house projects and some unexpected travel (due to sad family events) instead of much savings. While I'm not in any debt outside of my mom and my mortgage. I want to amp of the savings this year.

Mini-Goals:
1) Save $2500 towards a Thailand trip (my best friend will be in China this summer)

2) Increasing emergency fund savings to $5000

3) Have 6 months where my credit card statement is under $1000 (I put EVERYTHING on my credit card, phone bills, gas, etc. since I get cash back rewards.)

4) Pay off my small mortgage

These will be attacked at varying intensity. First I am focusing on paying off my little loan to my mom, next is the small mortgage & travel. The fall will be hardcore saving time.