I make resolutions. I track my progress. And me being to dork that I am, I share my results here. This, on good months, is GREAT. On a bad month, however, it is just downright embarrassing.
May was a great month for a lot of things-but not necessarily resolutions. I was so busy I tracked only my exercise (and even that, not very religiously.) We had extra expenses like dumpster renting (resulting in no double mortgage payment) and extra large tasks to complete like completely cleaning up Hopestead (resulting in far less time to do unnecessary things, like make Christmas gifts.)
Family Read Aloud(s)-one is the goal:
We read lots of little books through days, but no read-aloud at night before bed. Fail.
House Project(s) of the Month-one is the goal:
We rented garbage and scrap steel dumpsters and took almost a week to clean out the barns, outbuildings, basement and yard of all their J.U.N.K. Dumpsters cost a pretty penny, I found out and it is no fun cleaning out 60 years worth of someone elses' garbage, but I am VERY happy and thankful that job is finally done. I'll be sharing pictures soon (maybe tomorrow?) of the before and afters. This was HUGE and was one of the biggest goals of the year!
I have also been working steadily to create a nice sized garden for vegetables and a circular flower garden of perennials, herbs and annuals. These two things have kept me VERY busy all month and there is still plenty of work to be done!
Several very generous neighbors have thinned their perennials and shared their abundance with me, so my Circle Haven vision is becoming a reality far more quickly (and cheaply!) than I had anticipated and I have far surpassed my 2012 goals for adding ONE perennial this year! yay!
Letter-writing: I didn't keep track but there were several. Two, I know for sure of, went to Opa. I can think of several more I sent out to friends but I can't remember total. Probably about five.
Exercise: 23 times on my tally sheet but I wasn't diligent at writing them down, so I bet that number in reality was much larger.
Reading Bible: I was in the Word twice daily all month, but never just for myself. I am becoming okay with that, I think.
Drank 60 ounces of water: didn't record.
Christmas Gift Made: FAIL. In fact, I was intending to make TWO things, to make up for last months' fail. Now I am up to THREE things in June.
Money to Car Fund: no- it went to getting car fixed after the deer incident.
Money to Savings: yes
Money toward Principle on House: Only managed to overpay $300.00. Better than nothing I guess. :-(
Life happened and required more of us: our time and our resources leaving less for the resolutions but I think it was a very, very successful month anyway. I am happy with all we accomplished.
I can't wait until the end of the year when I tally everything up and see just how much we accomplished this year. That will be a fun day and that will make the embarrassing moments worth it.
5 comments:
Rebecca, you are doing a fantastic job of staying focused on your goals. Even with the fails on some of the things, you far made up for it on others. Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a huge job done with the outbuildings. Don't think of yourself as a failure. You will catch up with the inside projects. I would hate to be tracking my progress right now. You are so willing to be vulnerable. Loving on your family is the best gift you can give them, so you are far ahead on your list!
Love your blog! You have your priorities SO in order! But I am curious--HOW do you manage to "overpay" or "double up" on mortgage payments??!! Especially on one income?! I work part-time as a nurse and we consider ourselves a frugal family--but in today's economy it still seems tough to just make ends meet. I am envious of your ability to manage this on one income while you are also feeding four children--and I admire you very much for figuring out how to make it work!
rebecca I am considering starting a blog just to do report backs on monthly goals (which I still have to make! heehee!) very inspiring!
Thank you very much for your encouragement ladies! Those few moments you took out of your day to comment sure made my day. Thank you!
Anonymous~ it IS tough to make ends meet! And if you knew what I had originally hoped to accomplish on our mortgage this year, you would see how far I am failing on my goal. I wanted to have paid 10,000.00 off of our mortgage this year (and oh-by the way it is already JUNE!). That is just laughable. Unless someone dies and I am left with a whole lotta dough-it ain't happening. And, besides, I don't have any rich friends or family. :-)
That said, I will tell you this: I try very hard to keep the monthly bills to the very smallest amount possible. When I don't have to dish all our money out to various monthly expenses, I have a whole lot more to work with! It is surprising!
We don't have cellphones.
We don't have two vehicles.
We don't have cable.
We don't have debt. (I paid that off a few years ago.)
We don't have a car payment (I paid that off a few years ago too-but now the van is getting old so....this might be an added expense one of these days.)
We converted to wood heat several years ago to avoid paying for fuel oil.
I realized that our insurance companies were charging us not only interest but also hefty handling fees when I spread the payments out throughout the year, so I began paying a years' worth of expenses in the beginning of the year. It made Jan/Feb VERY tight-like squeaky- but all those fees added up saved us almost $300.00 by the end. Well worth it!
We go without because having all of those things would take huge chunks of change each month. As Dave Ramsey puts it- We live like no one else so that we can live like no one else.
And finally- I have a really good impetus. I want this mortgage paid off as quickly as possible because when that happens, Matt can try again with his home business without the fear of us losing our home if things go south. When you long for that as badly as I do, you are happy to devote every single extra penny to the cause.
Sorry for the book. I bet you didn't expect THAT. :-)
Sandy~ There you go! Better late than never, I always say. :-) And hey-if you don't want to start a blog-you are more than welcome to write what you have done here for me! I'd love to hear about it!
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