January in Review

I really liked looking back each month last year, to see my progress toward my yearly goals so I thought I would continue with my "Month in Review" posts this year, as I am able. My posts might be more summarizing than specific, but it was a helpful exercise for me and I know at least TWO of you enjoyed reading about them. ;-) So- here I go. January in review.

I purposely did not add "a home project a month" into my goals for 2013-not because I don't WANT to complete a home project a month but because our budget squeaks so loudly that I knew we wouldn't have the funds to DO them.  BUT!  Turns out, January was the month for home projects!

Our upstairs hallway had original wood flooring that was in such bad shape that there were a dozen or so places that old scrap metal was tacked over them that would constantly scrape our feet.  It is a wonder we didn't all get tetanus.  We got pretty good at navigating the floors in the middle of the night in bare feet- but when you missed your mark- boy did it HURT.

We wanted to cover it up but....well, the budget wasn't there.

Then, a few random home renovation conversations over Christmastime resulted in us finding out that a cousin who had redone their floor had a bunch of "old" flooring they were just going to burn and would we like to see if we like it?  Um.  Yes.  ANYTHING is better than metal daggers on your toes.

Turns out, the "old" flooring was in fact GORGEOUS flooring and more than enough to cover our hallway.

Pretty amazing, right?  I love it when God knows your heart and your little insignificant desires (like a new floor) and steps out of the box you have made for Him in order to wow you with wonder.  Like a father who plays dolls with his girls even though that would be the LAST thing he cared about any other time- our Father knows of our stubbed toes and cares about flooring because WE care about flooring and for no other reason.  He is good.

Also, this month Matt did a lot of outdoor barn work.

A LOT seems like an understatement.

Thanks to Matt's hard work earlier this year we had all the supplies to do barn work without all the expense.  He rebuilt an entry going into the barn which he had worked on for a month or two this fall and then resided the whole barn.  He finished the barn projects he had hoped to finish by the end of January.  

Just for giggles- here are the barns when we moved in just over a year ago.

 

I told you the man is a machine.  :-)

We ALSO had a new circuit box put in our home, the first step in getting a more safe electrical situation for our home.  This was something we had to hire out to do and absolutely necessary to the safety of our home but it did set us back $1500.00.  A perfect segue' into the next area of review.

Finances.  (oh joy.)

This month was not a pretty month for finances.  We got a surprise tax bill saying "Surprise!  The county decided to assess your home for TWICE the value the assessor gave you when you bought it so you now owe us $2,000.00"  We looked into an appeal but the lawyer basically gave us the "just pay it" shpeal.  SO. 

$3,500.00 worth of bills that I didn't budget for in my CODE ORANGE, zero-balance budget.  That pretty much stinks.  (Another understatement.)   On top of it all, taxes increased making Matt's paycheck smaller than it was.  Another fatal blow to a zero balances budget. 

•  Give Matt $40.00 per paycheck (because he's earned it, after all.). Did this.

•  Pay $10,000. toward principal of house (on top of mortgage payments.)   Even with all the unexpected issues, I determined to at the very least to try to fulfill my goal to pay extra toward the mortgage.  If I am able to reach my self-imposed goal of overpaying each month....we will pay off our house in 6 years and save over $16,000 in interest alone.  Talk about incentive.  Paying $10,000 toward principle this year means paying $800.00 per month on top of our mortgage payment.  Which I did!  As we like to say around here...WA-stinkin' HOO.    It is going to be hard, especially with all these "surprises" popping up at every turn but I am hopeful.  (Or naive). 

• Save $5,000 toward a new van (ours has 130,000 miles on it so a "new" one is inevitable.)    My self-imposed goal of saving $5,000 for a new van means setting aside $500.00 per month but unfortunately, this months' portion (and probably several more months' worth) had (and will have) to go toward the unexpected expenses January brought.   Money has to come from somewhere and sadly, we don't have a golden goose hiding in a closet somewhere.
• Save $1,000 to put toward investing.  Not this month.  Our tax return will hopefully come in handy here.

To even remotely accomplish the above goals I need to:

• Reevaluate our budget and spending and completely overhaul it to accommodate our CODE ORANGE, LOCKDOWN status.  :-)  (Yeah.  Smiling NOW.)  I created a Code-Orange LOCKDOWN budget in order to reach our yearly financial goals and I won't sugar-coat it, it isn't pretty.
• Cut all unnecessary spending.   (ouch.  It hurts already.) I saved all my receipts for the month and looked at all my spending.  I see a few places I can still improve.

PERSONAL GOALS~

• Invite people over for dinner at least once a month.  This includes people around the community as well as friends and church family. We had company three times this month.  It was lovely.
•  Reestablish family read-alouds- not this month
  
• Begin reading the Classics (using Susan W.Bauer's The Well Educated Mind as a guide.) not this month.
• Lose 5# a month until I reach my goal weight.  Which, if the "average for my size" goal weight- should be in March; if the "Got Married This Big" goal weight- should be by May.  Well on my way.  My weight comes off very slowly, as I told you yesterday, but I am doing everything it takes so I'll (try to) be patient.
• Wake up to send Mattie off to work each morning (while conscious) and make him lunches to take with him.  Not every day but I think I did REALLY well with this.  What do you think Mattie?
• Take one photo a week finding Beauty.  I was talking to a gal a few months back who said that I often take mundane moments and make them beautiful by photographing them.  I love that about photography- it gets you to see the beauty even when it is hard to find.  But that she had said that about me was more than generous, because I haven't felt like I have done that in ages.  So, this year, I knew a personal photo challenge was in order.  Once a week.  My life IS beautiful- this shouldn't be THAT hard, right?  HA.
• Get a church website up and running...I am a good halfway done.  It is time consuming and I won't lie- I will be HAPPY when it is over.

• MAKE something once a month.  Dishcloths were as creative as I could get this month. Maybe I will be more clever next month. 

There were a few more goals but they were more "by the end of the year, I'll _____" type things.  

In summary-

• I need to tweak the finances for February and try to stay disciplined (AND SANE!) on this very tight budget.
• I need to get my nose in a book more often!
• I need to continue with my eating/exercise routine and keep things in the proper perspective.  Healthy eating and exercise is always a good choice- even if my weight is not affected.  And there are a million more important things than weight, anyway.
• I need to get myself INSPIRED with my camera again, for goodness' sake!!

Overall, though, not a bad start to the year.