I am so glad that February is a memory. My new short-term goal? Get rid of this cough that has been plaguing me for two weeks! I had a nasty, snotty cold, which went away after a week, but the cough is lingering and I’m SO OVER IT. Now, back to our randomly scheduled programming….
1) Stop Rewarding Myself with Shopping: Disappointing performance on goal #1 for last month, mainly because 3 sick days at home meant lots of free time online to peruse my favorite stores and buy things to cheer myself up. It was also WAY too easy to switch from the book I was reading on my iPad (Wild, by Cheryl Strayed) over to the Internet, so the next time I’m sick in bed it’s going to be paper books all the way. On the upside, I saved money on groceries for the month since soup, crackers, and orange juice are not expensive when that’s all you happen to be eating.
2) Pay Off Half of My Personal Loan Before 2014: Still on track.
3) Fold/Iron Clothes As Soon As They Emerge From Dryer: I saw an improvement on this goal, but I’ve either been wearing comfy clothes and pj’s that are easy to fold away immediately or work clothes that will end up in the dry-cleaning service bag, so it wasn’t a challenge.
4) (Ongoing) Savings Account: I’m going with the direct deposit “Set It and Forget It!” approach, so this goal is on track and I think I’ve also earned $.03 in interest (Boo-yah! Don’t act like you’re not impressed…). My mini-goal is also to e-file my tax return this week and electronically deposit the refund into my savings account, so that will be a nice little boost. I always get a refund since I don’t claim any personal exemptions, which is something that my dad and I disagree about. He says that I’m losing money by allowing the government to use more than they need throughout the year and that it’s smarter financially to budget for maybe having to pay some back after I file my return. I told him that, unlike him, I’m currently a Broke Person who is happy to pay the government little bits of my income throughout the year if it means that I don’t have to worry about coming up with an extra few hundred bucks all at once. You have to HAVE money in order to PLAY WITH money.
5) Create Upholstered Headboard: No, but I got to stare at the roll of fabric taunting me from the corner of the bedroom for hours at a time.
6) Re-upholster Chair: See above.
7) Organize My E-mail Inbox: Wow, those 3 days in bed would have been an ideal time to complete this goal! Did I do that? No, I did not. FAIL.
8) Better Meal Management: Like last month, the improvements made on this goal were merely incidental as opposed to being the result of actual effort (see the end of the paragraph for Goal #1 above re: soup, crackers, and orange juice).
9) Make More Art/Do More Designing: I’m currently working with a friend to help her choose fabrics for her Living Room makeover, and have a few art projects in the works. None of them are paid projects, but I’m fine with that for the time-being.
10) Stop Envying the Lives of Others: I’m going to give myself leave to envy anyone who is not sick right now, and I’m going to be grumpy about it.
Sooooo, I pretty much consider February 2013 to be a wash, and I’m really hoping that March will be better!
Even so, you are ahead of me on shopping, good for you. I got sandbagged by some really cute little cardigans that I thought were not worth the money but were really cute etc etc etc - well, they're now home with me on 60day probation. Except for one which is on 30day probation, oh, the pressure.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm still honking and sniffing. Sigh.
This is a rather interesting post! Sorry about your cold, hope it will die down soon enough. I get that you are eager to accomplish your goals but when life seems to slow down (a lot sometime), it is a reminder that it's about the journey, not the end game. That's what I say to myself when things don't always go my pace or my way. Hope that helps;)
ReplyDeleteCatherine xo
www.pearlsandcaramel.com
I had a cough like that this year, it lasted weeks, ugh. Hope you kick it soon. It seems like you did better than a wash this month. You've set some big goals and being on track for the big financial ones in particular is great. It is my opinion that Inboxes don't need to be organized, so I'd scratch that one right off the list. Create some new folders, put important mail into those going forward, boom you're done. I have 30,000+ unread emails in my inbox and live a happy life :) I just search when I need to find something, and anything that was vitally important I've already put into a separate folder when it first arrived. Hope you feel better soon!
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