November Resolution Recap

Happy December! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with whomever you chose to spend it. I'll have my recap and pictures on Wednesday, but since today is the first of the month, I have some goals to update you on.

Last month I set some specific goals, based on my New Year's Resolutions from January. I've been trying to keep on track with those goals, and setting more specific goals has really helped me to be accountable to myself.

Old Goal #1: Save Money

My first goal was to save money. I did really well with this goal through some hard work and a few chance occurrences. We kept the fast food to the bare minimum. I think the only two times we stopped were the travel days for Thanksgiving. The week before Thanksgiving, we only bought the bare essentials because we weren't planning on being home Wednesday through Saturday anyway. In looking back at my bank statement from the month, we only spent $212.38 out of pocket for groceries for the whole month! Part of that is thanks to the sponsored post I ran for Food Lion last week because I was compensated in gift cards, so it's not really a long term possibility, but every penny helps and we saved a good amount of money in November!

Old Goal #2: Get in Shape and Lose Weight

I also pledged to get in shape and lose weight. Exercise is still my nemesis because I just don't know where to realistically pull those hours from. I have been wearing my pedometer and using this website to force myself to get up and move around during the day. Except for the time I was out of town for the holiday, I did really well with tracking my food on MyFitnessPal too. I've been staying under my calorie goal, which the app actually yells at me for, but I'm not going very far under. My lowest recoded weight for the month was 128.4, and I really excited about that!

Old Goal #3: Cleaning

Cleaning...oh cleaning! I've done some good work in getting things out of the house. I scrubbed the stove top until it was whiter than when we moved in! But my cleaning calendar was a bust again last month.

In looking back on those goals, I think I made pretty good progress. There are still a few things I could tweak, so I'll do that in setting three new goals for December.

New Goal #1: Be Careful for Christmas

Saving money in December seems like a pretty dumb goal to set, but I'm going to do it. I've got a list of who gets a gift, and I've filled in half of it with stuff I purchased early. Most of the other gift recipients will be getting handmade gifts, so the expenses will be low on those. I'd like to keep my total budget for Christmas gifts under $400. I've also got extra money coming in from blogging and other side gigs that will be quite helpful at this time of year.

New Goal #2: Walking and Eating Right

I'll aim for 127 pounds by the end of December. I have the last two weeks of the month off from work, so eating right when I'm not in my routine will be the biggest challenge. However, that challenge also comes with an opportunity for more movement, so I think I can do it. I'll be keeping track of my steps, and I'd like to average 4000 per day by the end of the month.

New Goal #3: Cleaning

I'm giving myself a second chance on the cleaning. I'm not feeling any cold/allergy symptoms coming on, so unless I just jinxed myself, I can do it! Also, the extra time off at the end of the month will be good for catching up on cleaning. 90% success rate on the cleaning calendar!