I can't tell you how accountable I've become for my long-term goals since writing them down. It's crazy that having them on a sheet of paper (or the internet, in my case) can really solidify them and make them “real.” Even though I know I love reading others' posts like this, actually posting this once a month is for me – it makes me get my rear end in gear and do something!
Before I start on this month, let's look back at how I think I did last month.
1. Start using the eMeals clean eating plan, putting in meals here and there that use up some of our random leftover foods. – A This is one department where I feel we really rocked. Not only have I made almost all of my meals with this plan this month, but I've changed over a lot of our snacks to much less processed options too. I'm not saying we're ever going to eat clean 100% of the time – we're not. Real life happens, sometimes you have processed things around that are easier to use (more on that below) and sometimes convenience foods are just nice to have. But Noah and I have definitely noticed a difference in how we've felt.
2. Work out 3 times a week. – C I didn't do a great job with this one. For the first couple of weeks, I was able to drag myself into our complex's gym and get on the elliptical for an hour or so. A couple of weeks into the month, I tried Pure Barre for the first time – and to be honest, I was so sore for a week that I couldn't do anything. Ha! But, after that, I did an ok job. The last week of the month I had a little stomach bug that knocked me out during the week (usually my prime gym time), but I made myself go to Pure Barre yesterday afternoon (and it kicked my butt!). Maybe next month on this one.
3. Sell our old cars. – A I'm giving myself a little bit of leeway on this. We got really lucky with selling my car – my brother's stepson needed a new car and was looking for an SUV, and luckily I had one to sell him! 🙂 So that one's done…that car has so many memories for us, and I'm kind of glad it gets to stay in the family. But, we held off on Noah's old car…my Yukon was in the shop for a week because of a fender bender I was in a month ago, so we needed it as a backup. We'll work on selling it soon, but I'm not counting the fact that we needed a backup car against us.
4. Pay down a good chunk of our credit card debt. – B We didn't pay as much as I would like to this month, but we did make a couple of sizable payments. Not bad, but definitely still going to concentrate on this next month.
5. Prepare our Tuscaloosa condo to put on the market. – A Another one I'm giving myself leeway on. We ended up getting a couple of long-term bookings on it this month, so for right now, we're going to hold off on selling it. But, we did spend a weekend in Tuscaloosa doing a few little repairs and giving it a good deep cleaning. So, we did just about as much as is to be expected with this one.
6. Organize some/donate some/pack up some of Emma Ramey's toys. – A I had a friend from Tuscaloosa post that she was selling a larger toy organizer a few weeks ago, so I picked it up from her while we were up there. We were able to get rid of a lot of toy clutter with it. We also packed up 2 huge bins of baby clothes/toys and put them into storage. I do want to go through and weed out some of the smaller unused toys we have (Happy Meal toys are out of control), but I'm happy with the progress we made with this one. And, hopefully very soon, we're going to have a playroom to help with the toy control…more on that later!
So, on to February! Remember, I'm basing these off of my big yearly goals here.
1. Work out at least 3 hours a week. I'm changing it slightly this time, just so I don't try to cheat by going for 15 minutes. 🙂 Having an unlimited month to Pure Barre has really got me going, and I have our apartment's gym for another month or so.
2. Only make one big trip to the grocery store. This might be a stretch. I don't even know if it's possible, but I'd love to plan about 10 meals and really try to use up the remaining pantry staples we have instead of having to pack them to move. We shall see on this. And, bonus points if I can plan healthy meals with what we currently have!
3. Clean out a lot of the things we no longer need as I pack up the house. No matter where we go, our current lease is up February 28th, so I'll be packing pretty much the whole month. My goal is to only pack up the things we really need…the rest will go into the trash/donate/storage piles.
4. Start an account dedicated to our home downpayment. I want to have a place where we're intentionally saving our downpayment fund. I still need to talk it over with Noah as to the best way to do it, but I'd like to have one place where we can have a concrete total for the home.
5. Continue working down the credit cards. Just a continuation of last month. As much as possible will be going toward this one!
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