November 2015 Goals

Considering the goals I had for this past month, I’m pleased with the progress I made. I’m hoping to accomplish a little bit more toward my big goals for the year for the next couple of months…I think we’ve made so much progress, and I don’t want to let up now!

Here’s a look back at October and how I did. You can read the original October goals post here.


1. Read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. A: Not only did I do this, but I got Noah to read as well (something I’d really recommend if you’re married or live with somebody else). It is a great book. Some of the language was a little silly to us (for example, she often recommends talking to your possessions), but overall I really liked the ideas she has for minimizing the clutter and getting to the important possessions.

Noah got right to work…this was the scene in our living room the night he finished the book. He got rid of (or is in the process of getting rid of) a ton of clothing that just didn’t work for him anymore. My big hangup on doing this right now is my clothing though. I’m pretty much exclusively in maternity clothes right now, so it’s hard to purge any of that just yet. This is totally something I want to do after I’m a little bit more back to my normal self.

2. Have a pantry clean-out week. B-: I sort of did this? I got rid of a couple of things that needed to be used, but we still have a lot that has to be cleaned out. I’m continuing this one this month…more on that below.

3. Eliminate credit card interest payments. A: It takes a few weeks for all of the balance transfers to finalize, but we are almost done with the process of transferring all remaining credit card debt to a 0-interest (for now) credit card, with plans on paying it down shortly. That feels good!

4. Try a meatless meal once a week. F: This just didn’t happen. Still something I’d like to focus on, but Noah is incredibly picky about meatless meals…it’s kind of his staple food in each meal.

Now on to this month…



1. Survive on a $150 grocery budget and $50 restaurant budget this month.  This one is going to be a toughie, but I think it’s possible. We should have another HelloFresh shipment coming in the next couple of weeks, and besides that, I’d like to do one big grocery trip to fulfill the rest of the month.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned HelloFresh on the blog yet…it’s a great service that delivers the ingredients and recipes for really awesome meals to your home each week. The actual service can be a little pricey normally, but with the code LXT99A (at checkout, under the “Have a Promo Code” section), you can get a box for $29…that’s cheaper than you can go to the store and buy these ingredients (just make sure you cancel the subscription before the next delivery cutoff if you don’t want any more deliveries).

We were super impressed with the quality, shelf life, and taste of the recipes. I’ve tried other services like this that just didn’t wow me…this one did. The ingredients come individually packaged for each meal. Each dish (using the classic box for 2) served at least the three of us, with some leaving leftovers for the next day. I’d definitely recommend trying at least one week of it at the discounted price!

Anyway, back to the goals…we’ll be out of town one week this month and we have one week of Thanksgiving, so I’m hoping whatever we can’t get out of the $150 grocery budget can come from our freezer/pantry. As for the restaurant budget, our meals at Disney are all taken care of already, and we’ll make up the rest of what we need from our gift card stash. I don’t know if this is possible, but I’m at least going to try!

2. Have our house completely clean when we leave for Disney.  I’m back in the full swing of our cleaning schedule, so this shouldn’t be too much of a hassle. I’d love to come back to a clean house!

3. Nail down a payment plan for remaining debt.  I’d like to sit down with Noah and really figure out how long it might take to get rid of the little bit of debt we have left. We are on a pretty variable paycheck from month to month, so this might be a little bit difficult.

4. Have a toy clean-out before Christmas. We hang on to way, way too many toys around here. I’m talking Happy Meal toys, Mardi Gras beads…you name it, we have it. We’re kind of toy hoarders.

This one might get extended into December, but definitely before Christmas, I’d like to have a massive playroom clean-out (with Emmie’s help…I want her to have a part in this).

Here’s to a happy and productive November!