December 2015 Goals

I did it! I have officially blogged about my monthly goals for a full year. I wasn’t always able to accomplish every single one of these, but I think, overall, setting goals for myself each month has done so much to help me improve my home and our lives. I really like the idea of setting big overall goals for the year and breaking them down into monthly increments…it made it so much easier to accomplish them. Hoping this is something I can continue next year (we’ll see…I’ve got a few things on my plate next year, if you haven’t noticed).

As for November? Yikes, I don’t think I realized how little I accomplished in the goals department until I sat down to write this post. It was a busy month, to say the least, so I’m giving myself a little bit of leeway…nothing on this list that makes or breaks us if it isn’t accomplished. Sitting down and looking at this definitely helped me refocus for December though!

Taking a look back at November…

1. Survive on a $150 grocery budget and $50 restaurant budget this month. C: Sort of, not really. The grocery budget was much higher than I thought it would be because of Thanksgiving (duh, Leslie) and an unexpected trip out of town at the end of the month. We were well on track to being on budget with the restaurant budget until the trip out of town…just one meal put us over! So, I did what I could, but didn’t do the best job in this department.

2. Have our house completely clean when we leave for Disney. B-: Even though we were super busy packing and wrapping up last-minute details, I really, really put forth some effort on this one. It was not perfect by any means, but we didn’t come back to a disaster of a house either. So I’ll call it so-so. 🙂

3. Nail down a payment plan for remaining debt. D: With the craziness of Disney and the holidays, we just didn’t have time to address it this month. We very briefly talked about what we would do (think like a 5-minute conversation), so it wasn’t a complete failure.

4. Have a toy clean-out before Christmas. F: If anything, we brought more toys in this month. So no, not even close. This is still something I’d love to get done in December!

December is one where I’m scaling back a little as far as goals go. Like most of you, we’ve got a full plate for the next few weeks, so I don’t want to overload in what I’d like to accomplish just to bomb on it all.

1. Truly savor the season with my family. This really doesn’t fall into any of my big-picture categories, but it’s definitely my priority for this month. This is our last Christmas with Emmie as an only child ever. Like, EVER. So I really want to make it special for her. She’s getting to the age where she really “gets” Christmas and gets so excited about every little aspect. I love Christmas…it’s my absolute favorite time of the year, and it’s just so cool to see my girl just as excited about it. I want to soak up every single bit of this, because I know we’ll never get this time back!

2. Finish up our Christmas shopping on budget. We’ve really gotten a good bit of our Christmas shopping done, but there’s still a little bit to wrap up. I wrote the remaining bit we’ve got to do into the budget this month, and I’m hoping to stay under my goal!

3. Keep the house presentable as much as possible. I’m starting to get to the point with this pregnancy where it’s just tough to move. I want to clean, I really do, but it’s just not possible to stay on my feet as much as I normally can. Combine that with the number of Braxton-Hicks I’ve been having when I’m active, and I’ve really had to slow down over the past month or so.

So, all of that being said, I am making it a goal to at least keep my house livable. That might seem like I’m aiming low, but that’s about all I can do at this point. I’m enlisting Noah’s help for a lot of this and trying to do what I can when I feel like moving.

4. Clean out toys before Christmas. Continuing this from last month. Before the onslaught of toys we’re about the see in a few weeks, I want to either pack up or get rid of a lot of toys that Emmie isn’t using. I’m definitely enlisting her help for this one…hoping to get this done when she’s out for Christmas break!

Onward and upward to December!

FYI: I have a few awesome sponsored giveaways going on the blog right now…they’re all really easy entries (most are just commenting on a post) and you have the chance to win great prizes! Check them out:

Win a $100 Credit to Minted.com – ends 12/6
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Win a $100 Visa Gift Card – Ends 12/31

Win a $100 Visa Gift Card – Ends 12/31

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