Saturday, February 13, 2010

Mid-Month Recap

In my effort to blog more, I'm offering this Mid-Month Recap. I'm checking the pulse, if you will, on my resolutions to see where I need to work a little harder.

Goal #1: Weight. I have not lost weight, in fact I think I found some of last month's. Hoping to change that.
Goal #2: Cooking at home. This is becoming a near-mandatory thing as we need to reduce the amount of sodium we eat. I'm proud to say that 8 of 12 nights I have cooked dinner at home.
Goal #3: Cleaning Kitchen. 11 of 12!!! And the one night I didn't I was dealing with a pretty sick little boy, so I cut myself some slack. Very happy here!
Goal #4: Water. Averaging 20-30 oz per day. Could be better but the lack of sleep has caused me to up my caffeine consumption, leaving less time for water. Again, I blame the sick child. And the sick me.
Goal #5: Turning the computer off at night. 12 of 12!!! Can't wait to see the electric bill go down a whole $.30!
Goal #6: Work towards the move. 4/12. Not great. But again, illness.
Goal #7: Exercise 3/12. Um. I've been sick. Get off my back.
Goal #8: Parenting 7/12. Very unmeasurable and I promise to explain it at some point. But I am happy that I'm paying mindful time toward my goals.

Eating from the pantry: The supplies are dwindling! I have enough to feed us for the rest of the month. Good thing, because I went over my grocery budget this morning. I set a goal of $100 for the month and to date I've spent $108. But the reasons for this were good, in my opinion.

First, I was able to get 4 deodorants for $1 each that are normally $2.69. Instead of spending $12 on 2 packs of hot dogs, I got them for $4. Can't beat that! I also stocked up on frozen veggies because they were on sale and I had the coupons. Regular price: $19.90, sale/coupons: $8. Finally, yogurt. Regular price: $4.50, sale/coupons: $1.50.

I didn't NEED all of that stuff, but it certainly will get used and the prices were too good to pass up on stuff we will need in a week or so. But can I get the rest of the month without going even more over-budget? I'm not so sure. I'm more than happy to stay out of the store though!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

January Wrap Up and February Week One

I've been trying to post for 2 weeks now, so I guess I'll just condense my thoughts into one.

January was a pretty successful month, as far as resolutions go. Usually I abandon them by about Day 3, so I'm happy that I got through the month at least TRACKING my progress. Here's how it turned out:

  1. No Spend: 5 of 31 days. I was only looking at TRUE no spend days, no bill paying, no necessities, etc. Yeah, nearly impossible.
  2. No Drive: 0 of 31 days. Completely impossible. At least right now. I started out trying to at least track mileage, but it's just not happening.
  3. Exercise: 3 of 31 days. I was either sick or lazy or busy all month. Going to have to try harder here.
  4. Intentional Parenting: 5 of 31 days. This is the name I came up with (OK, read on another blog) for what I was thinking about the Mommy thing. More about that another time. Obviously I spent more time THINKING about it than DOING it.
  5. Weight: Went down 6 of 31 days for a total loss of 4lbs. Totally reasonable, so I'm happy. Also, that's 10% of my overall goal, so definitely happy with that.
  6. Cook: 24 of 31 days, which includes days we were not home for dinner but didn't eat out (party one night, ate at a friend's another). Based on my history, this is amazing progress!
  7. Water: I couldn't even track it, so I'm sure I wasn't drinking it!
  8. Kitchen: All dishes washed, sink/stove clear: 14/31. Not too bad!

I know some could use some work (Parenting, Water, Exercising). I'm not giving up and more importantly I'm not beating myself up. I've rearranged the goals for February. I dropped No Spend and No Drive, they are just not attainable right now. I've replaced them with turning off the computer/printer before bed and working towards the impending move. Since the start of the month I've been sick and I'm pleased with my progress so far despite that.

The other goal for the month is a Pantry/Freezer Challenge. As of right now, it would appear we could be moving within the next 2-3 months, so I want to clear out my stockpiles. My goal is to make do with what we have, buying only produce and dairy as needed. I know it's not 100% realistic because a demanding 3 year old will run out of cheese doodles next week, but I'd love to keep the grocery budget down to $100 for the month.

Last month, with the stockpiling, grocery expenditures were roughly $500 - that included diapers, wipes, cleaning products, etc. My savings are estimated at $350, so my TRUE spending should have been over $800. We won't need Cheerios for quite some time and I see a lot of chicken dishes in our future, but we have enough of most stuff for at least the next 2 weeks. That last week is going to be tough, but we'll see how it goes.

Finally, I'm hoping to blog more often. Ideally my thoughts would be more organized instead of all jumbled (you know, like this post), but I had to do a little brain dump tonight so I could get on with my life. I'm trying to make small changes, track progress and work towards building something better and more meaningful than passing my time until I feel like it's the RIGHT time to start trying harder. I can't change my entire life and outlook on it overnight, but I can try to be more intentional in all that I do. That's the goal. And, like I said, more on this whole intentional thing another time.