Every January on my blog, I post a list of Hopes or Goals for my year. HERE's the post from earlier this year where I talked about what I hoped to accomplish in 2011.
Since we are halfway through the year......let me say that again.....halfway through the year!......I thought it would be a predictable time to check-in and see how I'm doing or how I'm NOT doing at this point in 2011.
1. Put more Money Into Savings.
PASS-We are slightly ahead of our Savings Goal at the halfway point from 2010. I only upped my Savings Goal 2 thousand dollars in 2011 since food costs have been rising this year and with another teen starting college in August, we have more expenses to cover. We are on track as of now to meet our savings goal. 8-)
2. File all the Paperwork that needs filing and completing it on time.
PASS-We got all the college and income tax paperwork completed with time to spare earlier this year. I also tackled a huge pile of papers that needed filing in May(was it?) Going forward I am going to try to file every 2 months so the pile doesn't get too unruly.
3. Declutter my entire house and garage, and storage unit(and then stop renting the storage unit).
PASS(so far)-This goal is ongoing throughout 2011. I had the storage unit down to half-empty. Then I had to temporarily put a large load of boxes from the garage into the unit so I could stage for a garage sale this month. Besides just the moving of crap around in this way, I have decluttered at least 6 loads(off hand I think it's 6, I might be wrong) so far from the house and unit. After the garage sale is over, more loads will begin leaving again for Sallie's.
This Goal is my largest, ongoing, physically challenging one for 2011. It may just kill me by December. ;-)
4. Read 30 books this year, with 75% of them being non-fiction.
FAIL-I am STILL on Book #6(this one is a 'difficult' read) plus I pitched Book #5 before finishing it because it was just horrible! So technically I am on Book #5 with 25 more to go.
bleh.
I am just not feeling much like reading yet. Maybe next month when the weather turns beastly hot I'll want to do nothing but sit still and read in the a/c.
5. Finish ALL in progress sewing projects and alter ALL clothing that needs it or give it away.
FAIL-I hemmed some pants and worked on some PJ pants for my Daughter but haven't finished them. Hubs bought 4 pairs of pants for me to hem so the pile has gone UP not DOWN.
bleh. bleh. bleh.
I just can't seem to get into a sewing zone. This is worrying me. People are going to start thinking I really can't sew.lol
6. Cook more foods from scratch and phase unhealthy options out of my stockpile.
PASS-I was doing very well on this earlier this year. I was cooking much more from scratch and we were down to a small number of cans of soda(of which I was only drinking 1 can per week if that)and I only had 2 tv dinners in the freezer.....no frozen pizzas, no 'snack' foods like Pop-Tarts or Toaster Pocket thingies, Froot snacks, only a few Helper type mixes. Ok, I still had a ton of cake mixes and breaded chicken products.lol Then school ended and I caved and bought some pizza rolls, pizzas, chicken strips, ice cream and more soda for #2 son. The kid has to eat lunch, right?lol And unless I want to spend ALL DAY cooking this summer, I'm giving him easy things to make for lunch(rather than spend a fortune buying Taco Bell and Baconators at Wendy's)and I'll give him healthy foods for dinner. It's the compromise I'll make to get through until school starts again.
And I promise I shall NEVER buy Pop-Tarts again....Nasty!
7. Grow more of the food we eat or source our food from non-grocery chain stores.
FAIL(so far)-With the wacky weather and being super busy in May/June with the impending Graduation and all that entailed I was sooo not 'into' my garden this year. We did get it planted but not everything I wanted. I don't feel we will have as much to eat from our garden this year as we did last year. As for sourcing from non-grocery chain stores, we are just getting into the season where we can buy from the local farms. I am determined to get to the farm stands this summer and put up produce for 2012. I am still looking for a local source for meats. The closest is over an hour's ride away so not very economical.
8. Use my skills to step up what I do for Others.
NEUTRAL-Ok, I can't say Pass or Fail on this one. OTOH, I have done on par with last year in terms of family and food bank donations so far this year. As soon as the garage sale is done I have another donation to take to the food bank. But since I have not been 'extreme couponing' this year(due to the lack of deals locally, not traveling where the deals are because of the price of gas and wear and tear on the minivan AND the lack of good value coupons this year, due to the tightening up on coupons by manufacturer's in part because of "That Couponing Show Which Shall Not Be Named")I haven't had as much to donate as in past years. It will take me MORE money in 2011 to donate the same amount of food as I did in 2010. I just don't know if I can come up with enough money this year to put toward this goal to "step up" what I give.
I may have to look at other ways besides monetary/food donations to do for others.
9. Be more "in the Moment" for my Family.
PASS-I feel that, so far in 2011, I have been more 'there' for the family. I have tried to limit my time on the internet by blogging less(ok, not MUCH less!lol), and spending less time deal hunting.
See?....crappy coupons and local deals give me more time to be with family, so there is one good thing about the dirth of deals!lol With less of a stockpile I spend less time organizing it.
Of course, the teens don't actually want to spend time with me when they are home, unless I have cooking them food or handing over cash....oh, the blessings of having sullen, eye-rolling teens! ;-)
Now that #2 son is home from camp, I'll be offering to drive him places and do some things for him so he can hang out with people that aren't his family.
10. Organize the running of my Home.
How to score this one?.....
I guess I'm on my way to a PASS with this one. With 2 less kids home things are running fairly smoothly. With less clutter in the way, it's easier to keep what is here organized and clean. But with so many projects pending or in progress(garage sale, cleaning out the storage unit, sewing, home repairs/remodeling)it seems like everything is at 6's and 7's and just a moment away from flying off the tracks. Since the older 2 kids don't have a car while working across the state this summer(due to the car wreck in May), I'm having to deal with business stuff for them like driver's license renewals, dr. appointments, prescription refills, college papers/forms, scholarship forms/requirement, ordering books and tuition bills. This is stuff they should/would be taking care of but since they don't have transportation or bank/credit card access it's all falling on me. I haven't screwed anything up yet, knock on wood.lol
So how about you?
How are your goals for 2011 panning out?
Are you on track to accomplish what you want to this year?
Have your goals changed significantly since the beginning of 2011?
Sluggy
You can be very proud of yourself. That's a lot to do in one year and I think that you are well on your way. I don't even know if I read 6 books in my entire life so you have me beat already.
ReplyDeleteYour Friend, m.
p.s. You have a storage unit? That's bad. m.
I didn't set a lot of goals this year, at least not in a concrete way. I did set a goal to read 52 books this year, of any kind. Even cookbooks as long as I really read them and didn't just look at a recipe or two. I have read 22 of them, so I'm 6 behind at this point. Reading non-fiction has been fairly easy for me...I have lots of gardening and homesteading books that we picked up here and there earlier this year.
ReplyDeleteMark--Thanks for the vote of confidence. RE:the storage unit...lol...yes, I KNOW it's VERY bad, but it was only used for my online selling business. I started out with 2 units, sold enough to consolidate it all into 1 unit, then I had that 1 half emptied last year. But then I started keeping my paper goods stockpile in there, you know....napkins, facial tissue, toilet tissue and paper towels.
ReplyDeleteI still have a lot of work to do in the unit to get it totally emptied by the end of the year.
AnnieJ--You're doing well with the reading! I don't know why I am so behind on the books. Usually I am a voracious reader, especially in the summer when it's too hot to actually 'do' much besides sit and exercise my eyes.lol I need to get to the library and request some books from my long list.
I think you are doing great! I don't set goals, so never fail. It works for me!
ReplyDeleteI have been doing a lot less deal shopping, too. It seems like the sales and coupons are just not doing it for me lately.
I have no idea! How sad is that? I feel as if my life is a bit out of control right now. Den and I are working on us so that's a good thing. Budget wise we are no where near what makes me feel comfortable. Other than that, meh.
ReplyDeleteFrances--lol The sales & Qs are there for me either Frances...outside of the Rite-Aid stuff. It's so sad, but I am enjoying the break.
ReplyDeleteSonyaAnn--Working on the marriage is a great goal!
If you need to do one thing, the relationship should be it.