Sunday, January 15, 2017

2016 Goals.....How They Turned Out

Let's see how I did with my 2016 Goals.



FINANCIAL

*  Save $40K of our income this year.  I did it last year so I am going to try to get to this amount in 2016.  Unless Hubs ups and retires during the year or we get hit with some other financial catastrophe this should be feasible.....a stretch and not easy but possible.  I just have to resist spending on "wants".  Easier said than done, right?  ;-)

After the Daughter and BF moved back in here every day bills went up so I had to back down my Savings Challenge Goal to $38K.  And even that looked like it might not happen but we managed to pull it off. 
Go us! 8-)

*  Attempt to sell some stuff we need to get rid of.  There are some items we need to let go off that are like new or in very good shape that could bring in a few dollars so I need to get back into selling mode.  This could bring in potentially enough to fund a few months of groceries and I will earmark anything sold for that.

The selling sort of happened and sort of didn't happen.  In the Spring I made $93 on the local yard sale F/B site selling some of the toiletry stash.  I also sold a fragrance set right before Xmas but all the other Xmas time selling I planned to do didn't happen after Hubs' accident.

*  Take care of all the paperwork/bills/financial stuff in a timely manner this year.
Track spending monthly so we can adjust/correct any overspending/bad decisions asap and not come out the other end of 2016 with financial messes to clean up.

I did well with keeping up with the paperwork/bills/financial stuff in 2016.  The only sore spot there was not filing paperwork the last half of the year.

HEALTH

*  Continue with my exercise program, add to it, and do it every month.  It's a well ingrained habit, in that, even on days when I don't feel so well I still get on that bike and pedal way.  I need to add other components to this.  Maybe I'll see about paying a trainer to push me if it's not too expensive?  Because left to my own devices I will slack off if not held accountable to someone. 8-(

While I did a lot better with other health issues in 2016 the bike habit fell away the last half of the year.  Mostly because the bike my Daughter brought home(which meant getting rid of the bike I was use to)isn't a good fit to me.  Even though, I have been moving more and walking but I do miss the biking.

*  Do more Gardening than in 2015.   I think we will dig up where the pool use to be and use that as gardening space this year.  It's already cleared and it's in the middle of the backyard so gets sun most of the day making it perfect if we can fence it off from the rabbits.  More produce grown=more produce eaten=better health.

More gardening didn't happen.  The pool area wasn't utilized and I did about the same amount of gardening as in 2015.

*  Do some canning.  Other than making some peach jam last year I didn't do any other canning.  I had no tomato crop so I couldn't make my relish(thankfully I still had enough so we won't run out before I can make some this coming Fall)or can any tomatoes.  I have plenty of jars so I just need to get the produce and do this....no excuses.

I canned my relish in the Fall/late Summer.  I also went and picked my own produce too so extra points for that. lolz

*  Lose 20 pounds.   While I am exercising on a regular basis since last March and we are eating better/less and feeling better overall I still need to drop some weight.  I have various health issues that keep me from doing more and medications that keep me from losing but I need to do something to make this happen. sigh.  Perhaps at my next dr. check-up I'l pick his brain on what I can try that is alluding me.

A change in my mix of medications, keeping up walking/some biking and more moving, plus working on smaller portions at meals and I have dropped 20 lbs. from last January.  The bulk of the reduction in weight has come since August after medication changes, I hit 20 lbs. off in November and I have kept it off up until now.
The hard work will be to keep it up over the Winter and not get lazy and go back to bad habits so I can keep seeing that scale needle get lower.

PERSONAL

*  Paint 12 Items in my Ceramic Stash.  After ignoring the basement for so many years I am facing up to all the unfinished product down there now.  If I don't get anything else done this year I NEED TO PAINT this stuff!!!  And after I do I get to have to problem of doing something with all this newly painted stuff.  Unless I can talk 12 friends into coming to see me this year and then I will have presents for all of them to take home. ;-)

The Ceramic Stash is still there, unpainted.  I got so far as to clean out my paints and brushes and bring up 2 items to paint.....and then they sat for 6 months in the kitchen.  A total fail.

*  Sew and COMPLETE 6 Projects.  I completed 8 sewing projects on my plate last year.  I still have a couple "already started" ones and I will start some new projects to get my 6 done.

Other than some hemming projects for Hubs I sewed nothing.  I really need to do some more repair work on clothing items of mine so that's on the front burner.

*  Complete 1 crochet project.   I have the yarn and the hook I just need to sit down and do this.  Last year with the cataract surgery and all the eye problems this wasn't even feasible so it's back on the list for this year.

Totally didn't happen.
I suck. ;-)

TRAVEL

*  Go on at least 2 trips for pleasure.   I am feeling like more of a homebody at the beginning of this year so I am not feeling that travel bug as much so I am thinking of ramping back the travel plans for 2016.  Only time will tell if I keep to this smaller amount of travel.   Perhaps no Family Reunion Trip this year and there will be no trips to find a kid an apartment and then back to move them.....so that's 3 less trips to make in 2016.   Maybe no trip to LA this year or we will fly out?  We have talked about going back to Maine this year as we haven't been in quite a few years and I really love Maine.  Perhaps I can stop in MA on the way and visit some family?
And then of course there is the invite to come see Kim in ID.  If Hubs retires unexpectedly this year we'll have the time to do that trip.  8-)

2016 saw a long trip to Louisiana again(but it wasn't much of a pleasure trip besides stopping for 2 side trips to see blogger friends), a vacation to Maine(with a stop in MA to see family)and a trip to the Family Reunion in Virginia.  Daughter and I also made a trip to VA in the Summer to see my eldest son and my brother and his wife.

HOUSE STUFF

*  Have 2 House Repair/Improvement Projects completed. 
There is still the bathroom redo/repair on our plate that we put money aside to complete this last year but never got around to doing it.  Plus we need to figure out which other Project we can tackle in 2016.  I am thinking window glass replacement as we have at least 5 glass seals that have broken.  Plus we need new window screens for most of our windows.  Not things we can do ourselves but things we can put money toward and get ticked off the repair list.  We just need to wait and see how much Hub's bonus will be this year to see how much we have to work with to pay for the 2nd project.

The master bath got a total redo in 2016 and used most of what we had saved/put aside for that.  The only other home improvement checked off the list was a ceiling fan/light replacement in the kitchen.  Just couldn't pull the trigger on any more projects for the year.

*  Get rid of 6 boxes of possessions plus some larger items that need disposing of.  I still have some "stuff" to get rid of in the house, even after sending 11 loads to Salvation Army last year.   I need to figure out how to dispose of most of my ceramic molds from when I had a ceramic business.  And I need to help Hubs go through the shed this Spring/Summer too.  I don't usually go in there but I took a peak back in the Fall and I can easily see many items we don't need to hang onto like old pool stuff and bicycles from when the kids were smaller.  I am sure there are many more things we can pitch or recycle in there too.

We did a total clean/clear out of the shed.  We also got rid of some furniture in the Spring when the Daughter and BF came here to live to make space for them.  Not much got taken to Sallie's this year otherwise.  I had plans for a few loads in December but Hubs accident put a kybosh on that.

BLOGGING

*  I will try to blog 6 days a week as this is pretty much how much I do now.  I have my regular weekly and/or monthly posts--Monday's Weekly Meal plans/results, End of month Savings Challenge.  Food Spending/Budget, and Monthly Goal Update posts.  

I kept to a sort of blogging schedule.  I did 348 posts in 2016 which means 17 posts shy of 1 per day on average so I am calling this goal complete.

Ok, now I can put 2016 into the books.
Time to figure out where to go from here in 2017.

Sluggy

5 comments:

  1. Hi sluggy, how do you spend your days? Have you thought of scheduling things, perhaps gym from ten to eleven three days a week, painting on Mondays. You get the idea. Would it help you build up a routine and get the stuff you want done? That's the only way I get stuff done. And I get a lot done because I do t have to think about what to do on Tuesday night, it's planned. Weekends wide open for me. This works for me. EveryBody is different.

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  2. Goals are ideas, but if better ones come alog at the moment, consider changes successful. I am still amazed at how you managed the high rate of savings once two additional adults joined your home again-inpsiring for those of use trying to keep our budgets in check, even when circumstances in life change.

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  3. Well, you accomplished more than I did with my 2016. Brava!
    May 2017 be even better for you!

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  4. I would call this an extremely successful year. Folks who accomplish everything just piss me off!

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  5. You did great! I especially liked the part where you visited your blogger friends. ;-) Congrats too on the 20 lb weight loss. That's terrific.

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