Layout:
Home > December/year-end/two-year goals review

December/year-end/two-year goals review

December 31st, 2009 at 05:53 am

First, my December goals and results:

Debt: Pay off at least $2900 of debt.
Balance as of 12/30: $380,860
Goal balance: $381,113
Progress: DONE! $3153 down

Savings: Save at least $650 (all for baby/EF)
Progress: DONE! $660 saved

Other:
A. Help AS with couch reupholstery. Progress: AS is about halfway done with the project, but I realized there's not much more I can do to help her with it. Smile
B. Begin to contact daycare options we've collected. Progress: DONE. Now we need to start taking tours and making some decisions.

I looked back at my New Year's goals for 2008 and 2009, because I knew I had at least one two-year goal that wrapped up this year.

In the beginning of 2008, my longer-term goals were to work out at least five days a week, pay off all my credit card and personal loan debt, and begin preparing myself mentally and financially for trying to have a baby.

The first goal was pretty much of a wash this year; working out regularly has always been a battle and this year my laziness won.

I didn't reach the second goal; I still have $16,829 in personal/CC debt. But I feel OK with not hitting it, because we had to contend with AS's year-long layoff, and I decided to build our emergency fund in preparation for the baby. We went from $0 to nearly $7,000, which is money that would have otherwise gone to pay down debt. Considering those factors, I still feel like we did pretty well, paying off or transferring to student-loan debt more than $50,000 of bad debt in two years.

The third goal, of course, we achieved! Got mentally and financially prepared, got pregnant, and we're going to have our baby in March.

My goals for 2009 were to improve in the areas of debt, savings, fitness, environmentalism, creative/crafts, philanthropy and (added later) additional income streams (or "side hustles"). To that end, I planned to have a monthly goal in each area. We also decided to try and photograph our dinner every day in 2009.

I had no problem setting and reaching the debt and savings goals. This is one part of my life that feels very stable, despite the gaping holes still remaining in our financial security. I hope budgetary control is as permanent as it feels. We paid off $29,005 of debt, going from $409,865 to $380,860; saved $6,771.28 for the emergency fund; and fully funded two vacations. Our collective net worth increased from $81,526 to $131,418.

I did OK on fitness for a few months, but sort of slacked off early on, and then pregnancy proved the perfect excuse to completely fall off the wagon. I know it's an excuse because several of my friends are pregnant, and they're still very active. Sigh, oh well.

We did really well on environmentalism; in fact, we improved our lifestyle so much early on that I sort of ran out of ideas. We now take reusable shopping bags 95% of the time; AS makes many of our household products out of bulk supplies, which reduces both packaging and toxic ingredients; we reuse and avoid using ziploc bags and bulk/produce bags; we're accepting any and all hand-me-downs to use for the baby; AS is recovering our couch so we don't have to throw it out; we buy carbon offsets for car rentals; we installed a variable-pressure shower head to save water. Any time we see an opportunity to make a change (as long as it doesn't complicate our lives too much more), we'll take it.

I tried some creative things, including beading, crop art, weaving, sewing and writing, but I found it hard to locate inspiration within myself to really dedicate myself to creative or craftsy activities.

Philanthropy was a bit difficult, since I haven't wanted to commit to an ongoing volunteer position and it's hard to find one-off ways to help. I donated little bits of money and other things (glasses, food) when opportunities arose, and got more involved (writing e-mails, spreading information) about political issues I was passionate about. But this is another area I wish I'd done a lot more in.

In terms of organized efforts to add income streams, I didn't do too well. But I did get two random freelance proofreading gigs right at the end of the year, so I accidentally did better than I thought I would. NT and I sold a bunch of things on eBay, and AS stretched her unemployment out over a full year with her freelance sewing and editing gigs. NT continues to do Pinecone surveys and donate the money to whatever we're saving up for or paying down, and AS has been keeping up on MyPoints and getting the occasional gift card to help out with grocery or clothing expenses.

Oh, and as most of you know, taking photos of dinner went really well until my first-trimester yuckiness hit; and then I was unable to get back into the habit once I did feel better. But we made it through more than half of the year, and it was a fun exercise!

So mixed results overall, but I don't feel discouraged; after all, it took many attempts and different strategies to finally settle into a budget-minded, fiscally smart lifestyle, so if I keep trying, maybe I will find similar grooves in these other areas.

4 Responses to “December/year-end/two-year goals review”

  1. Dido Says:
    1262264291

    Congrats on your accomplishments and on the forthcoming new addition!

  2. DeniseNTexas Says:
    1262269836

    I think you've done really well! You've made a lot of progress and accomplished a lot so consider 2009 a success. Smile

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    1262271613

    I think you did great in 2009! Keep up the great work.

  4. wowitsawonderfullife Says:
    1262279795

    I think you did an amazing job this year. You are very motivating!

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]