I wasn't able to save as much money in November as I would have liked. I had to shell out $265 for new glasses (which I deducted from my emergency fund contributions), and I began Christmas shopping, so contributions to the fun fund have also been cut back. On the plus side, I calculated that I'm paying off my Federal Loan at a rate of 3% per month right now; if I keep this up, I can have this loan paid off completely in little more than two years, possibly less since my interest rate will be cut by a point next December due to my consistent payment.
Other goals:
*Open a ShareBuilder account. I signed up for a ShareBuilder account and got the $50 bonus from ING this week. I will be contributing $30/month to purchasing individual stocks that pay dividends and make sense to buy and hold. I'm certainly not going to be doing any selling any time soon. I think this will be fun, since the money I'm investing is pretty minimal.
*Enroll in company stock purchase plan. I enrolled last week. Beginning in January, I'll be contributing $20/month to company stock.
*Start buying Christmas gifts early. So far, I have finished shopping for my brother, both parents, and most of C's gift. I started on my godmother's gift, and I think the rest should be relatively painless.
*Top Chef night! Ongoing. This week I made a butternut squash and sweet potato soup that turned out AMAZING, but took almost three hours to make (that includes the time I spent dealing with the finger I almost chopped off and mopping up the soup that spilled when my blender decided to fall apart midway through the pureeing process). If you want to try it, you can get the recipe here.
*Keep up the workout routine. I did it! I've worked really hard to stay in shape this year, and it's paid off. At a doctor's visit last month, I learned that I lost seven pounds in the past year...! I wasn't trying to lose weight (and I really can't afford to lose anymore), just to get in better shape, and I really think I have. As long as I can keep this up all winter, I will be ready for beaching it up in Fort Myers in March. :)
Showing posts with label monthly goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label monthly goals. Show all posts
Friday, December 5, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
November Goals
My savings, loan payment, and retirement goals are going to be consistent through the end of the year, so I won't update those. Here are some general goals I have for November, financial and otherwise:
*Open a ShareBuilder account. On ING, there's a deal that if you open an account through their link, you'll get a $50 bonus as long as you deposit some money in there by the end of the year. I've been considering this for a while now, and I can't think of a better time buy stocks. I've been contributing $50 a month to a money market fund for the past 11 months, and I'll stop doing that in January, so I'm going to put $25 aside for this, and $25 for company stock purchasing (see below) each month.
*Enroll in company stock purchase plan. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but it's not currently an open enrollment period. I'll just put $25 per month in here.
*Start buying Christmas gifts early. Before I do this, though, I need to compile a list of what I'm planning to buy and figure out what my budget is. My main problem is that I have a handful of difficult people to buy gifts for every year, and I have a really hard time coming up with gift ideas for them. Ugh.
*Top Chef night! My boyfriend (C) and I have a fun Wednesday night wherein we cook a fun semi-elaborate (for us) dinner, and then watch Top Chef. The new season starts next week, so this tradition is coming back. Yay!
*Keep up the workout routine. I did a good job with this last month, but I've been slacking over the past week for various reasons. I need to just do this.
*Open a ShareBuilder account. On ING, there's a deal that if you open an account through their link, you'll get a $50 bonus as long as you deposit some money in there by the end of the year. I've been considering this for a while now, and I can't think of a better time buy stocks. I've been contributing $50 a month to a money market fund for the past 11 months, and I'll stop doing that in January, so I'm going to put $25 aside for this, and $25 for company stock purchasing (see below) each month.
*Enroll in company stock purchase plan. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but it's not currently an open enrollment period. I'll just put $25 per month in here.
*Start buying Christmas gifts early. Before I do this, though, I need to compile a list of what I'm planning to buy and figure out what my budget is. My main problem is that I have a handful of difficult people to buy gifts for every year, and I have a really hard time coming up with gift ideas for them. Ugh.
*Top Chef night! My boyfriend (C) and I have a fun Wednesday night wherein we cook a fun semi-elaborate (for us) dinner, and then watch Top Chef. The new season starts next week, so this tradition is coming back. Yay!
*Keep up the workout routine. I did a good job with this last month, but I've been slacking over the past week for various reasons. I need to just do this.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
October Goals Revisited
Let's see how well I met my goals for October...
Savings goals
*Deposit $1,000 from paychecks
*Open a new CD for the downpayment fund in the amount of $2,000
I met both of these goals, and ended up opening two new CDs for the downpayment fund. I figured ING would cut their CD rates shortly after the Fed cut the interest rate, so I opened a 12-month CD at 4.25% a few days ago, in addition to the six-month CD I opened earlier in the month.
Loan payment goals
*Pay minimum on Perkins loan, Sallie Mae Private loan
*Pay $850 on SM Federal Loan
I did meet these goals, though I accidentally overpaid my Perkins loan. I thought I'd changed my automatic payment to the minimum (about $65), but it was still set at $75. I changed that, so everything should be good to go from now on.
Retirement goals
*contribute $153 per week to Roth 2008 IRA until the end of the year.
*stop looking at google portfolio! it's just depressing, at this point.
I kept up with my contributions, which has worked out pretty well for me since prices keep dropping. I haven't stopped looking at my Google portfolio completely, but I'm definitely not checking it every day. I usually just look at it when the market goes up, now, which is much better.
Spending goals
*Stop buying clothes!
*Keep dining out to a minimum. I've gone over budget on this for the last two months.
I did well with both of these. I did buy one sweater (for $15 at Old Navy, though), but that was it. Unfortunately, some of the crazy clothes spending from the previous month is showing up on this month's GapCard bill, which is lame since I thought I'd already paid all of that off. Oh well. I've been dining out less, keeping under my $50 budget.
Personal goals
*read at least three books this month.
*visit boyfriend's new apartment.
*continue walking to/from work as much as possible.
*start weight training again.
*make one new thing for dinner each week.
I accomplished all of these goals, except for the last one. I am planning to start up on that this month, though! I'm starting with a recipe for cabbage soup I found online. I did try a different version of cabbage soup last year which was pretty good, but this one sounds amazing.
I'll post my goals for November this week. I hope I can keep up with them as well as I did this month!
Savings goals
*Deposit $1,000 from paychecks
*Open a new CD for the downpayment fund in the amount of $2,000
I met both of these goals, and ended up opening two new CDs for the downpayment fund. I figured ING would cut their CD rates shortly after the Fed cut the interest rate, so I opened a 12-month CD at 4.25% a few days ago, in addition to the six-month CD I opened earlier in the month.
Loan payment goals
*Pay minimum on Perkins loan, Sallie Mae Private loan
*Pay $850 on SM Federal Loan
I did meet these goals, though I accidentally overpaid my Perkins loan. I thought I'd changed my automatic payment to the minimum (about $65), but it was still set at $75. I changed that, so everything should be good to go from now on.
Retirement goals
*contribute $153 per week to Roth 2008 IRA until the end of the year.
*stop looking at google portfolio! it's just depressing, at this point.
I kept up with my contributions, which has worked out pretty well for me since prices keep dropping. I haven't stopped looking at my Google portfolio completely, but I'm definitely not checking it every day. I usually just look at it when the market goes up, now, which is much better.
Spending goals
*Stop buying clothes!
*Keep dining out to a minimum. I've gone over budget on this for the last two months.
I did well with both of these. I did buy one sweater (for $15 at Old Navy, though), but that was it. Unfortunately, some of the crazy clothes spending from the previous month is showing up on this month's GapCard bill, which is lame since I thought I'd already paid all of that off. Oh well. I've been dining out less, keeping under my $50 budget.
Personal goals
*read at least three books this month.
*visit boyfriend's new apartment.
*continue walking to/from work as much as possible.
*start weight training again.
*make one new thing for dinner each week.
I accomplished all of these goals, except for the last one. I am planning to start up on that this month, though! I'm starting with a recipe for cabbage soup I found online. I did try a different version of cabbage soup last year which was pretty good, but this one sounds amazing.
I'll post my goals for November this week. I hope I can keep up with them as well as I did this month!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
October Goals
Savings goals
*Deposit $1,000 from paychecks
- $425 goes to emergency fund
- $425 goes to downpayment fund
- $150 goes to my "fun fund" (a savings account that I use for things like travel, gifts, etc.)
*Open a new CD for the downpayment fund in the amount of $2,000
Loan payment goals
*Pay minimum on Perkins loan (to be added to the sidebar shortly), Sallie Mae Private loan
*Pay $850 on SM Federal Loan
Retirement goals
*contribute $153 per week to Roth 2008 IRA until the end of the year.
*stop looking at google portfolio! it's just depressing, at this point.
Spending goals
*Stop buying clothes! with the exception of a possible outlet shopping trip with mom sometime in the near future, I am not buying any more clothes. I've been doing way too much end-of-season online shopping. Scoring amazing deals, yes, but I really shouldn't be buying clothes. The only other exception is if I find the perfect pair of boots, which I've been waiting over a year to buy, or if there are excellent sales on sweaters, since my winter wardrobe is sorely lacking.
*Keep dining out to a minimum. I've gone over budget on this for the last two months.
Personal goals
*read at least three books this month. i think i only finished one last month, which is quite lame.
*visit boyfriend's new apartment. he moved in over a month ago and I've only been there once. we mostly hang out at my place, since he has three roommates and i have zero, but still.
*continue walking to/from work as much as possible. it will soon be too cold (and god forbid, snowy) to do this, so i need to get my walks in while i still can. I'm really going to miss this in the winter, particularly when my face is pressed against the glass doors on the train every morning.
*start weight training again. i used to do this a couple of times each week, but I've gotten increasingly lazy since i moved.
*make one new thing for dinner each week. i usually succeed at this particular goal, but I've been really tired lately so i haven't been as creative with food as I'd like.
*Deposit $1,000 from paychecks
- $425 goes to emergency fund
- $425 goes to downpayment fund
- $150 goes to my "fun fund" (a savings account that I use for things like travel, gifts, etc.)
*Open a new CD for the downpayment fund in the amount of $2,000
Loan payment goals
*Pay minimum on Perkins loan (to be added to the sidebar shortly), Sallie Mae Private loan
*Pay $850 on SM Federal Loan
Retirement goals
*contribute $153 per week to Roth 2008 IRA until the end of the year.
*stop looking at google portfolio! it's just depressing, at this point.
Spending goals
*Stop buying clothes! with the exception of a possible outlet shopping trip with mom sometime in the near future, I am not buying any more clothes. I've been doing way too much end-of-season online shopping. Scoring amazing deals, yes, but I really shouldn't be buying clothes. The only other exception is if I find the perfect pair of boots, which I've been waiting over a year to buy, or if there are excellent sales on sweaters, since my winter wardrobe is sorely lacking.
*Keep dining out to a minimum. I've gone over budget on this for the last two months.
Personal goals
*read at least three books this month. i think i only finished one last month, which is quite lame.
*visit boyfriend's new apartment. he moved in over a month ago and I've only been there once. we mostly hang out at my place, since he has three roommates and i have zero, but still.
*continue walking to/from work as much as possible. it will soon be too cold (and god forbid, snowy) to do this, so i need to get my walks in while i still can. I'm really going to miss this in the winter, particularly when my face is pressed against the glass doors on the train every morning.
*start weight training again. i used to do this a couple of times each week, but I've gotten increasingly lazy since i moved.
*make one new thing for dinner each week. i usually succeed at this particular goal, but I've been really tired lately so i haven't been as creative with food as I'd like.
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