Friday, April 9, 2010

Financial & Personal Goals: March check list & April Goals

Here is a recap of my March Financial Goals I made in February. You can check out last months post here!

Baby steps for March Financial Goals 2010:

1. Cash envelope system for: Met
Groceries $250 budget, so far this is looking good since I have a $40 GC for Fred Meyers, a $10 Catalina to spend at Safeway, and Pantry and Freezer stocked with Food. Truly, I just need to buy fresh produce, Dairy, and foods for menu planning.
Household items: $30-$50 budget
Track Savings on a spreadsheet (Not met)

2. Save up to $500 in Savings.
(Not met since we got a new fence, awning, patio set, & BBQ that we have been saving up for)

3. Continue to put $80 in Savings a week. (Met)

4. Give to someone in Need. (not met)

5. Continue to Pay off Land Rover & make $100+ over Regular payment (Met)

6. Be a better Menu planner, ha! (Sadly, not met)

7. Write out To-do's more often and check off the list & stop being a scatter brain. (Met)

8. Buy more Organic food. (Met by 80%)

9. Finish reading a book I started this last summer while I was pregnant. (Not met, but currently reading an easy book called: Food Rules by: Michael Pollan.)

10. Organize rooms and clutter around the house in the basement. (Met, this is a never ending process, lol! Working on de-cluttering & getting ready for garage sale.)



Ok, so here are my April Financial & Personal Goals:

1. Cash envelope system for:
$300 for Grocery & Household (this is just easier to combine). I am finding that it is very easy to spend this money quickly when buying Organic & Natural on both groceries and household. The good news is, I get creative like any frugal couponer and transfer Rx to other stores to get Gift cards to help me with my purchase. As of April, I only have $80 cash from my Cash budget (sad I know), but good news I'm getting a $30 Safeway GC for Rx transfer, and I have a $25 Wag's check to use for any over the counter items when I transfer my Rx back to them. I plan on getting diapers at Walgreens with the $25 check & will use the $80 cash & $30 Safeway GC for produce, dairy, meat, and bulk items.

2. Save up to $500 in Savings.
We have been working on our house with the money we save. As most home owners "projects" are a never ending process.


3. Continue to put $80 in Savings a week.

4. Give to someone in Need.
(Our church has a goal this month to give financially & to get food for those in need. I need to learn more about it and see what I give financially and what I can donate.)

5. Continue to Pay off Land Rover & make $100+ over Regular payment


6. Be a better Menu planner!

7. Write out To-do's more often and check off the list & stop being a scatter brain.

8. Buy more Organic food.

9. Plan Ava's 3rd birthday, yeah!!

10. Organize items for garage sale for either April or May.

11. PURGE the Pantry!
Get rid of all processed food i.e. cereal, granola bars, and toxic cleaning supplies. I will sale these items at my garage sale.

Now, don't get me wrong about getting rid of processed foods. I don't judge others for what they buy, but now that I am taking a different approach to what I buy and eat for our family, then I need to get rid of these temptations. Also, I'm excited about getting rid of some of the cleaning products that I have that are toxic. I want to really make some lifestyle changes as I learn more about going Organic & Natural and making my own cleaning products which is super easy.
If you have some financial & personal goals please leave a comment, I love hearing from you guys!!

Christina

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sounds like your list is similar to mine, however, I'm still working off of a $600/mo budget...I would LOVE to get down to $500. I need to track better, I guess. Is the book your reading what inspired you to the great change? I would love to as well, but it's so expensive! Where do you shop?
Also, I read your post regarding the bulk items. I will be looking at the post again and possibly putting in an order! Thanks for your blog!
SElena Moffitt erjunkie2@hotmail.com
**PS - I am a CPR instructor and if you and/or friends need a cheap cheap way to get the information for your family, please let me know.

Saving 4 My Family said...

Hi Selena! I would definitely say that Erika my(SIL)inspired me to want to go more Organic and really start paying attention to reading labels on food and start making more food from scratch. I use to buy Organic here and there, but now really make an effort to buy at least 80%.
The book is good for beginners (like myself) but don't waste the $$ on Amazon, just get it at the library. He wrote 2 other books that are more in depth that I think I will read. I would like to get the book "Anti-Cancer," it's definitely geared more toward eating Organic & the health benefits.
I shop mostly at Fred Meyers & recently New Seasons and Safeway once or twice a month. Set a Weekly Menu plan or shop by sales when Organic food is on sale and use the coupons we mention on our post.

Christina