Monthly Spending Check-in

I don't usually do a post mid-month anymore checking on with our spending but with trying to rein everything in, I thought it couldn't hurt.  Here's where we currently stand:

The total is the sum of all of the spending so far less the reimbursable expenses which I should get paid for on my last pay this month.  Typically our budget is for spending at about $1,350/month but we're trying to get it down to about $1,000 so that we can put that $350 to better use.

If we want to do that for May, we need to spend less than $100 2.5 weeks - I'm not so sure we can do it with a trip to my hometown coming up for the May long weekend.

December Goals

It's Christmas!  Okay, it's not Christmas yet, but I love living in the spirit for the whole month of December (and well into January) - so let's keep this month's goals easy:

1. Finish Christmas Shopping by December 15th 
2. Stay within $100 of joint Christmas Budget
3. Reach all 2009 financial goals
4. Make a plan for just in case we don't find a roommate
5. Enjoy the holidays
6. Do some yummy baking and share it with friends and family
7. Try to make some extra cash

What are you going to try to accomplish this month?

November Goals - ReCap

Here was my list of goals for the month of November:

• Clean up Halloween decorations within the first couple of days
• Resist decorating for Christmas until the last weekend of November
• I wound up starting to decorate the second weekend in November
• Start Christmas shopping
• We're almost finished!  We have three people left to buy for and then each other!
• Have a fabulous time visiting my mom
• Reach 2009 goal of $1,000 in my emergency fund
• This will happen by the end of December
• Reach 2009 goal of $3,000 in RRSPs
• This will happen by the end of December
• Bank at least 30 hours of overtime
• I'm at 35 hours!
• Receive final utility cheques from my old roommates

November Goals

Writing out my goals for October seemed to work pretty well, so I thought I'd have another go of it for the month of November.

• Clean up Halloween decorations within the first couple of days
• Resist decorating for Christmas until the last weekend of November
• Start Christmas shopping
• Have a fabulous time visiting my mom

How about some financial Goals as well:

• Reach 2009 goal of $1,000 in my emergency fund
• Reach 2009 goal of $3,000 in RRSPs
• Bank at least 30 hours of overtime
• Receive final utility cheques from my old roommates

October Goals - Recap

Last month I tried posting monthly goals for the first time, here's the results:

• Meet Christmas 2009 Goals of saving $500
• Turn Sam's (old roommates) room into a spare room/office
• Decorate the house and my workstation for Halloween
• Learn how to make apple cider Incomplete
• Start second phase of overtime/filing project at work. 

There we have, I met 4 out of 5 goals.  I didn't get a chance to make the cider with the apples from my trees because it froze in dear old Alberta wayyy to early!

October Goals

I've seen quite a few folks posting monthly goals, so I thought I'd have a go at it too!

• Meet Christmas 2009 Goals of saving $500

Woohoo! this is already done with my first paycheque in October!

• Turn Sam's (old roommates) room into a spare room/office

Right now, I have a pseudo spare room in the unfinished basement. I want to take this opportunity to make it a little warmer/friendlier.  By having a desk in their as well, it might help Jordan to get away when he's studying for school.

• Decorate the house and my workstation for Halloween

Jordan and I will be doing this on the upcoming weekend.  I'm going to bring any 'left over' decorations to work.

• Learn how to make apple cider 

We're going to have a halloween/putluck/pumpkin carving context at work in a few weeks.  Due to that big 'ol apple tree in the back yard I'd like to learn how to make cider.  A co-worker of mine offered to make pie using the same apples, so I have to remember to bring her a bag in.

• Start second phase of overtime/filing project at work.  

I'm going to make my goal 75 hours of OT, which should translate to roughly $1,000 of extra income.  I plan on using that money to help reduce my Canada Student Loan. I will probably have this paid out in two increments at 37.5 each.  This will hopefully help reduce the tax implications of such a large influx of funds. I hope to reach at least 37.50 hours by Christmas.

I think I'm going to keep it simple for now.  I hope everyone has a great weekend!