A Resolution Check-In

I mentioned in my 2011 wrap up post that I probably should have checked in on my resolutions throughout the year, instead of just at the end of December. In an attempt to do that, here's a review of my progress so far... just remember that it's early!

1. Try to "have it all," but don't go crazy when I can't. 

I feel like I'm on the right track with this. My amazing new boss at work is great in this aspect. I was worried about preparing for an event last week and she said, "Wait. What happens if you forget something? Nothing. It's okay. Don't worry." Amen, sister.

2. Schedule a monthly date night. 

Bad news: we didn't formally do this in January. Because we forgot and the month went by too quickly.

Good news: we have been focused on spending more quality time together. And I'm going to remember this month!

3. Stick to an exercise routine. 

I am really proud of this. Derby and I finished Week 7 of Couch to 5K last week! It's still not easy, and making time for it is the hardest part, but we're doing it.

4. Make enough time for my hobbies. 

Reading books - huge fail. Sewing - did more in January, but it fell off the final two weeks. Need to focus on this one again!

5. Stick with our budget. 

Still on track!

6. Stay present. 

The conference helped me re-focus on this, and I'm trying. It's harder than I thought, but it's worth the effort!

7. Stay organized. 

This is going better at home than work, where I'm just feeling overwhelmed. Working on it!

8. Take a vacation. 

WE BOOKED IT!!!!!!!! We are headed back to our honeymoon location (aka - paradise) at the end of April!!!

9. Stick with my blog. 

I'm making great progress! It's still not quite as regular as I'd like, but at least I haven't disappeared for months at a time!

The best part of reviewing my goals? I'm actually doing better than I expected. Thanks for being my virtual accountability partners.

How are your new year's resolutions and 2012 goals going?

Things worth splurging on

In our house, we live on a budget. Not a crazy, super tight, no one is allowed to have fun budget, but a budget nonetheless. Our budget has "fun money" built in to it so we can go out to dinner, buy fabric (though Zac doesn't really buy fabric - he plays golf), etc.

I think we live pretty frugally. We don't buy many things we don't need, we clip coupons for grocery shopping, and we don't buy anything we can't pay for immediately.

That. Being. Said. There are a few things in this world that I will splurge on. Where it's worth it to me to spend the money to get higher quality products. Some of these things might surprise you, and I'm sure this list is different for everyone, but here's my list of things worth splurging on.

1. Bedding.
I know that nice bedding is expensive, but to me, it's worth the cost. We are talking about something that you will spend 7-9 hours of your life wrapped up in every single day. It should feel nice, you should love it, and to me, it's worth splurging on. The upside, of course, is that nice bedding lasts longer and you'll have to replace it less often.

                                         

2. Fabric.
Quilting and sewing is my favorite hobby because it lasts forever. Honestly, if I'm going to put the time into creating something for someone else, I don't want them to eat it. Or open it and throw it away. I want it to last for a long time. If I'm going to put the effort and expense into something, I want it to last. Which is why I'm willing to splurge on quality fabric.

                                           

This is not my stash. I wish. Came from here.

3. Dog food.

Weird, right? We feed our dog this all natural organic crap that I can't believe we pay a ton of money for. But... I just don't feel right feeding him something where the main ingredient was "chicken byproducts," which is what the first food we bought said. And, the better the food, supposedly the better behaved dog you'll have. Our dog is (usually) very well behaved, but I'm not taking any chances!

4. Pots and pans.

Zac got most of our pots and pans before I ever met him, but I'm an All-Clad convert. They are crazy expensive. Ridiculously expensive. But you only ever have to buy them once. Our stainless steel pans should last us the rest of our lives. Winning.

                                     

Ours are slightly more loved and less shiny than these bad boys.

5. Clothes.

This is definitely evolving as I get older. Now, it's important to me that my clothes fit well and last a long time. I am willing to invest some money in pieces that fit well, flatter my body, and are classic additions to my wardrobe (like a great black suit). I don't spend much money on "trendy" pieces, half because I admit that I'm just not trendy, and half because they tend to fall apart after one or two wears. Now, I need to say that I still buy all of my nicer clothes on clearance or sales!

6. Our cleaning lady.

I will give up cable before I give up our fantastic cleaning lady. Yes, we pay her a lot of money, but coming home to a perfectly clean house every other week is worth every single penny. We (I - Zac doesn't really care) had to accept that we were never going to be able to keep our house as clean as we wanted to. Plus, I hate cleaning. And I'm not very good at it. But it stresses me out to have a dirty house. This money is a contribution toward both a clean house and maintaining my sanity, so worth it to us.

What items do you splurge on? Is there something that's expensive but you just can't live without? What are you not willing to cut from your budget, no matter what?

My New Year's Resolutions

My resolutions for 2012 are a lot like last year - a mix of resolutions and goals. I did better than I thought in 2011, but I still have so many wishes and hopes for 2012 that it's hard to narrow it down to a manageable list. Am I the only person who has about a billion goals right now? As evidenced by your comments on this post, I'm not, so I'll console myself with that.

So, without further ado, my list of resolutions for this new year. Excuse the random pictures - this is a painful amount of words and I tried to make it more fun for you.

1. Try to "have it all," but don't go crazy when I can't. I can't stop my crazy quest for a perfect life - it would basically be against my (insane) nature. What I can do is let it roll off my back when things can't be perfect. Any suggestions for how to actually do this would be greatly appreciated by me (and my husband who will bear the brunt of it if I can't pull this one off). My mood/stress level affects our relationship so much, and I'm not going to let it do so negatively this year as much as I can help it.

2. Schedule a monthly date night. Zac and I have promised each other that we'll have a monthly date night in 2012. Since we're still kid-less, we get plenty of time alone together, but we tend to fall into a routine and forget to schedule "special" time. Zac's planning the odd months and I'll plan the even months. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, but it will be fun to focus on each other a little bit more in 2012.

Us at a restaurant. In Paris. Which is unlikely to be one of our monthly date nights this year.

3. Stick to an exercise routine. Like everyone else in the entire world, I have this goal for 2012. Derby and I are starting our third week of Couch to 5K this week, and so far, so good. It helps to have a (dog) accountability partner, and the exercise is as good for him as it is for me. I also found a cool app that speaks the intervals to you so you don't have to stalk your watch, and I stream NPR while I run. Don't knock it until you try it - it's like someone's telling you an interesting story the whole time you're running but you don't have to talk back. The real struggle here will be fitting it in when life gets busy again in January. But I'm going to do it - I have to do it.

                             

Damn, Pinterest. Why you gotta be so dead on right and mean sometimes?

4. Make enough time for my hobbies. When I get busy, I get tired, and then I get stressed. I also tend to neglect the things that relax me when I need them the most, and I want to get away from that this year. Vegging out in front of the TV has its place, but I've wasted way too many hours doing that in 2011. Sewing and reading are my two biggest priorities here... and I'm setting a goal of doing both, for at least a little while, at least once a week. Nothing crazy, but I need to make this a priority. This also includes another quilting visit to my gramma in NY. 

                                        

This won't really be me. We have electricity. But you get the point.

5. Stick with our budget. Now that we've got our finances on track, sticking with our budget is a lot easier, because new clothes and an occasional Starbucks treat are built into it. The next stage for us is adding more cushion to our savings account and watching as things like new cars, vacations, and large home projects become a reality. This isn't a hard goal at all -- I freaking love this one!

                                                        

Me with all our budgeted money. Holla!!

6. Stay present. My new boss is a huge fan of meditation and mindfulness, and I'm so excited to learn more about this from her. I spend a lot of time thinking about things that have already happened, and an embarrassing amount of time worrying about things in the future. I need to focus on being present in the moment, not worrying about things unless they need to be worried about, and staying calm and un-frustrated. Easier said than done, but do-able.

                                                       

7. Stay organized. When I feel organized, I feel better. Period. I'm a pretty organized person, but there are always things I can do to help with this. Picking up a few things each night so our house stays clean, taking time at the beginning and end of each day to plan for the next, packing my lunch the night before, and re-evaluating each month to see what I can improve.

8. Take a vacation. We don't have the logistics of this one worked out completely yet, but I want us to take a real vacation (ie: not just visit family) sometime this year. I don't want the year to get away from us without ever making this a priority. And I desperately want to go back to our honeymoon spot. Not sure yet if that's do-able, but I'm willing to eat Ramen noodles for three months to make it so!

                               

9. Stick with my blog. This wasn't a great posting year for me, but re-discovering this blog over the past month has felt great. I really do love documenting our lives, and I love the community it brings me from all of you. So thank you for reading, and I'll do a better job this year of keeping this bad boy updated (who am I kidding? This blog is obviously a girl). If I don't follow your blog, leave me a comment so I can start!

That's my not-so-small list of things to focus on in 2012. This year, I'm going to actually remember to look at it more than once between now and the end of the year. Is there anything else I should include? 

Budget Spreadsheet

I said I wasn't going to post, and here I am posting again right away!  But... there have been a lot of requests for this budget spreadsheet, so I wanted to share it!

We've been budgeting for about two months. We added not one dime to our savings account in all of 2010. In February, we saved $1600. And not because we're rich. It's because we were smarter about our money. I'm officially a budget convert.

I made this spreadsheet to track our budget, and wanted to share it for anyone who needs a jump start. Basically, if you change the categories on the first page, it will reflect on the monthly pages, and the dollar amount you set will go right into the monthly pages. On the monthly pages, if you zero out in a category it's green, if you overspend it turns red. The category column each month is set up with tabs so you can only choose from sections of your budget.

Yeah I know, I'm swanky. Hope it helps you get rich!

Just click here to download it!

Budget Progress

So, you might remember that we're trying out a budget. We're trying to get a better idea of where our money goes so that we can redirect it to where we want it to go.

Source

Well - one month in, I'm happy to report that it's going really well!  The coolest part has been to stop using our credit card.  We have always put everything on our credit card and just paid it off at the end of the month. Those of you who do something similar know that sometimes, that's pretty overwhelming!! This month, we used our debit card, and it's cool to look in the bank account and see money, and know that it doesn't need to pay off any bills!

We also have gotten more conscious about what we're spending. We are certainly not starving, and I even bought some new shoes this month.  But... we both have thought twice before purchasing things, and because of that, we have more money in our account.

I'll keep you posted on our progress. Oh - and those shoes? Pink Kate Spade heels for $40. I can fit that into the budget any day!

We're officially budgeted.

Last weekend, we had some friends over for dinner. Talk turned to money (not sure how??) and it came out that we were the only couple not on a budget. Oh - and the only couple who had no idea where our money goes each month.

We're fortunate that we aren't carrying any debt.  But - we truly live paycheck to paycheck, and for no reason. We can't figure out where our money goes each month, and that is definitely not a good thing.

So we're officially on a budget. Not a can't-have-anything-you-want sort of budget, but definitely a saving-is-the-most-important-thing budget.  First, we have to get through January, pay off the credit card, and start February off with a clean slate.

Think we can do it? Anyone out there with a budget have any budgeting tricks that might help us be successful??

And because pictures of our budget would be boring, here's some pictures of our cutest dinner party guest: