A Look At My Goals for April

Well, we are almost at the end of April so I thought it was time to take a look at my 2009 Goals and how I am doing so far. I've got some good and some bad news to report, so let's see how I did:

My Financial Goals

One Month of Emergency Savings - Well, I achieved this last month with my tax refund... however, it looks like I may need to dip into a little. Getting my house painted is requiring a bit more up front money than I had anticipated. Basically, there is the cost to paint the house which I am paying on the completion of each side, and then there is the cost of the supplies. Supplies are obviously needed up front and that unexpected cost is getting me. So far I have had to purchase $750 (out of an estimated $1,500) worth of paint and caulk and nails so forth. $500 of that I was able to pay for with money I had set aside for that purpose, but the last $250 came out of emergency funds. Fortunately, it is a temporary situation. In the next week or so I will be getting checks from all that extra work I mentioned yesterday. That will go right back into the fund to bring it up to where it was. Still, I don't like doing it - borrowing from your emergency fund is a bad habit to get into.

Credit Card Paid Off - Oh my goodness, I am soooo close! I am under $250! I can't wait until it is finally gone. I'm in a tricky spot for April and May though. I have a couple big bills that are going to be paid off here in the next couple of months, namely my credit card and my car. That will help tremendously with getting the money I need to pay the bills and paint the house, but in April and May I still have to make those payments plus pay for the house painting. I really noticed it in April and I have a feeling I will notice it in May as well.

Car Paid Off - Same as above. I can't wait to be done with this payment!

Three eBay items per week - Wow do I suck at this. I think I did it in January, but haven't done it again since. Umm... maybe May?

Get an Additional $900 a Month - I am awaiting a couple of checks, but I should hit my goal without problem this month. Usually I enter checks the month they are received, but in this case I will have done 98% of the work in April, so I feel I should count it towards April. That will mean that I will start May closer to $0, which is a good motivator. If I started off with my goal already over halfway done, I'm not sure that I would try as hard to get the rest, you know?

Home Improvement

Paint My House - As mentioned above, I am rocking this goal. Two sides have been power washed and scraped. Cedar siding (which is not cheap, by the way) is being replaced where necessary and we are getting this project done. It is rather exciting!

Create a Compost Pile - This is moving ahead nicely. The area where I want to put it has all been cleaned out and it is ready to go. Now all I need is some warm weather... without rain.

Winterize the Home - Haven't done anything on this one yet. I see things that need to be done... but haven't done them yet.

Paint My Bedroom - Haven't done a thing on this one either. That's okay, I still have 8 more months to get it done, right?

Fix up the Attic - I wrote about this one last week. After months of not working on this, I went up and started the process of cleaning it out. I have a long, long way to go, but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Then there are my personal goals....

Personal Growth

Self Schooling - This month I did pretty well in my goal to educate myself in my chosen field while I am waiting for the funds and the time to go back for my Master's Degree. I took a seminar on a related topic and I signed up for a class at the Community College for next fall. While the class won't apply towards my Master's Degree, I want to build up a portfolio of work that I have done and classes I have taken, so that when I apply to go, I already have a background in the field.

Gratitude Journal - As long as I can get to bed before midnight, I write in my gratitude journal. If it ends up being later than 12:00 a.m., I don't. This week I have a lot of 1:00 a.m. nights, but the rest of the month I did pretty well at keeping my journal up.

Overall I am pretty pleased with the month. I went over my budget in a few places though, mostly related to the traveling I did in the middle of the month, but I also over spent on groceries and some other nonessential. Next month I would like to be a little leaner and closer to my actual budget. Speaking of which, my one year anniversary of having this blog will be coming up here in May and that means it is time for a new budget. I've made a lot of changes over the past year, it is time to work those into a new plan.



Photo by: Philip Bouchard