October 17, 2011

Reining it all In and making new goals

I am reining in my unnecessary spending.  Yes I have spent money over the past month that I shouldn't have.  Time to get back on track and make some new financial goals. 

1.  Make a list and go to Wal-mart once a week.  I've been disorganized and this has led to my going to Wal-mart one too many times and picking up a few impulse purchases along the way.  Enough said here.

2.  Grocery spending.  Make up menus to use up what is in the freezer and save the balance of my budgeted grocery money.

3.  Save money towards a semi-private vinyl fence for our yard to be installed next summer.

Along with these new goals are the old ones of paying off debt by March 2012, putting money into savings each month along with paying off the mortgage as soon as we can.

I have some other goals that I have made that are things I want to do.

1.  Go bungee jumping - NOT!!!!  I want to learn to make soap.  This is something I have always wanted to do.  There is something about using lye that kind of freaks me out, but as I have read and watched the tutorials I know I can do it.  It is just finding the time.



2.  Learn to sew some vintage clothes from the Edwardian/Titantic era.  Next to making soap, this is something I want to do.  It will mean I need to practice my sewing skills so I can actually accomplish some more difficult techniques. 

3.  Learn to knit on the round knitting looms I bought.

I see so many people make financial goals and that's great.  In the quest to quit spending excessively and to pay things down, don't forget the fun goals that you can make.  Is there something that you want to learn to do, but never made the time?  Many of the things that I want to do won't cost much money.   

There's something gratifying about working on financial goals while also learning to do something new.  If you are facing a mountain of debt that will take you a long time to dig out of, the worst thing you can do is to be totally obsessed by it and think of nothing else.  Make your financial plan and goals and stick with it.   While you should take getting out of debt serious, there is no reason you can't also bring joy to your life by learning to do something new.  It makes your life interesting.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

We have travel plans for each year starting next year:

Botswana 2012
Africa or Indonesia 2013
Japan 2014
Wilderness of Canada or America 2015

Can manage our frugal lifestyle if we have these dreams to fulfil too.

Sft x

~Carla~ said...

Great post! You're so right about making fun & personal goals as well! :) I'd really like to cross-stitch something nice for my house...just not sure what yet!

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with you on the soap making! I still don t understand why I want to learn about it though. Also candle making, again. I am sure that has changed since the 70 s!
Maybe it is a homemaking thing?
barb

Dani said...

I, like you, was a trifle worried (insert petrified here) about the lye side of soap making. But earlier this year I gave it a very nervous go. And succeeded! So now, with two batches under my belt, I'm hooked.

It is not cheaper than buying shop bought, but the satisfaction of washing yourself without the added chemicals far makes up for that :)

And my grandson chides his mother that he doesn't want to use shop soap, he wants his Nana's, 'cos it's better for him :)