My February spending totals for both myself and our joint account are forthcoming, but today, I thought I'd evaluate how my goals are going.
Financial
- Build emergency fund back to $1000 (I'm really slacking on this one...I do automatically put $30/mo to savings, but there are several savings accounts with only $15 going to the EF)
- Reduce credit cards (Major
- Add savings categories (No progress...)
- Increase retirement savings to 10% (Will be done automatically to coincide with raises in June)
- Build $200 buffer in checking account (Done - 2/6)
- Build $1500 buffer in joint account (Our buffer is about $1300 right now)
Personal
- Lose 10% of my weight (I'm just over 6%!)
- Win at least 4 months of my dietbet (1 win, 1 loss)
- Adopt a puppy with SO (We're following a set of puppies who are about a month old.)
- Get dogs outside for more than an hour 4 times a week (Waiting for DD to heal/the weather to not suck...)
- Cook more from scratch (Doing great on this - note to self: this should be a future post)
Blogging
- Blog at least twice per week (Check!)
- Post monthly budget and month in review entries (Check...even if they're a little delayed...)
- Participate in one 'challenge' quarterly (Not sure about this one...I'm doing dietbets, but that's not an official challenge...)
March 2nd, 2015 at 11:18 pm 1425338310
I've been annoyed by bank fees for services that used to be free. You need to know much are you paying for bank services for the various accounts and tote up interest for all the CCs. Keeping a running total is a motivator to pay down debt. March is a good month to note every dollar spent, those small sums can add up surprisingly fast.
Don't you think you're doing well given all the changes you've made in the last few months?
March 3rd, 2015 at 06:53 am 1425365607
March 3rd, 2015 at 03:31 pm 1425396668
I am pretty proud of my changes. I still think there's a lot of room for improvement, but I feel like I'm moving forward!!
VS, thanks so much! Someone actually gave me the buffer idea when I posted about some unfortunate overdrafts to my accounts. I'm still getting used to deducting that from my balance before doing my zero-based budget, but I definitely appreciate having it!