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December Goals and Life Update

BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 91 Comments

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December Goals and Life Update

Our magnetic Save the Dates! Ignore the really bad lighting and picture. I took it with my broken phone. Also, of course the black box won't be over the location 🙂

Hey everyone! I hope all of you had a great weekend. Today's post will be all about my goals from last month and my new goals for this month. Make sure to come back tomorrow for my monthly income update.

November was another great month. It was my first full month of self-employment. As I have been saying a lot recently, it still doesn't feel real!

November was busy, but I have a lot more free time than I used to. I'm still looking to add more clients and added a few in November (those will be talked about in tomorrow's income post).

Working a normal 40 hour week (possibly less if TVs did not exist) all in the comfort of my home has been a blessing.

I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving as well. There are many things that I am thankful for, and every day the list keeps growing! We had Thanksgiving over at W's grandma's, like we do every year. It's always a great time and all of the yummy food is another positive.

We finally decided where we will be traveling to in January and February for our long trip. We have decided on China (just three days for our layover, as you need a visa if you stay longer), Thailand, Indonesia and a few days in South Korea before we fly back. So, most of our time will be spent in Thailand and Indonesia (about 20-25 days each).

If you have any tips for airlines, accommodations or traveling in general in those areas. Please let me know!  Or, if you know of any websites that I need to check out, please leave a comment about that as well. I like to research like CRAZY before a trip because I am a weirdo like that.

December will be another great month. We are going to St. Thomas and I will be doing some work there with a past client (hopefully!) and will get to relax as well.

 

November Goals Update

  1. Keep our food budget under $400 and meal plan. FAIL. Eh. We definitely did not do the greatest with our food budget. We need to start meal planning again because just buying food without a meal plan is not the best way to go grocery shopping.
  2. Make $10,000 in business income this month. PASS. November was another good month for income! Come back tomorrow to read further 🙂
  3. Send out our Save-the-Dates. PASS. We finally ordered our Save the Dates and addressed all of the envelopes this past weekend. So, all we have to do is put them in the mail, so I'm calling this a pass.
  4. Find a caterer. PASS. I just need to finalize the catering plans. Luckily finding a BBQ caterer is fairly easy in St. Louis!

 

December Goals

  1. Keep our food budget under $400 and meal plan. I made a meal plan yesterday. Nachos, tacos, lasagna and some crock pot meals are on our meal plan for this week.
  2. Make $10,000 in business income this month. I definitely think this is possible for December. I already have plenty of work lined up. I do need to find a way to realistically grow the business while we are on our trip as well.
  3. Book the caterer and wedding rentals. We need to have this finalized before we go on our trip.
  4. Book our flights and accommodations. Yes, I know, we are very late doing this. We are leaving next month for our long trip and we haven't booked anything. I plan on doing that this week!
  5. Find a camera. We need to buy a new camera for our trip. Our current camera is a touch screen that never likes to work that was bought around four or five years ago. We need something better. What do you recommend?

December Goals and Life Update

 This is the gazebo we will be using for our wedding. How should we decorate it?

 

How did you do in November? What is your main goal for December?

 

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About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. Monica says

    December 2, 2013 at 2:19 am

    Congrats on keeping 3 out of 4 of your goals! Looks like they were tough ones to keep to!

    In terms of a camera, I really like the Sony NEX range. They’re brilliant little cameras and small enough to pop in your bag without taking up too much room but they are SLR’s so you can change the lenses.

    Reply

  5. Mrs. PoP says

    December 2, 2013 at 5:38 am

    Too awesome that you guys are taking some time to go to Asia! That’s the type of travel Mr PoP and I like – though we actually like to stay in each location even a bit longer. If you’re in each location 3-4 weeks, maybe try to find sublets or furnished apartment rentals. They are often cheaper and more functional than inexpensive hotels.

    Reply

  6. LiZ says

    December 2, 2013 at 5:44 am

    Wow what an exciting trip you have planned! My main goal for December is to get ready for 2014. Want to have goals and get organized for the new year. Hopefully the best year yet 🙂

    Reply

  7. DC @ Young Adult Money says

    December 2, 2013 at 5:49 am

    Woohoo so excited for your trip! November was good but went by very quickly. December I hope to finish the year strong with the blog and plan into 2014 as far as possible so I can free up time to start my second site.

    Reply

  10. Tara @ Streets Ahead Living says

    December 2, 2013 at 6:56 am

    I hear you on the Chinese visa! my sister-in-law is from Chengdu and my brother has to spring for that couple of hundred buck visa when he goes with her for a few weeks. I think the countries that we make it difficult to visit like to hold it against us and charge us an arm and a leg to visit, lol.

    Have fun on the trip! I really recommend a waterproof camera. I have a Nikon AW110 and it is great for travelling.

    Reply

  11. Brian says

    December 2, 2013 at 6:59 am

    Sounds like an awesome trip!

    If you are going to spend the money on a nice camera, get an DSLR (Nikon or Cannon it is really personal choice). Take a class (many camera shops offer free classes if you buy a camera from them) and learn to use the camera. Then play around with it. Once you get an DSLR and learn to how to half use it, you pretty much won’t want to bother with anything else much more than the camera on your phone. I got a DSLR before we went to Germany a few years back and it is one of the best purchases I have ever made.

    Reply

  12. Laurie @thefrugalfarmer says

    December 2, 2013 at 7:34 am

    LOVE the magnetic Save the Dates – SO cute!! You’re doing so well on biz income, wedding planning and the like – great job, Michelle! I envision the gazebo with lots of Tulle and lights, and a few white flowers. 🙂

    Reply

  15. John S @ Frugal Rules says

    December 2, 2013 at 7:58 am

    That sounds like an awesome trip Michelle! I don’t know if you watch The Amazing Race or not, but they’ve been in Indonesia the past few weeks and it looks absolutely beautiful there. November was good for us and it looks like December is shaping up pretty good as well.

    Reply

  19. Little House says

    December 2, 2013 at 9:06 am

    Good job on meeting most of your goals! I have to say that we struggle with our food budget too, and we don’t even eat that much! I’m on a mission to start using coupons again (I’m awful at finding what I need!) That’s my goal this month – save more money on groceries without giving up what I like!

    Reply

  20. anna says

    December 2, 2013 at 10:01 am

    Super cute Save the Dates! For Thailand, Amari hotel in Bangkok is pretty amazing. If you want to do tours, as well, let me know and I can find out what company we went with. The tour guide stayed with us the whole time and she was a lot of fun! Happy Planning. 🙂

    Reply

  22. Done by Forty says

    December 2, 2013 at 10:23 am

    I love the look of your Save the Dates and the gazebo, too. We had a similar structure, though larger, for our reception and we used a lot of Christmas lights to decorate it. It turned out pretty nice.

    Reply

  26. jackie says

    December 2, 2013 at 10:44 am

    your save the dates look great! as for a camera, i got a dslr in august (canon rebel t3i) and i love it. but if you want a smaller/cheaper camera i like the point and shoot canons as well. so jealous of your upcoming trip – sounds so amazing!
    — jackie @ jade and oak

    Reply

  28. Jennifer @ Budgeting in Baby says

    December 2, 2013 at 11:27 am

    Your save the dates are beautiful. My main goal for December is to make it through all of the different obligations that I have in the next month. I am done with school until the middle of January and I think everything that has been put on hold in the last few months has some how ended up on the calendar in December. Having a baby makes that list 4 times as long as it normally is this time of year.

    Reply

  30. Andrew@LivingRichCheaply says

    December 2, 2013 at 1:29 pm

    Sounds like an amazing trip. What part of China will you be for the few days? As for a camera…I know many people love the quality of the DSLR which is great sometimes, but I find myself using the iPhone more often because it is more convenient. I don’t want to be lugging a big old camera all the time.

    Reply

  31. Candice says

    December 2, 2013 at 1:42 pm

    Congrats! Your trip sounds like it will be amazing! I can’t wait until I get the chance to travel like that. Hope you blog about all the great things you guys will see!

    Reply

  32. Leslie Beslie says

    December 2, 2013 at 2:44 pm

    I’m not sure if you’ve done this off-site or not. Instead of just repeating your “decrease food budget goal”, have you done a break-down of why you didn’t meet your goal? How far off were you by? Did you decrease at all from last month? Could you go through your receipts to see what you buy too much of? Have you thrown a lot of food away? Could you find cheaper alternatives?

    Reply

  41. lukman nulhakiem says

    December 3, 2013 at 5:43 am

    I hope you will enjoy Indonesia, a beautiful country of mine. I recommend you to visit Papua, Dieng, Borobudur and Bandung. I believe that you will enjoy those places and especially bandung. Bandung has many traditional food and drink.
    Now, I am living at east of Bandung, it is about 60 km from Bandung. Just email me if you would like my advice about Indonesia.

    Reply

  42. Michelle says

    December 3, 2013 at 8:26 am

    Love your Save the Dates, they look amazing! I’m always amazed at your business income each month, $10K+ almost all the time, way to go!
    For cameras, get a Canon! I’ve been a photographer all my life and started out with the Canon Rebel Film, switched to Nikon then ended up going back to Canon. The new Canon Rebel’s are awesome, check them out!

    Reply

  45. Aileen aka Miss Tightwad says

    December 4, 2013 at 11:29 pm

    Meal planning is so easy! I totally just wrote up a post on this weeks meal plan at our house AND have a youtube video on how I do it in about an hour each week. Our grocery budget for my husband and I this week? $35! I was under. Just saying. You can save SO much money!

    Reply

  46. Lynne says

    December 9, 2013 at 10:56 am

    I received a link to your blog this morning from my daughter (W’s cousin) and I’m thoroughly enjoying perusing it; your budgeting advice is so spot on! My two cents worth is two-fold:

    1. Making a food/menu plan and sticking to your plan (allowing for an indulgence now and then) is critical to maintaining a food budget. This became religion for me during lean years and multiple mouths to feed.

    2. I was 21 when I went to Thailand. Granted, that was forty years ago and it may have been foolish to drop out of my senior year of college and cash out my savings bonds, but it was a fantastic experience and I never regretted it for a second. I was soundly upbraided once for a serious cultural faux pas when I accidentally stepped on the shadow of a monk. Luckily, a sincere apology for my ineptness and ignorance went a long way.

    Have a great trip!

    Reply

    • Michelle says

      December 9, 2013 at 11:42 am

      Hey Lynne! I had no idea that she knew about my blog haha.

      Thank you for your tips. And we definitely want to research any Thailand tips so that is a good one to know 🙂

      Reply

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