Hey everyone! I hope all of you had a great weekend and New Year's. St. Louis is currently being hit by horribly cold weather – today it's supposed to be negative 35 degrees with windchill). There's also a foot of snow outside.
Today's post will be all about my goals from last month and my new goals for this month as well as all of 2014. Make sure to come back tomorrow for my monthly income update.
December was another great month. I took an official two week semi-vacation (I worked some, but not anywhere near usual), which was nice.
We went on a week-long trip to St. Thomas. Then around one week after we got back I came down with the stomach flu, which was no fun at all. So, I am ready to get back into the hang of everything in January.
2013 was a really great year. I left my day job and switched to full-time freelancing, which has been really good for me/us so far. Just last January, I'm not even sure if I thought about leaving my job, so that can really show you how much changed in just 2013.
Last year, we also did a good amount of traveling. We went to New Orleans, Chicago, Gulf Shores, St. Thomas (twice), and a few other places.
I do think that 2014 will be our year though. Sadly, our semi-long trip to Asia will be put on hold for the time being, but we do hope to do that someday soon. We just can't find the time to squeeze it in.
Instead, we will be traveling to either the Caribbean or Central America later this month, and then we plan on renting a beach house somewhere in February or March for a few weeks. So, I'm definitely not complaining in the change.
In May, I will also be going to Vegas for my bachelorette party, and then we still have our honeymoon to plan as well for June. The next 6 months will definitely be crazy for us!
Here are my goals that I posted in January of 2013 for my annual goals. I didn't have many, but I still feel like it was a successful year!
- Pay off ALL of my student loans. PASS. I eliminated all of my student loans in July of 2013. Felt AMAZING.
- Get super fit. Meh. I'm definitely not fit, but I don't want to be too harsh on myself either 🙂
- Save for a decent sized down payment. Meh. I'm not going to say this is a fail, because we don't plan on buying a home in 2014 anymore.
- Plan an awesome wedding! PASS. I guess this is a pass. The wedding isn't until June of 2014, but I have done a good amount of planning!
Here are my goals for all of 2014:
- Save 50% of our income after taxes. Our spending has been under control the past few months, and I would like to continue this in 2014.
- Have a fun wedding! The wedding is in 5 months. AH! I have so much more to plan.
- Have a successful business year. My business goal for this year is fairly simple – just work hard and be as successful as I can.
December Goals Update
- Keep our food budget under $400 and meal plan. PASS. We have been doing awesome lately! If you have come across any awesome new recipes lately, please share them below. I am guilty of cooking many repeat meals lately.
- Make $10,000 in business income this month. PASS. It was a good month even though I took a 2 week semi-vacation.
- Book the caterer and wedding rentals. FAIL. See below in my January goals.
- Book our flights and accommodations. Not a pass or fail since our plans have changed.
- Find a camera. Not a pass or fail since our plans have changed.
January Goals
- Keep our food budget under $400 and meal plan. This will always be on my monthly goals so that we don't forget.
- Make $10,000 in business income this month. I have many plans for 2014, and I'm hoping to start January with a BANG.
- Book the caterer and wedding rentals. We really need to finalize these contracts this week. We haven't exactly come across many wedding-related companies that have the greatest customer service, which is making this difficult. Luckily, I think I finally found good companies and I plan on booking soon.
- Run 3 miles, 5 days a week. I plan on partnering this with some T-25 as well.
- Get completely organized for personal/business taxes. Oh tax time, it's something that everyone dreads. This will also be my first year with some major business income, so this will be interesting.
How did you do in December? What is your main goal for January and 2014?
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Main goal for 2014 is to get better at wrestling, help more readers through my blogs, save up lots of money, and go on plenty of trips. Simple, but effective for me 🙂
Sounds like a great 2014!
I think you are so successful because you make goals each month and then keep track at the end of each month. It’s a great way to stay motivated and be held accountable. Great job!
Yes, goals definitely keep me accountable! So does posting my goals on my blog for everyone to read and hold me to.
I love the goal to have a “fun” wedding. In all seriousness, I think that gets lost in all the planning and preparing a lot of the time. First and foremost, a wedding should be fun for the bride and groom. Everything else is a distant second. Good luck!
Yes, I agree!
I got married in 2013 and it will the best and most fun day of your life I can guarantee you!
As long as you don’t stress over the details too much, something small WILL go wrong or be left out, I can also guarantee that. If/When it does just forget it and carry on having fun, no one else will even notice it
Have you made your wedding budget public? I would be interested to see it compared to ours, I thought we were quite frugal but still ended up spending a boat load. But wondered what it would compare like to a US wedding (we are based in the UK). Thanks!
For recipes I have a couple on my site, and lots more to come every Friday this year, hope you don’t mind me posting the link for brevity rather than pasting the whole recipes in there:
http://thefirestarter.co.uk/category/frugal-food/
Yes, I have published our wedding budget. Check it out here – https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2013/01/wedding-budget-our-expected-costs.html
I’m with Matt – having a fun wedding is so important and can easily get lost in the shuffle of the day and planning. That said, looks like you had a solid month overall as did I. 🙂 I’m sharing my goals next week, but they mainly all surround continuing to grow our business.
Thank you John!
good luck on you taxes with the business income. Are you planning on prepping yourself or hiring a preparer? My main goals are to do well at my job this year (just started at my current job about 2 months ago) so that I will be on track for a promotion at year-end. Also hoping to pay off a large chunk of my student loans and overall just have fun and control stress! Have a great week Michelle!
I plan on doing them myself – it does help that I sort of have a background with business taxes. I plan on having someone look over it though.
I really like your business goal this year! Sometimes all you can do is work as hard as you possibly can and the results will fall where they fall. I did set a formal “income” goal, but the more I think about it the more I feel this is out of my hands. I can plan and execute, but I can’t control exactly how many dollars fall into my bank account as a result. Anyway, I’m excited for 2014 as well and I think it’ll be a great year!
Thank you DC! I hope 2014 is a great business year for you.
Michigan is getting blasted with that terrible winter storm too! We lost power for quite a while and have shoveled the driveway 4 times since yesterday.
Nice work on your $10K income becoming a regular thing! Can we take it up to $15K?
Oh no! I was terrified that we would lose our power (we ALWAYS lose power), but we didn’t this time. I am so thankful!
I would like to take it up to $15K, but not just yet. I’m thinking March will be my $15K month 🙂
I agree with David I like the business goal. I want to be as successful as I can as well without being too hard on myself if I don’t hit hard numbers. The trip to the Caribbean or Central America sounds fun. I’m sure you will have an amazing year!
I hope 2014 is great for you Alexa!
I have been telling everyone I run into that 2014 will be a great year! They usually try to find out what I secret plans I have for the year to make me say that. I just really think it is going to be an awesome year. Glad to see you agree!
Can’t wait to see what you accomplish Dave!
I’ll probably be 100% freelancing this year, too, so it’s really helpful to see you set out your business goals. I should get disciplined and do that, too.
My goal for December was to spend just $10 more on gifts, and I failed but only by $20! 🙂 In January, I need to find a new dr. because our new insurance doesn’t cover our current dr. Such a bummer, but oh well. Oh yeah, and I have to get the Christmas decorations put away!
When do you think your switch date will be? WOOHOO! 🙂
I need to get my paperwork ready for taxes also.. I’ve started to write down my daily goals and can’t seem to get through them all. So frustrating. But at least I don’t forget what my goals are. Also my goal for this year is to start my own financial blog. I am still thinking about it and trying to come up with some ideas to write about. I think it would be a lot of fun to blog and participate with the blogging community.
Good luck! I hope you create a blog soon so that I can follow along 🙂 The blogging community is great by the way.
It is so cold, snowy, and windy here! I can’t believe it. Even Greg’s work cancelled which is crazy because they literally never close.
It’s so crazy! Like all of St. Louis was closed yesterday!
Hey! I just found your blog. I officially started T-25 this morning (Day 1, Alpha Cardio), since one of my 2014 goals is to get more fit, too. Are you already doing the program.
Looks like you have a fantastic goal list, and $10,000 in a month would be phenomenal. Best wishes 🙂
I started the program, but I’m not religiously sticking to it. I just try to squeeze it in every now and then haha
Nice goals Michelle. Good luck in the wedding, and best of luck this 2014! I’m sure you’ll have another great year coming.
Thank you!
Congrats on passing almost all of your goals! Since most of my clients have food cost challenges, I have actually started a Friday blog series that will highlight yummy, healthy meals for 4 under $15 all-in. This past Friday was Ratatouille Remy style.
Oooh yay! I will have to check that out. Thanks Shannon!
Great job! My main goal for January and 2014 is to make enough side/business income to survive. I’m almost there so I know I can do it with a little bit more hard work! 🙂
You can do it!
I’m going to pay off my loans this year! Whoo! Good luck on your January goals!
Good luck Stephanie!
2014 sounds like a great year for you Michelle. My continued goal is to keep chipping away at our debt, work on my freelance (pick up a gig) as well save enough money that my husband can make it to Columbus Jan 2015 for a huge event he’s been invited to. I’m also focusing more on fitness/food/being healthy.
I hope this year is wonderful for you and your family Catherine 🙂
We’re working on keeping our food budget at $450/month this year. Simple goals for the year are great. Good Luck in 2014!
Thanks and good luck to you as well Raquel!
My main goals for 2014 are to travel to London and pay off 3 more of my debts.
Sounds like a good year Jason 🙂
You’re doing an incredible job achieving your goals, and $10k a month, WOW!
This year I’m planning to start making a side income from writing/blogging, and aiming for $1k per month by the end of the year, become a first time mum in May, and knock off at least 80% of the items on my goals/to do list for 2014. It’s going to be a good year 🙂
All the best for 2014!
Sounds like an awesome year for you! 🙂
Great job Michelle! I am sure you will be able to knock all your goals out of the park for sure. Can’t wait to read more.
Thank you!
I’m glad to hear you found some friendlier catering/wedding companies – I can’t wait to see what you two decided to go with food-wise! So exciting, as well, for all your travel plans!
Thank you Anna!
Wow, you had an awesome year! And with a wedding coming up, I wish you an even better year this year!
This year I will be paying off all my debts, hopefully buying a new (to me) car and finalizing my moving plans. Yikes.
(And ha-ha, I can totally relate to that caption)
Thank you!
I like that your goals for the year are fairly simple. I think a lot of times we OG (over goal) ourselves. 🙂 Good luck this year. I’m sure you’ll do fabulously!
Thank you Tonya! 🙂
Great goals for the month and coming year. Planning a wedding is a lot of fun (based on helping friends), but a lot of work too. It looks like you’re set for a great year. My main goals this month is earn extra income this month ($300+) and start reorganizing things in my house.
Thanks Rebecca! I hope 2014 is great for you.
Sorry you had the stomach flu. That is the worst! You are going to have an amazing year in 2014 my friend. I want to continue to side hustle, get some freelance writing gigs, pay off debt, travel and enjoy my time on earth 🙂
Thank you! 🙂
I’m totally guilty of making too many goals and then being hard on myself when I’m not able to accomplish all of them. This year I’m going to focus on just a few goals and I’m going to break them down between smaller short-term goals and bigger long-term goals. I hope 2014 is great for all of us.
I hope it’s an awesome year for you!
Best of luck with all the wedding plans! Make sure you enjoy it all and don’t get too stressed out!
Thank you Amanda!
You are truly an inspiration Michelle. You are doing it the right way. My big goal for January is to get ready for taxes. I like to have them done by the end of February.
Thank you Grayson!
Congrats on accomplishing many of your goals! I’m sure your wedding will be plenty of fun. Also, saving up so much of your after tax income will be really helpful to free you up to do whatever you both want!
Thank you Tara!
My main goal for January is to stick to Neghar Fonooni’s Lean and Lovely workout program! Your wedding is coming up – how exciting!
Good luck! You can do it 🙂
I’m so excited for 2014 for you! It will definitely be your year! Can any of your friends recommend you some good wedding companies? Do you have a wedding planner? (I never did but it might be helpful to have one).
Luckily, I am starting to find some good companies. Thank god! 🙂
Congrats on your success with your blog. You mentioned you are focusing on meal planning. This is smart. I’m developing a meal plan because I pretty much loathe grocery shopping, as a mom I am always at Ralph’s. Anyway, I love sharing easy, healthy, super tasty cooking recipes that don’t break the bank.
Here are a few favorites
Easy Tasty Baked Rice — a totally yummy comfort food (I reduced the butter in it by 90%!) and it literally will take you 5 minutes to make: http://thecaliforniamom.com/eat-and-drink/easy-tasty-baked-rice/
And
Healthy Yummy Turkey Meatballs: http://thecaliforniamom.com/eat-and-drink/healthy-yummy-comfort-food-turkey-meatballs-easydinners/ – these are very simple to make but give you a home cooked meal feeling!
Try them out & let me know what you think!