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February Goals – Making and Keeping Them

BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 66 Comments

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Dad

 

Hey everyone! I found the picture to the left the other day in a photo album.

My dad LOVED taking photos and I still remember when we would go to the store all the time to buy a new photo album for all of the pictures that he would get developed.

I didn't really think about it when I was younger, but I'm so glad that he took the time to leave me all of these photo albums (our guest bedroom and living room are filled with albums – there are probably around 100 or more).

I found this picture of us on an airplane (flying planes was his other love) and I can't stop looking at it. Love you and miss you always Dad!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a fun weekend. No, I did not watch the Super Bowl. I feel like I'm the only one who didn't but I never watch it so that's nothing new 🙂 Today is also W's birthday! Happy Birthday!

January was another great month. It started off slow business-wise, but the last two weeks were definitely good.

Make sure to come back tomorrow for my monthly income update. I published my 2014 goals post last month. Read about them here.

Now that it's February, some of you might have already forgotten about your 2014 goals. Many people drop their goals within the first month. However, don't be one of those people!

Here are my tips to keep your goals.

  • Don't push your goal off. It's so easy to say “Oh, I'll take today off.” However, whenever I do that, that almost always leads to me pushing it off the next day and the next day.
  • Keep track of your goals. Keeping track of your goals can be a great motivator. Keep a journal, start a blog, have a friend help out or find another way.
  • Don't make too many goals. I've met many people who make so many goals that I don't even know how it's possible to remember all of them. If you have so many goals to accomplish within the next year, then they must not be very hard (how else are you going to reach your 1,000 goals for 2014, unless they are super easy?) or you are just hoping for an extremely successful year. There is nothing wrong with that, but I do feel that focusing on just a few large goals is usually best for most people.
  • Your goals should be realistic. Are your goals even attainable? If your goal isn't attainable, then you may completely give up midway through.

 

January Goals Update

  1. Keep our food budget under $400 and meal plan. PASS. We have been doing great with this. In the past 8 days, we only went out to eat one time. That's not a big deal for some, but for us it is. We have been eating at home more, eating tastier meals, and have been eating more healthy.
  2. Make $10,000 in business income this month. PASS. It wasn't one of my best months, but it was a good one.
  3. Book the caterer and wedding rentals. PASS. We haven't finalized the contract with the caterer, but we do know who we are using. We also paid for our wedding rental deposit as well. Read my crazy wedding rant from the other day if you haven't yet.
  4. Run 3 miles, 5 days a week. PASS. I did great with this!
  5. Get completely organized for personal/business taxes. FAIL. I definitely did not get completely organized for my taxes. I plan on doing that this month though. I did gather everything together and throw it all in a pile though 🙂 Better than nothing, right?

 

February Goals

  1. Keep our food budget under $400. This will always be on my monthly goals so that we don't forget. We have been doing really well with this the past few months.
  2. Make $10,000 in business income this month. I'm hoping that February is a good month. I have many plans!
  3. Finalize the wedding invitations. This is something that I haven't really started yet. I need to make the invitations and have them ready to go. I will probably send them out in early April. Does that sound like a good time for an early June wedding? I already sent out Save the Dates so everyone already knows when the date is.
  4. Find tuxes. We plan on finding our tuxes this month. We plan on renting sleek black tuxes, but I also don't want to break the groomsmen's budgets.
  5. Run 4 miles, 5 days a week. I increased this a little bit. I also plan on partnering this with T-25 again and some lifting. I love having a full gym in our basement! The high cost in the beginning of buying everything for our home gym has definitely paid off.

 

How did you do in January? What is your main goal for February?

What tips do you have to keep your goals?

 

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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. Heidi @ ThriftyTricks says

    February 3, 2014 at 3:00 am

    Cool stuff! I used to set too many, and too large goals, and never achieved them. Then I learned that having small, achievable goals and doing somehing about them every day (and therefore, seing results very soon) is the way. You sort of need to manipulate yourself into believing you can do it. If that makes sense.
    Good job with sticking to your goals, too 🙂 how are you making 10k per month?

    Reply

  2. MMD says

    February 3, 2014 at 4:43 am

    January wasn’t my best side income month either. I still did okay, but traffic and revenue seemed a little slower than usual. I’ll blame the polar vortex! 🙂

    Reply

  4. Liz says

    February 3, 2014 at 6:40 am

    sounds like January was a great month for you. Are you doing anything fun to celebrate your fiancé’s birthday? My main goal this month is to get our taxes done. Looks like we may also need to get a new refrigerator so I probably need to start doing my appliance research as well 🙁

    Reply

  6. DC @ Young Adult Money says

    February 3, 2014 at 6:52 am

    “Don’t make too many goals.” Really solid advice right here! I have a limited number of goals this year and I think it’s paying off. I have set too many goals in the past and I hardly am able to remember them let alone actually accomplish them. Hmmm 4 miles 5 days a week? I’d be happy to do this twice a week. Maybe that will be my February goal.

    Reply

    • Michelle S. says

      February 3, 2014 at 10:54 am

      I’ve been doing pretty well with my running goal. I did 4.5 miles yesterday, and I hope to do that again today. I’ve been doing a lot of squats too, so my legs REALLY hurt.

      Reply

  7. Allison says

    February 3, 2014 at 7:55 am

    That pic is adorable! I wish we had room for a home gym, that would be awesome. But, we don’t have basements down here though!
    Great job on 4 mi a fee days a week that’s a great goal!

    Reply

  8. Matt Becker says

    February 3, 2014 at 8:02 am

    I think having just a few goals is so key. Lets you put a lot of focus on just a few important things. My big goals for this month are to open the doors on my new business and to have a plan in place for offering some sort of ebook (or multiple ebooks) on my site

    Reply

  9. E.M. says

    February 3, 2014 at 9:36 am

    I half-watched the Super Bowl, mostly because nothing else was on. It was mostly background noise! Awesome job with your goals. I agree that setting only a few really important goals helps a lot. I have been guilty of making big to-do lists, and it gets overwhelming. Getting priorities in order helps as well, so you know which goals you want to accomplish first.

    Reply

  11. jefferson says

    February 3, 2014 at 10:30 am

    I’ve been trying to keep spreadsheets where I have hard data to track my progress towards goals. So far, so good, in 2014.

    You are doing seriously awesome with your running. Are you planning on any 5Ks? I am going to run a few in the next few months (the first is March 1st). Ping me if you are interested in details. Would be great to have a friend there to run against!

    Reply

  14. Cindy @ GrowingHerWorth says

    February 3, 2014 at 12:46 pm

    Great job in January! And really good advice on keeping the number of goals down. It does get overwhelming when you try to change too many things at once.

    We always recommended to clients that they send out wedding invitations 6 weeks prior. It’s enough time for people to respond, while still giving you time to follow-up with the people you don’t hear back from. This might vary depending on your area, and when some of your vendors need the final counts (which in your case would be the caterer, and probably the rental place). The person who is doing the day-of coordination might be able to give you some guidelines on that as well.

    Reply

  15. Raquel@Practical Cents says

    February 3, 2014 at 12:56 pm

    Sounds like you’re doing well with your goals especially the wedding stuff which can be stressful. I need to do a recap of my goals like this. It’s nice to see how we’re doing so that we can self correct if we deviate. Btw, cute pic. What happened with your 2 month travel plans?

    Reply

  16. Alicia says

    February 3, 2014 at 1:10 pm

    Looks like you did very well on your goals. I don’t have my tax information in order yet either.

    My January went pretty well. Paid back 3.5% of my debt, which was a nice feeling. I’m starting to feel the momentum of this actually getting somewhere, which is awesome!

    Reply

  17. anna says

    February 3, 2014 at 2:10 pm

    What a super cute baby pic of you! I think April is sufficient time for a June wedding – we sent ours out 4-5 months out prior, but we had a few out of town guests so that was our main reason, plus we didn’t want it getting lost with the holiday rush. Men’s Wearhouse rents them out for like $200-300 I think (though our groomsmen rentals were cheaper since they’re not required to have the jacket).

    Reply

  20. Tonya@Budget and the Beach says

    February 3, 2014 at 4:42 pm

    Compared to last year, you’ve come a long way with the not eating out thing. I remember that was a tough one for you! Glad you are incorporating weights into your training. I think running 5 days is a lot, personally. Hard on your body so mixing it up is a good idea. Good luck in Feb!

    Reply

  21. Justin @ Decisive Dollar says

    February 3, 2014 at 6:13 pm

    Awesome job on your January goals! This gives me good reason to get my butt into gear. Thanks for sharing!

    Also, I just had a 8 year old roll of film from my ancient camera developed this past week – so funny to look back, nothing like old photos. 🙂

    Reply

  23. Laurie @thefrugalfarmer says

    February 4, 2014 at 7:50 am

    Michelle, that is such an adorable picture!! Your dad looks like a sweetheart – he has the face of kindness, and I’m sure you miss him so much. Love what you said about not taking on too many goals at once – this has been huge for us. January was a great month, but I’m a bit concerned about gas and grocery monies for Feb. Seems like we’ve already spent more than I would have liked to, and it’s only the 4th!

    Reply

  26. Tara @ Streets Ahead Living says

    February 5, 2014 at 8:25 am

    That picture is too cute! My dad was a photo guy too and still is. My sister actually inherited all the photo albums and I probably will get them from her if her plan to move overseas pans out.

    Congrats on accomplishing most of your goals! I’m sure you’ll pass your February goals too. 🙂

    Reply

    • Michelle S. says

      February 5, 2014 at 10:10 am

      Thank you Tara! I’m hoping my sister never wants them 🙂 I’m fine with storing them forever since these are pretty much all the physical memories that we have left of him.

      Reply

      • David Mark says

        March 14, 2017 at 12:49 am

        Oh, I love the picture! What a great treasure he left for you! I think that’s a good date for the invites. Gives people some time but not enough that everyone loses the RSVPs. 🙂 Let me know if you use Invite Shop…would love to see someone’s final product.

        Reply

  27. Susan says

    February 8, 2014 at 11:43 am

    Hi Michelle,

    It’s a lovely picture of your with your dad. Its always to cherish these moments. Coming to your goals that you have for the month of February. I have tried setting up goals for each month and failed badly. Most of my goals were around exercise and cutting some weight, but it did not work.
    Looking forward to set only one goal to hit the aerobics classes. How do you manage to make $10k per month anyways?

    Thanks
    Susan

    Reply

  28. femmefrugality says

    February 8, 2014 at 10:18 pm

    Oh, I love the picture! What a great treasure he left for you! I think that’s a good date for the invites. Gives people some time but not enough that everyone loses the RSVPs. 🙂 Let me know if you use Invite Shop…would love to see someone’s final product.

    We’re only having one groomsman (best man.) We’re just paying for his suit sine the rental ended up being pretty expensive. I think if you walk in there knowing your budget and asking for prices you could walk out happy with your options, though. Just have to let the salespeople know you’re a smart shopper and not just going to take the most expensive options just because they suggest them as stylists.

    And holy moly. Way to get your run on. I’m happy if I can fit a 15 minute one in anymore.

    Reply

  29. femmefrugality says

    February 9, 2014 at 1:44 pm

    $150. Which seems like a lot to me. I had a $40 off coupon, too so I guess $190. But I got a super fancy dress on super clearance ($200!) so I wanted their level of dress to match. You could probably go cheaper and still look dashing.

    Reply

  30. MakintheBacon says

    February 9, 2014 at 3:28 pm

    I thought ALL Americans watched the Super Bowl. hahaha. I worked more on analyzing my finances and my blog during the Super Bowl weekends. It was a very productive weekend. I’ve only watched the Super Bowl once in it’s entirety because it was at a Super Bowl party. I wouldn’t watch it on my own or host my own party for it though.

    My main goal is February is to bring down our grocery budget to under $300. Last month it was under $400. I was kind of annoyed with myself because normally, it’s just over $300. I have no idea what happened last month with the food. Maybe we were hungrier in January. 😛

    Reply

  32. petterson says

    June 1, 2018 at 5:01 am

    Thanks for your article! I have been looking for quite a long time and fortunately I read this article! I wish you would continue to have valuable articles like this or more to share with everyone

    Reply

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