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December Goals Update and New January Goals

Last Updated: May 1, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 55 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

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Hello! December was a great month for us.

We were active, we ate more healthy than usual, spent time with family, and we had another good business month (read my December monthly income report).

In December, we traveled to Memphis for Christmas to spend time with Wes’s parents and his siblings. It was a fun time and I always love spending time with his wonderful family. We ate delicious food, played Cards Against Humanity with his family (that was interesting!), and had a lot of fun.

I think we also somewhat narrowed down where we want to move to. We are still going back and forth with different cities and areas, but right now we are really liking the Durango area in Colorado. Anyone ever been? What did you think of it? We plan on visiting again soon. And, of course, we plan on renting before we buy to make sure wherever we move to is the spot for us.

The only bad thing that happened in December was that two of my credit cards were stolen, but thankfully Chase noticed both of them quickly and cancelled my credit cards for me before anything too bad happened.

Also, both of our credit scores went up this past month. Wes has a credit score of 797 and mine is at 801. WOOHOO! I was almost positive that with all of the recent credit card reward signups that our credit scores would suffer at least a little bit. Not at all though!

 

December Goals Update

  • Work out! PASS. Thanks to rock climbing, I have been doing well with working out. I have also been doing squats, lunges, and taking the dogs for walks as much as I can.
  • Work ahead on MakingSenseofCents posts. PASS! I have been doing well with this, and it’s making me extremely happy. I am not super far ahead, but I am around 5 posts ahead. That is great for me!
  • Successfully complete a 5.10c at the rock climbing gym. Mixed. I didn’t attempt one, but that is because we started lead climbing at the gym and you typically lead climb below your top roping climbing level because more effort is needed to lead climb. I did lead a 5.10a at the gym and I’m super happy. Sorry for all the technical terms.
  • Stay on budget for the holidays. PASS. We stayed on budget for the holidays. It was probably our most frugal Christmas and New Year’s yet. We used credit card rewards for our holiday traveling and didn’t spend much on holiday gifts.

 

January Goals

  • Work out! This is an easy goal now because of indoor rock climbing, but I like having it on here since I went months (maybe years) with this being a major FAIL.
  • Work ahead on MakingSenseofCents posts. I am still working on this. After January is over, I would like to be one month ahead with my more beefier posts. Of course, some posts cannot be done ahead of time such as with my life update posts and my monthly income posts. Another goal that is related to this is that I would like to complete going through my old blog posts. I am trying to format and replace bad pictures on old posts.
  • Successfully lead climb a 5.10b at the rock climbing gym. I’m taking baby steps here. Lead climbing still scares me a little because I’m not used to falling.
  • Create a plan to get our house ready for sale. I’m not looking forward to this. The thought of selling our home just brings me so much stress. However, I did contact a realtor (it was the same realtor who helped us find our house) and will hopefully jumpstart this soon.
  • Declutter. Before our house goes on the market, we have some major decluttering to do. My goal is to go through my closet and find things to sell and donate. My closet is a huge disaster zone right now so it needs to be done. We also need to go through everything in the basement, which is a HUGE disaster zone.
  • Spend less than $100 eating out. I recently published the post Our Plan To Finally Cut Our Food Spending, and in it I discussed how we spend too much money on food each month. Our goal for this month is to spend less than $100 eating out, and so far we have been doing really well with this. Wish us luck!

What amazing things are going on in your life? 

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

 

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55 Comments
Filed Under: Budget, Goals, Life, Travel Tagged With: Budget, Goals, Life, Rock Climbing, Travel

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. G says

    January 8, 2015 at 2:35 am

    December is been good time with family, now one of my personal resolution for this 2015 is be a little bit more savvy than last year, so on 12th will start my sort of shopping ban, every single cents saved wil lbe used for travel fund (week end in Italy, Europe)

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 8:46 am

      Good luck! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Mrs. Maroon says

    January 8, 2015 at 2:47 am

    January marks my return to full time work in corporate America after maternity leave. I honestly think we will be in a bit of survival mode until we cen nail down our routines. Plus I have to come to terms with being away from my baby, whom has not left my side for more than an hour or so in her first four months…

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 8:47 am

      I’m sorry 🙁 I hope things go smoothly.

      Reply
  3. Amy says

    January 8, 2015 at 6:29 am

    December was a pretty good month for me. I spent more than I expected on Christmas – this was the first year I kept track, so I didn’t have any historical data to rely on in making my goal – but my husband got his bonus, which we used to pay cash for several larger expenses (propane, new contacts for me, and a vet bill for one cat). We also brought down our credit card debt level a bit.

    January has a couple of even larger expenses (a bigger propane bill, car insurance), but it’s also a three paycheck month for my husband, which will help.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 8:48 am

      Three paycheck months are the best! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Taylor Lee says

    January 8, 2015 at 6:39 am

    December wasn’t quite the relaxing month I was hoping for, but regardless I’m hoping to start off 2015 strong. January goals include:
    * cutting down food budget by 30%
    * reading 1 book – right now that seems to be The Handmaid’s Tale
    * exercise 3x/week – generally do pretty good with this, but I need to make a conscious effort to keep it up
    * get a lot of writing done for project that’s going up end of February
    Yay, 2015.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 8:49 am

      Good luck with your goals!

      Reply
  5. Gina Horkey says

    January 8, 2015 at 7:09 am

    You’ll easily crush your goals:-)

    Most of my goals pertain to my freelance writing business that I’ve recently taken full-time. I’m in the process of figuring out a schedule that works, where to work (can’t be from home w/2 toddlers around;-), a list of daily tasks that must be completed, etc.

    It’s going to be a great year!

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 8:50 am

      Congrats again 🙂 I’m sure it will be a great month and a great 2015 for you Gina.

      Reply
  6. Sarah says

    January 8, 2015 at 7:13 am

    Durango is awesome!! We went there for a vacation (just me and my husband…before the kiddos came haha) to ski and it’s such a fun town!! It’s close to some hot springs and the downtown area was so cute!! I think you will really like it there 🙂

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 8:50 am

      Great to hear! We visited earlier this year and have been doing our research since. We will have to visit again though before we decide if that’s where we want to rent.

      Reply
  7. Kim@eyesonthedollar says

    January 8, 2015 at 7:14 am

    I think Durango is awesome. We live over in Cortez but I’ve spent lots of time there. Jim lived there for years and that’s where we met. Email me anything you want to know.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 8:51 am

      Yay thanks Kim! We are looking at a few different towns in that area so it will be a hard choice.

      Reply
  8. C@thesingledollar says

    January 8, 2015 at 8:19 am

    Durango is beautiful, although it’s a little isolated — renting to be sure you like it is a great idea. Congrats on doing so well on all your goals! My December and January have each had big costs, but they were more or less planned for (contact lenses and glasses in December, plane tickets in January) so I’m doing ok.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 8:54 am

      Yes, that’s pretty much the exact reason we plan on renting first, to make sure the isolation is something we can handle. I think we will be fine, but need to make sure.

      Reply
  9. Sarah says

    January 8, 2015 at 8:33 am

    Great job in December and good luck in January! I’m in the process of decluttering my craft space and it is a little emotionally painful. We (way) blew our budget back in December but it I learned from it. We had a Christmas budget but I failed to account for some things, so we’re back on track in January.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 8:54 am

      Decluttering is something I am not looking forward to at all. 🙁

      Reply
  10. EL says

    January 8, 2015 at 8:37 am

    Congrats on the great year and the major life goals in 2015. Moving is difficult and exciting at the same time. Maybe you can rent out your home and keep it just in case you want to come back to it. Working out is always fun for me, and I stay consistent as I have a 3 times a week routine.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 8:55 am

      Thanks! Good job on working out 🙂

      Reply
  11. Mindy says

    January 8, 2015 at 9:32 am

    Great job in December. I like seeing your progress and how you keep track of your goals.Today you got me thinking about decluttering my own house in addition to my health and financial goals. Thanks for inspiration! Good luck in 2015.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 1:34 pm

      Good luck decluttering! I’m nervous about it haha.

      Reply
  12. Mark@BareBudgetGuy says

    January 8, 2015 at 10:09 am

    Well done on the workouts! My main goal is to spend more time with family. Jan-Mar will be busy with the day job and tax clients on the side. Gotta remember not to forget the little ones!

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 1:35 pm

      I hope you reach your goal Mark 🙂

      Reply
  13. Kim says

    January 8, 2015 at 10:12 am

    I’m currently working on getting my Credit Cards balances down and would like to know what you think the best cards are for rewards? Would you rather take travel rewards or cash back?

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 1:37 pm

      I got the Chase Ink Bold Plus a few months ago and it gave me $875 in cash back. I also just signed up for the Chase Sapphire and it will give me around $450 in cash back plus it doesn’t have an annual fee. I will have to do a blog post on this soon because I am all about travel rewards right now!

      I like both travel rewards and cash back. Both are great to use!

      Reply
  14. Hustle + Save says

    January 8, 2015 at 10:21 am

    Our goal this month is to not touch our debit cards. We got a little holiday money plus my husband got a bonus so we want to live off cash only this month since our new higher mortgage just started this month. We just refied to a 15 year so it’s a little higher each month but is going to save us a lot of money in the end!

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 1:38 pm

      Good luck with your goal!

      Reply
  15. Michelle @ Modern Acupuncture Marketing says

    January 8, 2015 at 10:49 am

    I’m so amazed you have a credit score of 801! Holy moly, good for you! I’ve never met anyone with such a high score. I’m hoping to buy a house in August and I’m so glad I stumbled across your amazing websites. I’m looking forward to learning more about keeping saving money and raising my credit score, to make the house-buying process as easy as possible. Now I’m excited! Thank you!

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 1:38 pm

      Good luck with buying your home! I hope your process goes smoothly 🙂

      Reply
  16. Nicola says

    January 8, 2015 at 12:06 pm

    Great job in December! Good luck with your January aims 🙂 December was good for us; I love this time of year.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 1:39 pm

      Glad December was good for you. I hope January is even better.

      Reply
  17. Jessica says

    January 8, 2015 at 12:50 pm

    I had to LOL about playing Cards Against Humanity with family. I’m not sure I’d be down with that!

    Even though decluttering is a HUGE pain, you will be so happy you did it when you get ready to move. This is something we failed to do before our cross-country move. As a result, we ended up hauling a lot of junk we didn’t need to California AND leaving even more junk at my mom’s house in Kentucky. Not only will your house show better when you try to sell it, but you won’t have to move so much stuff either.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 1:39 pm

      Haha it was a lot of fun and very interesting playing with them haha!

      Reply
  18. Jason B says

    January 8, 2015 at 2:25 pm

    My December was great. I ended the year on a positive note. My goal for January is to get more traffic. I’ve been trying out different strategies.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 2:51 pm

      I hope the strategies you are using work. Good luck!

      Reply
  19. Michelle S. says

    January 8, 2015 at 8:07 pm

    Hahahaha! Yes, I cannot wait until the decluttering is done.

    Reply
  20. Michelle S. says

    January 8, 2015 at 8:26 pm

    Haha glad you love it. I hope I do as well!

    Reply
  21. Susan Osborne says

    January 8, 2015 at 9:29 pm

    Hi Michelle!
    I live near Denver now but went to college in Durango at Fort Lewis. I loved the four years that I spent there. It’s a great town, lots of charm and beautiful summers :). If you don’t mind a smaller town (and a college town), it’s wonderful. You have to try the nachos at Oldtimers :). Good luck with your move!
    Susan

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 8, 2015 at 9:34 pm

      Great to hear from someone who has lived there. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

      Reply
  22. Kayla @ Femme Frugality says

    January 9, 2015 at 10:27 am

    Sounds like you have a good set of January goals. Can’t wait to see how they turn out!

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 9, 2015 at 10:56 am

      Thanks Kayla!

      Reply
  23. Alexandra @ Real Simple Finances says

    January 10, 2015 at 6:45 pm

    Good luck with the goals! Exercising is always on my goal list, and is always the number one failure goal.

    When I declutter my closets, I always try to sell my extra clothes on Tradesy. I have had a good experience with them. If that doesn’t work, I donate them to the Goodwill and then list an estimate of the value as a charitable donation on my tax return.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 10, 2015 at 8:56 pm

      I started cleaning out my closet yesterday and brought up one bag to a local consignment shop. Made $59 today! 🙂

      Reply
  24. Katelyn @ Diaries of a Wandering Lobster says

    January 11, 2015 at 10:22 am

    I love hearing all the climbing talk! I’ve never lead climbed. It’s always scared the crap out of me. There is a new rock climbing gym coming to Portland, Maine soon and I’m excited to check it out!

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 11, 2015 at 12:16 pm

      Yes, you should check it out!

      Reply
  25. Michelle S. says

    January 11, 2015 at 8:27 pm

    Thanks!

    Reply
  26. Fig @ Figuring Money Out says

    January 12, 2015 at 3:52 pm

    Um, girl, next time you travel to Memphis hit me up and let’s meet! 😉

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 12, 2015 at 3:59 pm

      Is that where you live? I had no idea!

      Reply
      • Fig @ Figuring Money Out says

        January 13, 2015 at 11:33 am

        It is! I don’t really share a lot of details about my personal life since I’m anonymous, but if there are other bloggers here or visiting it would be cool to meet them!

        Reply
        • Michelle S. says

          January 13, 2015 at 11:42 am

          I’ll definitely keep that in mind for next time we visit 🙂

          Reply
  27. Don @ Breath of Optimism says

    January 13, 2015 at 6:23 pm

    December was a great month for us. We too got to see family and we stayed within our budget. Eating-wise we ate really, really bad, but so far this month things are completely different. We’ve been eating clean and healthy and working out a ton. It’s amazing how much better I sleep and how much better I feel throughout the day when I am more active and eating right.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 13, 2015 at 7:27 pm

      Good job!

      Reply
  28. Lisa says

    January 20, 2015 at 2:56 pm

    Working ahead on the blog is a goal of mine, as well! Last week i set up all my posts for this week and it was so much better than rushing all of my blog posts.

    Reply
    • Michelle S. says

      January 20, 2015 at 6:10 pm

      Good job!

      Reply

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My name is Michelle and I'm the author/owner of Making Sense of Cents. Learning how to save money and make more money changed my life. It allowed me to pay off $40,000 in student loans, start my own business, and I now travel full-time.

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