Since it is almost at the end of March, I thought it good to do some analysis of my progress on my goals.
2012 Goals and Plan
1. Pay Down Credit Card to $300.00 by 12/31/2012
As of 3/25/2012, this debt is $1626.00. I have not been paying this down at the speed I want. I keep needing to use it, but then I pay it back right away. Ugh. I will get there. I keep having to remind myself.
2. Bring car savings account up to $2000.00 by 12/31/2012
As of 3/4/2012, this account is $633.51. I haven't made much progress with this one, either, because of needing to get tuckpointing done on the house. I will try again this coming payday to put more aside for a replacement car.
3. Complete some minor, and major, maintenance on the house. See the Home Maintenance Challenge list for details on this.
We made significant progress on this.
- Replaced spray nozzle on kitchen faucet.
- We have replaced more than a dozen CFL and incandescent bulbs with LEDs. More to go.
- Some tuckpointing has been done. More to go.
- Non functional garbage disposal has been removed. We didn't need one anyway.
- Composting begun. Progress ongoing.
Some stuff we need to have done this year include:
- Getting gutters cleaned in spring and fall.
- Begin garden (tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, kale, onions, garlic)
- More tuckpointing
- Set aside funds for getting windows
Farther Future Projects:
- Install rain water barrels under gutters
- Need to renovate and expand the bathroom
- More insulation
- New windows throughout
- Want extra freezer to store made ahead meals and meat bought on sale
- Install renewable, sustainable power source
- install greenhouse to south of house
4. Increase house savings account to $500.00 by 12/31/2012.
As of 3/25/2012, this account is down to $367.12 due to the tuckpointing, but I will build it back up. I need to get at least another $2400 for tuckpointing on the entire north side of the house and the top part of the south side. The east and west may need to be done also, but the north and south are worse.
5. Reduce unnecessary spending.
I have been done a lot better with this one. I have been making my own iced tea at work every day for about 2 weeks now. I usually one splurge when I actually buy lunch out. I think I am down to about 1 soda every other day and drink homemade juices every day.
We have replaced more than a dozen CFLs and incandescent light bulbs in our house with LEDs. We have seen significant reduction in energy usage, but won't see the difference in our bill until July because we are on a level payment plan.
I have taken my lunch to work every day except on paydays when I splurge a little bit. My "splurge" is usually a salad from the salad bar at the pizza joint down the street from my work. ;P
Progress on 2012 Goals
March 25th, 2012 at 03:53 pm
March 25th, 2012 at 04:57 pm 1332691048
March 25th, 2012 at 06:20 pm 1332696006
March 25th, 2012 at 09:05 pm 1332705915
It can help to check insurance cost bi-annually Our auto and home insurance are due for renewal in April so I've asked our agent to 'shop' our policies to re-insurers for better pricing. We will likely reduce the older car's coverage to compulsory liability given how few miles/kilometers it is driven. [It's KBB is so low, it will need to go to auction to sell]
March 25th, 2012 at 10:20 pm 1332710429
I have pinches pennies every which it is possible. For example, we don't even have cable tv or satellite. We do have Netflix at $7.99 or something like that. We don't have a landline phone. We do have internet at $54 a month. That is the cheapest internet available here. My husband has 1 cell phone on a plan at $48 a month. I have a prepaid phone because I don't make many calls and it costs usually less than $5 a month. For two people a two cats, we spend about $100 a week on food. I am working on making that a lot less by starting a garden this year. $100 a week may not sound cheap, but food seems to be getting more and more expensive here and I have food allergies. I have to eat a lot of fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, chicken, and bison, organic if possible. Most of what I eat is made at home by my two hands. I cannot eat pastas, bread, or dairy products, but my husband can. A lot of commercially processed meats and other products have stuff like msg, antibiotics, pesticides, hormones, herbicides, gluten, etc. in them that make me sick.
Whenever we get any kind of windfall, I generally throw it at the credit card or put it into one of the savings accounts. This year, we put our tax refunds into tuckpointing on the house.
I have never looked into billing our car insurance semiannually. I am not sure about that. It feels more comfortable at monthly, but I will look into it.