Let's see how I'm doing on my New Year's resolutions! I mean, it's all well and good to say I want to do something, but I'd really like to do it so unless I revisit them periodically I'll forget all about them.
1. Be less cynical. This one is hard to quantify, but I think I'm doing it. Perhaps Paul will chime in here?
2. Institute lists of goals. Boy, I started out so strong on this one. The lists didn't work through January, so I will find and execute another multi-level goal accomplishment structure just like I promised. I was making lists on "stickies" on the mac laptop. This month I am going to give paper lists a whirl.
3. Make time for blogging. This is going okay, but I know I can do better. I've definitely been posting more pictures. So to nudge this one along, I'm adding blogging to my lists in #2.
3a. No guilt for getting behind on blogs. I still keep up with those of you that I know and that I know read this. I still feel a little guilty though.
4. Keep a food journal. I used babyfit.com and yeah, I did it! I found where I need to make some dietary improvements, and I'm making them. A definite success.
5. Go outside every day. This one has improved, but I still don't make it out every day. It did get awfully cold lately though.
6. Keep decent sleeping and waking hours. This has definitely improved. I feel great!
7. Work towards making my home a better place to live. I've worked on this, and it has improved. Revamping the lists though will help, and I think the nesting instinct is starting to kick in. I have made great progress in organizing the stash.
New Additions!
8. Design a budget and track spending to increase savings. I made an awesome spreadsheet last night when I finally realized how to handle a biweekly mortgage and paycheck and monthly bills. It's based on Crazy Aunt Purl's pretty pink budget spreadsheet. I set up date ranges in a row across the top in 2 week intervals and visually separated the biweekly in and out, monthly bills in and out, and flexible expenses like food and yarn. When we pay a monthly bill we don't have money from later in the month to do it, we have what we have so monthly bills are just added to the payperiod in which they are paid. I have separate sheets for things like groceries, eating out, money in and out of savings, miscellaneous expenses like yarn or clothes or haircuts, and there's even a category for one time expenses and things I can't remember (like that $7 trip to Wal-Mart). All the separate sheets get a total every 2 weeks and the total is linked to the biweekly sheet. I download my bank transactions and separate them into these categories and whammo! Money tracking!
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3 comments:
dang - that requires advanced calculus! i need to do that though - i just mastered keeping a list of expenses though - that is a big step for me - but it has helped me not get overdraft statements in the mail :)
So far so good!
Hi steph,
Greeting from Jakarta, My name is Susan.
it's quite interesting how you design your budget and for sure it would be very easy for you to track your spending. I'm a quite spender, could u give me example how you do that? how do you make such spreadsheet? Thanks a million!
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