February Goals

Oh, hey February. Nice of you to sneak up on someone me like this. I haven't made a goals list in months, so I figured now was as good a time as any. I have 5 (or 15, depending on how you're counting) goals this month, and I plan to rock them all. It makes me extra excited because February is a (only slightly) shorter month. It's go time. 

The Wallet Watch: Wallet watch lasts from February 1 - February 29. If you wanna know more about it, go here. These are my parameters: 

- No more than $50 on take-out/food out, period
This one is borrowed from Alyssa, who's set goal was $20. Though I love that idea, it just seems a little unrealistic for my life. Though that would be totally feasible on weekdays, I get take-out at least once every weekend. Instead, I'm opting to try to stay within $50 for the month. 

- Check the checking account for fees, and change banks if necessary
Ok, another one borrowed from Alyssa, because I never even thought to check if my bank was charging me banking fees. I'm really good about not racking up ATM charges, but I don't remember actually looking for these bank charges. Hers was charging her up to $12/month. I can seriously stretch $12, and spending that much just to have an account with a certain bank seems ridiculous, so I need to look into this. 

- Grocery budget $60
Honestly, I haven't really looked into my grocery spending in a really long time, but I know I went APE SHIT last month because I had lots of coupons (yes, I clip coupons), I had access to (Blue's) car, and it was the Shoprite Can Can Sale. I have more than enough food. I really don't see the need to spend over $60 for a single person household this month. 

- Get taxes done
I've received my paperwork already, so this is more a matter of scheduling the appointment with H&R Block since I don't trust myself to do my own taxes, regardless of TurboTax and what anyone else says. I'll leave that up to the professionals, thankyouverymuch. 

- Open savings account
This has been a long time coming. I was just lazy/procrastinating. I think I meant to research the banks/companies with the best rates? I don't remember why I put this off for so long, but I need to do it already. 

- Check my credit score
Those commercials finally got to me. I know I've put it off because Blue told me hers (unprovoked), and I know mine is SO MUCH WORSE, even though it's not actually my fault. But that's a story for another day. Through the years I've been trying really hard to clean it up, but it's certainly not easy. 

- Talk to those pesky student loan peeps 
Another "issue" that isn't my fault but needs to be handled. I had a LOT of student loan debt when I graduated from my undergrad program. But now I work at a college and attended classes part-time last semester. When you attend graduate school, even on a part-time basis, you're loans get deferred. However for some reason they lost it, my paperwork was never processed. So the loan companies who originally told me I didn't owe anything until May 2016 have been hounding me for payments. I fixed the issue at the school, but now I apparently need to fill them in as well before they reek havoc on my credit score. 

- Revisit and readjust the budget
After I realized I didn't have to make student loan payments for at least 6 months, I kinda sorta didn't follow or pay any attention to my budget. It was just so nice being able to not be so tied down to it! But now it's time to re-evaluate and readjust accordingly. 

- No unapproved spending of any kind, for anything. Approved Spending: Valentine's day gift for Blue, flowers for gravesite, Mom's birthday present, Boss going away present. 
Yes, I should have bought some of those things in January- my bad.  But since I haven't reallylooked at my budget in months, there's no monies set aside. Also, my boss of the last 4 years recently resigned, and though I gave money towards the present from out department, I want to give him something else from me personally. I know sometimes I complained about his insane attention to detail and napping in his office, but he may have been the most effective boss I've ever had, and I feel lucky to have worked with him. 

- track spending and share how I did on Friday, March 4

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Update my resume
Work life has been hard, to say the least. I decided (with the help of some very knowledgeable and supportive friends) that if you seriously dread going to work each day, to the point where you literally consider calling out "sick," maybe it's time to start looking elsewhere. 

Meal plan every week
Like I mentioned, I have a lot of canned goods in my cupboards. I have more than enough to successfully meal plan, and I'm going to try to do so this month. 

Closet purge
I've literally said this for months, whether in blog posts or comments on other blogs. But I'm serious this time! There's just too much that I'm not using/wearing, and though I may have originally planned on selling these items, I'm now willing to just accept the monetary loss and donate them in exchange for peace of mind. 

Finalize vacation plans
Work  is making me move my vacation because the end date for a major project changed. Luckily I hadn't purchased any plane tickets or anything yet, but I'd like to do that by the end of this month, since we're trying to take an international trip in May. 

Are you tackling any goals this month?