Monthly Goal Review and Preview: April / May 2016

New month, which means it’s time to review and share some goals!

April Goal Reviews

We got slammed in April, financially and time-wise. Besides the usual, we had:

• both life insurance policy premiums due
• car inspection and taxes for our Honda Accord
• my driver's license renewal
• our oldest's dental check-up (we pay out of picket for her visits)
• vet visit (including blood tests and medication) for our senior cat

As a reminder, here were my goals for April along with the progress made:

• Do a site audit for Couple Money. As tedious and embarrassing as it is to go back through old posts, it's been a fantastic opportunity to review, correct, and update things for readers.
• Go green at home. We've been seeding our yard and building up a lawn area. We're also building up our compost piles. Proud to say we're seeing progress on it.
• Pitch a podcast. So proud to have done it – I gave my best creating a proposal and sample to pitch a dream podcast.

How I'm Simplifying in May

I'm really like narrowing things down to just three things each month. Having one money goal, one work/home goal, and one completely personal goal has kept me focused.

I'm someone who likes to have a few things going, but once it's past three, I usually start dropping the ball.

Here's what's on my agenda for May:

• Save $500. With so much spent in April, I'm going to cut things back drastically this month.
• Create a yard plan using Sketch- Up. We've reached a point where having a clear plan for the yard is needed. Besides the budget, breaking down the big picture into projects will keep us on target. Sketch-up seems to be a great tool to help visualize and plan with what we'd like to do.
• Read and finish a fictional book. I love reading, but lately, I've been devouring non-fiction books and pieces on permaculture, cooking, and gardening to name a few. I want to get into a book this month just for pleasure.

While Sketch-Up is going to probably take a bit of time to learn, I'm ready to play around with it. I'm hoping to re-use and build up the model for other projects in and around our place.

THOUGHTS ON SIMPLIFYING THIS MONTH

Well, there you have it. I shared my goals for this month; I’d love to hear from you. What are you up to this month?