At the beginning of the year, I make a list of finance-related goals that I want to meet over the next 12 months. At the beginning of each month, I report on my successes or failures. If you’re new here, you might want to read my original goals post, my February update, March update, April update, and May update.
I wrote this post up and it seemed kind of boring even to me, so we’re going to have firework pictures sprinkled throughout. Just to keep it interesting, you know?
1. Eat non-cereal breakfast 4 days a week.
We’re still doing well with this; so well, in fact, that it’s almost habit by now. Yay!
So, for this month, I’m going to aim to incorporate more fresh fruit into my kids’ breakfast meals. I’ve not been very consistent with this, and I’d really like to improve.
2. Save for a replacement van.
I’m pleased to report that as of this month, my van savings have almost doubled, so instead of being at 5% of my goal, I’m now at 10%. Sweet.
I’m still having plenty of “This will take f o r e v e r!” moments, because this is the largest amount of money I’ve ever tried to save up before. I try not to think about that too much, though, so that I’m inspired to just keep plugging along.
3. Buy more organic, local food.
I’ve been frequenting the local produce stand regularly, and though my egg man has been on a month-long European jaunt, he should be back in town shortly, which means I’ll be off of supermarket eggs again.
I’d like to make some progress on buying more local meat this month, though.
4. Keep Quicken updated once a week.
Though I didn’t do Quicken once a week, I’m happy to share that my Quicken files are all up to date at the moment. Yay me!
Someone (Hi, Sheila!) emailed me and expressed surprise that we buy fireworks because they’re kind of expensive and don’t last that long.
I will admit that left to myself, I probably wouldn’t buy fireworks. But, fortunately for our children, Mr. FG is much more fun than I am and he’s started the tradition of setting off ground-based (legal!) fireworks each year.
Because it’s only once a year (with maybe a few fireworks on Memorial Day too) and because our kids love it so much, I don’t really mind. See, Mr. FG is good for me…he brings balance to my tight-waddy ways.
Tami
Thursday 8th of July 2010
Hi, I am really enjoying your site! I have a question, when you say "updating Quicken" are you entering your data manually or downloading the info from your banking site? My habit was the opposite, stop banking daily (I like keeping track of our debt going down) and go to once a week or so. I sit with my coffee in the morning enjoying a few minutes of quiet and keep my books up to date then. Our business books are another matter as I have to manually enter the data, that I get behind on. Thanks for you site, I was inspired to use up a few things in the fridge last night before we go away.
Kristen
Thursday 8th of July 2010
It's the downloading...if I had to enter stuff manually, I'd be hopelessly behind! lol
Yay for you using up your food! Getting ready to go away without waste is hard.
erin
Thursday 8th of July 2010
Those fireworks are great, sounds like Mr. FG likes celebrating America's bday in style! I can't wait until Noah is a bit older and he can get in on the fun. Yay for sticking to your goals & congrats on being closer than you planned on the van, that is awesome!
Elizkat
Wednesday 7th of July 2010
I love the idea of a CSA but it didn't really work out for me last year. I loved getting a box full of veggie surprises each week, but my family just couldn't keep up with it and it lead to a lot of waste. The trouble is that during greens season or beets season you get tons of one kind of vegetable. If your family isn't that fond of the vegetable of the week, it goes to waste. Coming up with ANOTHER recipe for swiss chard felt too much like homework and invariably what your family really likes has a very short season. This year, I'm shopping at my farmer's market and choosing what I know my family will eat.
WilliamB
Wednesday 7th of July 2010
1. The solution that occurs to me (put fruit on plate, put plate on table) that I must be missing something.
2. Saving for the van *will* take forever. Which is about as long as you hope your current van will last, right? It makes sense that the two timelines are the same.
3. As I picked up my fortnightly CSA share I had a realization: having a CSA means you're not fully in control of what foods you buy. Have you thought about how this will fit with your meal planning routine?
Kristen
Wednesday 7th of July 2010
Yes, but see, the problem is that I wasn't putting the fruit on the plate or the table! lol It's not complicated; I just wasn't doing it.
I'd say at the VERY minimum, it'll take me another 18 months to meet my van savings goal. I'm quite confident my van will last that long. I'm just impatient, because there are other big goals I have, but I want to get this van fund fully funded before I tackle those.
I'll cross the CSA bridge when I come to it, I suppose. I'm fairly good at switching things around to use up the produce I buy, depending on what's going bad at the moment, so hopefully those skills would come in handy.
Benjamin Bankruptcy
Tuesday 6th of July 2010
Fireworks are also illegal here. Stupid nanny state thinks we're all still convicts.
The easiest way to get lot's of fruit into the kids with smoothies or fruities:) I just put a bunch of fruit in the blender with some ice and blend it up. The problem with juice is you don't get any fibre or any of the vitamins in the fiberous material. If you blend it wooo!
I think your saving for a vehicle is a great thing to blog about. I know when I tell people I paid cash for mine they look at me like I said I can levitate or tell the future.
Shana
Wednesday 7th of July 2010
You may not know this, but Kristen already has fruit smoothies on her daily breakfast/lunch menu. Check it out :)