Some goals

This is a short post today -- life is a tad hectic here and also a revised post of mine runs today on Smart Spending.


Brooke over at Dollar Frugal wrote an interesting piece the other day about "groundhog day goals." This means she revisits her goals (and, when needed, sets new ones) each month: 1/1, 2/2, 3/3... You get the idea.

So she reviewed her goals for August. She then asked readers what goals they would set for September 9th. I thought this was an inspired way to do goals (I'm a big fan of slow & steady wins the race...) and especially to keep yourself honest.

Here are the goals I am setting for 9/9:

1. Get Tim's student loans down to $750. They are currently $1430.14. In two days, we'll be making another $200 payment. And we're getting a $200 windfall that should hopefully get applied to the loan as well. That would bring the total down to $1030.14 (plus interest). So I think this is do-able or we'll be around $50 off.

2. Akin to Brooke's "get sugar out of my diet" goal... I've been reducing my sugar intake and really enjoying the results. I went 10 days last time before caving. The last two days of re-withdrawal have been miserable. My hands are shaking much more, I'm far more irritable partially because of blood sugar, and I'm tired. This just strengthens my resolve. I am definitely having sugar on my birthday, but I want to start increasing the periods I go without desserts/sweets. By 9/9 I would like to have worked up to 14 days.

3. I want to double my blog's average visits per day. It was, when I set this goal, 75 on average (including weekends) but I want it to be at least 150.

4. Take more walks: My blog obsession has meant too many hours playing online, reading other PF blogs and playing with clip art for my blog illustrations and buttons. I am going to try to take a walk in the evenings with my husband at least 5 days a week. It will get me some exercise and get me away from the computer.

5. Lose 2-3 lbs of fat. This will have to be an eyeball-it kind of a thing, because I work out with weights once a week and so weight loss isn't as easy to gauge. But I would like to have my pants fit a tad looser within one month.

So what are your goals? Let's keep this goal-setting alive.