Goals

Making a Challenge Challenging

by

There are various bloggers out there who have no spending challenges. The typical no spend challenge isn’t very challenging for me though. I don’t have any desire to buy most things that aren’t allowed in a no spend challenge. The only tangible items I’ve bought this year besides food are detergent, toilet paper, and books. These were all necessary and I didn’t spend much money on them. The books were bought used for school and I’ll sell them again when I’m done with them. Entertainment is where I’ve been spending way too much money and I need to challenge myself to spend much less there next month. This will be complicated because I just started dating someone and I put dates in the entertainment category. She doesn’t expect me to spend a lot of money on her but when you first start dating you don’t want to be too cheap. Also my best friend is coming back to town after being out of town for a month and a half. We will be spending some money while hanging out and catching up. My goal for the month is just to spend less than my average monthly entertainment expenditure. This shouldn’t be too hard since my entertainment spending has been very high this year due to a vacation and excessive gambling.

There is also a May Grocery Challenge at Give Me Back My Five Bucks that I’m going to participate in. My goal will be to spend $50 in groceries for the month. This is what I usually budget but I’ve been going way over the past couple months. I’ve also been eating out too much. To make this challenge more challenging I’m not going to eat out unless it is on a date or with family or friends. I will try to keep those occasions  reasonably limited. I won’t invite my friend or girlfriend out to eat just because I want to eat a meal out. These conditions should make this challenge challenging to keep.

Goals Grade Card

by

Analyzing the progress I’ve made on my goals this year I gave myself the following grades.

  • Don’t incur any debt other than student loan debt- This goal I either meet or don’t so it doesn’t really correlate to a letter grade.  Grade-Pass
  • Improve my blogging- I have done better at posting more consistently and made some other improvements to my blog.  I’m still not writing the quality of content I would like though.  Grade- C
  • Lose 20 pounds- I’ve made a few starts and stops on this goal but haven’t worked towards it on a consistent basis yet.  Grade- D

I definitely have to do more on my last two goals.  I have plans on how to achieve them I just need to do them.

Used CC Balance Transfer to Pay Down Student Loan

by

I went ahead and used the balance transfer from my credit card to pay down my Grad Plus student loan.  The amount of the transfer was $4900 plus a $75 balance transfer fee.  Since my interest rate will be over four points lower on the credit card I should easily make up the balance transfer fee.  If my math is correct after seven months I’ll come out ahead. The credit card rate is for life and I have other higher interest debt so I’ll be paying only the minimum or slightly above the minimum payment on the card balance. Once I graduate and my income is more certain I’m going to look into paying down more of my student debt in this manner.

One of my goals this year was not to incur any debt other than student loan debt.  Since this is just student loan debt transferred to my credit card I feel it is within my goal.

Setback in Goal Progress

by

Soon after I wrote about my exercise and frugality hack last month it was sabotaged.  I had turned off my hot water at home and took my showers at the school fitness center to motivate me to exercise and save a little money.  The school has now closed the locker room at the fitness center and put everyone in a tiny locker room with only three showers.  This makes it too much of a hassle to take a shower there now.  The weather has been great this weekend though and I did get outside for a run.  I plan to continue running outside since I enjoy that much more than running on a treadmill anyway.  I still plan on exercising it just won’t be at the school fitness center.

Patience and Self-Discipline

by

These are the personality traits I need to develop if I am going to accomplish my goals.   These have always been a problem for me.  I am thinking of this now because I probably shouldn’t have taken the trip to Cancun.  I was able to go for fairly cheap and it had been a long time since I had traveled internationally but since I’m not actually making much money now I probably should have waited until I could better afford it.  I don’t have much patience in delaying things I want to do.  I could be semi-retired by now but every time I work and save up some money, I end up quitting and living off my savings until there gone.  If I could just change this habit I believe I could be retired in 5 to 10 years and not have a job to quit.

These traits are a problem when it comes to losing weight as well.  I want to lose weight but I don’t want to quit eating junk food and I only exercise when I feel like it.  When I do manage to eat better and exercise the weight doesn’t seem to come off fast enough and I end up going back to my normal habits.  I’ve managed to lose 20 pounds or more 3 times but it was always accomplished by situations that I can’t replicate in my daily life.  I just need to keep my future goal in mind and keep after it every day.