In November, I posted about how Andy and I had decided to split the responsibilities for our goals. The idea is that by splitting who was solely responsible for our success in each of two areas, we’d increase our accountability. Each month I’ll be checking in with an update until we reach or change our goals!

Here is last month’s update.

Let’s see how we did this past month.

The Goals

We have two major goals. Of course, there are other goals besides these two but we’re focusing in on two since there are two of us. Once we get these under control we can expand onto the others. Each of us is in charge of a different thing. I’m responsible for the healthy eating. He’s responsible for the budget.

The rules are simple. If we want to spend money, he’s responsible for being the bad guy ALL THE TIME. If he wants to go out to eat or buy junk food at the grocery store, I’m the bad guy ALL THE TIME. There is to be no argument. If I say no, he can’t argue. If he says no, I can’t argue. Of course, there is a little room for debate sometimes. If either of us can make a reasonable justification, the other is allowed to either agree or put their foot down. If they put their foot down, then the discussion is closed.

The Successes

Andy continued to work overtime twice a week when possible. We’re using that to create a bit more of a cushion in our checking account.

I was also able to sell a few more things on eBay, which we’ll be putting into our Cruise Vacation fund for our next family cruise. This way, we’ll be able to take less out of our regular paychecks to pay for our vacation. We also intend to put some of our Christmas and Birthday money towards the trip, as well as half of our tax refund.

We decided to stop putting into our savings while we work on paying off the 36-month loan so we can pay it down quicker. We have a comfortable savings amount built up for now so this seemed like the best move.

The Failures

We are still failing on weight loss. Since last month, both of our weights have remained relatively unchanged. It’s so hard! We did not hit our goal of losing 3 lbs each. With the cold and inactivity from being indoors all day, we just don’t get enough exercise. We’ve also been too relaxed with the junk food.

One of last month’s goals was to increase my 401k contribution. I’ve decided to hold off on that until we have paid off more of the loan. We also chose to put some of our Christmas and Birthday money toward other things, like the vacation, instead of toward the loan.

Specific Goals for next Month

Going forward, I’ll be lumping this update in with my quarterly goals for the year update. So instead of monthly, you’ll only be getting the updates a few times throughout the year. Which leaves me more time to give you better posts about what YOU need. 🙂

The next update will be around the end of March. Here are the goals we’re setting to achieve by then.

Financial goals: Have a third of our cruise saved for, be one month ahead at least on our loan payments

Weight Loss goals: Lose 6 lbs each. Increase the amount of time we spend on physical activity in the evenings. No more full nights in front of the television!

What goals are you working towards? How will you achieve them?

-To your Better Life-

Kira