My 12 Goals for 2016 : Week 7 of 52

1. Pay Down the Mortgage

We were able to knock 4 payments off our contract in February {1 regular payment and 3 “principal” payments}. I was able to use my “rug hooking money” to go towards the extra payments.  Wahoo!

2. Buy Nothing New for 1 Year. 

Check!

3. Track Spending and Figure Out New Ways to Cut Spending Even More.

Some of the small things I did this week that saved us money were:

• Paid our car insurance premium in full {6 months} so we didn’t incur a monthly fee of $3.50 {$42 savings per year}
• Used gifted hotel lotion and soap samples so I didn’t have to pick up any at the store
• Paid all my bills online or by phone
• Made it another week without buy anything that wasn’t a necessity. Wahoo!

4. Try 52 New Recipes.

Last week I tried this Roasted broccoli with blue cheese dish. The HH was wild about it and told me to make it again.

5. Keep My Grocery Budget Under $100 a Month.

So far this month I’ve spent $53.92 on groceries.

6. Go on 52 Dates with the Handsome Husband 

Silly me. I let the HH choose somewhere to go for our date day and he lured me into 7 Seas Brewery. Supposedly they were suppose to have a food truck, you know, so we could get a meal since I really don’t drink much {maybe twice in the last 5 years, it’s not my thing} but for some odd reason the food truck wasn’t there.

Yada yada yada, I drank about 1/4 of the pint then slided it on over to the HH.

Luckily, our favorite mexican restaurant was right down the street so for the second time in 8 days we popped in for a plate of delicious chicken nachos. Gobble gobble.

So far this year we’ve gone on 6 dates and spent $65.54 out of pocket for our “dates.”

7. Turn My Wool Stash into $5,000.

A didn’t sell a single one of my hooked rugs on Etsy or Ebay this week. Oh well, as far as challenges go I think I’m doing pretty well for selling close to $1,700 already this year. It’s only February afterall. 😉

So far in February I’ve sold $114.80.

In January I sold $1563.92 {Wowza!}

8. Get Rid of 1,000 Things. 

This past week for my get rid of 1,000 things challenge I packed up a bunch of odds and ends. Nothing too exciting.

9. Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

I picked up Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life from the library yesterday and I’m looking forward to reading it. Have you read it? 

10. Track Hours Spent Working on My Vegetable Garden and do a Cost Analysis at the End of the Year. 

I spent about 30 minutes working towards my 2016 vegetable garden this week planting seeds, creating a pea trellis and cleaning up one of the many growing areas.

So far this year I have harvested 2 pound 10 ounces of red potatoes, 9 ounces of beets, and 5 ounces of carrots. You can read about my latest garden harvest HERE.

Time spent working on Vegetable Garden in 2016: 2 hours, 0 Minutes

11. 52 House Projects in 52 Weeks.

This week I tackled the window trim in our master bathroom. Chino installed a window for us and I am just now getting around to getting the thing painted.

Instead of hopping around the house painting I think I’m going to continue working on painting the trim work and doors in the master bath until the whole thing is finished. Hopefully I can have it wrapped up by the end of March.

12. Make all Birthday and Christmas Gifts This Year or Acquire Them for Free.

I totally lucked out and was able to find a $10 item so I could use the $10 off a $10 purchase coupon JCPenney sent out a few weeks ago. Because the shirt I chose was on sale for exactly $10, I didn’t even have to pay tax. Giddy up! I plan on saving it for the HH for Christmas. 😉

How about YOU? Did you set any goals for 2016? How are they coming along?

~Mavis

Read About My 2016 Goals HERE.