End of Month Update: April 2016

Bye April! You were wonderful at times and horrible at other times. Glad to see you go!

First, the good news! My husband still has his job! All the layoffs have been announced and my husband is still standing. Although I am feeling super blessed, we predict that there will be layoffs every year. We have twelve months to get ready and it wont be such a shock next time! Whoohoo! Feel super grateful. I may or may not have done several happy dances.

Here is my end of month summary of goals along with how successful I felt I was:

April Financial Goals – 90% success rate

1. Tweek our monthly budget and actually stick to it! – Somewhat fail. This is an on-going struggle!
2. Meal plan to stay within grocery budget – Success!  Thanks to the pantry challenge, we only spent $414 this month on groceries!  This is way less than $700 we budget.
3. Solidify mortgage payoff goals and develop a streamline plan to execute – Success! Although I might be changing my payoff goal date, opening a separate account just for mortgage payoff has really helped.
4. Have a budget meeting with the hubby – Success! Thanks to the potential layoff news, we had several!
5. Increase his 401K contributions by at least 1% – Success! We increased it by 3%.

April Loving the Home Goals – 90% success rate

1. Read one of the Marie Kondo books – Success! Read Spark Joy!
2. Organize, clean and declutter all the clothes, miscellaneous items and toys –  Success  Mostly– Books, clothes and papers (non-sentimental) are done!
3. Sell and/or donate crap from home for bonus spending cash  – Success – I should have kept better track, but I want to say I made about $30 total.

Stop Buying Stuff Challenge –  97% success rate

1. Cannot buy at all/have too much in my house already: toys, clothes for myself or my daughter, hair products, makeup or books. – Almost Successful  – I brought a vegetarian cookbook at a used bookstore. I had brought items to trade hoping to cover the cost, but I only got $2 off the price. I also brought an ebook. Does that count?
2. Can buy: food (of course), spring clothes for my son (I know he actually needs some), items for others (gifts, etc) – Success – I only brought gifts.
3. Can replace if/when needed: shoes, household item and health items (keyword here being need!) – Success – It was really a low spending month! Yes!

I am excited for May! I have some brand new goals to accomplish! I hope you come by tomorrow to see what I have in store!