It been a few weeks since I have had a minute to sit down and catch up... We have had super busy few weeks, and I have been dealing with some issues with my parents... So I am way behind and playing catch-up right how...
Financial
DH and I had a 5 year plan, to pay down/ and pay off some things and get us to the next step, we are on track... Sept 2022 is our Goal Date
Then Covid happened, and international travel stopped, so we decided once we realize that we were not going to Japan as planned. So we decided to take the money and use it on the plan to get us to the next step earlier, So our new date in April/May 2022...
In talking we want to try this year to move the date to Jan 2022... So that's our goal..
DH works is essential services and we were very lucky. We are very Thankful!
The stock just split and the company give matching shares, so even with the drop in price with the extra shares we only saw a small dip, and the stock is coming up again quickly so we are back to the number before the split... So that is wonderful... hoping that the market will continue to stay solid...
Feb - We think we might have some extra cash coming next month, so we will see how much it ends up being after taxes, and how we are going to distribute it...
Goal - keep chipping away at the plan... to get the goal reached earlier..
2/21 - DH filed and clean up, sorted, all the file's and purged stuff that was ready to go..
Professional
I am a stay at home wife, while I don't have a job out side the home... In the past I have had a on-line Ebay business, some sewing side jobs and a Antique booth, and did very well with all of them.. so I am looking to get back to really getting my sewing business up and running on line somewhere maybe Etsy, and some type of on-line business maybe Ebay or Poshmark...
I was all set to go in January of last year. Life got in the way for sure... I had to take care of my family,... so all this has been on the back burner since January of last year... I spent all day yesterday going through what I had, and project that I had started, and I have a pretty good amount of things all most finished...
January - 1/9 - Finishing completing old projects- 2/15
1/9 - New Projects working - 10 purchased material - laid out 1 new project
February - 2-22 Old Project - 3/15
2-22 New Projects - 1 laid out...
So my goal is to up and selling on Feb 1st...
Update 1/19 not looking good for Feb 1st more March or April for sewing business - due to possibly one of my parents needing some minor surgery, final decision not till the middle of Feb, so I am running back and forth to help them out... which you can't sew in the car on I-4
Poshmark - looking good for the first week in Feb... starting to take pictures, and about ready to put them up on line... - 2/22 completely on hold for right now. I'm not able to direct my attention to this right now... So While I have things ready to go, I feel like I need to be able to give more time to do this right, so I am just hoping that I can get it up and running in the next couple of months...
My goal is to clear 1,000 to 2,000 dollars a month... which is about what I was making before so I am using this as the number for this year...
and using half of it for chipping away at the plan, and the other for travel...
Travel/Adventure
DH and I talked about this year and what we want to do as far as vacations... with all this not knowing about the vaccine and how travel internationally is going to be handled - We decided to do 2 - 1 week vacations - and the rest long weekends... DH has 5 weeks so we have to use it or he will lose it...
We have pretty good credit with Delta from our cancelled trip to Japan... so I think if we are careful, we might be able to get 2 round trips for both week longs...
Goal 2,000 for both week longs on air-fare. so zero out of pocket..
Until we decided where we are going I don't have a budget number for the rest of the vacation trips... Looking at what we spent last year on the 2 different week long trips.. I'm going to say roughly 5,000 .... so I will have to update on this -
Trip 1 - some sort of road trip..
Trip 2 - Thanksgiving in the mountains, and scouting for that perfect vacation home spot.. meaning which town... We have several places that we find ourselves returning to.. I think we are narrowing down the where...
Saving for Paris in 2022 -
Health
DH and I both started a Intermittent fasting and low carb diet - really a life style change last year.. even with everything that was going on we somehow both managed to lose weight! and both of us are feeling better and sleeping better... We are in a test group with our Doctor so, we are going the healthier route, while slower... We have kept the weight off... In December we sorta got off track, and last night I put us back on track..
Goal to stay on track all year...
January - So far so good back on track - 1/19 -
February - Still on track - 2/22
For me I have some serious lower back issues, so I will continuing with my medical massages monthly... I was referred to her through my doctor who also see her... I can not tell you how much this has improved my life...
Goal - Getting back to daily stretching morning and before bed, and increasing the AM routine...
Personal growth ( edited in 1/9/2021)_
Reading - I spend alot of time reading, I love it... Add in I read whatever, romance to cookbooks, thrillers to biographies. So my goal is 60 books this year...
3/60
Learning new language - I learned enough French for a vacation in 2018, to get by, ... My new goal is continuing learning and practicing to work towards more conversational French. ⚜
January - Spend time listening ( You tube) and repeating while working on my sewing
February - Still practicing - looking into getting Babble...
Household
This is my domain... so it will have some financial aspects in the mix...
Goals - for Grocery and household needs /
Prepare and Shop with a list -
Every 2 weeks at Aldi
Once Monthly at Wal-mart
Publix for BoGo's weekly.
Quarterly to BJ's warehouse...
Goals - Back to meal planning for 2 weeks at a time - I was doing this but once Covid hit, and people started hoarding it became impossible to do this... Today I started this back today...
The 2 above go hand in hand... so I try to keep with seasonal fruits and veggies, look at the sale flyers before shopping. Keeping the pantry well stocked helps with the overall cost.
Goal - 500.00 to 600.00 overall monthly - except for months that quarterly warehouse shopping comes up.
January -
Meal planning - Completed for January 1 - 16th - Completed 16th thru 31st
Aldi - 1.) 142.00 2.) 171.00
Pubix - Week 1.) 26.00 / Week 2.) 38.00 / Week 3.) 0/ Week 4.) 86.00 / Week 5.) 0
Wal-mart - Monthly - 55.00 / extra trip 22.00
BJ's - 182.00 - got everything on my list except TP and 1 other item, so this will send me back to Wal-mart for sure before the end of the month.
Total = 645.00 - even with BJ's in there I was close to keeping it at 600 bucks..
February -
Meal Planning - Completed - February 1st to 15th - Completed 16th to 28th
Aldi - 1.)
86.00 2.)
197.00
Publix - 1.)
22.00 2.)
0 / 3.)
43.00 4.)
Wal-mart - Monthly
BJ's -
0
March
Meal Planning in the works for the March 1 through the 13th
Looking ahead for Birthdays, and Anniversary gifts - We cut down in the last few years on all the gift giving outside the immediate family, So DD and her family, and my parents...that's it.
Goal around 1,000 for the year...
January - 28.00 + 60.00 - 68.00 anniversary gift - 150.00 Grandson birthday - Total - 218.00
February - Valentines day - 37.00 we keep it super simple - just cards and some candy... Total 37.00
March
For spending for DH and I - we take a long weekend somewhere for our gift to each other...
We did so much around the house on the weekends when the lock-down was going on, we really don't have any big projects to do...
Goal - keep up with projects as the come up..and maintain everything as needed.
The one project we need to deal with is I need to go through all the totes in the garage, and then we need to put up shelving... and paint the garage floor..
2/21 - DH rearranged the Garage and started going through the totes - Yay
I started cleaning out my closets yesterday...
Goal -So I can easily hit 300+ hundred items this month...
The another 300+ later in the year at the end of the summer when I go through the closet again..
January - 300 -
January 100- February 100 - reason for only 100 at a time donation, our local spot has gotten so many donations, that they don't have room to store everything, so you can only bring small amounts at a time...
June- 0/300
Big Ticket Items ( edited it 1/9/2021)
Washer/ Dryer --- Shhh don't say it out loud... trying to baby them as long as possible. -
February -Looking more and more like we are going to have to get new ones.. I am still trying to stretch it out as long as possible...
We are budgeting 1,500 - that should do it..
New Truck - This is a really maybe - no reason to get a new one - depending on how things look at the end of the year...
Saving for 5th wheel - which is why we would need a new truck...
Family
I am the POA for my parents medical and financial, as well as executor of both their wills... So getting my parents some type of plan going forward, is very high on my to do list... They are not wanting to see the big picture, they both had a rough year health wise, Thankfully nothing to do with Covid... They need to make some changes, for alot of reasons mainly - their health, safety, financial needs going forward... It has been very stressful and frustrating when they want to put their head in the sand... I finally did make some head way with them, we have an appointment with their Elder Attorney this month... They need to hear from someone other than me, about what happens when and if one of them has to go to a nursing home, how the spend down works, cost of private care, medicaid once your money is all gone, and how is the other spouse going to live and survive during this time, on their social security alone...
So my Goal - is to get them into a better situation, so when the time comes they will be prepared... Keeping them Safe and Healthy, and Financially healthy with a plan is very important, the goal for me to help them achieve all this in the coming year...
January - Worked on list of questions for elder attorney appointment this month.. researched on line, and spoke to several friends that have dealt with or are dealing with aging parents.. Getting feed back on what they wished that they would have known before it was to late to help their parents, understanding how things like private in home care works and cost, as well as Long term care works after the 100 days of Medicare runs out... Social Security, Medicaid, Pension, and how all this effects the other spouse... it is terrifying... !!!
1/19 Completed list of questions for Elder Attorney... 1/23 -Appointment w/ Elder Attorney - very enlightening... good solid information, and I learned quite a bit from her, some things that my parents were not happy to hear. They have done a few things to the house, which needed to be done for a while now.
February - New documents for POA, for medical and financial - still need trip to the bank to file Financial POA paperwork on accounts.
Finally was able to secure appointment for first vaccine, they both received it, and have appointment for next dose. It took over a month 5 weeks to get them the vaccine from the time they registered and where given their numbers... Ridiculous amount of time.. I will breath easier once we get them second dose... 
