I’ve always been guilty of perhaps usually setting too many goals on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis, but lately, I’ve also been guilty of setting too many goals that require a certain amount of the green stuff to complete…without actually budgeting enough of said green stuff.
Whoops.
Such was the case with May’s goals—I managed to have 13 out of 17 goals require money in some form, yet I didn’t quite sit down with our budget beforehand to see if we could actually AFFORD to do all that.
Then we got slapped with about $1,500 of unexpected medical bills (thank you, surprise ER visit), which really put a wrench in an already tight month.
All of this is to say that you will likely notice that May’s goals went largely unfinished, though we *did* still complete a decent number of the big ones, which I’m proud of. However, it does mean that we need to tighten our belts in the coming months to cover all the fun plagues that May brought, so unfortunately, we’ll have to push the pause button on house projects for awhile (womp womp).
Here’s how it all shook out.
Note: Anything that’s crossed out means the goal was completed, and anything in red means that measurable progress was made on the goal, but it wasn’t finished.
Second Note: There are affiliate links below, which means I get a small commission at no extra cost to you on any purchases made through the links.
May Goals
- Buy radon test kit
- Thanks to tips people gave in response to the original May Goals post, I discovered that some doctor’s offices actually offer coupons or vouchers for free radon testing kits. So, to try and offset at least one goal that was going to cost money, I literally called 3 different doctor’s offices AND the local health department to see what was offered. Apparently, all of your doctor’s offices must be cooler than ours, since not a single one that I called offered anything of the sort. I did find out that the health department sells kits for only $9 though (which was better than the $14 kit we’d been eyeing on Amazon), so I’ll probably be picking one up from them. This will be a rollover goal since we really do need to get our levels checked.
- Set up appointment for garage consultation
- The actual consultation is free, but we’re pretty positive it will lead to us paying more money for a tune-up (or possibly worse). With that being the case, we’re going to have to put this one off a little longer and cross our fingers that our garage door keeps opening.
- Mail tripod to be repaired
- Yet another little expense that we just couldn’t slice last month. I did budget for this one in June though, because I need to make sure to mail in the tripod while it’s still under warranty.
- Wash comforter
- It cost me something like $13 in quarters last time I needed to take our comforter in to the laundromat so even though it does need a good wash, I’m putting this one off to July since it’s not a must-do.
- Get a haircut
- We both desperately need haircuts, so even though May’s budget couldn’t handle this, I made sure to put it into June’s (and I’ve already scheduled my hair appointment, so it’s definitely happening).
Build two new raised garden beds- Finally, an accomplished goal! (This largely only got done because we bought the materials BEFORE the great ER visit, but they’re done and we love them!) My husband built the two new beds in the same design as last year’s, and we also budgeted money to fill them with straight compost from the dump. (Hot Tip: It only costs $20 for a massive truck load for compost from the dump, so we were able to fill both beds for just $30. If you have a large area to fill with soil, definitely look into this route! Depending on the makeup of the compost you buy, you might need to mix something else into it, but you can successfully use straight compost for the bulk of your project and save a lot of money this way.)
Plant vegetables and herbs- As this was a time-sensitive thing, we ended up charging the cost of these to our credit card (which we will pay off in full when the bill comes due next month, as always).
Plant cutting flower garden- I used the paycheck from a photography job I did in May to cover the cost of this, and I’m hoping it will be worth every penny (especially as I splurged and got all perennials so that this will hopefully just be a one-time cost). I plan to do a full post on my cutting flower garden once the plants have grown a bit (and I’ve actually cut some stuff from it), so stay tuned for that. We planted this in one of our new raised beds, by the way.
- Build chicken coop
- This has to be a rollover goal for June because our chickens are getting BIG and are about ready to be moved out of our garage and to our backyard. Matt was able to source a bunch of free wood for this though over Memorial Day weekend (while we had the use of his dad’s truck), so hopefully the cost on these won’t be high—just the $35 or so for the fencing/wire.
- See if we can lower cell phone bill
- Finally, a goal that was actually going to SAVE us some money! Ha ha. We did look into this and think we’re going to transfer to Tello, but it does require that we purchase new phones through them. However, since both Matt and I still use flip phones and have no plans of upgrading to smartphones, we should be able to purchase some for fairly cheap. I’m hoping to make this switch by the end of the summer, as it will eventually save us around $40 a month.
Finish registering van- We finally finished this one! It only took us about six months, but we did it 🙂
Go on anniversary date- Our anniversary date plans were foiled a bit by the fact that Raven ended up in the ER the entire night before we were to go (from about 7 at night to 7 in the morning). As we were so tired and still wanted to keep an eye on her, we ended up changing our plans and just going out for burgers and shakes at a place close by my mom and stepdad’s and then calling it an early night since we were both so tired from not having slept at all the night before. (Raven is completely recovered now, by the way).
Schedule dentist appointment for Raven- This is scheduled for this week, and I’m really hoping her first experience with the dentist goes well, as it will set the tone for the foreseeable future. We did end up going with a dental office that specializes in pediatrics, so I’m hoping that will help.
- Look into cost/schedule for swim and dance lessons for Raven
- Nope. I think preschool is all we’ll be able to handle this year budget-wise, especially as we’re still hoping to sock aside some funds to visit Matt’s parents in Hawaii in the next year.
- Sketch out 15-20 dinners for the month
- My health was not great in May, and planned-out dinners did not happen frequently. (It also didn’t help that we’re now entering the season where I’m reluctant to turn on the oven since it heats up the house so much.) We did end up doing a lot of grill nights though, which we always enjoy. But yeah, this one definitely did not happen.
- Finish Unit 5 of Elite Blog Academy
- Nada. As I mentioned in this post, blogging had to take a backseat in May. Fingers crossed I can start working on EBA again soon.
- Go on day adventure
- Our original day adventure would have added additional costs to the month, so we’re rolling this over to June and planning on doing something for under $10.
June Goals
I’m keeping it short and simple for June, mostly because I’m going to try and get a jumpstart on my summer reading and also because my health still isn’t great. See also: Budget issues.
- Get radon test kit
- Mail tripod in to be repaired
- Get haircuts (both of us)
- Build chicken coop
- Finish sandbox + fill
- Matt’s already built the frame; now we just need to finish treating the wood for outdoor use and fill it with sand.
- Go on day adventure
- Do a birthday party for Mathias
- My baby turns ONE this month (!), and we’re planning on doing a little birthday party with family for him. Should be fun! (Except I kind of hate the PLANNING of the party, but the execution is fun, at any rate!)
And that’s it! (I know—you’re shocked that I kept it so short. Go me!)
What’s on your to-do list for summer? Any fun house or yard projects?
