I'm a bit disappointed when I look at my progress for 2012, but I also think I seriously was way too optimistic. With a mortgage and giant preschool bills at least until next fall, I really don't think I can be as ambitious. I'm not giving up, but I have to be more realistic as we head into 2013.
Then again, who knows. We did miraculously manage to pay off the car this year ($7500), and without that bill to focus on, maybe we can do more somewhere else. We also knocked about $11,000 off the mortgage balance this year, which isn't too shabby.
On the upside, I got paid for one of the extra gigs I took on last month, so all $425 went right into my IRA. That felt nice to give that a boost. I am expecting another $600 or so in extras from this company, and hope all of that can go to my IRA as well.
I have kind of accepted we won't meet the kids college savings goals this year, and probably won't be able to get to $4000 a year until they're in kindergarten and we don't pay for preschool (785/month).
***
Christmas and Thanksgiving are right around the corner. I kind of hate that the Xmas decorations are everywhere and there are o decorations for Thanksgiving. Complain complain, I know. Then I look at the calendar and realize I have fewer weeks than I'd like to get all the Christmas tasks completed and start to get worried. I'm going to try to make it more modest this year. Most of the kids' toys have been bought, all summer at yard sales and on craigslist (sounds cheap, but we get nice stuff around here: a superman mini-pinball machine (it's awesome), hot wheels wall tracks NIB; a giant box of 200 action figures we got for $15.
I also bought them two new costumes for their dress up box --Thor and Wolverine-- on Halloween clearance. They've been asking for them, so tah dah!
I have to inventory what I have for the kids, then add in the two toys they said specifically they want: a box of army guys and tanks and a blue garbage truck they saw at the toy store. Then, I just need to do DH, my mom and sister, and my MIL and FIL. Oh, and decide what goes into the friend gift bags.
We do 10 or 15 standard gift bags for our friends every year with a bottle of two buck chuck (it's good wine actually), homemade goodies (this year I canned raspberry chocolate ice cream topping) , and a few small gifts tucked in for the kids, then we have a day where we drop all of them off. It's fun and affordable.
**
So yeah, before I can even think about Thanksgiving and Christmas my littlest monster is turning 3 on Monday! And we are having friends in town this weekend and his birthday party on Sunday. It's chaos. Every year from October to New Years is packed like this... nonstop activity. It's exhausting!
inch-worming toward the 2012 goals
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Jerry