Thinking about money in the long term is something that easily stresses a lot of people out. One thing I love about a new year (and a new decade!) is the opportunity to rethink parts of your life and then start fresh. A few years ago, setting money goals kind of felt like a foreign concept and I had a hard time thinking of what my goals could even be. So I did some research and now I have a whole list of money goals you can set in 2020. Read on for inspiration.
20 Money Goals You Can Set in 2020
1. Increase your net worth
Are you tracking your net worth? It’s a great way to keep tabs on your financial health and check that you’re going in the right direction. If your net worth is steadily decreasing, you know something needs to change. On the other hand, if it’s steadily increasing, you know you’re doing something right! You can read how to track your net worth and grab my free net worth tracker here.
2. Increase your credit score
Is it just me or do credit scores feel like a temperamental math teacher who lives to make your life harder and more confusing? Unfortunately, having a bad credit score can cost you a lot of money, and the things on your credit report can even make it difficult for you to find a job. While I don’t think having a low credit score should keep you up at night, it’s definitely important to check in on it and make sure you’re steadily improving. Read more about how to understand and improve your credit score here.
DEBT
3. Pay off a Credit Card
As of 2018, Americans now have a collective $1 trillion in credit card debt. Chances are, you might have some lingering credit card debt yourself. And since interest rates are often so high on credit cards, the debt can often feel impossible to pay off. Make this the year that you take action on it! Come up with a plan for how you can pay your credit card off completely this year. If you have lingering credit card debt, this should be your priority in money goals you can set for 2020.
4. Make 2 Monthly Payments on Your Credit Card
If paying off your credit card entirely feels too overwhelming or impossible, start making multiple payments each month, like after each paycheck you get. Not only will this help you bring your balance down faster, but it can help your credit score too.
5. Pay down student loans
Paying down student loans can also help you improve your credit score and increase your net worth. Set a goal to make extra payments or to pay them off entirely. Your future self will thank you.
6. Refinance your loans
I don’t know a lot about refinancing loans, but I do know that if done correctly, it can save you a lot of money on interest. This in turn will help you pay them off faster so you can move on to better, more exciting money goals. Do some research on reputable sites to see if refinancing would be a good option for you.
7. Make extra car payments
Try setting a goal to make extra car payments every month. Even paying an extra $10 a month can help your finances in the long term. Take stock of your budget and see what’s possible.
8. Pay off your car loan
Better yet, why don’t you pay off your car loan entirely? Just think what you could do without that car payment in your monthly budget. Paying off a loan early will not only add to your monthly budget, but will also give you more room to tackle other goals. This is definitely one of the best money goals you can set in 2020.
9. Make extra mortgage payments
If you’ve paid off your credit cards and student loans, a great next step would be to make extra mortgage payments. You could set a goal to pay an extra dollar amount off by the end of the year, or at least just one extra full mortgage payment by the end of the year.
SAVINGS
10. Save an Emergency Fund
If you don’t have a designated emergency fund yet, this should be your #1 financial goal this year. If you’re still actively paying down debt, a smaller emergency fund of $500 – $1,000 will suffice. On the other hand, if you have paid off your debt, an emergency fund with 3-6 months of expenses is best. This will protect you from job loss, sudden house and/or car repairs, unexpected medical bills, and so many other circumstances. You can read up on emergency fund basics here.
11. Save for Retirement
Make a goal to increase your retirement savings this year. Your first goal should be to contribute enough to your 401k to get the full company match if you have one. Once you’ve done that, you can start contributing to an IRA or bump up your 401k contributions by a percentage or two. If you’re not sure what to focus on, this book was incredibly helpful for me when determining our retirement savings strategy. TLDR; make sure you get that company match. If you’re feeling young and spry and don’t yet see the point of saving for retirement, look into compound interest. If you start saving for retirement in your 20s, your money will multiply in crazy amazing ways. As in, you could have hundreds of thousands more dollars if you start saving earlier in your 20s.
12. Save for a down payment
Whether it’s for a house or a car, it’s good to be prepared! The bigger the down payment you can put down, the better your interest rate, the lower the debt, and the healthier your net worth will be. Win win win. If you don’t have any debt to pay off, this is a great option for a money goal you can set in 2020.
13. Start a vacation fund
If you’re feeling pretty good about your debt, retirement savings, and emergency fund, start saving for something fun! We have a separate travel savings account with Capital One that we squirrel small amounts of money into when we can. It hasn’t led to an awesome vacation yet, but it has helped immensely with travel costs for visiting family during the holidays.
INCOME
14. Find a side hustle
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by debt or your difficulties in starting an emergency fund, then starting a side hustle might just be a good way to go. Consider cleaning houses, walking dogs, house-sitting, or driving for companies like Door Dash. There are so many side hustle opportunities out there right now and you’re bound to find something. Just be wary that you don’t pick one that requires a lot of money up front, as that can take you months to earn back before you start making a profit (if ever).
15. Work on getting a promotion
This one in particular is a worthwhile goal that will yield benefits for YEARS to come. Make it a goal this year to do what it takes to put yourself in line for a promotion at work. Talk to your boss and see if there’s anything more you can do to contribute to the team. Ask if there are certifications you can get that will increase your pay. Make a plan to set yourself up for success and not only will you have extra funds in the budget, but you’ll also be more highly qualified and competitive for future jobs, and it will set you up for bigger paychecks for years to come.
HABITS
Picking 1 or 2 habits to change this year is a goal that will save you money now and for the rest of your lfie. Not only that, but so many of these habit changes will be beneficial for other areas of your life too, like your health and productivity.
16. Cut your fast food habit
This can be an easy one to fall into but is such a money drain. If you can get meal planning and eating at home down, you’ll save a tonnnn of money and will likely be a lot healthier for it too! That’s why this is one of the best money goals you can set in 2020 and one of the best health goals for 2020 too!
17. Quit paying for a gym you don’t use
If you’re not using that gym membership you’re paying for, cancel it and come up with a new exercise plan. There are so many ways you can exercise for little to no money, so there’s no reason to be paying for a gym membership you never use. If you LOVE going to the gym, then come up with a plan for how you can get in your happy place more often to make the money worth it.
18. Cancel unused subscriptions
This is another big money drain you have to be careful with. SO many things come with a subscription now. It’s helpful to evaluate what you’re paying for every few months and cut out what you don’t use. Are you really using Spotify, Amazon Prime, FabFitFun, HBO, Hulu, BirchBox, etc. etc. etc.? You could save hundreds of dollars this year by cutting the things you don’t really use or don’t really care about.
19. Stop throwing food away
I’ll admit, this is a tough one for us too. Often I have lots of intentions to cook all those pretty vegetables I get at the store. But then I get home from work and I’m tired and that frozen pizza sounds like a way better idea. If you’re throwing food away each week, reevaluate your meal planning. One thing I did was start buying frozen veggies that wouldn’t go bad if I didn’t use them that week. Another thing that helped with our food waste was to be more realistic about the number of meals I would cook. Instead of planning a meal for every night, I started planning leftovers into our week. We inevitably have some!
20. Pay Yourself First
It’s tempting to tell yourself that you’ll spend money on whatever needs arise during the month and then put the rest into savings. Realistically though, that rarely happens. Speaking from experience, here. Get in the habit of planning out your spending and saving beforehand, and then put your money into a savings account as soon as you get paid. The best way to do this? Set up automatic drafts into your savings account. This is probably the easiest way to start a habit in the history of mankind.
What’s your financial goal for 2020?
It’s never too late to start setting goals for the next year! Charles and I haven’t even discussed our goals yet, but we will in the next couple of days. Leave a comment and tell me what your goals are! I always love to hear about other people’s financial goals!
Hi, friends! I completely missed the May goals post, so I’ll recap how my April goals went and then share my June goals!
My parents came to visit in May, which was tons of fun! They’re our first visitors since we moved to D.C. unless you count Charles’ parents who helped us move here. I’m not sure that counts since we had hardly any furniture and we put them to work helping us unpack and pick up furniture instead of showing them the sights. Getting to show my parents where we live and the things we see on a daily basis was lots of fun! It was also a great opportunity to do a lot of tourist things that we haven’t done ourselves yet. This first part of the year we’ve been really focused on getting settled and haven’t made a lot of time for sight-seeing.
One big change for us in the last couple of months is the two new additions to our household. One of my April goals was to start fostering cats and that was the goal I knocked off my list the most quickly. Having cats in the home has been such an unexpected joy and delight. They certainly require more work (looking at you litter box), but their sweet snuggles and excitement to see you return more than pay off all the extra cleaning they require.
May Goals Recap
Hang the remaining pictures in the apartment
Didn’t do this one. Whoops! I’m not sure what it is about picture hanging, but it always feels so intimidating to me to put holes in the walls!
Write 50,000 words of blog content
I didn’t quite make this one either, but I did get a lot of writing done, which felt nice. Now to polish it up and publish!
Eat 5 servings of veggies a day
I did GREAT eating more veggies the last couple months, for pretty much the first time in my life. My secret? A super simple, super boring lunch that I eat every single day. I’ve been eating 2 hardboiled eggs and a couple of cups of fresh veggies dipped in guacamole for lunch every day. Have I gotten sick of it? You betcha. But not as much as I expected. The boiled eggs are particularly rough, but I never really liked them in the first place so eating them every day doesn’t help. But the veggies are still delicious. I don’t look forward to eating this lunch, but once I do, I’m always satisfied. The health factor and the EASINESS to pack it for work mean that I’ll probably be doing this for a long time.
Connect more online by actually commenting
Totally forgot about this one! While I commented on things a few times, I definitely didn’t do a great job. It certainly pays to have reminders of your goals around so you don’t forget!
Stick to our food budget. Moving to D.C. has definitely changed our budget a lot!
We for sure did not stick to our food budget. Not even a little.
Finish at least 2 of the nonfiction books I’ve started and haven’t finished yet
Didn’t really start this one, but we have more concrete plans for this month!
Sign up to be pet foster parents
Done!
Looking back at this list, I didn’t really finish enough to cross most of them off the list. That can feel really discouraging, but the thing I need to remember is that I’ve made a lot of progress. And isn’t that what life is all about? So much of the human experience isn’t about the final destination but about the growth and change along the way. It takes off a lot of the pressure I put on myself to be perfect.
We went to Georgetown Cupcakes with my parents one afternoon and these little bites of sugar were to die for.
Fun Things Happening in June
Summer school for Charles is in full swing
Whole30
When I’m not cooking (see above), I’m hoping to really dig into my goals!
Reading for fun. I’m thinking about giving myself another Netflix ban since my reading has suffered immensely since we started watching again.
June Theme: Spend out
I’ve been learning a lot about my unhelpful tendencies, thanks in large part to the enneagram. One of the areas I need to work on is being more generous instead of rationing and hoarding all my resources. This mentality is so pervasive for me, whether it’s time, energy, money, ideas, words…. If it’s a resource, chances are I try to hoard it. BUT I truly believe that God gives us our daily bread and because of that, I don’t need to ration the bread He’s given me today. I can spend out. The place that this feels most restrictive to me is in my energy. So this month I plan on reminding myself that I have enough energy for the things that matter.
Many of my June goals reflect this theme. I’m going to focus on saying yes to the things that I would normally say ‘no’ to or put off for another time for feeling a lack of whatever it is I need.
June Goals
I love Natalie Bacon’s post on goal setting. I like to use her eight life categories to give me focus and help me realize if I’m neglecting a particular area of my life. The eight life categories are environment, career, health, relationships, money, personal development, fun, and service.
Some of my goals hit more than one category, so I won’t always come up with eight different goals for each category. The great thing about using the categories as a guideline is that it gives me some structure to work with and helps me see if I have any blind spots.
document more on my blog and clean up my Pinterest boards
hang picture ledge
Complete Whole30 – We started May 27th so we’ll be doing it for most of June. Eating Whole30 is a lot of extra work in the kitchen and definitely a serious goal to tackle
Write out my top 3 tasks every morning
Friday adventures! I work 9 hour days and get every other Friday off. Usually I use those Fridays to catch up on chores, errands, and rest. BUT I’d really like to start setting a few hours aside for those Fridays for some kind of adventure. Charles and I are thrilled we get to live somewhere with so many exciting and enriching experiences nearby and we definitely want to take advantage of that.
Ask my people how they need prayer and then write down prayer requests in my prayer journal and then pray for them throughout the month
Here’s our sweet foster kitty hanging out at the top of the condo I couldn’t help buy for him (affiliate link – we got the dark grey multi-platform one and our kitties love it).
Bonus June Goals
One thing I’m doing differently is picking one or two main goals that are closest to my heart to work on and then thinking of the other ones as bonuses. This month I thought of a LOT of things I want to go after, but I’m not sure if I can realistically tackle all of them. Am I the only one whose eyes are bigger than her stomach when it comes to goals? So here are the bonus things I’d like to get done but aren’t as important so I won’t be at all upset about if I can’t tackle them.
find a local primary care physician and call to schedule an appointment (possibly one of my least favorite tasks in all of adulthood)
pull out my camera for some fun non-iPhone pictures. I haven’t done this in forever and I’m feeling an itch to document our current life a little better.
Make an IKEA trip for wall storage for our kitchen, jars for making kombucha, and baskets to organize our cat supplies better.
Go through 2+ years of phone photos. I have about 12,000 pictures on my phone and I’d like to go through them and delete all the random screenshots, duplicates, and non-memory related pictures. I got a smartphone in 2013 so I’ll be starting there and working my way to the present. My goal is to have it finished by the end of the year.
Call or text a loved one every day
How about you?
What are your June goals? Or is there a theme you’ve named for your month or your summer? I’d love to hear about how June is looking for you!
Hi, friends! I might be biased, but I think September is a really good month. My birthday is in September. My husband’s birthday is in September. We met in September 11 years ago. He proposed in September 2 years ago. I guess what I’m saying is that you can expect good things in September. I’m sharing all of my September goals today, but first, an August recap!
August Wins
relationships – plan a fun date night with my husband
We didn’t plan anything out super far in advance, but we went out to dinner a few times and it was tons of fun.!
money – get our food budget under control
We tried using only cash for food, and while we weren’t always successful (kept leaving the cash at home), it made us much more aware of how much we were spending on food.
career/blog – get ahead and implement my blog course
I got somewhat ahead, though not as far as I would have liked, and I did start implementing strategies. This course has been such a huge help in knowing what areas I can improve and what action steps to take. I have a lot more to work on!
personal development – focus on improving my prayer life
This is one of those things that you never really feel like you’ve “arrived.” The most important thing is that I actually spent time talking to the Father.
environment – clean out iPhone pics and organize bookshelves
Womp womp. I didn’t clean out my iPhone pics. But I DID organize my bookshelves, which felt really great! (Psst! Read more about how to organize your bookshelves here!)
As I mentioned before, it didn’t really feel like I was doing anything that was a HUGE service by donating clothes. I had to be more organized and drive much further out of my way to bring my clothes to this ministry, but it was so worth it. I love their mission and I’m glad I was able to contribute!
Goals to save for later
It happens. Sometimes we don’t reach all our goals. These are the ones I struggled with this month.
health – clean out my beauty products
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to figure out all of my skin allergies so cleaning out my beauty products will have to be saved for another day.
environment – clean out my iPhone pics
I have even more than last month.
September Goals
Each month, I’m setting goals in 7 basic categories. I’m doing this so that I can make sure that I’m developing all the different areas of my life. It also helps me when I’m planning. Sometimes when I sit down to write out my goals, I draw a complete blank! Categories help me think of the things that are important to me and make sure I’m not neglecting anything. As you can see, some months I’ll lean more heavily into certain categories
health – eat breakfast every day
Confession: I don’t love eating breakfast. Unless it’s a carb-filled delight half-way through the morning. Another confession: I get super hangry if I don’t eat breakfast. It’s going to be better for my health and my happiness if I start eating breakfast every day.
relationships – text and email back on “first touch”
I can’t remember where I first heard of this, but having a “one touch” policy could seriously help me in texting and emailing people back. I’m really bad about reading something, telling myself I’ll think about a response and write back later, and then forgetting to write back. I shared about this in my post about my least favorite habits, too. I’m gonna work on this, you guys!
money – try different budgeting websites
I’ve been using Mint for years, and since I’m way more obsessed with personal finance than my husband, I forced talked him into using it when we got married. Now that we’ve been married for a little over a year, I’m wondering what else is out there and if there’s grass greener on the other side, or at the very least something that we BOTH like using. Hit me up with your best suggestions.
career/blog – start my editing business
This is something that I’ve wanted to do for years! I love editing. I do it for fun. With that in mind, it’s the perfect side hustle for me. I’m really excited about this, even knowing it’s going to be a lot of work to get it all started. Let me know if you’re in need of a proofreader!
personal development – practice a rest day
I’ve talked about honoring the Sabbath for years. I wholeheartedly believe that when God told us not to do any work one day a week, He meant it for our GOOD. And yet I never take Him up on that offer. I’d really like to start taking one whole day off each week and trusting Him to provide all of my needs.
environment – clean out my iPhone pictures
Eventually this is going to happen… maybe this month! 😉
fun – read for fun!
I stopped reading for fun while I was working on my English degree and just haven’t totally gotten back in the groove of it. But now I don’t have any homework deadlines looming over me so I can get back to that reading life that I adore.
service – meet a foreign exchange student
My husband and I are partnering with my alma mater to help out an exchange student for the semester. I’m really looking forward to this! I love meeting people from other cultures and doing my best to make them feel welcome.
How about you?
What do you guys have going on this September? What are your goals? Leave a comment and let me know!
Each month I write a recap of how the previous month’s goals went (ie I usually confess) and then I list out my goals for next month. The reason that I do this is twofold. For one, it causes me to think through how I actually want to be spending my resources over the next month, both in my time and with my finances. Looking back and analyzing how the last month is also important. It helps me learn from my mistakes so I can do better next month. But more than just learning from mistakes, it helps me learn what works for me and whether my goals were even realistic or worthwhile. I hope that as I work through these August goals, that it can help you with setting and achieving the things that are important to you as well.
Lessons from July
I definitely need to get more sleep.
I’m one of those people that needs at least 8 hours of sleep, which sounds ridiculous to me. I wish I could just get 6 or 7 hours and power through, but eventually I shut down. There were multiple nights where I was falling asleep on the couch at 7 pm, and I took a few long naps on the weekend, which is really unusual for me.
I love life without Netflix.
I didn’t set out to be a television-hater. It makes me feel old and stingy and uncool. But we cancelled our Netflix account last month and I’ve been loving it. The first few days were hard but I adjusted pretty quickly. I’ve had a lot more time to do things that I’ve really wanted to, like go after all of my July goals. If the thought of giving up tv scares you to death, here are some ideas of ways to relax without it.
I need people who are different than me.
I spent some time with friends who have much different personalities than me last week and had a wonderful time. They’re all so playful, fun-loving, and hilarious, which is not how I usually am. It made me think about how important it is to surround yourself with people who have different strengths than you. They can bring out the best in you and you can lean on them for their unique strengths in different situations.
July Wins
Eat Clean
We did a pretty good job eating clean, though we certainly could have done better. It’s not very often that we’ll have a “perfect” month, but the important thing is that we keep working at it. Last month I started buying hummus and eating that with fresh veggies and it was a game changer for my vegetable intake. I had no idea that I love hummus so much. It’s definitely something I want to keep doing for August.
Start a running plan
We did it! We made this a part of our routine and kept at it for the whole month. We usedthis appbecause I am NOT a runner. It’s always been hard for me and probably always will be. My husband definitely could have run much farther and faster, but he was sweet enough to stick to my pace 🙂
Read 7 books
I actually surpassed this goal by finishing 9 books. Granted, half of them were already half completed, but that’s still a lot of reading. I attribute this to listening to a couple audiobooks during my commute (about an hour every workday), and giving up Netflix. Reading feels like such an unnecessary luxury to me, but it really fills me up and gives me lots of important things to think about, so making time for it will probably always be an important priority for me. I only have two titles left to finish from my Summer Reading List!
Find a budgeting technique to try out
I did some research and we have a plan for a budget to try out next month! Neither one of us have experimented with different budgeting techniques so I’m curious to see how this will work for us. I’m sure I’ll write more on that soon 🙂
Goals to save for later
I don’t want to call anything I didn’t get to a complete failure because I don’t feel like that’s very helpful or constructive. There are usually a handful of things each month that I just didn’t get to. It’s hard to find that sweet spot in goal setting where you set goals high enough that you have to stretch a little to reach them but low enough that they’re actually achievable. I think I’m getting better at this every month. This month there was only one goal I didn’t get to.
CLEAN OUT MY IPHONE PICTURES
Last month I had 11,288 photos on my phone. This month I have 11,388. I spent about 20 minutes deleting pictures but I DEFINITELY need a better strategy. Or I at least need to put some time into it. Hopefully I’ll have good things to report next month!
August Goals
Going forward, I’ve decided to try setting goals in 7 basic categories (based on what I found from Natalie Bacon)! I’m doing this so that I can make sure that I’m developing all the different areas of my life. It also helps me when I’m planning. Sometimes when I sit down to write out my goals, I draw a complete blank! Categories help me think of the things that are important to me and make sure I’m not neglecting anything. As you can see, some months I’ll lean more heavily into certain categories
health
Clean out my beauty products
After years of wondering why I couldn’t figure out how to care for my skin, I finally discovered that I have contact dermatitis caused by certain ingredients and most likely rosacea as well. I’ve been meeting with an allergist to figure out what ingredients I’m sensitive to, but I need to finish the process. Once I have the full list, I’ll clean out the products that aren’t on my “safe list” and go from there. I’m looking forward to it from a minimalism perspective too.
Start a strength training plan
Last month my goal to start a running plan went really well! At least in regards to my faithfulness in following through. What didn’t quite work out was that my body wasn’t quite ready for running, even though I started with an easy plan.
relationships
Plan a fun date night with my husband
We’re both homebodies that loooooove staying in. At the same time, I think we could have a lot of fun if we went out more. I’m beginning to realize that this probably won’t happen spontaneously, so planning ahead it is!
money
Get our food budget under control
This feels like the last frontier as far as budgeting goes for us. For some reason, we wend up going over in our budget every single month. I think this is in large part due to a lack of organization. The first part of the goal is to do a better job of meal planning and grocery shopping only once a week. The second part of the plan is to only use cash for food and restaurants for the entire month. Once the money is out, we’ll either be hungry or more creative.
career/blog
Get ahead!
I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda girl, but I’m striving to become more organized and proactive. My goal is to work really hard and get one full month ahead on content for the blog. It’ll be a lot of work, but I think I can do it!
Implement strategies from my blog course
I took a leap of faith and invested in this course a month or two ago and it’s been a huge help. I have a tendency to be a passive learner, but I want to get better at taking action and implementing all the things that I learn. Starting with this.
personal development
Focus on improving my prayer life
I had a discussion with some women from my church a few months ago about spiritual disciplines and how we all have ones that we’re naturally good at. Prayer is the spiritual discipline where I could use some improvement. I’m looking forward to leaning into this for one of my August goals. I plan on doing this by reading a book about prayer (because that’s how I begin to solve any problem) and set aside time to pray each morning.
environment
Clean out my iPhone pictures
You’ve already seen why I badly need to do this!
Organize my bookshelf
It could be worse. But it could also be better 🙂
fun
Read a YA novel
I don’t read a lot of YA these days, but I definitely wish I read more. What should I start with?
service
Donate clothes
To be honest, it feels kind of funny putting this in this category because it feels like a service to myself. But I know that being intentional about donating my clothes somewhere they could use them is much better than dropping them off at Goodwill. If you live in Oklahoma, definitely consider donating clothes to this ministry.
How about you?
I’d love to hear what you have planned this month. Any big goals? Little goals? Leave a comment and let me know!
I started a post to list lessons from May and June goals, and then I completely neglected it. So now, on the 6th of July, I find myself writing out the lessons I learned in June and thinking about what my goals are for the rest of July.
Charles and I spent 10 days on the east coast the last week of June, which was a lovely and fun change. I enjoyed meeting more of his family member’s at their family reunion and we spent a full week as tourists in DC. It’s such a wonderful city and I can’t wait to go back someday. Nevertheless, at the end of a long trip, I always find myself yearning to bury my roots deep down again. For me, this looks like cleaning and organizing my home, eating clean to purge all of the bad vacation food, and diving back into my personal and professional goals.
I guess now that I think about it, coming back from vacation is sort of like New Year’s. Not only do you need to rest and recover after both the holidays and a vacation, but it’s also a great reset. You can come at normal life with a fresh perspective. With that in mind, here’s what’s been stewing in my brain:
This was taken at a wonderful winery we visited in Maryland. I couldn’t get over how beautiful it was!
Lessons I Learned in June
My husband and I have incredibly different travel styles.
To be honest, this wasn’t a terrible shock. I’ve traveled plenty with friends and so have learned that traveling styles can really vary. This was our first time traveling together on a big trip and we realized just how different our wants and needs are. One of us has more energy. Our interests are varied. Neither one of us wanted to take control over the schedule for various reasons. We learned a lot about each other and have some things we plan on doing differently next trip. Which leads me to….
It’s important to state what you actually want.
This goes back to my husband and my different travel styles. We found that we were both trying to soften or dilute what we really wanted in order to be more amenable to the other person. As a result, neither of us were terribly happy about some of the compromises we made. It would have been much more helpful if we had both just stated exactly what we wanted in the first place and then worked from there. Stating what you want doesn’t mean you’re being selfish or that you’re going to insist on getting what you want. You’re just being forthcoming with your feelings. The important thing is to be able to say your desires out loud and then be okay with another outcome. We started doing this as soon as we made the discovery and it was a huge improvement in our communication.
We stayed in some really, really great locations for less than half the price of a hotel. There was a small hiccup with our stay in Pennsylvania, but Airbnb took care of it right away and it was pretty painless. There were absolutely no issues with our stay in DC. We were a block away from two different metro stations, right by a grocery store, had a garden apartment all to ourselves, and it was so quiet and comfortable. If you’re interested in trying it out, here’s a coupon for $40 off your first stay. If you use the link, you’ll get $40 off and I’ll get a $20 credit for referring you.
July Goals
Eat clean
This month, my husband and I are enacting some new food rules to help us with our goal of eating healthy.
No added sugar (in coffee, tea, recipes, etc. Sadly, this includes honey + artificial sweeteners)
No candy
No desserts (unless offered to us at someone else’s house, and only ONE serving)
No buying alcohol for home
One drink limit if we’re eating out
Eating out must be planned at least 24 hours in advance
We’re eager (and nervous) to try out these new rules. It’s certainly going to be challenging, but our bodies will thank us!
Start a running plan
We decided we’re going to start running together. So far, we already have one run down. My plan is to take it slow and steady and let this app do all the thinking for me.
Read 7 books
This sounds like a lot, but I’m a voracious reader and Charles will be busy for a couple weeks this month. I’m planning on filling the time I would normally spend with him with lots and lots of reading. I’m working on my Summer Reading List right now and loving some of the titles.
Find a budgeting technique to try out
This is something Charles and I want to do together so we can see what will work for both of us. I’m thinking about doing the envelope budget first. It seems really extreme, but I’m kind of drawn to that. I can be really all or nothing when it comes to implementing new habits or changes in my life.
Clean out my iPhone Pictures
I’m ashamed to admit that I currently have 11,288 photos on my phone right now. The situation has been so out of control for so many years that I’ve just avoided thinking about it. But that’s not a great long term strategy so this month I plan to attack it head on. Have any advice?
I’d love to hear more about your goals! Leave a comment and share what you’re currently working on. Also, let me know if you have any advice for any of my goals!
Hi, I’m Kelsey! I live in the DC area with my husband and two cats. I currently spend my days working from home, reading all the books, and enjoying home life in our new-to-us 1940s condo. Read more about me here.
