Setting Goals

I enjoyed reading the Get Rich Slowly website about setting goals and what they had to say of course made some sense. This week I finally accomplished my goal to sign up for the WIC program and saving on groceries is a small help to my bigger goal which is to save for Baby Step 3 (3-6 months of savings). One key step I'm missing is setting a time frame. I need to sit down with Shane and talk about how much money we should put away every month in order to accomplish our goal. As of right now there is no particular amount we designate for it. I kind of make it a last priority because I really want to add most of the $ to the Condo Improvement fund but now I've been thinking my priorities are probably not in order. It's just so difficult because if I choose to make Baby Step 3 a top priority over my goal to remodel my kitchen then I won't be able to enjoy a functional beautiful kitchen while we're living in our condo over the next three years. Another pro to getting the kitchen remodeled is it will increase the net worth of the condo. What to do?

I've been following the Organizational Wizard's 30 day challenge and on Day 9 it said to organize your garage but since I don't have a garage I have a storage and we spent all day cleaning that closet out! The piles of boxes were about 7 feet tall when we started and by the time we finished our stack of boxes minimized to about 4 feet. We got rid of a bunch of books, painting supplies, and other stuff that we never used. Thanks to another blog that I read called My Life of Spending Less and Living More she introduced me to an application on Turbo Tax that records everything you donate and if you file on Turbo Tax all your information automatically transfers over. So far she has recorded $1,028.00 that she will get to deduct on her income taxes next year. I found 5 more text books that I will try to sell online this weekend and hopefully get $20.00 bucks for each.
Today's challenge is to clean out your glove box but since I'm trying to sell my car (because Shane and I are thinking we can survive with one car in San Diego) the glove box AND my car are currently clean. We had a potential buyer come look at it on Saturday but no luck.

This week I finally signed up for WIC, can you believe that? Learning about the WIC stereotypes growing up, I never thought I'd ever be a participant of WIC. Learning more about WIC and knowing some friends who use it I have signed up and will be going to my first meeting on Thursday. The two of us definitely go through milk as if it were water, cheese is a definite staple in our diet like grilled cheese sandwhiches, bean and cheese burritos, apples with cheese, pizza bread (slice of cheese and tomato sauce on toast). So I guess WIC will be a good help. Right now we average about $350.00 for groceries a month, we'll see how much my costs will go down.

The latest event is my Baby Shower!! I am super grateful that my friends from church insisted on throwing me a baby shower before I leave to my homeland (CA). They are so sweet. One of them took me to the fabric store to pick out some patterns for crib bedding as a gift. I was shopping online to get ideas on what I wanted and they averaged out to $150.00-$500.00. Super expensive. I got to choose three different patterns and last night I went over to see her work in progress. It looked amazingly super cute!! I really love the way its coming out. The colors compliment each other so well. I had chosen a modern rainbow and tree pattern as the main component then I picked out yellow, blue and green fabrics so that it would be unisex and so it will save money by using it for all my kids. Then I am getting a breast pump and car seat from my sister, a PEG-PEREGO stroller (HEEEYY!) from my very good friend who is also throwing my shower, another friend had an extra crib that I might have scored but I'll post updates. I am so excited and feel super loved.



Here I am 27 weeks and this Thursday April 14th I'll be 28. 7 months down 3 more to go