October Goals: Fitness, Financial, Blogging and Personal

Happy October!

October is one of my favorite months of the year. If Minnesota’s October weather lasted year-round, it’d be perfect. There’d be a nice mix of warm, sunny days and cloudy, cool, brisk days. I definitely plan to make the most of this weather before the snow flies. I hear that this winter is going to be really cold and really snowy. Yikes.

Enough about that…

Now on to the monthly post I like to do where I round up my monthly goals and share them here for accountability.

October Goals

Fitness

I’m keeping my fitness goal simple this month. My goal is to workout at least 3 days per week. To help hold myself accountable I will also blog a weekly “workout update” with more detail about the workouts I completed.

 

Financial

My financial goals for October continue to have everything to do with getting out of debt. Roger is still laid off from his previous employer but he is working full-time (for another previous employer) and we are so thankful for that.

Our overall debt total is down from last month. I switched up how I’ll be tracking that though. I’ve broken it down into focusing on paying off credit cards first, then auto, then my student loans and finally our mortgage. My student loan rates are the lowest of the bunch (besides mortgage) which is why they’ll be put off for now. All extra debt payments are going straight to credit cards!

Potential minor setback: The only additional cash we plan on spending this month that’s out of the ordinary but also a necessity is getting our Olde English Bulldog puppy (Chopper) neutered. That’s important! I project it to be right around $200 so that’s not too bad.

By the way, he says “hi”:

 

October financial goals:

• Pay cash for Chopper’s neuter and necessary medication.

• Continue putting $10 a week towards my IRA account. This is an automatic transfer. After credit cards are paid off, this will obviously increase. I just want to get into the habit of contributing to it and watching it grow. Slowly.

• Research investment methods. It’s all kind of a foreign language to me but I want to educate myself so I’m ready when the time comes.

• Schedule all October bills.

• Think of side hustle ideas. I’m thinking of offering more items in my Etsy shop but I’d like to brainstorm a little more to see what I can come up with. Time management is a little thing I need to work on for this to be successful. Seems like it might be time to Eat That Frog again.

• Spend $400 or less on groceries to feed our family of six. Thank God for Aldi.

• Continue listening to The Dave Ramsey Show podcast on my way to work. This is so motivating to listen to. I’ve actually teared up listening to others share their debt free journey because it makes me feel like I can get there too. This show really inspires me to keep chipping away at it and I love how blunt Dave is with his callers. Tough love I say!

 

Blogging

I had quite a few hiccups in August and early September as far as hosting goes (my apologies if you dealt with any of that – I know how frustrating it is) but I’m settling in with Bluehost for the long haul. Their customer service has been amazing and I definitely feel like you get the most bang for your buck compared to similar hosting plans.

My October goals related to blogging are:

• Blog about my vegetarian meal plans every week on Wednesdays.

• Continue using CoSchedule to help me plan my editorial calendar and social media posts. This is such an invaluable tool for bloggers. If you haven’t taken advantage of the free trial, you need to!

• Brainstorm blog post ideas for November and plug them in to CoSchedule.

• Be more active on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat (mindifriedland). I’d love for you to connect with me. :)

• Share all new blog posts on Twitter, Pinterest and Google Plus.

 

Personal

In addition to my fitness, financial and blogging goals, I also have some personal goals to work on this month.

• Get a library card! I haven’t had one since I was a kid and it makes so much more sense than buying books all the time – even though I usually buy used. Why not borrow?!

• Read two books. I’m thinking of reading “The Hand That Feeds You” and “Eat That Frog“. If you’re interested in other ideas, check out this round-up: 8 Books to Snuggle Up With This Fall.

• Spend 10-15 minutes every night planning for the next day in my Erin Condren Life Planner (to-do list, appointments, goals, etc.)

• Finish up the living room. We started painting and I hope to get all of the painting finished and the walls put back together by the end of this month. It’s been a lot of work but so worth it.

• Get the house ready for fall! I love fall decor. I’ll be bringing out the pumpkins, garland, white Christmas lights and candles for cozy feels and soft glows. I. can’t. wait.

Time to get busy!

from Lifting Makes Me Happy http://www.buildyourdreambody.com/october-goals-fitness-financial-blogging-and-personal.html
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