September Goals
1. Get married! Done! And I did in a low-stress way (at least for me).
2. Have a wonderful, under-budget honeymoon. Done! It was wonderful AND under budget, which makes it like twice as good.
3. Deal with all paperwork relating to changing my name. I don't know why I thought I could do this before we got back from the honeymoon, but I gathered a lot of links and set myself up nicely to handle it in October.
4. Combine finances. In progress! Literally (bank accounts, health insurance) and figuratively (spending tracker, spreadsheets).
5. Dump a pile of money on student loans. More to come on this!
6. Update blog to show the new direction we're going in. I didn't even get close to this. Onward!
October Goals
1. Wrap up elements of getting married. Change my name everywhere (DMV, Social Security/IRS, and banks to go), combine all bank accounts and close old ones, send thank you cards, donate dress, buy remaining registry items.
2. Develop married budget and savings sub-accounts. Big plans...secret plans. Secret until I get around to writing about them, anyway.
3. Catch up at work. Being gone for two weeks wreaked havoc on my office. Time to buckle down -- and I've got no schoolwork or wedding planning to distract me!
4. Get my diploma. Once again, Graduate School of the Paperwork Maelstrom strikes again -- my diploma was supposed to show up in September, or at least a letter telling me when and where to get it, and it didn't, and now my student account shows that I never applied for graduation. And this despite receiving TWO graduation audits in July and August which proved that I was MORE than eligible. And being told to look for that letter. I shouldn't be surprised really, as they've managed to somehow screw up, make a mistake, destroy, or otherwise fumble some paperwork every single semester. I can't wait to be done with these people.
5. Declutter and stock up. Peanut and I will be purchasing some additional items off our registry, and as we do that, I want to do some heavy duty cleaning and decluttering.
Not-so-new monthly feature: New Year's Resolution Recap
1.
Max out a Roth IRA automatically. Underway!
2.
Pay down at least half my student loan debt. I've paid $7,400 towards a ~$20,000 debt.
3.
Give to charity. I have a Goodwill donation pile that I STILL need to take in.
4.
Finish graduate school while maintaining a 3.86 GPA and turn in my thesis early. Done!
My diploma is ready for pick-up the day after the wedding. Ha! Right.
5.
Read more than 100 books. Done!
6.
Cultivate a more positive attitude. Doing quite well right now.
7.
Take the stairs whenever possible. Oh, please.
8.
Seven minutes of yoga per day. Pshaw.
9.
Develop a regular posting schedule for my "real name" blog. Still not updating that one anymore. I need to cancel and delete it.
10.
Make less of an impact. Taking cloth bags more often -- we actually started to get very low on plastic bags, which we use for garbage bags.
I'm also making sure to wash my grocery bags now!