Hello March!

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(photo credit)

Dear March,

Please be prepared to have your Personal Finance booty kicked.

Love,

M.

Seriously, you guys, I’m so happy for March. Even though February is a shorter month, it felt like it kept dragging on and on – and that leap day didn’t help matters!

I’m excited because it’s payday. I only get paid once a month so this morning I made a payment to all of my debts: car, student loan and credit cards. I’m feeling really enthusiastic to be focusing again on my finances. I sent off $779.44 to my credit cards alone!! I stretched myself a bit to do it but it felt really awesome (and a little scary). This should definitely bring down my total debt in this category to below $5K. Yeah!

I decided to participate in My 1/2 Dozen Daily’s March Challenge which has three subcategories:

1. Finance:  My financial goals are to:

• Track all of my spending.  Yes, Margie, this means each and every purchase!
• Save $100 in our joint savings account/house fund.
• Bring my lunch, snacks AND beverages to work every. day. 
• Stay on budget. Put the Master Card that I’ve been using as a crutch (and paying off the following month) away and just suck it up.

2. Decluttering: In my efforts to minimize and organize I will:

• Put away the Pac N Play and stop using it as my laundry basket.
• Clean out and organize any place that I currently store knitting/crochet related goods.
• List 10 books/items on Half.com, Ebay or Amazon.
• Get rid of the boxes in the corner of the dining room and photograph the before/after evidence.

3. Personal: Some personal things I’ve been meaning to do are:

• I’m stealing this idea from My Pretty Pennies: Attempt to make at least one of the cute crafts I have pinned on Pinterest and share my triumph here with a photo. (Right now I’m thinking that I’ll make this easy hydrangea wreath (Hydrangeas were my wedding flower!).)
• Another Pinterest related one: Try at least one recipe that I’ve pinned on Pinterest and write a recipe review with a photo here. (I’m considering Chicken Enchilada Pasta (and a non-chicken version for the hubs) for Sunday dinner this week.)
• Shop at the farmer’s market at least twice.
• Take the baby out in the jogging stroller at least twice.
• Clean out the trunk of my car.

To be honest, this is going to be a challenging month with these goals. Sometimes it’s all I can do not to collapse into bed once the baby is down.  But I’m determined!  I can do it! Yeah!

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