Black Friday

My shopping experience for this year's Christmas list has been totally different than in the past. I am just shy of reaching my halfway mark with my budget, but I have only made one in store purchase. That was a bargain at $10 off what I had priced in other stores and online, and the purchase was relatively effortless as it was right on a shelf in the aisle I was in as I was doing my weekly shopping. I have already bought several of the major gifts for everyone, but I have done most of that on-line. Now I just have a moderate list of little things and clothes for several of the kids on my list and then I will be done. My goal to be finished shopping is December 6th and I want all my wrapping finished by December 14th. Since I am ordering several things on-line and through catalogs, sometimes it takes a bit of time for all the items to get in, so Monday is my goal to be finished with online and catalog ordering.

This year my budget was a bit different than in the past. I have had a budgeted amount for Christmas shopping set aside each year. I save from January through October and that is what I use for all of my Christmas purchases. This year, I broke it down to how much I was going to spend for each person on my list and tried to even the amounts I was spending for my kids and then with the cousins, and then gifts for work and school. I still have a way to go, but I hope that I can meet my goals with shopping and wrapping so I can enjoy my weekends and the first five days of my break.

The Thanksgiving decorations are still up. I will probably leave them up until Sunday, and start decorating for Christmas then. I think we will go to get the tree Wednesday or Thursday and get the house decorated by this weekend.

Only 40 Days

Daniel is already counting as he has learned to use the calendar and is counting the days until Christmas and his birthday (more than 3 months away).

I have finished my November/December budget that includes my Christmas budget too. I have started gift lists and have a few gifts already in hand and Thanksgiving meal planning and shopping has started.

Today I am focusing on the kitchen, getting the freezers stocked for the holidays and meals planned for the next seven weeks. Yes, I am planning out meals to make it through my Christmas Break which ends on the second day of 2009. I have stocked up on some items, and I don't have any freezer room left to play. I have 15 pounds of ground beef, six pounds of chicken breasts, 15 pounds of cookie dough, three pies, frozen burritos, a lasagna, about eight frozen individual meals for Daniel's lunches or to-go lunches, and fruits and vegetables.

Daniel has also let me know that we are just twelve days out from Thanksgiving, so the back refrigerator is getting cleaned out to hold the perishable ingredients as they wait to be prepared, traditional recipe dishes as they are assembled and the leftovers afterward. I am really hoping to do it on a much simpler scale, as the kids seem to enjoy their favorites without anything new added to the traditional menu, or much creative flair.

Keeping My Act Together

My planner is a tool I used for many years with much success. I stopped using my planner a few years ago as I was experimenting with making my information more accessible through the computer. I did have access to information at home and work. I did use the same common calendar, to do lists, and had routines accessible for both work and home. The problem was that I would have to make copies of to do lists or be tied to the computer. The information was not portable, as I didn’t have computer access most of the time while traveling, or while out on errands. The other parts of my computer-based system seemed to work, but then it became a burden to keep it up. I had to actually be in front of the computer to do it. Everything was not in the same place or located in the same program. I did not find that this was a success, and so this year I have purchased a new planner with half sheet pages. I have never been one for an electronic planner either, as there is something about that process that appeared to be tedious and somewhat limiting. I know that many have found success with using them, but I want my paper.

In my current planner I have included my calendar, goals, routines, basic weekly plan, on my mind lists, budget, bills and checkbook, meal plans, grocery and shopping lists, contact phone and address book, meeting notes, health and fitness tracker, information for each vehicle’s servicing, website tracker and my tickler file. I am happy to now have it all in one place, and portable so that I can work on paying bills, or adding items to my shopping list from anywhere. If someone calls me looking for some important information, I most often have it with me.

The calendar I use is for everything I need to remember. I use it for personal, family and work events and special days. I have a month at a glance and a weekly detailed page that has a section for each day to list appointments, my current area of focus at work and at home, and my to dos that are priority and not a part of my routines. I have a personal and work section in my planner too, each including a separate set of goals, routines, basic weekly plans, and to do lists. In a pocket in the front of my planner I keep a thin stack of home routines on index cards that can come out of my planner as I work through the items on the lists. I don’t think I will ever completely give up my cards.

Meal planning is done on a page of my planner and I have it with me when I shop. On the back of that page is my shopping list. Everything we need to buy is added to this list and I try to keep shopping and errands down to once a week. If something can’t wait, usually Joe will pick it up before coming home from work. I have also started a price book so I can keep track of where to get better deals on products we use.

My contact list includes addresses, phone numbers, cell numbers, e-mail addresses, websites, birthdays, anniversaries, and anything else that would be helpful to remember. My memory gets less sharp at time goes by.

I also have a section for pages used to journal. These don’t usually stay in my planner once they have been filled, but if you haven’t noticed yet, I really love to write. I usually have several different topics going at once. I am so eclectic. Some may say scattered. My planner helps me keep it all together.

Finally I have a pencil, eraser, a couple favorite pens, stamps, a few blank index cards and a small pack of post-it notes. I think with this I am ready to take on whatever the world has to dish up for my day.

Up to a Challenge

One of the keys to meeting a goal is to share it with others, and ask that they hold you accountable. I am usually a person that has no problem setting goals. I write them down. I set sets of goals. I categorize them, schedule them into my future and then often stall out unless it is something that I really want or want to do.

It is easy for me to set goals, but without others knowing what my goals are, they can easily fall by the wayside. Sometimes I pick up my goals again and again and again and again, but they are really not met.

My biggest foe is "someday". Or "tomorrow". The reason is usually because I think the job is too big for now, and so it has to wait until later. I am learning that I need to break my goals into smaller pieces, to write them down and to share them. And then, "Just do it."

So here are a few things I need to do.

Set up my new printer/scanner/copier (I got it for Christmas)
Print up my budget sheets for my planner (It's the end of January, sorry Dave Ramsey)
Balance my checkbook (done weekly)
Pay bills (done biweekly)
Sort through and file or trash paperwork on my desk
Prepare our taxes for Federal and State
Go through one box of my scrapbook and craft supplies
And keep up with my normal routines

I want to have this all done before the weekend. Since I have read that creating a reward for meeting goals can also be important, my reward, I decided, is to be able to sort though pictures for future scrapbook sessions for several hours when I get this list complete.