Happy New Year! It’s 2014 and I am looking forward to killing it this year. But before I do that, let’s look at my last month of 2013.
LIFE
Steve’s work offered pretend money bonuses for different sales made during November and December, to be used at a Christmas auction. We ended up with the biggest item up for grabs, a 51″ TV, as well as a $100 gift card to a nice restaurant. #ballerswithfakedollars
As we are getting along fine without a TV, but needed a second laptop (we were sharing, meaning Steve was S.O.L. when I was busy working), we exchanged the TV. Now we have a second laptop and still have extra funds to spend at Costco. Success!
Christmas was pretty low key — just food, alcohol, Netflix movies, and quality time together. I actually got sick on Christmas Eve and stayed that way for about five days. My parents both sent us goodies over the holidays — Dad sent 10 boxes of K-cups and Mom sent a box full of cookies and Christmas treats! We also received cash and gift cards. Happy holidays to us!
New Year’s Eve was rung in with pizza, beer, champagne, and Netflix. We keep things chill up in here.
MONEY
We kicked Chase to the curb this month! Also, I revealed my debt load to you guys and y’all were super awesome about it. Thanks for the support, I’ll make you proud by killing it by our goal date of September 20, 2016.
We made $1690.81 in debt payments this month!
25 BEFORE 25
11 completed, 6 in progress, 1 early fail, and 7 not yet started. 5 months to go!
PORTLAND
I definitely forgot about a place I tried last month because I didn’t pay for it and I forget everything unless it is on my bank statement. I went to Luc Lac with the lovely Melanie of Dear Debt! She was so sweet and treated me. Luc Lac has a great happy hour with $2 small plates and $4 beers. Dig it.
Steve and I finally tried ice cream from Salt & Straw. Oh. my. god. Don’t die until you’ve tried it. It’s amazing! I had sea salt ice cream with caramel ribbon and Steve had bourbon pecan pie ice cream — both were absolutely fantastic.
The aforementioned $100 gift card was for Portland City Grill, a restaurant 30 stories up that overlooks the city. It is pretty expensive, but we skipped on drinks and actually left with some money left on the card. The food was absolutely fab, I highly recommend!
DECEMBER GOALS RECAP
Kick Chase to the curb! PASS! Boom, baby! Chase is gone forever.
Finish 2 books. PASS! I read Oryx and Crake
and The Suitcase Entrepreneur
— I recommend both! If we aren’t friends on Goodreads yet, add me here.
JANUARY GOALS RECAP
This year, I am breaking my annual goals into manageable, monthly steps. You can view my goals here. For this month, I hope to stay on track by accomplishing the following:
Increase net worth by $2,083.33* in order to reach an annual goal of a net worth increase of $25,000.
Read 3 books (at least 1 non-fiction) in order to reach an annual goal of reading 36 books (at least 12 non-fiction).
Walk an average of 10,000 steps per day in order to reach my goal of not sitting on my ass too much.
Hope you all had a wonderful December (and 2013)! What do you want to accomplish this month?
[Image from Imgur]
*This one will likely be a fail this month. Details to come at a later date.
