November Goals

Finally, finally, my grad school applications are IN! Now, my life can resume. What was my life before applications and essays? I can hardly remember… New November goals and priorities are what I need. For the most of November I will be in Argentina…. I’m devoting a good chunk of money from my normal budget to the trip, plus my travel fund savings, so hopefully that will be enough for a full and lively South American jaunt. Once I return, it will be back home for the holidays – plus I’m going to be transitioning to a new role within my company. So much change and so much up in the air, I hardly know where to start.

+ Reading, Writing & Creative Pursuits: This is #1. Devote real weekend time to organizing my current projects and reading more. (1 hour per weekend)

+ Provided the Animal Humane Society accepts my application and references, I’m excited to get started as an animal shelter volunteer! I’m shooting for twice a month.

+ Start reading the WSJ to prep for grad school interviews. There are enough unread copies floating around the office, so I’m going to try to do this the frugal way and not indulge in a subscription.

+ Meal Planning – We just made a Costco and grocery run today so our pantry is fairly well stocked. My goal is to spend $0 the rest of the month on food – so I will do some serious meal planning in the two weeks before and week after Argentina so we can spend our food budget on amazing steak dinners in Buenos Aires!

+ Create a detailed plan of all holiday gifts I want to buy this year and devise a buying strategy to keep costs low. More to come on this…

+ “Employee Badge” spending: Limit to $40 for month of November. I have been shocked at how high some of the totals have gotten the past few months! The monthly average has been $100 since July! $100 extra on food, coffees, etc. $40 should definitely be doable considering I won’t even be in the office half the month, but still, this will require a lot more bringing my lunch.