August Goals

August Goals:

• Spend Time with my Kids, Husband, & Dad
• Update Family/Personal Schedules
• Oil Change & Clean/Wash my Car
• Back-To-School Shopping & School Fees
• Repairs to my Husband’s Truck
• $500 towards Debt
• Cash Staycation/Vacation
• New Vacuum Cleaner
• Work on this Site

I have some awesome news! I got a new job! I’m excited about this for a number of reasons but it has a serious downside. I have to work every weekend. Normally, I spend Saturday with my husband and I visit my Dad for Sunday night dinner. I’m attempting to see them as much as possible before I start this new position in September. I will write more about the perks of this job change soon.

I need to update my personal and our family schedules. School starting, my job change, things we want to accomplish before we leave in 2020, and family/friend time all need to be evaluated while updating our schedules for the remainder of the year. I work out our schedules about three times a year unless more is required. This includes our budget/bills, work/school/extracurricular for each family member, doctor/dentist appointments, zone cleaning updates, chore schedule updates, and house/car maintenance.

We need to do some work on our vehicles this month. My oil change is due this month. My car is filthy from all those summer road trips, both long and short. It needs the normal wash but the inside needs more attention. There is sand everywhere, seashells in the doors, junk under the seats, and the windows all need to be cleaned. My husband’s truck needs some upkeep too. One of the headlights just went out and he is replacing that tomorrow. The paint is peeling on the hood and without repainting, it will rust. Michael is attempting to do it himself. This may not be the best idea but paying somebody a small fortune to do it while we are working to pay off our debt is definitely not a good idea. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

School fees are $200 for our two girls. I’m not sure how much supplies are going to cost. We are trying to seriously limit the amount of stuff we are buying these days. This includes back-to-school shopping. The girls have tons of clothing. Ivy needs a couple pairs of black leggings, a backpack, socks, and a pair of shoes. Isabella needs a few basic tanks for layering, a pair of tennis shoes, and a pair of comfortable everyday shoes. She also wants a silver headband to replace her favorite one that broke at the end of last school year. Octavia is in need of a pair of tennis shoes and socks for the fall. We hope to get all of this done this month.

We want to pay $500 towards debt this month. We would love to be able to pay more but I don’t think it’s logical with everything else we have going out. We plan to get back on track with killing it in September. We are both taking a vacation this month so we will both have a short paycheck too. I am also starting that new position next month which will make a huge difference in our budget. There will be more details about this in an upcoming post.

We are planning for a staycation/budget vacation this time. Michael didn’t want to drive too far and we didn’t want to spend the money to rent a hotel for a week. We decided to play our entire vacation by ear. We are going to decide by vote each day what we are going to do. We are just looking forward to spending time together regardless of what we end up doing. We would all love a trip to Disney World or to spend a week in a nice hotel on the beach but we want to save the money toward our goals more. This is one of the many sacrifices that we will have to make over the next two years in order to live our dreams.

We are in need of a new vacuum. Ours is about 5 years old and is not working as well as it once did. We have a large dog and three family members with long hair. We also have a toddler and kids who enjoy crafts. We take a toll on vacuums. Our budget is $200. I don’t want to spend too much because we will likely either get rid of it when we leave or take it on the road with us for upkeep in short-term housing for jobs.

I really need to spend some time on this site. I need to get caught up on posting all of our fun adventures from this summer. I have a list of posts I want to write. I also want to learn how to do a few things. I have always focused on the writing side and I want to learn more of the tech side in the next couple months. We intend to continue with this site even after we leave so we can use it for memories, keep our friends and family informed about what we are up to, and hopefully inspire other families that would like to do the same. That is another reason that I think these monthly goal/review posts are so important that I take the time to do these no matter what. I love reading the planning stages of long-term travels. I know it is because that is where we are at right now. It is nice to see where others started at and to see if there is anything that will help us to achieve our goals. I hope that readers are getting something from this or will in the future. If nothing else, it keeps us on target.

Any goals you want to share? Are you working on paying off debt? Any tips on vacuums?