December Goals Update

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Time for our monthly goal check-in!
Here's where we at Thriftism stand:


  • Paint & Trim Guest Bedroom✔

    1. Trim is done and paint are done. News doors are being stained and hopefully hung soon!

  • Workout 4 Days/Week✔

    1. We were able to find an affordable (a.k.a FREE) elliptical this month so that made it easier to get workouts in. We did still go walking and try to do workout videos too, but the elliptical helped on the days when we were feeling especially lazy.
    Save $10,000  ✔ 50% of income
    1. We were able to save quite a bit earlier this year, but it fell off a bit heading into the fall. We did increase the goal to 50% and we blew through that! We are currently at ~59% saved, though this includes our extra mortgage payments. We are counting savings as anything that increases our net worth. Without the mortgage payments, we are at approximately 44% of income saved. Once the house is paid off, we will hike our savings back up.

  • Lose 10 Pounds

    1. Down around 1lb, not great, but pretty good given Thanksgiving was last week.

  • Knit/Crochet 12 Projects

    1. No progress here yet. Guess I'll be knitting up a storm next month? Here's a video to get you started if you're learning to crochet.

  • Publish Blog Posts and Videos Twice a Week

    1. We still have been struggling with this one. We will keep working on it!
    2. In case you missed them, here's our latest posts:
      3.  



      1. Fall Garden Prep
      2. Marienplatz, München
      3. Traveling Light - The Art of Mixing and Matching Clothes

  • Take/Pass Professional Engineer Exam (PE)✔

    1. We passed!! Glad we won't have to take that one again. Plus, we have official stamps now.

  • Write London Guidebook

    1. I have an outline and have begun writing transportation tips. Luckily when I snapped the flash drive with all my information on it, it wasn't lost. Race worked his magic and soldered together the flash drive to rescue all my information. Stay tuned for a video and post on how to recover your data from a broken flash drive without paying $200.

  • Have a Garage Sale✔

    1. Had a garage sale the last weekend in September. We didn't have a great turn out, but still were able to make over $200 in a sale lasted less than 5 hours. We are deciding whether to store the remains for next summer or donate this fall. If we have a sale next year, we want to time it out to have garden produce to sell too since last summer we made $40 from selling tomatoes.

  • Make England Trip & Wedding Photo Book

    1. I finally uploaded all the England photos. Now to sort through the 4,000+ pictures and narrow it down to a photo book. 😕
    2. Wedding photo book is hanging on our wall now!

  • Go Camping✔

    1. Visited Sibley State Park and got to try out the local Brewery & Winery along with some hiking, roasting marshmallows, and hurriedly packing to beat the storm on Sunday morning.

  • Construct One Small Piece of Furniture

    1. Found patterns for bedside tables and possibly a dresser. Not sure we will get to building anything more this year. We have been busy putting in an egress window, raising our front garden bed, and fixing a car. We might just wait and try this one again next year!
    How are your goals coming along? What are you doing to stay motivated?

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