My 2022 Goals

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all enjoyed the holiday break. I'm a day ahead this week. I keep thinking that today is Sunday. It sure feels like a Sunday to me. 

Well, last year's goals went out the window. So much for it being my year to save. We ended up spending way more than expected due to shortages & inflation. 

I love the beginning of the year. It's a brand new chance to start afresh. So this year's going to be my year to save. My goals are pretty similar to last year.  

Grocery budget

• I set a goal of $300 p/m for last year. I'm setting a goal for $400 p/m (this includes groceries, cleaning products & HBA) this year. While I can probably get by on $300-350 p/m, I'm giving myself some wiggle room. We are in great shape where groceries/HBA/cleaning products are concerned. We still have a full stockpile and last month proved that I can just go to Sams and the produce market, then spend $20-30 p/w on groceries. I will try to fill in the gaps of stockpile items we've used, so that our stockpile never dwindles.

 

Try to curb food waste

• We've been doing very well in this category. I'm cooking less, which forces us to eat leftovers until it's gone. It also helps to have freezer meals (I love freezer cooking because it saves me so much time)  so that we're not tempted to just get carry out when we're busy, sick or just not in the mood to cook. Our bodies are thanking us for eating less junk. 

Continue couponing hard

• That should actually say 'get back to couponing hard'. The only places I've used coupons at last year, were drugstores. With all the shortages, I was just focused on completing our stockpile. 

Earn at least $1000 in gift cards

• While I didn't reach my goal, I didn't do too badly. There were times that I was so overwhelmed last year, that I didn't bother to reach my daily goals. So this year I'm gonna attempt to reach all those daily goals and earn more gcs. I'm gonna have to play around with different strategies to see which one works best to stretch those gc $$$. I have a few ideas. I will use some gcs to cover most of my Christmas shopping again.

Save all Rakuten checks towards Christmas shopping. 

$0 Clothes & shoes budget

• Trust me when I say WE DON'T NEED ANYTHING.   I stocked up on so much last year, that we have everything we need & more. There's spares of everything. If DS needs anything, it will be paid for with an earned gc or money earned from selling our old clothes.

• The only thing I need is new sleep shirts. I don't like 2 piece sleep sets. I've found that Walmart had the best quality sleep shirts, but the ones they stocked last year were of a very poor quality. Yuck, I don't like cheap fabric. I'd rather pay more for better quality. So I'm still searching for sleepwear. This will be paid for with either gcs or from our sold items. 

 

Sell 100 clothing/accessory items

• I know that some of you probably fell off your chairs after seeing that number. My goal was to pull 60 pieces from my closet last year to resell. Well, I ended up adding over 100 items to my closet again. That kinda defeats the purpose. I blame the gcs and freebies stores keep sending me. I cleaned out (well not really) one store during the semi-annual sale (It's a good thing the sale isn't as good this year...lol) last year. Also stores keep sending me free money, so what's a girl to do?

• I know it's gonna be tough to come up with 100 items, because I don't get rid of my WHBM items. I buy quality, timeless pieces, so that I can wear it for years. About 70% of my wardrobe is WHBM, so I guess I'm gonna have to get rid of the other 30%. I spent part of the day going through our closets. I did manage to pull & list some things from both mine & DS's closets. In fact, I pulled far more items from DS's closet, because he's outgrown many things. 

 Continue saving change and small bills

I didn't save much last year. Actually, I did save quit a bit, but I always pull those bills from my containers when yard sale season hits. I like to have small bills ready when paying for purchases at yard sales.  

• The coins are easy though. I always come home with a bunch of coins and only cashed out half of it last year. I do have a plan for the coins too.

 Save $30 per week for discounted gift cards

• I love buying discounted or bonus gift cards. Why pay full price when you can keep or add extra cash to your pocket. Yes, I even buy discounted gcs as gifts too. The recipient doesn't know it's discounted though, but I'm winning. I've already added $150 to that fund since there were 5 Fridays in December (I start saving for the next Christmas the minute I finish Christmas shopping for the current year). Many store have discounted gcs throughout the year, so I'll be keeping an eye out for those. 

Work on my 4K drugstore earning plan

• This is my plan to clear at least $4k by reselling drugstore purchases. I'm going to add Dollar General & Target to the mix, because there's not enough weekly drugstore deals to reach this goal. I've already sold a few things the past 2 months, but it's going to be easier to just start anew  from today. I like everything in it's tidy little boxes, so starting with a November number will drive me nuts. I'm just gonna stick to the calendar year. I'm actually excited about this, because I did it years ago. I think I used to clear about $2k per year. Back then there were no coupon or deal limits at the stores. 

Work more

• This is always ongoing. It's been a struggle trying to find balance between work & family the past 2 years. I do everything myself, so it's hard making time to just focus on work. I need to get back in my zone. I'm setting dedicated work hours. I've already set work financial and listing goals, so I just need to get my butt in gear and execute the work.

Max my IRA by April

• Whoo-hoo! One goal I completed last year, so I'm aiming for it again. Can definitely be achieved again, if I stick to the 'work more' plan

 

Save 70% of my net income after taxes

• Since this is the 'year to save', I'm going BIG!! We are FI, so it's basically just our daily living expenses with a few extras we have to pay for. This might seem like a crazy goal to many (I have a $ amount in mind), but I've deliberately set such a big goal. I figure that even if I don't reach that goal, I would at least have tried my best to reach it, thus still giving me a huge chunk to add to savings. Go big or go home!!

• I know that this is going to be hard work, because it's become harder to source inventory since the dawn of the pandemic. That just means that I have to be more creative. I've always been the type who's up for a good challenge. 

That's about it for me. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.