2011 To do list January review...

This year I made some goals or a to-do list that I'm hoping to accomplish in 2011. My list is here, in order to keep myself accountable I'm going to review the list each month and see what progress (if any) I've made and Julie over at Book Hooked does something similar and I love that she calculates how much money she saves on books by buying used etc. So to keep myself on my book buying ban (put in place because we're paying down debt) I'm going to borrow that idea as well.

1.) Open a retirement account. I haven't done this yet but I have made some progress in the area. I found out that my work actually contributes to a retirement account. I have also been researching the best kind of account to open and places to open it at so this is progress.

2.) Pay off credit cards. I wish this one could be accomplished in a month but alas no. However we are taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and we have a very clear plan in place to attack the debt.  This past month I "found" $100 in a bank account I forgot I had and also found some savings bonds which will be cashed to go towards debt. We also sold a stroller and a TV on craigslist so we are on the right track. (Plus I didn't buy any books in the month of January).

3.) Start running/exercising = Huge FAIL. No exercise was had in January. Partly due to the fact that we were all super sick for the better part of the month. I must do better in February. (I did read a book about running though and felt inspired does that count?)

4.) My reading Goal of 150 in 2011. This month I read 14 books

• Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
• Think Twice by Lisa Scottoline
• The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
• Father Melancholy's Daughter by Gail Godwin
• The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
• Boys Will be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty by Jeff Pearlman
• Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza
• Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey
• Paper Towns by John Green
• As Nature Made Him: The Boy who was Raised as A Girl by John Colapinto
• Again to Carthage by John L. Parker Jr.
• Sliding into Home by Kendra Wilkinson
• Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan
• Outcasts United by Warren St. John

Total Books: 14

Books already owned: 4

Pages Read: 3,857

Money saved by buying used/visiting the library: $109.87 (I used amazon prices since that's where I buy almost all my books).

5.) Meal Plan = FAIL. Didn't do it at all. We must do better this month.

6.) Organize/throw stuff away - I went through a few drawers and our filing cabinet and threw away a few bags full of old papers that we no longer need. I also went through all of the babies memorabilia stuff from their first year and threw away what didn't need to be kept and organized the things which now need to be put in a baby book. Baby steps.