One Hundred Dollars a Month

My goals for 2017

Get 7- 8 Hours of Sleep Each Night Mission Accomplished {Kind sorta}

This morning I SLEPT in instead of getting up early {or staying up late} to work on this final goals post for 2017. I hope you’ll forgive me. 😉 And while wasn’t able to get many 8 hour stretches of sleep in this year, I was able to get in more sleep than any previous year so I am declaring this goal a big success.

Make Saving a Priority, Not an Idea Mission Accomplished

In just over three years of living at the HOA house, we were able to knock 18 + years off our mortgage. And you know what? I think that’s pretty darn skippy. The reason we decided to pay down the house rather than toss the money into savings was because putting the extra money towards the principal of our home really seemed like a forced savings plan. Once the money was in, it couldn’t be taken out until the house was sold. And, the interest we were paying each month went down BIG TIME during this process. It’s a decision we don’t regret one bit.

Live a little Mission Accomplished 

Looking back, I don’t think one thing in particular sticks out. Although that week on the east coast with my luggage handle holding husband was pretty rad.

Visit 52 REAL Bakeries 

This year I made it to 30 bakeries. I was hoping for 52 bakeries this year, but hey, 30 isn’t so bad either. Because of my love of pastries and local, small town bakeries, I will be continuing this goal next year. Because hey, I’m not quitter.

Have 1 “no spend” week each month

Well, I came close. 11 out of 12 isn’t too shabby if you ask me.

Start a Line of Rug Hooking Patterns Mission Accomplished

I’ve completed 13 patterns this year and currently have all of them listed on Etsy. This was such a fun goal for me and it was something I’ve been wanting to do for years. I’m glad I finally took the plunge.

Turn My Wool Stash into $2,500 Mission Accomplished

This week I sold $312.73 worth of goodness in my Etsy shop which brings my total sales to $13,460.18 for the year. The fact the I was able to sell so many of my hooked rugs and bundles of wool when I only set out to sell a few, still kind of blows my mind. My costs for the year {and I still need to do a final tally} came in at around 30%. Selling my finished wares on Etsy rather than Ebay has helped reduce costs {by about 7%} and I think going forward I may just stick to offering my rugs on Etsy. We’ll see.

Purge 250 Items  Mission Accomplished 

I was able to sell or donate over 400 items this year and let me tell you Bob…. It feels so good to have scaled down to just the basics. My house wasn’t all that cluttered to begin with, but getting rid of all the stuff you don’t use, or really care all that much about, feels so good when you finally do it.

Learn to Crochet Mission Accomplished {Kinda sorta}

My original goals was to master the granny square, and then make a blanket. I had a handmade blanket similar to the one above about 20 years ago and absolutely loved it {photo credit Fookiewooh}. Well, I did in fact fork out some good money on a 2 hour beginner crochet class. And about 2 minutes into the class I knew it wasn’t for me. But I stuck to it for a few months and even ended up making a set of pot holders.

But in the end, even though I really wanted to make a blanket, I happily walked away from the idea of ever making one for myself. Life is short, find what you LOVE doing, and do it. It’s as simple as that.

Dote on My Husband Even More Than I Do Now Mission Accomplished

Almost 52 weeks of breakfast in bed. I think he liked it. 😉

Lose the Muffin Top. {again} Mission Accomplished

Note to self: Cutting back on pastries… helped. Who knew?

Wear out {most of} the clothing I already own Mission Accomplished

I think I did a really good job this year of not buying a bunch of new clothing and being content with what I already had to wear. I’m just not into fashion. And let me tell you, I’m glad because it’s just one less thing to have to think about when I get up in the morning.

Try 52 New Recipes Mission Accomplished {Kinda sorta}

My original goal was to not only try 52 new recipes this year but to post those recipes on the blog. And well, even though I did try over 52 new recipes this past year, I don’t think even half of them made it on to the blog. Some of them were duds, some of them I just didn’t have time to post and others, well those did make it on to the blog, including my favorite recipe of the year, Mississippi Pot Roast. If you haven’t tried it yet, you really need to.

Read 52 Books Mission Accomplished

This past week I’ve been listing to The Magnolia Story on Hoopla. Our local library will be discontinuing their partnership with Hoopla at the end of the year and so I’ll soon be listing to audiobooks via Overdrive. I don’t think I’ve ever used Overdrive before so hopefully it’s not to hard to figure out. This year I ended up reading/listening to 68+ books and I’m pretty happy with that number.

{My brother and I hamming it up at my wedding}

Give Back to 12 Different Organizations in My Community Mission Accomplished 

January – Donated to Quilts from the Heart in Memory of my brother.
February – Donated to Empty Bowls Fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club.
March – Donated to my daughter’s mentor who was in a horrible car accident.
April – Donated again to my daughter’s mentor who was in a horrible car accident.
May – $100 Tip to a waitress on Mother’s day.
June – Collected men’s shirts to donate this winter.
July – Donated to the Chew Dog Rescue
August – Donated to the Houston Flood Relief Fund
September – $100 Tip to our amazing server at The Grey House and bought a tin of caramel corn from a Boy Scout
October – Donated to The Magic Yarn Project
November – I bought toys to donate to the Fire Department
December – I bought toys to donate to the Fire Department

And then, there’s those top secret goals we’re not talking about yet:

• Secret Goal #1 Sell East Coast House Mission Accomplished
• Secret Goal #2 Chickens! Mission Accomplished
• Secret Goal #3 Sell HOA House Mission Accomplished 🙂 🙂 🙂
• Secret Goal #4 Buy our forever home {Working on it}

Seriously. Can you believe it? We finally sold the HOA house. Now if that’s not a reason to celebrate… I don’t know what is. Even though a lot of you guessed what secret goals #3 and #4 were, keeping them under wraps {and all the prep work that goes into selling a house} was HARD.  I tried to toss out a few clues here and there but I AM SO GLAD to be done with goal #3. SO GLAD.

I have so many things to say, and so many stories to tell, it’s almost like I don’t know where to begin. So I think next week, we are going to start from the beginning. 😉

Wishing you the merriest Christmas.

~Mavis, Lucy, the HH, The Girl and Monkey Boy

Read About My 2017 Goals HERE.