New Week's Resolution - Week 31 (May 26 - Jun 2)

nossmf

Welcome to the first week of the rest of your life! Now seems like a perfect time to select a New Week's Resolution.

What is a New Week's Resolution? It's exactly the same as a New Year's Resolution, with two important distinctions: it only lasts for one week, and you can start one any time you want, rather than just once per year.

So what's wrong with New Year's Resolutions? According to some quick Google research, just one thing: they DON'T WORK!

• 23% of people quit within the first week
• 43% quit by the end of January
• 80% quit by mid-February
• 92% fail to make it a full year

Why such high rates of failure? Probably because most resolutions fail to follow these simple steps from the SMART method:

• Specific - "exercise more" is vague; "hit the gym twice this week" is specific
• Measurable - did I go twice? Yes or no?
• Achievable - "drink a gallon of water per day" may not be realistic; drink 8oz is
• Relevant - if it doesn't matter to YOU, why bother?
• Time-bound - keep your goal for this week something quick you can reach THIS week

With these thoughts in mind, what is ONE thing you want to do this week? Some examples may include:

• Hit the gym two times this week
• Cook a meal from scratch three times this week
• Go to bed no later than 10pm every night
• Limit myself to one alcoholic beverage this week
• Finish two pages of my family photo album

...and so on. While this is very similar in nature to the famous "Just Give Me 10 Days" series, that challenge focuses primarily on weight loss and diet control, whereas this challenge is of a broader nature, including interpersonal relationships, home improvements, health and fitness and more. Just pick something specific you wish to focus upon, set a number goal you can reach (or not), and make status updates to document your progress. This will be a judgment-free zone: if you do not reach your goal, take the time to figure out why not (too big a goal, life happened, etc), and forgive yourself, because you can always try again next week.

nossmf

Getting setup for this week. My plan is to continue what I started in previous weeks, and add one more focus item every week as I go. Eventually older items will drop off the list, not because I no longer want to do them, but because they will have become so ingrained a part of my daily routine that I no longer need to record them to make sure they get done.

Past focus items successfully transitioned to un-monitored habit:

Floss every night before bed
Clean litter box every night before bed
Kiss wife within one (1) minute of arriving home from work, gym, store, church, etc
Wearing my glasses every day, all day
Park in furthest spot available
Read 10 minutes daily
Wash dinner dishes the same night they're used
Get at least six hours of sleep every night
Check parakeet water daily
Record receipts same day spent
Wash hands before preparing ALL meals
Spray down counter/oven after every meal
Fold laundry same day it gets washed
Shave daily
Stretching 10+ Minutes Daily

Tasks completed thanks to this weekly challenge:

Complete digital cookbook
Clean outdoor grill

Ongoing focus items:

Weeding 60+ Minutes in the week

New focus item:

Trying something a little different this week. Mortgage has increased (higher property taxes), medical bills are demanding to get paid, it's just getting tough to make ends meet. So this week's challenge is finding ways to decrease expenses as much as possible. Since part of this challenge is to have a hard number to aim for, let's be aggressive and see if I can't get this number up to $500/mo lower expenses.

nossmf

Monday

Weeding 0/60
Budget $150/$500

Sometimes we're our own stupidest reasons for overpaying. Case in point, a few months ago my wife found a different internet provider offering faster service for lower price than our current company. We switched, and have been quite satisfied. However (you can probably see where I'm going with this), we neglected to cancel our original service! Call made, unused service cancelled, instant monthly savings. Only wish I could have back the 3 months' worth of fees that we paid out for something we weren't even using…

nossmf

Tuesday

Weeding 0/60
Budget $185/$500

Called up my satellite radio provider to cancel our subscription, I'll just settle for terrestrial radio for a while. (I commute between cities each day, it's nice not to have to constantly scan the radio dial for signals as I drive down the highway.) The company made me an offer to stay as a customer, but instead of paying $55 each month I would drop down to $20/mo for the next year for the same service (savings: $35/mo).

AdahPotatah2024

I like that weekly challenge!:D I am always trying to figure out how to cut costs, mostly because the jobs I enjoy just do not pay well!🥲

Continuing the 3 cups per day water challenge..

Using all my groceries..

AND for this week getting back patio clean and organized for summer grilling out in June.

nossmf

Wednesday

Weeding 0/60
Budget $315/$500

My son hasn't used his gym membership in a couple months, guess he doesn't need me to pay for it any longer! (Savings: $75/mo) And in perusing my monthly account statement, I found a charge to a Sears warranty program I thought I had cancelled long ago (after I tried to get them to actually honor their end of the agreement, and was rebuffed with technicalities for why they didn't have to). Cancel them, with a note to self to check if they try to charge me again next month (and if so tell my credit card to ignore them going forward). (Savings: $55/mo)

HappyAdventures

still working on sleep routine.

AdahPotatah2024

✔️ water

✔️ only threw away 2 bananas i forgot in the freezer

✔️patio fairly organized and clean, going to cook out tomorrow if not all rainy!

nossmf

Thursday

Weeding 0/60
Budget $365/$500

My wife is less thrilled by this idea, but she has agreed to put on hold spending each month on adding to her collection, saving $50/mo.

nossmf

Friday & Saturday

Weeding 0/60 - Son is home on leave from the Army, have been spending time indoors with him rather than outside weeding, will get back to this after he leaves next weekend
Budget $440/$500

If my wife can give up her collectibles for a while, I can give something up as well, and in my case it's my gym membership. I have access to a free gym at the military base where I work, it's just mighty inconvenient on days I don't work to drive 20 minutes each way when my local gym is a 2 minute walk. But for now, I'll make it happen. (Savings: $75/mo)

nossmf

Sunday

Budget $540/$500

Even though we do most of our eating each week via home cooked meals, we've still been averaging about $100/mo on fast food, maybe a couple lunches after church or as a replacement meal one night when work and commute run long and I don't feel like cooking. Well, for the foreseeable future, that option is now off the table.

Weekly goal: met.

AdahPotatah2024

That's pretty good budgeting! I wish I could I knock off $500 more from mine! If you're $40 over that means your wife can go back to collecting!?:D

nossmf

Don't tell her that! lol