Stephany Writes

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | March 2023

FEBRUARY GOALS

1) Decide on the mattress I want to buy. Complete! I finally decided on the mattress that I want and sent it to my brother so he can order it for me. Wahoo!

2) Recategorize all 2012 blogs. Complete! And I finished this with a few days to spare. (I took a whole month off blogging in 2012, which helped, ha.)

3) Schedule a knife skills class with Amber. Complete! Our knife skills class is next Sunday. Yay!

4) Start my nighttime routine by 8pm, Sunday-Thursday. Oh god no. I am still struggling with this. 8pm feels so early!

5) Try a new dessert recipe for the Super Bowl. Complete! I made these peanut butter brownies, which were very, very good!

6) Find the hosting platform for our podcast. Complete-ish. Podcastpage is a great option to make a pretty easy podcast website, but in order to get our own URL, it’s $144 a year. I need to decide if it’s worth the cost. Do we need a website for our podcast? I’m just not sure yet.

7) Make a spreadsheet for apartment hunting. Complete! I added a handful of apartments to look at sometime over the summer, and want to add a few more. I’d love to stay in the general area I live currently, but I’m also not opposed to going further north if the prices are better.

8) Schedule a dermatology appointment to get a retinoid prescription. Not complete. I started dealing with this weird scalp issue (diagnosed as scalp psoriasis by my dermatologist on Wednesday, fun times). Now I’m on a steroid ointment to try to get rid of it, and I’ve decided to wait until this clears up to look into getting a retinoid prescription. (My skin is super-duper sensitive and I just don’t want to introduce something new to my routine while I’m having a skin flare-up.)

9) Stand up for one hour each workday. Not complete. I was so bad at doing this in February! I think I only stood up a few times the whole month.

10) Limit myself to two Ubereats orders per week. Complete! I’m really proud of myself, especially because two of the weeks, I only ordered Ubereats once. As long as I grocery shop correctly and have easy meals to make for myself when I’m feeling lazy, I don’t feel the urge to order takeout as often.

MARCH GOALS

1) Put my bedframe on Facebook Marketplace. I’m going to try to sell my current bedframe. I don’t expect to get more than $50 for it, but something is better than nothing! I need to take some pictures and get it up there.

2) Recategorize all 2013 blogs. Nobody is surprised by this goal. 🙂

3) Do the 30-day fitness challenge (found on Elisabeth’s blog, who found it on Kyria’s blog). My mom and I will be doing this fitness challenge together! It looks challenging but doable.

4) Do a few plantar fasciitis stretches every morning. The heel pain remains, so it’s time to start figuring out how to make sure my self-diagnosed PF doesn’t get worse. I’ve been wearing shoes more often when I’m in my apartment, both my sneakers and house slippers (which are specifically made for PF, ironically). I also want to start my day with a few stretches to see if that helps at all.

5) Do a Goodwill drop and get rid of the old cat tower. I have a whole trash bag filled with items to donate, as well as a few other items that don’t fit in the trash bag. I have also been holding on to the girls’ old cat tower but the scratching posts have completely fallen apart and it’s time to get it out of here. Plus, it’s just taking up space I don’t really have.

6) Work through the Anxiety Toolkit that my psychiatrist sent to me. Back in January, my psychiatrist sent me the link to this Anxiety Toolkit workbook and I keep forgetting to go through it. She seems to think it would help me a lot. I asked my mom to print off all 42 pages of the workbook (bless her) so I have it in hard copy form and want to spend time this month going through it.

7) Order new bedding. I already have my new sheets, pillowcases, and quilt picked out, and the money saved up to buy all of it! In March, I want to go ahead and buy my new bedding so it’s ready to go when my bedframe + mattress arrive.

8) Watch a 90s classic rom-com. I’m thinking either Sleepless in Seattle, Notting Hill, or While You Were Sleeping. Which one do you recommend?

9) Stand up for one hour each workday. Rollover goal.

10) Limit myself to two Ubereats orders and two takeout orders per week. Okay, so reality check: While I did an amazing job with limiting myself to 1-2 Ubereats orders every week in February, I also think I got fast food/takeout a lot more than usual. It was so easy to say, “It’s not cheatingggg” since the goal was to limit Ubereats orders, ugh. So I’d like to now challenge myself to this goal. (“Takeout” in this instance means food I pick up to take home. It’s cheaper than Ubereats since there aren’t delivery/processing fees to deal with, but it still adds up.)

Do you have any goals this month?

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | February 2023

I did so well on my goals in January! Yay, me! Let’s hope I can bring this momentum into February. 🙂

January Goals

1) Figure out how much my bedroom set will cost. Complete! I’m still working with my brother to decide on which mattress/box spring set he’ll deliver for me, but I have picked out my new bedframe, new quilt, and sheets. I haven’t ordered anything yet.

2) Recategorize all 2011 blogs. Complete! I had to go through some of the posts and re-upload my photos since they weren’t showing up (I moved from Blogspot to self-hosted WordPress sometime in 2011 or 2012, and I think that messed up my photos), so the process was much more involved than expected. But it was fun to look through old photos of me from the first cruise I took in 2011. Baby Steph!

3) Schedule a knife skills class with Amber. Not complete. We talked about this and found a class that was open, but I forgot to follow up with Amber to get it scheduled.

4) Watch Glass Onion. Complete! 3.5/5 stars for me.

5) Make a “to-do” list for my morning and nighttime routines. Complete! I really like having a task list to run through every morning and evening.

6) Find the hosting platform for our podcast website. Not complete. I didn’t work on this at all in January. Oops.

7) Hang my wall clock. Complete! It was such an easy task, too.

8) Start each day by filling up my water bottle with ice water. Mostly complete. I’m not great about filling up my water bottle on weekends, but I do it pretty much every weekday at least.

9) Attend a silent reading event. Complete! It was so much fun! I’m excited to go again this month.

10) Pay off my credit card. Complete! Woohoo! Now I can finally focus on other financial goals.

February Goals

1) Decide on the mattress I want to buy. Like I said above, my brother and I have been talking about my new mattress/box spring. He’s been getting me prices for different mattresses, and now I just need to decide which mattress I want so I can get this process rolling.

2) Recategorize all 2012 blogs. New month, new year of blog categorizing to do!

3) Schedule a knife skills class with Amber. We need to get this scheduled soon, as classes fill up really fast!

4) Start my nighttime routine by 8pm, Sunday-Thursday. I’m still working on getting to bed at a decent hour. I’m a work in progress, all right?! My goal is to start my nighttime routine by 8pm Sunday through Thursday so I can be in bed around 9, giving me about an hour to read and wind down for the night.

5) Try a new dessert recipe for the Super Bowl. Our Super Bowl parties are always fun, even if they haven’t included the usual crowd lately. I typically make homemade cookies (Nestle Tollhouse recipe, nothin’ fancy) and I’ll still make them for the party, but I may try my hand at another dessert just because.

6) Find the hosting platform for our podcast. Rollover goal.

7) Make a spreadsheet for apartment hunting. I’m a little early for this, I know, but I am just so excited about moving! While I have semi-complete list in my phone of the apartments I have my eye on, I want to start a detailed spreadsheet for the research process.

8) Schedule a dermatology appointment to get a retinoid prescription. I’ve been taking retinol for about two years now, and while I guess it’s working, I know that taking a retinoid (which requires a prescription) is better than over-the-counter retinol. So it’s time to do that, so this face can age gracefully and beautifully!

9) Stand up for one hour each workday. I have a sit/stand desk, but I very rarely use the standing option because I just don’t think about doing so. My goal this month is to force myself to stand up for an hour (which can be broken up into 20-minute increments throughout the day) every workday.

10) Limit myself to two Ubereats orders per week. I can easily order Ubereats 5+ times a week. Each order is usually at least $20 so sometimes I’m spending $120 just on Ubereats orders. !!! Can you imagine how much money I could save if I wasn’t spending so much money on Ubereats orders? Limiting myself to two orders per week feels doable, but also slightly challenging. Let’s see how it goes!

Do you have any goals for February?

Categories: Goals

January Goals

Hi, friends! I wanted to make sure I got my January goals post up quickly this month. I still have lots of “Best of 2022” blog posts to share with you guys, as well as my last quarterly budget report and annual budget recap, so I slotted in this post today to make sure I’m not waiting until mid-January to share my goals. A lot of these goals are related to my annual goals. After finalizing my 2023 annual goals, I made a list in my planner of my quarterly goals to make sure I’m attacking my annual goals little by little. From there, I chose smaller goals for my monthly goals, which I’m sharing with you today! I’m hoping this method of goal-setting will help me complete many more goals this year.

1) Figure out how much my bedroom set will cost. At some point this month, I need to sit down and figure out how much money the new bedroom set I want will cost. I will be buying a new mattress, box spring (if required), bedframe and headboard, and new sheets/pillowcases/duvet. I have $1,100 saved for this purchase, but I need to figure out if I need to save more money or if I can give myself the go-ahead to make the purchase!

2) Recategorize all 2011 blogs. I was halfway through February 2011 when I put my blog recategorization project on hold in October. So this month, I’d like to get back to this project by working through all posts from 2011.

3) Schedule a knife skills class with Amber. We’re planning on taking a knife skills class through Sur La Table. All of the January and February classes are sold out, so we’re looking at March or April dates.

4) Watch Glass Onion. I want to watch 6 movies and 6 standup specials this year, so I’m going to start by watching a movie that I’ve actually been super interested in seeing. I looooooved Knives Out, and the trailer for the follow-up, Glass Onion, was maybe the best movie trailer ever (?!!!?). I’ve heard great things about this movie, so I’m excited to watch it at some point this month!

5) Make a “to-do” list for my morning and nighttime routines. Listen, sometimes I need to treat myself like a 6-year-old who needs a checklist to make sure she does all of her morning routines before getting out the door for school. I’m probably going to use the Todoist app to make a daily checklist for my morning and nighttime routines. The trick will be doing all of my to-dos in a timely manner.

6) Find the hosting platform for our podcast website. Originally, I planned on hosting our podcast on Squarespace, but either I’m just very dumb when it comes to techy elements or all those Squarespace ads have lied to me about how easy it is to build a website on Squarespace. IT IS NOT. I messed around with it for too many hours before giving up in frustration. I’m hoping I can find a more user-friendly option for our podcast website (maybe even WordPress?), so my goal for January is to find the right hosting platform.

7) Hang my wall clock. My mom bought me the wall clock that was on my Christmas list this year, and it is such a beauty! Buuut it’s still in its original packaging because I haven’t gotten around to figuring out how to hang it. A goal for this month!

8) Start each day by filling up my water bottle with ice water. One of my annual goals is to drink just one measly bottle of water every day. A good habit I can form to make this happen is to fill up my water bottle with ice water every morning.

9) Attend a silent reading event. My friend Amber told me that there is a silent reading book club in Tampa! They meet at different coffeeshops around the area on a monthly basis, so I told Amber we are both going to the first one of 2023, which is on January 15th.

10) Pay off my credit card. I should be able to accomplish this! Last month, I was able to pay off my statement balance so I’m finally paying off what I spent the previous month, which is something I haven’t been able to do in MANY months. I should be able to do the same in January, which will put me in the clear from all my 2022 travel, 2022 emergencies, and the holiday season.

What’s something you’re hoping to do this month?

Categories: Goals

My 2023 Goals

Welcome to 2023! I have big plans for this year: moving to a bigger apartment, taking control over my anxiety, and forming stronger connections with the people I love. And I also have a lot of goals for this year. One day, I opened the Notes app on my phone, started a new note titled “2023 Goals,” and began adding goals. (And adding… and adding…) I’ve been refining these goals for a few weeks now and I think I have a solid list of 30 (!!) goals. I’ve broken my goals down into categories this year and while my original plan was to list 5 goals per category, I decided I didn’t have to do that to myself. Some categories only have a few goals while others have a lot (I’m particularly happy that my “Fun Stuff” category is the biggest). My plan is to break down these annual goals into quarterly and then monthly goals so I can hopefully attain most of them!

APARTMENT

1) Move to a two-bedroom apartment – My lease is up at the beginning of November and my goal is to move to a two-bedroom apartment. I want to use the second bedroom to use as an office/home gym. I’m hoping to find a two-bedroom for less than $2,000 a month, but that may be wishful thinking.

2) Hire movers for my move – I am well-versed in the moving process, but I’ve actually never used movers. My brother is always happy (ish) to move me, but I only make him move the big stuff like furniture. The rest of it is up to me, and it’s exhausting. I’m excited to use movers for this move, especially since I live on a third-floor apartment (with no elevator).

3) Change up my entryway – Right now, my entryway (which is just a wall, lol), has a key hook shelf that I thought would be more useful to me than it actually is. It has a slot to keep mail, but I don’t keep mail there. I want to replace my current shelf with something like this and add a round mirror to spruce up this wall a bit. I’d love to use the shelf for holding seasonal decorations, too.

4) Buy a new mattress and bedframe – Originally, the plan was just to replace the mattress and box spring, but I think I’d also like to splurge on a new bedframe. The one I have now is a hand-me-down that’s looking a little worse for wear, so I want to find a bedframe with the upholstered headboard I’ve been dreaming of.

5) Install a bidet. I had my first bidet experience and y’all, it may have been life-changing. There are plenty of bidet options that I can install right on my toilet for less than $50, so this is a goal for 2023.

HEALTH

1) Go for a walk every day – It can be one simple, 10-minute loop around my apartment complex. It can be an hour-long walk in a park. But every day, I need to get outside and move my body.

2) Complete 100 Peloton workouts – Let’s see if I can get closer to this goal in 2023, shall we?

3) Drink at least one bottle (16 oz) of water every day – It’s a simple goal. It’s an easy goal. But can it be done?

4) Get a sleep study done – I think I may have sleep apnea. The way I snore points to potentially having it. I’d like to have a sleep study done at some point this year to find out if I have it.

5) Research my options for LASIK. I would love to get LASIK. It’s hard for me to wear contacts these days because my astigmatism is so bad (I wear contacts specifically made for astigmatism, and they still don’t work well for me), and I’m tired of wearing glasses. I want to find out if I’m a candidate for LASIK and, if so, my financing options.

6) Establish a better morning and nighttime routine. I must get better about my routines in 2023, especially my nighttime routine. I believe that one of the reasons my anxiety was so unmanageable last year is because I was only getting 6 hours of sleep every night, which is just not enough sleep for me. My goal is to start my nighttime routine at 8pm, be in bed reading at 9pm, and have lights out by 10pm. For my morning routine, I want to wake up at 6:30am, go for a walk, have breakfast, take a shower/get ready for the day, make my bed, and do my morning skincare routine before logging onto work at 8:30am.

MONEY

1) Have $3,000 saved in my CapitalOne emergency fund and $500 in my bank emergency fund by the end of the year. I haven’t been focusing on building up my emergency fund for the past couple of years, but since I had to dip into it a few times in 2022 for emergency purposes, it’s a bit depleted at the moment. This year, I want to get my CapitalOne emergency fund to $3,000 and the emergency fund with my bank to $500. I like having that $500 buffer in my bank so I can pull from it quickly if my account is close to overdrafting.

2) Switch to a rewards credit card. Can you believe I still don’t have a rewards credit card? I only use one credit card, which I got through my bank, and they do have a reward credit card option, but I just haven’t put the process in motion to switch over.

3) Do a weekly budget check-in. I haven’t really been monitoring my budget as closely as I like, as sometimes I can go weeks without checking my bank account and writing down what I’ve been spending. This year, I’d like to have a little budget check-in with myself, maybe every Sunday evening, to go over what I’m spending, project what the next week will look like, and make sure I’m hitting my savings goals.

4) Donate $50 to the following three charities every quarter: Friends of Strays (a local, no-kill animal shelter and where I adopted Lila!), the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund, and CASA (domestic violence support services). I fell short of my goal to donate $50 per month to a charity of my choice so I hope that by listing out the exact charities I will be supporting this year, I will be better prepared!

HOBBIES

1) Read 100 books. For the last few years, my reading goal has been beyond what feels doable to me. I don’t really need to set a reading goal because I know I’m going to read a lot of books like I always do. But I like doing so since it’s a pretty easy goal to cross off my list. In 2023, I’m keeping things easy and setting the goal at 100 books. I know I can accomplish that.

2) Complete the A-Z reading challenge. I love low-stress reading challenges. Usually, I complete the Unread Shelf Project but the prompts don’t really speak to me this year so I decided to skip it. Instead, I’m going to do the A-Z reading challenge, which I completed a few years ago and really enjoyed. (You just read a book that begins with each letter of the alphabet.)

3) Publish podcast seasons regularly throughout the year. Bri and I are having a really fun time with the podcast, so I hope we can continue with our rhythm of releasing a podcast season every other month or so. I’d like to at least release 6 new seasons of the podcast this year!

4) Make a website for our podcast. This has been a goal at the back of my mind since we started the podcast, so I’m making it a 2023 goal so I get it done!

5) Complete my blog categorization project. I’ll be spending my writing dates with Mikaela working on this project throughout 2023. I have 10 years of blog posts to recategorize. Fun!

6) Host a silent reading night. We’ll all come in our pajamas and bring the book we’re currently reading. There will be refreshments. I’ll put on an ASMR ambiance room from YouTube on the TV. We’ll set a timer – maybe an hour, maybe 90 minutes – and then we’ll read silently. Afterwards, we can talk about what we’re reading or just chit-chat. I can’t wait to make this happen in 2023.

7) Watch 6 movies and 6 standup specials. Last year, I had a goal to watch one movie a month but I am really bad about watching movies regularly. I feel like this goal is much more attainable.

FUN STUFF

1) Go tubing at Rainbow Springs. After we did our tubing excursion in Jamaica, my mom and I both talked about how we want to go again. We have natural springs about 2 hours away where we can go tubing, so I’d love to make this a day trip sometime over the summer.

2) Take a knife skills class. Every time I watch a cooking show, I am in awe of the knife skills of real chefs. While I don’t think I’ll be chopping an onion like Gordon Ramsey anytime soon, I do think I would find one of these classes very beneficial. Bonus: My friend Amber wants to come with me!

3) Learn how to French braid. This was on my annual goals list in 2022 (added late), and it’s something I want to experiment with in 2023. It can’t be that hard to learn how to French braid, can it?

4) Visit one new state. My mom and I have big plans to visit Tennessee at the end of the year to spend Christmas in a cabin near the Smokey Mountains. We’ll bring the dogs (and my stepdad, lol), and my brother and his family might come for a few days after Christmas. Eeks! I hope we can make this happen.

5) Get a tattoo. I didn’t complete this goal in 2022, so back on the list it goes in 2023. I actually have three different tattoo ideas that I want to get done, so maybe I’ll get more than one tattoo this year? We’ll see.

6) See a Dolphins game in person. While I have seen my beloved Miami Dolphins in person in Tampa, I’ve never visited their stadium in Miami for a game. I want to make it a goal for 2023 to finally do that, no matter how outrageous the prices may be. (And preferably early in the year, before the Dolphins start sucking like they do at the end of every season.)

7) Complete Project 365. I’m doing it! One photo a day, posted on Instagram with a caption, for all of 2023. I feel a little crazy for doing this for the third time, but I’m also excited to share my life in this way again.

8) Go on at least 5 first dates. Last year, my goal was 12 first dates and I went on 0. So, let’s make things a smidge easier on me and try for 5 first dates.

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | November 2022

My October goals did not go as planned. It was a busier month than usual, especially as I played chauffeur for my mom for the entire month and seemed to have more plans than usual. So I kinda threw a lot of my goals to the wayside as I tried to keep my head above water with my busy schedule. That’s life, though! I’m rolling over a lot of my October goals into November, so we’ll see if I can knock them out this month!

October Goals

1) Do a 30-minute workout three times a week. LOL, no.

2) Update all of my blog posts from 2010. Complete! Yay!

3) Drink water every day. LOL, no.

4) Establish a better nighttime routine with lights out at 10:30 p.m. No, but I’ve decided to switch my exercise time from morning to evening. Before, I was trying to get up by 6 a.m. to get in a workout before starting my day, but it was so hard to make that happen when I was going to bed so late. (Hence, the goal of going to bed by 10:30 p.m.) So, I decided to experiment with evening workouts. I’m usually finishing up work around 5:30-6:00 and then I’ll do my workout. I don’t usually like waiting so late in the day to work out, as it gives me so many hours to talk myself out of doing it, but I hope this will a) help give me a mood boost at a time of day that is roughest for my anxiety (nighttime) and b) allow me to get a bit more sleep, even if I go to bed later, as I’m setting my alarm for 7:30 a.m.

5) Pay off my credit card. No, but very close! I think I can maybe make this happen in November. Fingers crossed!

6) Recycle some old electronics/cable cords + do a Goodwill drop. Ugh, no. I need to add a few more things to my Goodwill bag so I’ve been holding off on doing that dropoff. And while I could have dropped off my old electronics/cable cords at Best Buy, I was halfway to the store when I realized I left the iPad Mini I wanted to donate on my dresser, blergh. Next month!

7) Organize my iPhone photos from the first half of 2022. Complete!

8) Make a doctor’s appointment. No. I’ll probably wait until early next year for this doctor’s appointment, once I’m on a PPO plan and have a more reasonable copayment ($30 as opposed to $150. HMO plans are for the birds.)

9) Redecorate my bathroom. Complete! I love the change so much. 🙂

10) Continue making myself dinner three nights a week. I didn’t really keep track of this last month. I think so?

November Goals

1) Do a 30-minute workout three times a week. Rollover goal.

2) Update all of my blog posts from 2011. Another year to categorize!

3) Drink water every day. Rollover goal.

4) Complete NaBloPoMo 2022. Yay! This will be such a fun goal to complete.

5) Pay off my credit card. Rollover goal.

6) Recycle some old electronics/cable cords + do a Goodwill drop. Rollover goal.

7) Organize my iPhone photos through October 2022. Once I complete this goal, I will be all caught up on photo organization. My plan is to do the previous month’s photo organizing in the following month.

8) Start Christmas shopping. I already have some ideas for family/friends so I’d like to knock out some of my Christmas shopping early in November if possible.

9) Get my third tattoo. This has been on my yearly goals list for 3 years and it’s time to finally make it happen. November is the month I do it!

10) Update my One Line a Day journal and keep up with it. I am so very bad at filling in my One Line a Day journal. Thankfully, I have my “Everyday Moments” Notes app where I keep track of one good thing every day so it helps me out in a pinch if I get a few weeks behind and can’t remember what I was doing/thinking/feeling on that day. However, I really want to use this journal for more than just happy moments: I also want to document hard things, things that happen at work, and just things I want to remember from this time in my life (aka, the stuff I don’t always use for Everyday Moments). I need to get caught up (I’m about a month behind, eeks) and then stay caught up.