Happiness Project: Week Four

Kind of anti-climatic, this week. Not a ton of resolves and not a ton to show for it - but I did make some progress and did good things.

Finance

 - Spending Fast - the plan was to not buy anything not strictly "necessary"
-- We had several free hours to kill in Provo between The Beard meeting a friend who was in town for breakfast and the 3 pm showing of Wolverine with my parents (GO SEE IT). I accidentally found myself in Target. I accidentally found myself in the Clothing section. I accidentally found myself in the dressing room. Then I accidentally found the perfect dress for Haley's wedding dinner/school. So this one didn't go GREAT this week. But I'm still curbing my unnecessary spending. I guess I don't need every new shade of OPI polish.... :(

 

- Couponing! From blogs to TV, couponing is becoming more "mainstream" or whatever.
-- I'm not hard core. I don't have the space or family consumption to buy 300 bottles of mustard. To be fair, I don't think ANYONE has the space or consumption to ever buy 300 bottles of mustard. But I did start clipping coupons instead of throwing them away every week. I read Krazy Coupon Lady's blog and checked out a couple of books from the library (Try Budget Savvy Diva's Guide to Slashing Your Grocery Bill by 50% or More, I liked it the most).

- Reevaluating our Budgets
-- If you remember, we're both looking at going back to school this fall and that means researching student loans and preparing to pay for them. Obviously I'm not going to go into super detail about our budgets and just how little we make (curse you, Danica's calling to be a teacher). Fear not. I use Mint to track trends month-to-month and I use Evernote to check off the bills and other things we need to pay from each paycheck. I also opened a second checking account that is dedicated to bills, ensuring that I never wrongfully assume I have plenty of Forever 21 dollars when it's actually supposed to go to responsible crap. We're already saving more on each paycheck, so that's awesome. Future Forever 21 dollars.

Spirituality

- 30 Day BOM Challenge. Because I've read it a million times but never so quickly.
-- I'm falling behind. But still trying to catch up! It's an awesome way to kickstart my scripture study since I've been slacking lately.

- Get involved in our new ward
-- It's easy to coast and slip through the cracks when you move into a new ward, especially if you move into an apartment complex that is divided between like 6 wards. We could have spent our Sundays napping and playing with Glen Coco at home, like we did a lot after we got married, but instead we introduced ourselves to the bishop on our first Sunday here. They promptly invited us to a WARD CAMPOUT. The dirty C-word to me. Luckily it's the day of Haley's wedding, so we have a legit excuse. But we're are going to the ward softball game in a few weeks. :) Baby steps.

- Praying every night (From Week One: Marriage)
-- We haven't missed a night! It's awesome. 

I'm really excited for this week - Beauty and Improvement! Get ready for Danica to finally tackle lip color. Or burn my apartment down out of frustration that I always look like a red-lipped clown.

My Happiness Project: Overview
My Happiness Project: Week One
My Happiness Project: Week Two
My Happiness Project: Week Three