February Firm Determination Update

At the beginning of 2010 I made a few Firm Determinations. I am very excited about my progress in some areas, and just a little disappointed about my lack of progress in others. Here is how I’ve done with my Financial, Health, Faith, and Blog FD’s.

Finances
Save $5000 towards student loan repayment by May – We have saved $3715.98.00 towards this goal. That’s 74% towards our goal and a 29% increase from last month.
Increase Emergency Fund by one month’s living expenses by May – We have saved $2665.22 towards this goal, which is more than one month’s living expenses for us. Consider this officially checked off the list.
Open a Roth IRA with retirement money in Money Market Account – We are still looking into this. I have the option of opening one up with the same people who do our company’s 401K so I’m going to set up a meeting within the next few months.
Reevaluate goals in May 2010 – Mr. DFx40 is on his second round of interviews at the hospital he wants to work for after graduating so I'm getting excited about this!

Health
The weather continues to foil my plans in a few of these areas. But enough excuses, on to the updates!
Run/log 600 miles – I logged 0 miles this month. Zero. That doesn’t even come close to the 50 miles a month it will take to fulfill this FD.
Ride my new bike to work 24 times – I rode my bikeone time in February, which is short of the 2 times a month I need for this FD. I’m expecting this to pick up once it starts staying above freezing at night.
Do back exercises/stretches 3 times a week – I’ve only been doing this about once a week, but it helps so much when I do! Hopefully this will be the month I fulfill this FD.

Try one new meatless meal a month – I’m looking forward to this FD, even though I forgot about it last month. Here is a picture of the delicious smoothie I had for breakfast last Saturday. It was made of strawberries, bananas, a handful of blackberries, and 6 oz of yogurt. Yum!

Faith

Volunteer to lead college small group once a month – I volunteered to lead 7 of the 8 times we met.
Spend time with children from bus ministry once a month – We took 6 of the kids to the local golden arches after church Wednesday night. You have never seen a group of kids so excited to get something off the dollar menu. And when they got three items each, I thought they might explode. If we could all be so thankful for such a small thing!
Spend 3 hours a week reading and studying my bible – I count 30 minutes each for our Sunday and Tuesday college bible study and Sunday small group bible study in this. It is actually more like an hour for each, but I can’t make it that easy! I ended up averaging just under 3 hours each week.

Blog
Post a new article once a week – I met this goal this month, without technicalities. If I continue to meet this FD I will expand this to include an actual schedule instead of whenever I get around to it.
Track all of my input/output and share it once a month – I successfully tracked everything in a spreadsheet, but I think there is way too much information to share, and I don’t see the benefit. I’m rethinking the last half of this FD.

Once again I fell short in some areas and excelled in others. It may take me all year to have a completely successful month, but I am still optimistic.

What about you…how have you progressed towards fulfilling your Firm Determinations? Have you reevaluated or modified your goals?