June Resolutions

Here we go! Off into the Great Blue Yonder, heading into the month known as TORTURE in Alabama. Seriously; it's going to get extremely hot, and I'm going to get extremely irritable at times. I hate the heat. I'd much rather deal with the cold. (To put it this way, there's only so much you can take off in the summer, & still be appropriate/feasible. In the winter, you can keep piling things on, as much as you want.)

So, to distract me from this absolutely terrible Alabama weather, I'm putting up my June Resolutions, joining in with Kelli (of Blimey Cow fame) at She Learns As She Goes.

Ready?

Set...

Go!

Put $200 into Savings

Now, this seems like a really high number, but I promise you - it's not. That'll probably cover one textbook come Fall Semester. Plus, if I manage to put $200 a month into savings, I'll start building up my savings account.

I'm thinking that saving $50 from each paycheck will be QUITE feasible. If I think I can handle it, I'll put more in the bank. Of course, I'll also have to have cash in my wallet and money in my checking account (for gas). I really don't like using the debit card, though, because it's harder for me to keep track of how much I have. (I'm so forgetful, & I procrastinate on checkbook balancing.)

You see, my Kinesiology teacher told us a story about her friend who put $200 a month into the bank, every month for thirty years. She had over $2,000,000 in the bank at the end of those thirty years. She never touched the money. She never even saw the money - it was all directly deposited, and she never had access to it. I'm sure it was tempting at times to dip into her savings and cover things that she needed at the MOMENT, but she resisted the temptation. I'm hoping to have a nice bundle of cash for myself at the end of every year, and it'll hopefully keep growing!! (200 x 12 = 2400, after all. Plus add interest. I could have an amazing sum of money in the bank at the end of the year, as long as I don't touch it!!)

Keep My Room Clean

To be absolutely honest, my room is a disaster area. I clean it really well one week, and I think, "All right. I'm going to keep it like this for as long as possible! It shouldn't be that hard!" Then three days later, I'm staring into the black abyss and thinking, "How on earth did I let this happen again?"

Since my room consists of both my room AND my bathroom, I'm going to attempt to keep both clean. And, to go along with this...

Clean Out My Closet & Dresser

My closet is also a black hole, sucking things in so I'll never find them again. My dresser has exploded from all the clothes I (attempted) to shove back into it after freshman year ended. I need to go through every piece of clothing, see if it still fits, and then organize both areas. If I can get my closet organized enough, I'll be able to fit some storage boxes (or my freebie stuff!!) on the floor. Right now, you can't even see the floor. It's really bad.

Help Save Over $200 in Coupons

This is a very...interesting resolution, right? You see, my father's job is ending in August, so we're all attempting to save as much as we can right now. Recently, I got into couponing & shopping for discounts/freebies. (Check out my successful shopping trip and how to get free stuff posts for more on these two things.) I go shopping with my mother every Tuesday. It's now my goal to shop the ads and find the coupons necessary to save over $200 a month in just coupons alone. Maybe up to $500 in savings total, including the BOGOs and Reward Card Discounts & whatnot. I think we're doing rather well so far, but I'd like to see HOW MUCH BETTER we can get :3

Keep Writin'

It's a new month, and a great time to start finishing my novel! My friend Kellie's about ready to ship hers out to Amazon Kindle Publishing, and hers will probably be published by the end of the month, if not sooner. I want to publish a novel before I finish college, and I may do that through Kindle Publishing if I can't find a publishing house that's willing to take me. (Little, Brown, & Co.? Scholastic? Harper Collins? ANYBODY HAVE A PUBLISHING HOUSE THAT'S WILLING TO HELP ME?!)