Kicking off Challenges for Febuary

As I said yesterday, I'm way better at getting things done if it is part of a group activity.  Luckily for me, Sharon and Serendipity  are both leading challenges in areas that I want to work on.

Serendipity's challenge is Shaping up for March.  All participants are to choose a weight loss goal and, optionally, healthy habits, blogging about them to stay accountable, with a weekly check-in at her site.  The challenge runs from February 7 to March 7.  My goal is to lose four pounds, which would bring my BMI back down to 24.9.  I know I'll feel better about myself once the BMI calculator no longer lists me as overweight.  To do that, I will (1) eat within my Weight Watchers points every day and (2)exercise 6X per week, 2 days of Judo and 4 days of swimming, with one day of swimming and Judo so that I can make my 17X gym goal.  So, basically, I'm making myself accountable for my new years resolutions for the month, which will hopefully spur me to a more faithful execution of them.

Sharon is doing a No-Spend Challenge, which I have already begun by making a dinner menu plan for the month.  My non-fixed budgetary items are divided into Food (this covers both in-home and restaurant dining), Household (non-food items like gas, cleaning supplies, and other miscellaneous things that you need to run a household but that you don't eat), Utilities, Medical, and Toys(out of which I pay for my gym and dojo membership).  My goal is to cut spending in Food and Household by half, and to spend nothing in the Toy category besides membership fees.  I'll use the extra money to pay for some routine car maintenance for both of our vehicles, money which normally would have come out of savings, and thus increase my total savings.

Since these are both day-to-day challenges, I'll be posting daily updates, hopefully as addenda to other things, but in solitary splendor if necessary.  I'll start the money tracking from today and the weight tracking on Friday.  Off we go!