So one of the reasons I was overweight for most of my adult life was that to get to a healthy weight, I needed to lose such a large amount of weight it was overwhelming. I mean, when you need to lose 100+ pounds, it’s just so much! Well, our debt and spending issues are kind of the same. So is increasing our income. There is just so much to do, and so many different ways to tackle it, that I just get exhausted and give up.

When I finally lost my weight, I did it by tackling 10 pounds at a time. Once I hit the first goal, then I looked ahead to the next one. And a couple of the blogs I follow set monthly goals, then post updates at the end of the month. I know I post our debt monthly, but I think setting little mini goals specific to our debt and financial situation might be just what I need to slowly start getting us back on track.

This month is tricky – we are going away for part of it, so

1. We’re going to be spending a fair amount of $$
2. We’re not going to be home to be working on making more money

And the month is already a week over. That’s OK – no more excuses, we’re getting started anyway. This month, I’m going to focus on getting rid of some clutter and selling some items on Kijiji (we don’t have Craigslist, Kijiji is basically the same here). So far, I have a roll of linoleum (leftover from when we built our house, brand new), a bowflex (bought used 2 years ago, in great shape), an air hockey table (also bought used), a slightly used vacuum cleaner, a bicycle my youngest son has outgrown, two dog kennels, and a bed frame. There are probably other things we could sell too, but this is a good start.

We took pictures of three of the highest value items this past weekend, and I’m listing them this week. With any luck, all three will sell before we leave for Vegas. My goal is to raise at least $300 this month – the bowflex alone will bring that if I can sell it. Any money we raise will be used to pay down our debt.

So for May, my mini goals are:

1. Finish photographing items to sell, and bring in $300 selling items we no longer need.
2. Research and write a rental agreement for our spare room.
3. Do all minor repairs related to renting out the room.
4. Prepare an advertisement (to be posted on our return) for our room rental.
5. Spend at least three hours working on improving my blog – design, monetization, the whole she-bang.