Show of hands of how many people are glad this dang year is almost over.

I have a few basic goals for this month… that mostly have to do with money, budgeting and flipping my shit because this is the time of year where I just want to go shopping, constantly. Though I’m wondering if the fact I choose to still stay away from malls will help ease that. Nah, probably not. Not when there’s stuff like Afterpay around online.

It’s almost the end of the month so there’s also prepping for holidays and yearly recaps. And hoping 2021 will be a shit ton better!

November 2020 Goals;

— Prep Christmas gift list

This I admit I’ve already started and bought a few gifts for my sister and my husband already. I still have to find another gift for Tums since I only have 1 in mind right now. As well as find a foodie gift set for my brother. I’m hoping to get my Xmas shopping all set and done before December so I can ship it out as early as possible.

— Come up with a grocery and spending budget

I’ve been trying to work on this one all year and I’ve done awful. I have made a bit of improvement in shopping mindfully but not as much progress as I had hoped. I can’t be too mad at myself for just starting though. I did super well with not buying palettes this year. I’ve only bought a handful so I’m pretty proud of that! I need to start working on a grocery budget and stick to it as well as set aside a spending budget. Just because I buy groceries and other stuff from Target does not make the “other stuff” also “groceries”.

— Prep for Christmas

This includes tidying, getting bookshelves, unpacking/getting rid of more boxes as well as purging things I DO NOT NEED and clothes that Tums won’t fit anymore. I always tell myself I want to go into the new year with less stuff and I never actually do it. Well, as crap as the last 2 years have been I’m ready for a clear fresh 2021 start.

I really want to go all out (well as much as I can within my budget) with decorating for Christmas this year. We have a bigger place and I really want to feel like I’m just wrapped in a big cozy Christmas fleece blanket every time I walk around my home. We still have to get a Christmas tree and as much as I’d like to stick to my white tree’s I think this year I’m going to do a normal green one. Bubba has already wrapped a few gifts for me and Tums and it’s making me feel SUPER behind.

— Bake & Cook more

I feel like I say this to myself every month. I do plan on getting a Kitchenaid if not this month then next month. I want to learn how to make bread and bake pastries. Not just sweets but like breakfast pastries. I’m obsessed with the Chocolate Almond Croissant from La Madeleine and I’d love to try to recreate it myself!

I re-subbed to Hello Fresh; at least for this week. I had a promo for 12 meals free but it seems like it only applied to the first order? I’m unsure how the heck this works but $50/week is not okay. Though I do hope it’ll jog my desire to cook more. I loved it when I had it before, and I discovered I loved lemony pasta from it… so I’m really looking forward to finding new favorites and trying new things.

— Finish as much of Oct TBR before holiday season

I’m literally already rolling my eyes at myself with this one. I tried to do my Oct challenge with the highest hopes and it just didn’t work out this year. I’m disappointed because Oct is one of the longer months and I still didn’t manage to get anywhere near my goal! Again, I know I shouldn’t be too hard on myself but I can’t help but be. I’m better than this. But that was before the PPD and crap that happened. I can’t expect myself to just fall back into my old habits like nothing is wrong. Yet I expect myself to, all the time.

Of all the books I had listed on my Oct TBR, I’m hoping to finish at least 2-5 of those books and I’m SUPER sad to say I’m marking Unmade as a DNF.

— Draft recap posts

I have a love/hate relationship with recap posts. I love doing them for my own personal archive reasons but they take SO LONG to put together. I should probably do a video version of this to get me back in the habit of filming but… idk why I’m not lol. Hoping to beat myself at my own game and have them outlined, prepped and ready to go when the time comes for them to go live!

— Work on NaNoWriMo

I managed to get 2004 words down by the 3rd day even though by then you were suppose to have 5k. I don’t normally outline by NaNo projects and even if I do, I tend to not even follow the outline I had set out for myself. I’m such a mood writer that I just write whenever a new scene pops up or whatever. I still don’t exactly know the basic personality of my main character or what exactly the book is even about. I’m just writing this year and seeing where it takes me.

If you wanna follow my NaNo journey with me I’ll be live tweeting as I flip my shit on my bookish Twitter account Readarella.

— Start the journey to minimalistic life

This is going to be THE HARDEST shit I will ever willingly put myself through. But as I get older the more I realize, it’s kind of got to be done. I just have so much stuff and I’m reminded of just how much STUFF I have every time I move (which is literally once a year). I’m horrible at letting go of things because I might need it later despite not needing it for the last 8 years. Or because something has a sentimental memory attached to it. I like to be surrounded by certain memories. It’s just the way I’ve always been. But I’m finding that as I’m getting older and esp since I now have Tums… there’s some things I need to let go of.

This is gonna suck.

— Start podcast with bro bro

I was hoping to get this one off the ground this weekend that just passed but having a massive migraine on Halloween messed up the schedule I had made for myself. I’m still researching places to host the podcast and how to get us both recorded since we live in different states. But this has been an idea we’ve been floating around with for legit 5 years and we’re not getting any younger!

— Find a psychiatrist

Whichever one is the one that refills your meds. And hopefully I find one this week. At the latest next week. I hate how hard it is to find mental health help. Every resource in my network seems to be booked.

This absolutely feels ambitious; but aren’t all my goal lists?

What are you hoping to accomplish or get done during these last few months of 2020?