2011 Goal Recap

Way back in Jan, I posted about my goals for 2011 and I'm sure y'all want to know how I did.

Buy organic meat and dairy
We did pretty good with this, not 100% but as our budget would allow. Our definition of dairy in the capacity is basically just milk and eggs. Everything else is just too darn expensive. But it's a start. We got two batches of beef from a local farm and it tastes so much better than all other beef.

Open an Etsy store
Done and done. I also have a few things in a consignment story up in Cedarburg and have sold several other random things to friends and family. Now I'm busy making some Christmas gifts.

Save
Well, our goal was mighty and we think that we will fall a little short. But there is still a month left and some overtime money left to collect. We have saved a lot though and are really proud of the decisions we have made. Our envelope budget system continues to work well for us and Christopher does an awesome job balancing our finances and figuring out where it all goes.

Have a potted vegetable and herb garden
I hesitated to plant anything (I think because I was in mourning over not having my yard) but once I got over that I did pretty good. I learned a lot about growing stuff in pots and about growing vegetables in general. Just about everything needed more room than I gave it but we still have a nice showing of tomatoes, peppers and herbs. The herbs did great and I had hoped to continue to grow some inside for the winter but they were not agreeable to this plan.

Learn how to can
This was kinda lumped into the garden goal but I am pretty proud that I learned how to can this year so it deserves it's own category in the recap. I did successfully can salsa, spaghetti sauce and applesauce. The salsa and the applesauce turned out great; the spaghetti sauce is a little ... um, smoky because I burnt the bottom of the pot (which was just a hot mess to clean up). Next year I will do salsa and diced tomatoes along with the applesauce. It was a lot of work but now that it's winter and we are eating "fresh" salsa and applesauce, it was worth it.

I am thinking about my goals for next year --- they involve connecting, baking and more craft-ing.

Do you make yearly goals? what are some of yours?