1. After I get home on Wednesday I will do my best to get back on my juice/healthy eating/exercise regime to give myself a pre-Christmas boost. But at this time of year the temptations are many, and I am weak. I do like wearing my small jeans though, so that's a great incentive.

2. I want to make as many gifts as possible this Christmas - I'll bake brownies, and I have a recipe for some awesome pumpkin blondies that are gluten-free. All the TV commercials are turning me off the idea of Christmas shopping, and the commercialisation of December is very wearying.

3. I would like to try to do some voluntary or charitable work this month, although I'm not sure exactly what.

Don't know if I'll make it with the holidays, but I hope to be no longer overweight (according to BMI) by the end of the month. That would mean losing 6 more pounds (I've lost 32 since August).

1. I've been sick for the last two weeks and couldn't eat much so I lost weight. I would like to keep that up (the losing weight part, not the sick part).

2. Having just gone through hell traveling for Thanksgiving, I will not travel for the December holidays. Hopefully I will never travel for any holidays ever again, but at least not this month. If that means Christmas alone I really don't care.

3. I would like to read more and watch less tv. ("tv" means anything involving staring at moving objects on any kind of screen.)

1. I want to figure out my tv/dvr situation. It's been months now that the Simple.tv (HA what a joke that name is) has not installed properly and I need to get a refund, and some answers, from their crappy support team. I also need to research new alternatives.

2. Rolling over 401ks. I know this is probably easy but it is SO intimidating to me. I have 3 accounts still at the old jobs where they started and I need to get them into my current one. (If anyone has tips or reassurances I'd be grateful)

3. Filling out healthcare reimbursement forms for this whole year :(

4. Set up a meeting with a financial adviser. We got our accounts and credit cards merged and I put my savings in an IRA but we need to know what to do next and what to do with E's savings.

5. Getting through the holidays at E's family's house in Illinois. My goals are to not complain about the mold and mildew, to pretend to be chipper in the morning, and to not be resentful of the way it is making my work travel plans harder.

Not to be discouraging, rmless2, but rolling over your puney 401K (as opposed to some gazillionaire's 401K) is pure hell. Both sides don't give a shit about you. You're too small to take seriously, and not small enough for the one side to give up the money.

One side told me I had to produce a letter from my HR department, despite this requirement not being written down anywhere. The HR person said it was bullshit and wouldn't do it. The other side sat on my application for weeks because it couldn't be bothered to actually just call me and tell me that a line in the application was blank (it was supposed to be blank). Oh, that was hell. My deepest sympathies.

Aaargh that is what I suspected and why I haven't done anything. Paperwork is my undoing, and when people make it hard I just give up which is I know what they want me to do.
So what happens if I just leave my 401ks where they are forever and have a million separate ones? Is that bad or is it whatever? Will I have future problems?

Get the clothes that don't fit me anymore tallied and sent over to Housing Works

Replace the broken toilet

Start rolling coins

OK, hoping to do better on these goals this month:

1. Eat nutritarian

2. Running, yoga and strength workouts on regular basis

3. Return to Duolingo and learn some more Italian

4. Read some more Finnegan's Wake

1. Since we closed on the mortgage I'm waiting for Dec. 6. That's when the cash hits the bank. God willing and the creek don't rise.

2. Pay off all of our credit cards. My student loan. And most of all, pay back my mother the $5000 she let us a while ago. Out of debt!

3. That makes our monthly payment ~$380. As opposed to almost $2000.

4. Able to buy Christmas presents! Finally!

5. The wife and I were married on Dec.1st. So we will go to the most decadent restaurant for a 3rd Anniversary dinner. Also FINALLY!

Splunge! What great news! Congratulations!

It's so good to be out of debt. If I can offer some advice, it'd be this: by all means use your credit cards, particularly if you earn rewards on them. But make sure you pay them off in full every month, without fail. I use my American Express card for everything so I can earn air miles. But I never roll over any debt on it. So AmEx earns money from the merchant fees the traders I use have to pay to AmEx, but it earns nothing from me in the way of interest.