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10 things to do at the start of every month: How to prepare for a smooth month ahead
In today’s post, I am outlining some things you can do at the start of each month to hopefully have a smooth month ahead.
The start of the month is an excellent time to reflect on the month that passed and to get ready to embrace the new month ahead of you.
I know that many of us have a ton going on in our lives- from school, to work, to family time, to social life, to a million things in between. Anything that can help with staying organized in the midst of all the busyness is a definite yes in my book.
So, without further ado, read on for my tips on what you can do at the beginning of every month to make it a smooth transition into the new month.
Pin for later! 🤗
10 Things To Do At The Start Of Every Month
Set specific goals
Goal setting at the beginning of the month is great for short-term goals, which you can use to achieve your long-term goals.
For example, you can set yourself a goal of exercising 3 times a week that month. By doing that, you will get closer to a long-term goal, for example, to become more fit.
Setting monthly goals will keep you motivated to achieve those goals, and you will be able to look at those monthly goals the following month and see if you need to re-visit them or move on to bigger goals.
Related:
8 WAYS TO REACH YOUR GOALS
Plan your month
Planning your month out at the beginning of the month obviously makes more sense than if you were to do it mid-month.
Jot down all your deadlines, events, projects and tasks, and anything else that you’ll have going on that month that you know of.
This will help you stay organized and you will end up saving a lot of time and headache down the road.
I’ve used many planners in the past but lately, I have been using a Happy Planner and really like it. It’s simple and straightforward, and because I’m a huge nerd, I like physical planners rather than digital. But to each his own!
If you’re new to planning, try out my free weekly planner to get you started!
Pay your bills
Seriously, get those things out of the way at the beginning of the month for a couple of reasons.
First, you will be left with so much less stress. Bills are a giant pain in the butt for many of us and because it’s a task we might not enjoy doing, getting it out of the way at the beginning of the month makes more sense.
Second, a lot of us usually have more money at the beginning of the month than at the end, especially if you get paid a monthly salary like I do.
I can’t imagine getting to the end of the month and either not paying my bill and then having to pay late fees, or having to dip into my savings for a measly bill. No thanks!
Related:
12 MONEY HABITS TO START IN YOUR TWENTIES
Make a budget
Speaking of money, create your budget at the beginning of the month.
This way you will know exactly how much you have to spend that month and you can plan accordingly.
Everything I know about budgeting I learned from The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. If you’re new to budgeting and don’t know where to start, I highly recommend this book.
Related:
WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR MONEY ON PAYDAY
Purchase birthday presents
If you have any birthdays coming up that month, go ahead and start shopping for birthday cards and presents.
I know I’m usually scrambling to get gifts a few days before someone’s birthday, so this is a good way of avoiding that.
If you only need to have birthday cards on hand, buying them in bulk here is also a good option.
Schedule appointments
Need to get your hair re-dyed this month? Schedule it ahead of time. The same goes for nails, massages, facials, or whatever else you want to get done that month.
Make sure to also schedule your doctors and dentist appointments for the month, too. The sooner you know when everything will be taking place, the better for your organization.
Get all your appointments scheduled at the beginning of the month, and jot them down in your planner for easy reference.
Clean your car
I don’t know about you, but my car can get pretty dusty very quickly.
A good trick I found to make sure I keep up with the cleanings is to clean it at the beginning of the month. This way, I know exactly when the last time it got cleaned was, and I don’t have to go too long between car washes.
It also helps with starting the month on a clean note! There’s nothing better than a clean space.
Have an “office day”
Set one day at the beginning of the month to do all the boring office-esque stuff that piles up all month long.
Examples of this include:
- deleting unnecessary pictures off your phone
- deleting any unneeded emails
- organizing your desk drawer
- filing your documents
You get the picture! Get those over with at the beginning of the month so that you can relax and forget about them until next month rolls around. 😊
Clean your fridge
Just as I touched on cleaning your car at the beginning of the month, doing the same with your fridge is equally as important.
At the beginning of the month, set some time to clean out your fridge. Make sure to check all the expiry dates and throw away anything you won’t be eating anymore.
This will start your month on an organized note, and you will also make more space for your fresh food, which I will get to next.
Meal plan and shop for staples
Meal planning at the beginning of the month is a great way to keep you organized when it comes to your food shopping.
Not only does it make your shopping easier, but it also helps you with saving money! Once you know what you will be cooking, only buy those items.
You will be creating less food waste, and less money spent than if you were to go shopping blindly!
If you’re looking for a great meal-planning solution, this one is magnetic so you can easily have it on your fridge! Talk about convenience.
I hope you liked my tips on what you can do at the beginning of each month to prepare and stay organized!
Would you add anything to this list? What’s something you like to do at the beginning of each new month? Leave it in the comments! 🤗
If you enjoyed this post, please pin it so it reaches more people!
10 Things To Do At The Start Of Every Month
These are all such good ideas. Besides staying organized a lot of these tips could help me save some extra money every month. Thanks for the tips!
Absolutely! Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂
A lot of these things I do already but I LOVE the clean your fridge and office type decluttering. I do a lot of planning and goal setting at the beginning of each month but I definitely could do some decluttering too!
Decluttering definitely helps keep the mess away! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
I really enjoyed reading these tips. I struggle with being organized lately so this is perfect!
xoxo Simone | https://beautymone.com
Great to hear that! I hope you got some ideas 🙂
These tips are amazing! I personally never thought about buying birthday gifts in advance. But that can be a true life savior. I usually do all these things without even noticing, so thanks for the insight. Lovely post.
Thank you so much, Amanda!
Great ideas that I need to implement. I saved the pin to reference for later. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you so much!
Great ideas! Some of these are real time savers. I like to use my bullet journal to plan my month and write down goals.
I need to learn how to bullet journal- those look so relaxing!
I don’t do all of these things but I definitely do a few of them to plan for each month. I love setting myself new monthly goals! x
Monthly goals are my favorite too! They make it easy to work towards something. 😊
Great tips – I already do a few of these, which is good! Love the idea of having an office day – I do this for my blog but perhaps I should extend it to my personal life as well.
You should try it, it really helps with staying organized and eliminates a lot of clutter!
These are awesome staples to start with. I definitely already do the office day, clean car. But the buy birthday gifts is a wonderful idea! I always find myself doing that last minute!
I’m glad you think so! I started doing this recently and a lot of weight has lifted off my shoulders as I don’t have to scramble last-minute anymore!
All great ideas! I especially like the tasks of cleaning the car, fridge and deleting old pics off the phone! A great way to start the month!
I’m happy you think so! 🙂
A lot of blogs like yours have helped me so much. I never had monthly plan or jotted plans/budget down but since I started implementing these ideas, my days have been going smooth. I just started having monthly goals and honestly it has made me realize what I needed to work on and I am improving daily. Thank you so much for sharing these tips.
That’s so nice to hear! I love keeping track of my goals too!
Great post to stay organised for a whole month long! I can easily mess up everything, lol. This will help me a lot. Deleting old pics, really a great idea. Thank you so much 😊
I’m happy you think so! Thank you so much for reading 🙂
Very helpful! Great info!
Thank you!
Truly great tips! I will definitely doing more of these!
Awesome! 🙂
This is so incredibly clever! I like to plan out my cleaning and bill paying schedule at the beginning of the month, but there are so many great ideas here that I’m going to have to start implementing! Especially the meal planning. I always scramble to get something healthy and tasty on the table…if I plan out a month in advance, all the work is done for me! Great post!
Absolutely! Especially if you have a few meals that you can rotate around weekly. 🙂
Love all of these! Definitely starting these April 1, and that’s NOT an April Fools joke! 🤗
Haha great to hear! Enjoy a productive April! 🙂
I’m glad am seeing this now. Am definitely planning ahead in April for maximum organization. I recently starting scheduling my tasks and it’s been a lot easier. Thank you for the for the helpful tips
I’m so happy you found them helpful!
I strive to be this organized one day. Well I guess I can start with baby steps. Thanks for the tips!
Absolutely! Baby steps are the way to go! 🙂
I love all of this list of things to do at the beginning of every month. I always make a habit to pay off my bills way before they’re due in full. Might as well get the pain out of the way lol. Oooh! I like the office day! I need to do that. I try to clean out my car at least once a week. Thanks for sharing!
Nancy ♥ exquisitely.me
That’s so good that you clean your car weekly! Honestly I need to do that. It gets dusty so quick!
Oh I like this idea of planning for the month ahead. What a great way of achieving goals one month at a time!
Thank you! I’m glad you like it 🙂
These ideas are great – and just in time for a new month!
Rosie
I’m rubbish at staying organised, it’s definitely something I need to work on. I used to do monthly goals but I started getting lazy – I’d love to get back to that. I also like the idea of starting the month with an admin and cleaning day – such a simple thing to kick it off well!
I absolutely LOVE this post. Of all the ‘how to be organised’ blog posts on the internet, this is by far the BEST one that I have read. I especially love your tips on scheduling appointments and getting birthday cards and presents at the beginning of the month. I honestly mean it, I feel like this post is going to change my life. Thank you so much for making amazing content and sharing it with us x
You are so sweet, Charlotte! I’m so happy you enjoyed the post!
I am so happy that I found you on Pinterest. I especially love your easy to follow directions. I have been looking for this type of help for a long time. I am disorganized and stressed all the time about all of your topics. I just need to make my life simpler and stop procrastinating all month with things I should have been tackling at the beginning of the month! Thank you for your help and keep up the good work.🎃
That’s so nice of you to say, thank you! Best of luck on your journey. 🙂
I always procrastinate buying birthday gifts and then it is panic mode last min. That was a great little tip to be mindful of it beginning of the month and put it on your to-do list..Thank you!
Nice tips that I will keep in mind and also start following the . Thanks a million !
Great list. Great way to start each month
Happy you liked it!
I check air in my tires, the oil and change the air filter to my AC in the house.
Oh these are amazing suggestions! Thank you for sharing!
Invest a percentage of your money at the beginning of the month so you save for the future.
Very good tips. Thanks
Awesome tips and timing couldn’t be better as its the last day of the month.
Thank you I needed this today.
I’m so glad I read this and I can see where it would be beneficial. Basically I do most of this but scheduling it all for a certain time of month would be so much better than me doing it all thru the month as I do. Thanks for putting things into prospective.
Sharon
These are such good ideas especially when I stay at home and say I’ll do it tomorrow and you know when tomorrow comes too much happens gayleen
Love this so much! Thanks for the helpful reminders 😊
Aloha! Just came across your blog on Pinterest:) thanks for sharing. Coming first hand it takes time to blog. Have a blessed rest of your year.
I love your blog and save everything on Pinterest. Keep it up
Thank you!
I’m 75 yrs old! I need to get on a daily schedule doing household chores! I know how to do them I just need a goal when and what days!
I love your ideas for what I call my monthly’s I also clean my dishwasher, washing machine, nespresso machine, restock all paper & cleaning products, fridge, air filter, plant food for all house plants, refill diffusers, wash bathroom rugs and probably forgetting many more. Great post I going to add all of your suggestions.
You sound so organized! Great job!!
I like to go through my closet at the beginning of each month. I can separate seasonal, pull out those clothes for donating and mending. Taking clothes to the dry cleaners at the beginning of the month keeps me on a schedule.