Okay, it's a new year and some things will be changing around my house. Life has been way too hectic and it has to stop at some time. This is the year we will make it happen. I'm looking at reducing our debt, decluttering our home and making more money. I've gotten off to a good start and hopefully can keep this up. I also plan on exercising more with the kids so the Wii is back out and we have been using it for the past two days. I had forgotten how much fun it is.
To reduce our debt, I plan on doing a number of things. No more eating out or ordering food in. If we do this, it will be a big treat and happen no more than once a month. Since I will be cooking every single day, Joey will have more to take for lunch and he can cut back there also. To start this off right, I made a new recipe in the crockpot. I do have to say we weren't overly impressed with it, but everyone ate.
I also plan on using coupons at the grocery store again to stock up on sales. I have gotten away from that recently and it shows in our food bill. As I would like to have a full pantry and freezer at all times, I think this will definitely help. Food prices are going up so quickly that in another year we may not be able to feed our kids. Just kidding.
A garden this year would also be nice to achieve that goal. It's hard for me to find the time to garden, but I'm going to do my best to make it happen. Joey will help as will the kids so maybe we can have the garden we want this year. If not, I will grow potatoes in a trash can and some tomatoes in a pot. It's a start. I would love to learn to can this year also, but I'm trying not to get too ambitious. One step at a time.
As far as the debt goes, my first step is to put $1,000 in the bank for savings. That will allow us to get through any emergencies with ease. Once that is done we will start working on the medical and other bills we have. As we don't have credit cards anymore, I know we won't be incurring any new debt unless it is of the medical kind. We've been blessed in that area so far and are healthy for the most part.
To help pay off this debt, I have started looking for new writing gigs. I applied with two companies yesterday which pay residuals rather than up-front payments. I applied with a third today and already created my first page with them. You can see it at http://hubpages.com/hub/Preparing-for-the-Future. I plan on posting there at least three times a week. Hopefully this will increase my income and have us completely out of debt within one year.
Decluttering will also be a top priority this year. We started on that today and I am making a pile for Goodwill. Once that load has been taken, we will start preparing for our homeschool support group swap-and-shop. I would like to reduce the items in our house by a minimum of 20% this year and possibly more. We filled up a trash bag full of stuff today and will be able to do the same thing every week if we keep at it.
So now that others know my goals for 2011, hopefully I will be able to stick with them. If I start to falter, I'll post it here so others can get on me about staying on track. We have so much to be thankful for and I think it is time to simplify life. By doing the above things, we will be moving in the right direction. It's a start.
You have some great goals for the year. It sounds like you are trying to keep them simple which is important. The gardening can seem challenging, but if you set it up, it can pay off in years to come. We do not can, but we manage to have enough for ourselves and to share with the neighbors each year without running a farm.
ReplyDeleteI would love that, but we are the only ones in our neighborhood who garden. It's sad that more people don't do this.
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