Jim and I are dubbing 2006 the "Year of the Pinched Penny"--because we really need to! Every year, I set a goal of getting on track with our finances, and staying there, and every year it doesn't happen. This is not to say that we are in debt way over our heads, or next door to bankruptcy, or whatever, but we are very bad about budgeting and sticking to it, and not too good about saving, either. We don't use credit cards (aside from Jim's Home Depot card for business), but we do use our debit card extravagantly, and a lot of times we buy things just on a whim, because we want something and don't want to wait and save for it. Then we find ourselves wondering where all the money has gone. So, this year our big financial goal is to create a working budget, make ourselves stick to it, and tithe, save, and live as frugally as possible. We did make some small steps toward these goals over the past year, so it wasn't a complete failure. One of the best things we did was set up a "Freedom Account" (a term borrowed from author Mary Hunt. I'd highly recommend her books Debt Proof Your Marriage and Debt-Proof Living, by the way.). This is another checking account where we set aside money for things like insurance, property taxes, Christmas gifts, etc. We try to put a good size amount in there most every month, and it is truly a lifesaver when it comes time to pay those big things like taxes or insurance, that we only pay once a year. Instead of having to "steal" money from our savings account for the big things, it's already set aside in the Freedom Account. We're also trying to put at least 10% of every paycheck into our savings account.
Some of my other goals for this year are:
~To have a consistent, daily walk with God
~To eat more healthy (as in more fruits, veggies, salads, etc., and less sweets and fat)
~To exercise more regularly (specifically, go for walks)
~To drink more water (aiming for 64 oz. a day)
~To give birth to our new baby, in the comfort of our home
~To be more patient with my husband and children
~To get organized with all of my paper piles--find places for everything, and keep it there!
~To get back into the Flylady system with my housekeeping
~To work hard at decorating and beautifying our home
~To work at developing an even happier marriage, and communicating better with my husband
~To read books that will help me grow spiritually, as a wife and mother, and help me in organizing and caring for my home
Seems like a big list, but I'm sure there are many I've left out! Anyway . . . I know I won't achieve all these overnight, but I'm hoping to take some baby steps toward meeting my goals. I often set goals for the new year, but often don't have them written down somewhere so I can go back and see how I'm doing. Hopefully having them written here on my blog for myself and everyone else to see, will help me work harder at achieving them.
By the way, we are back home now. We arrived around 1:30 am on Sunday, and took the whole day to rest up a bit. Today Jim is back to work, and Sam and I are trying to fall back into our normal routine. I've been able to unpack most of our stuff from the trip, as well as un-decorate the Christmas tree, so hopefully we can get it out of the house tonight when Jim gets home. It's really dry! It will feel good to get all the needles vacuumed up and the furniture moved back to its regular places.
Our trip home was almost eventful, but thankfully not quite. When we were just a couple hours into our trip, traveling a fairly busy highway through the Akron/Canton area of Ohio, a small car suddenly cut right in front of us. It seemed there was no way to avoid hitting it; Jim slammed on the brakes, squealing the tires and swerving as best he could, but I was sure we would crash into the other car at any moment. I'm convinced we had some angels holding us back, or giving the other car a swift push, because we never did hit it. It was quite the scary experience, but all's well that ends well! In retrospect, it was rather amusing that the other car's license plate read "ZERO." We had a good time speculating if that stood for his IQ, or for what he wanted to turn his car into, or what. It seemed appropriate, at any rate.
Well, I suppose I should make myself get up and do something profitable before Jim gets home. I'm so happy I've had the chance to update my blog at long last, though. Thanks to anyone who's still reading after my long absences! :) Till next time . . .
2 comments:
With two kids in diapers, we found that we were going through a lot of baby wipes. I was intending to ask you about this when we were in Ohio, but forgot. Have you tried making your own? I started making them a few months ago. Spending a couple of dollars every two weeks for paper towels is so much nicer than the $7 - $8 we had been spending on ready made wipes! I use the Kleenex Viva (strong like cloth) towels. They're the softest that I have found yet and are fairly finger-poking-through-resistant. We go through maybe one roll of paper towels each week.
I also like the fact that I can alter the ingredients to make them more wet or dry. And I also found that the towels with the little bumps on them seemed to scratch the baby a bit if I used them too much (maybe I should have added more lotion, but these do seem softer)
Just a thought. I know that with more kids, there are always more things that you have to buy and having some things that you can cut back on seems to help a bit!
Thanks for the suggestion, Joanne! I have heard of people doing this, but never yet tried it myself. I think I will, though, because we're running low on wipes right now, so it would be a good time to give it a try. :) I'll email you with more questions re: ingedients, etc.
Post a Comment