welcome 2014 and resolutions

2014...time flies and its a new year again!!   It'll take me most of January to write the date correctly....make it a great year!!!

I'm not sure why I do it, but I still make resolutions, along with much of the country...

Looking back at last year's resolutions I realized that in addition to the resolutions I'd planned to make smaller/short term goals, totally forgot about that!   Much like people forget about/give up on their resolutions
a few weeks into the year.

I like the idea of smaller/short term goals, keep myself accountable, and so I plan to do better at setting them -- that way each month is a new start.   I've also learned to be very specific and measurable with my resolutions/goals to make them easier to achieve (and to tell if you did achieve).

We were not very successful with last year's resolutions -- though we did start over with our tupperware, have been using mint.com, and did keep up with organizing various places in our house.   We also did the better way of making a change - when we saw the need for it.   I've been trying to organize my digital life, my personal email was a mess with all the various newsletters/advertisements I receive.  I found this service called Unroll.me and love that it puts all the subscriptions into an email that I receive once a day and makes it really easy to unsubscribe from those I no longer want (some I didn't know I even had!).  Already I can see the emails that I do want to read and reply to much easier without having to sift through the junk.  Our efforts to improve our workout room will also help us as we work to get into a new routine.

The rest of our resolutions:

1) Pay off 'bad' debt – starting with finishing paying off the living room furniture (interest free period ends in April), and then moving onto K's student loans -- we paid off one in 2013!   We'll be 'paying ourselves first' this way rather than just saving and paying unnecessary interest.

2) Travel more – we'd like to take at least 2 trips this year, and plan that one will be to a place we’ve never been.

3) Lose 20 lbs (each of us) – K plans to work out at least 3x per week –  I'll also plan for that often and work on eating more 'clean' (still need to work on how to make this one specific/measurable).

4) one just for me -- I've realized I have my mom's short temper and take it out on K which isn't right, so I need to work on better ways to communicate with him and not just getting mad....we can probably both work on our communication skills with each other.

5) reading!  I didn't make my goal of 20 books in 2013, but will try that again.  K reads a ton already.

Edited to add:
6) take my lunch break at work -- sounds odd, but I often work right through lunch/eat at my desk which isn't good for my eyes, brain, or my stomach....so I plan to step away to eat, even if I'm still in my office.

Resolution update

Something I love about blogging is that I can quickly look back at what we were up to last year, assuming that I blogged.    So as we approach the end of the year I find myself wondering how we did on resolutions.....usually a mix of good and bad.  How did we do with the 2012 resolutions? 
           
2012 resolutions

Stick with our budget - we did pretty well, I'll admit I feel more secure being on two incomes again and want to really buckle down and work on saving in 2013.

Travel somewhere neither of us have ever been – we did it!  Neither of us had ever been to Tahoe, in fact K had never been to Nevada so we did great on this one and had a memorable birthday for K while we were on our trip.

find quick, easy, healthy meals to cook and get a good group of 'go to' meals we can rotate to have a good mix of meals  fail, we did try some new recipes but we still struggle with what to make each day.  I need to find a better way to approach looking for new meals to try (NOT when I’m trying to make the grocery list).  Something to keep working on in 2013.

Make fitness a regular part of our day – we’re making improvements, as always something to continue to work on.

2012 has been really good to us, K finished grad school and started in his new career.  I’ve continued to grow in my career and we’ve grown as a couple.  We even welcomed a new member of the family – a fish!   I hope that 2013 has just as many good times waiting for us!



I’m becoming more and more of a believer that I should make a change when I want to and not wait for the beginning of a new year. I like the idea of short and long term goals and hope to make an effort to make both types of goals and accomplish them, but still find myself feeling like I should make New Year’s resolutions- if nothing else that dates sticks in your head as a starting point.  I will use some apps because I like to track my progress and they'll keep me honest, also help make it measurable

2013 Resolutions

1) Make fitness a regular part of our days -- we both need to get back into a routine and I need weights as well as cardio in my routine

 - track my workouts and my food on myfitnesspal in an effort to help me finally lose the weight I’ve been wanting to lose for years --- let me know if you're on this service, I need pals to keep me honest!

2) Instead of the vague 'save money', we will set up automatic savings to pull money into savings each month, as an easy start we'll use the money we had been allocating to the car payment since we'll have it PAID OFF next month!  
 - I also plan to set up our finances through an online system to be able to track it more consistently.  I already track with Excel, but want to see what tools these online (free) programs have


3) meal planning - find a different time during the week to look at meal possibilities and:

-          Try one new main dish each month

-          Try a new vegetable (or way to fix it) each month - if we succeed that'd be 12 new ways/dishes

-  find a better way to track meals we like...right now its all paper and excel  

4) Read more, watch less TV - I almost reached the 20 book goal this year (on goodreads), so I’ll use that same goal for 2013 - find me on goodreads!   I picked up a bunch of books on hold at the library today, cannot wait to get into them....I need to stagger them as there is no way I will read 5 books by the time they are due, but I put in a bunch of requests at the same time, if you haven't used your hold system at the library I highly recommend it!
  - K also plans to start his reading plan with the books he already has.

5) Organize one area of the house each month.  We are staying put in this house and so I want to make the best use of the space we have.   I've already started this one over the holiday, and will continue in small chunks - that is how I work best.   I already love the small changes made - a storage unit we had upstairs has been rearranged and is being put to better use in our bedroom closet.

The to do list will get much longer, but for now I have a few items on it:

- call our cable company to reduce our bill – called in Dec but they mentioned a better deal starting in January and gave me a $15 discount per month to hold me over
 - select and start to use an online financial system
- organize (may mean toss and start over) our tupperware collection

 HAPPY 2013!!!