Happy New Year!

I took the month of December off from blogging. There were several reasons, the main one, life got too hectic! There was major sickness in our family — I’m happy to report that as of now everyone is healthy again.
So, I am back to the blog again.

I decided that I would make some New Years goals, notice I did NOT say New Years resolutions. I think when you make resolutions, you are often setting yourself up for failure. So, here are my goals:

1. Get our money under control! Before I was married, and it was just my finances, I always knew exactly where my money was. But, after getting married to a much more financially responsible person, I kind of let him take over the money management. I’ve come to realize that is not very smart. Not that my husband is irresponsible with money, but for one thing, it’s too much for one person to handle. Not the amount of money (unfortunately) but the budgeting and managing the comings and goings of it. And two, what if something happens to him!?? It dawned on me one day that if a truck hit my husband one day and I was left to fend for myself, I probably wouldn’t even know where to look for many of our accounts. Not the normal household account or savings account, but other savings, IRA, 401k etc. I’ve recently discovered that he pays expenses I didn’t even know about - how’s that for being out of the loop?

So, after tracking and reviewing all of the expenses for December, I’ve set up a spreadsheet and developed a budget for January. This is our first month truly living by a written, planned budget. I’ll let you know how it goes….

2. Getting involved in community activities and volunteering. I used to volunteer some, mainly in animal welfare charities. I really miss being involved in that community. So, I recently signed up to go back to Nashville Humane Association. I went to Volunteer orientation on Saturday. I hope to keep it up. More on my work there later.

3. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Our planet is going to H#ll in a Hand basket folks! The amount of trash that we humans produce is incomprehensive! I want to reduce the amount that my family produces. We already recycle at least 50% of our trash (paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, tin, etc). We’ve done that for years. It’s second nature to us to throw things in a recyling bin instead of the trash. But I want to take it further. I plan to start composting our food scraps. It will make good fertilizer for our garden in the spring and summer and will greatly reduce the amount of stuff that goes in the trash can. Metro Nashville actually has a composting center that educates residents on how to do backyard composting and sells the composters at a greatly discounted rate. I’ve also started using my own bags when shopping. I estimate that we’ve already saved at least 50 bags from being used during shopping trips since I started this a couple of months ago.

4. Get Elizabeth off of sippy cups. I’ve read that by age 4, children should not be using sippy cups at all. Elizabeth can drink out of a normal cup, but she’ still kind of clumsey and often spills opened cups. So, out of convenience I find myself putting lids on her cups instead of working with her to use an open cup. She turns 4 in April, so we have a little more time to work on it.

5. Learn to make wraps. Yes, this seems like a simple thing, hardly a goal, but it’s something I have not mastered. I love eating veggie wraps and they make a great, quick lunch. I just haven’t figured out how to make one and it stay together!

So, there are my goals. There will probably be more to come, but that’s what I will be focused on this year. Let’s see if I can do it!