Monday, January 4, 2010

My 2010 Goals

I have been pondering long enough! Time to get some goals written down. I've actually had a lot of these items on my mind for a while and it's nice to get them written down.

1. Improve my Menu Plan: Menu plan breakfast, lunch and dinner for at least 5 days a week. Enough said!

2. Eat more fruits and veggies: This goes along with getting organized enough to plan three meals a day

3. Become a better housekeeper: I'm TERRIBLE at keeping house! So I purchased a Motivated Moms weekly planner to help me keep our home shiny and clean (as I roll on the floor laughing!!)

4. Cultivate new friendships: I have made a few new friends towards the end of 2009 in our new neighborhood and through blogging (YIPPEE!). I'm looking forward to expanding my social network.

5. Consistent DQT: two small children have managed to disrupt my morning Bible study and prayer. I think switching to the evening after they go to bed will work better, but I'm usually so tired so I just don't do it! I'm tired right now thinking about it! But I will TRY!

6. Prepare to buy a new (to us) car the Dave Ramsey way: our van is dying so it's time to start researching and planning for a new vehicle -- hopefully not until 2011 but we need to prepare!

Did you set any goals for 2010? Any suggestions on how to accomplish mine?

4 Thoughts From Others:

Gina @ MoneywiseMoms said...

I saw your comment about your financial goals on my blog and you're exactly where we were 1 year ago! Our 10 yr old van died in November, but it felt so good to be saving every month for it. It was also motivating when I wanted to eat out or spend money to say, "No, that's $20 more towards the van." Keeping yourself on the meal plan will be fantastic for saving money.

For your bible study, I don't suppose you can get up a little earlier than the kids? Or are yours early risers like mine, getting up before 6:00am?

Camille said...

I will have a much better peace of mind once we get a new vehicle! It has died on us twice in the last month, which is just nerve wrecking. We know how we can get half the amount we want saved, it's the other half that will be made up of the $20 here and there! Thanks for the encouragement!

Yeah, I'm happy if my kids sleep in until 6 AM! I get up at 5:30 AM just to try and get a jump start on breakfast. I think I'd have to get up around 4 AM to make sure they didn't interrupt me, which would just mean an earlier bed time, I suppose!

ErinOrtlund said...

You probably read this in the Tightwad Gazette, but Amy D. uses the "pantry principle." So she buys her staples at the lowest possible price and stocks up. So while it's good to plan your menus, there should optimally be flexibility to take advantage of sales you didn't know about, garden produce to use up (if you have one). The main things I'm going to do to lower our grocery bill (hopefully considerably):

--Make and use a price book as outlined in the TG.
--Eat mostly vegetarian meals
--Go to the store less often and have an amount in mind to spend per month.
--Do little things like substitute soy flour for eggs and dry milk for liquid milk when possible
--Make and freeze my own tortillas, pita bread, breads, muffins, various doughs
--Keep making my yogurt in a crockpot!
--Buy dried beans instead of canned. They are easy to cook up and can even be frozen once cooked for future use.
--Be more mindful about saving money in the garden--growing expensive stuff like strawberries and lettuce, making all my own compost and mulch if I can.

I also plan to scroll through your blog for more ideas!

Camille said...

I was looking in to soy flour, but then read all these terrible things about having too much soy...! Not sure if the flour counts in there, but I just let it go for the time being.

I should add tortillas to my list of things to make.

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