2018: A New Year equals New Goals

Hey guys!!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.  Ours was great, jammed packed with food, parties, gifts, family and of course STRESS !  But hey, we made it through and now it’s a New Year so that means New Goals are all I’m thinking about.  I recently sat down and wrote out a list of goals that I want to accomplish this year.  Then I sat back and looked at it and realized I would be lucky to accomplish half of it in 5 years.  Does anyone else have these kinds of crazy expectations when New Years rolls around?  So then I reined in my overachiever trait and let the real and tired mom reality of my life make some actual goals that can be accomplished with the crazy busy schedule that we have.  Here is a look at some things I hope to work on this year.

Budgeting…

We got some awesome news at the end of 2017.  My husband, who has been a critical care nurse for the past 7 years, was accepted into Nurse Anesthetist School!!!  I am crazy proud of him and I know that he will do great!  One very scary thing about him going back to school is that he will not be working for the next 3 years.  On top of that CRNA school is not cheap ya’ll!!  So needless to say, we will need to be on a VERY tight budget from now on.  He starts school in the middle of May, so he plans to work as much overtime as possible till then to save up.  In the meantime I am thinking of ways to save money on everything and here are just a few:

Track Spending

I am going to try out a free trial of You Need A Budget.  I heard about this program from Young House Love’s podcast and recently signed up for a 3 month free trial (no credit card required).  Since I am just starting to figure it out, I don’t know if it will work for me. If it goes well, I will let ya’ll know.  It is only $7 a month to keep using it after the free trial which isn’t bad.  I am also looking at Dave Ramsy’s Every Dollar program which is $10 a month.  I am hoping that using one of these programs will help me establish a routine and understand my spending.  Once I have things under control, I am hoping I can do it on my own and not have to keep paying for the program.

Unsubscribe from Emails

If you know me, you know that I have a shopping problem.  Like, give me all the home decor and craft supplies shopping problem .  One thing that does not help this problem is getting 100 emails every day from all my favorite stores telling me everything I love is on sale right now.  I just unsubscribed from all of these email lists yesterday.  Now I won’t know if there is a sale, so hopefully this will keep me out of their stores and off of their websites!

Sell EVERYTHING

This goal will hopefully also help me with my dream of cleaning out and completely organizing my house .  I know that this one will definitely be a slow process, but I plan to use things like Varage Sale, Let Go, Facebook Marketplace, and good ole Craigslist so sell random items in my house that we no longer need.  I will set up a system of trying to sell a few things at a time, then will donate anything that doesn’t sell.

Meal Plan

I started meal planning after I set up this Meal Planning center in my pantry.  I have been fairly good about it since then but need to get my butt in gear now that the holidays have passed and I have run out of leftovers .  One idea to keep myself accountable for making a meal plan every week would be to share what I’m cooking either here or on my Facebook page.  Let me know what ya’ll think and if ya’ll want to share what you are cooking too so that we can all get some new ideas.

Organize….something

You know that I want to organize EVERYTHING!!  But my time is limited with working full time and having two crazy playful girls.  So here is me being realistic.  I’m going take one small project at a time.  One drawer, cabinet, or closet is a lot less daunting than an entire room.  I’m using my Home Project List to focus on small projects in each room that requires no spending.  Light fixtures and door knobs are just going to have to wait.  Here are some main areas that I hope to focus on this year:

Girl’s Closet

My girls are growing like weeds!  Their closet’s need an overhaul and a better design for the space.  Also, I am hoping to move Elise into Abigail’s room with her when she turns 2 in May.  They currently have their own rooms but I think them sharing a room while they are young will be fun.  When they get bigger, they can spread out again into their own rooms.  Anyone else has done this with their kids?

Garage

My garage is a constant struggle for me. We clean it out, then within a month or two it’s back how it was before where you can barely walk in it.  It’s where things go to die , seriously!  I am hoping to build a workbench in the spring to corral all of our tools and project supplies.  I also need to work out a place to keep all the kid’s bikes and outside toys.  Once we have some better organization systems in place, hopefully we can keep it clean and to where you can actually pull a car into it once in a while!

Homework Room/ Front Entry

I have a buffet in what used to be my formal dining room.  Last year I started to convert the space into a homework room but have yet to clean out the buffet to make it more functional for the space.  This room is right off the foyer which can also use some attention.  I hope to clean out the cabinet and coat closet that are filled with things I hide when company comes over and I need to do a quick clean up .  Please tell me I’m not the only one who has a hiding spot like this, haha.  In the picture below is my Family Command Center, which is the one space that is organized in this area.  Now I just need to get the rest of this area to function this good .

Projects & Crafts

Since we will be on a tight budget from now on, lots of projects will have to be put on hold.  However, I still have big plans using supplies or items that we already have.

Embroidery and Silhouette

I have everything I need in my craft room and don’t need to buy a thing, thank goodness .  I hope to share more tutorials on how to embroider and use the Silhouette Cameo to make shirts and other crafts.

Decorate with what I Already Have

As mentioned above, I LOVE to shop for home decor!  So much so that I buy things even when I’m not quite sure where I’m going to put them.  Or I have intentions of hanging things up on the wall, but always wait to make sure I figure out exactly where I want to put it.  So needless to say I have a closet full of frames and other wall decor that I can decorate with.  I plan to finally go through my stash and actually USE it.  If there is anything that I no longer love, then I will sell it.

The Great Room Switcheroo

Currently, I have 3 bedrooms and a bonus room upstairs in my home.  The bonus room is a play room.  Abigail and Elise each have their own room. The last room is my craft room which also is used as a guest room (twin bunk beds).  Abigail is 5 and every night when she goes to sleep she complains that she doesn’t like being all alone in her room.  I told her once Elise turns 2 that maybe she can share a room with her.

Since my husband is starting school in May, he is going to need a quite space to study.  The plan is to change Abigail’s bed from a full to a twin and turn Elise’s crib into a toddler bed and move it into the room.  Then Elise’s room will become an office for Chris and guest room using the full bed from Abigail.  This also means taking down the twin bunk beds in my craft room so that the girls can use the twin mattress’s.  I am really looking forward to that !  I’m really excited about this new plan for our upstairs and can’t wait to share with you how everything turns out.

Well thats enough for now.  I of course have a million other things I hope to accomplish this year but I think the goals I mentioned above might actually be get done .  What are your new goals for the new year?  Share in the comments below!

The post contains affiliate links and I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on my link.  All opinions are my own and I only promote products that I use and love.

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