A New Beginning...

   

     Many of us tend to use the start of a New Year to change things we didn't like last year.  Improve, adjust, add.  I am one of those people who love a blank slate, a fresh start.  But all too often, I find I put too much on myself all at once.  I want to change everything on January 1.

     It is insanely stressful and unrealistic when I do that.  Budget, eat completely clean, focus on the kids, minimize internet, be an amazing homeschool mom, keep a spotless house, organize every room floor to ceiling, clean out the basement... the list goes on.

     Not this year.  This year I decided to take things in chunks.  In January I am going to focus on our rhythm (home and school), and budgeting.

January Goals:

• Create a school rhythm, and work home into it.
• Create a budget.
• Make a reasonable plan for sticking to the budget.
• Only eat out for pizza night and the occasional spur of the moment meal. (Note:  Occasional is not every day...)
• Work on my will

     Yes, I'd love to start eating clean, lose weight, take care of myself, and all those wonderful things.  But trying to create an entirely new menu of healthy meals and still stick to a budget and not stress myself out just isn't going to happen.  Instead I am going to start with meals I know, easy meals that will ensure my success.  Then, once I start feeling comfortable (or when I get an itch to try something on pinterest) I will add in a new recipe.

     That is the plan!  Happy New Year!

Changes

Today I realized something.  While using a new app for my iPad (HomeBudget), I came to the shocking reality of needing to *actually* budget.  Normally, we do very well with budgeting, meaning we have always been able to pay our bills.  We don't carry a balance on anything except the mortgage.  Although we do pay for everything with our Discover (or Visa, if Discover isn't accepted) we pay them off monthly.  It has benefited us greatly to do this, because we get 1-5% or more back on everything.

Lately, expense after expense has been coming up, and after inputing everything into this new app, I realized if we don't make some changes, we could be in trouble in the near future.  My job, as a stay-at-home-mom, is to be in charge of the home, the finances, etc.  And I have been doing a good job, but not a "great" job.

So basically what I'm getting at, is although I knew we were making big changes in our lives by getting ready to homeschool (Monday!  Eeek!), we will also be making more changes from finances, to schedules, menus and food...  It's kind of ironic that Mommy will be learning/improving "math" and "home economics" right alongside the girls.