Attainable Goals

If you are like many people you may be thinking about new years resolutions. I have never been a big fan of new years resolutions. They tend to be big things that are somewhat unrealistic for most people... like working out 5 times a week when you have never worked out, losing 50 pounds, etc.

So this year I wanted to set a couple attainable goals for next year. Things that will help our family in the long run. Things that are doable. Things that I believe with a little work we can accomplish. Goals that are within reach and that we aren't setting us up to fail.

Our goals are not earth shattering or ones that will be life changing. But things that hopefully we can learn from and make smaller changes to our daily lives that will affect us more in the long run.

So big number 1: Do the compact for 2 months... 2 separate months, I'm thinking March and September but not sure yet. A friend of ours is doing the compact for 6 months and while I am not brave enough to commit to doing it that long. My hope is that doing it twice this year, each for a month will give us some insight into what things we are spending money on that we don't need to. For those of you who don't know about the compact, it started in California as a pact between ten friends to not buy new for one year. To decrease your impact on the earth, be a bit greener, recycle, buy used etc. What Jessi did was give her family 600$ for the 6 months to buy new things (clothes, gifts, etc). This excludes things that you can't or shouldn't buy used (food, gas, bills, house payment etc.). You still can pay for services (oil change etc). So our plan is to do 75$ for each of the months and be very intentional on what we spend it on. We'll have to make some of the rules up as we go and see what happens... obviously there are a few things we wouldnt wait on (like if the furnace died, we'd have to get a new one, etc). My plan is that anytime I see something that I would normally have wanted and think I may still want it at the end of the month is to write it down along with the cost. At the end of the month, we'll take a look at the list and see what things we still need/want and what ones would have been more impulse buys. My plan is not to stock up on things we may need or anything before the month we choose. In January, my hope is to attempt to keep receipts for everything and track what we are spending our money on so that I have a baseline to compare too. Hopefully by doing this it will help us save a little money, be a little greener, and learn to be less of an impulse shopper....

Goal number 2.... decrease processed foods! Not that I dont love the ease of chicken nuggets, the speediness of hotdogs, and the comfort of Kraft Mac & Cheese but they obviously aren't the healthiest things in the world. So my plan.... to decrease processed foods, to shop the outer ring of the supermarket more. It may cost a bit more but my hope is to make sure we are eating at least 3 meals a week with little to no processed foods. We'll eat up the crap that we have and then start eating better. Not to say that we wont eat processed ever, just less often... And fastfood will become a special treat instead of a common feast!

Goal number 3..... increase family time! This may be the hardest as we tend to all be busy especially now that basketball season has started, but we will make a conscious effort not to schedule things on nights when everyone could be home if its during a week where one of us is gone a lot.

I have a few random little things I'd like to get done as well over the year such as organizing the basement (already in progress), painting the kitchen/living/dining rooms, getting a storage shed for outside, and building raised gardens for vegis in the summer.

So as we move toward 2011, wish us well on our goals! Hopefully what we have set forth will be attainable and we will learn a little something on the way. Throughout the year, I will randomly post about our progress (or lack of progress). And will look for ideas from all of you to keep us going!