A New Year

Usually I don’t make New Year’s resolutions because I break them by February. So instead of setting myself up for failure, I just don’t make resolutions. However, this year I have decided that there are some things in my life that need changing and what better time to change then at the new year. A new start, right? So here they are, my incredibly extreme (for me) resolutions:

Boycott Large Box Stores:
As the result of watching too many documentaries, I have decided to stop shopping at Target and Walmart. This is definitely a shocker, since they are by far some of my favorite places to shop. I have decided this for two reasons. First, I want to stop supporting large corporations with bad business practices. They don’t treat the environment or their employees well, and I am going to try to spend my money elsewhere. I do most of my grocery shopping at Trader Joes and Sprouts and feel OK about that. This summer I want to get most of my fruits and veggies from the Fullerton farmers market.

Second, I have a tendency to “impulse buy” at both stores. I’m really bad at sticking to my list, and find myself getting little things from the dollar bin or cute outfits for the kids almost every time I shop. My alternative is diapers.com/soap.com. Still a larger retailer, but their prices are good, they accept coupons (yeah!) and I don’t impulse buy (as much) when I shop online. For some reason, seeing the price of my shopping cart as I put things in tends to make me more conscious of what I’m buying. This may change as my second option after researching the company more, but for now I have been incredibly satisfied with my shopping experiences there. An added bonus is more time with my kids. By using diapers.com and soap.com, I can get what I need online in 20 minutes without having to pack the kids up to go to the store. Much easier.

Exceptions:
Vacation – While on vacation, all bets are off. If I need something in a pinch, I will shop wherever is convenient. Sadly, there are Walmarts everywhere.

Free stuff – If while visiting my couponing sites and find that something at Target/Walmart is free and/or super cheap with a coupon, I will allow myself to go shopping with cash and coupon in hand. I figure that I’m not contributing to their profits if I’m getting stuff for free, right?

No New Clothes for a Year:
While looking at my closet, I realize that I have way more clothes than any one person needs to have. Mostly, this is due to the fact that I don’t get rid of things when I should. I wear my clothes far past their prime. I also have a range of 5 sizes – skinny clothes, normal clothes, fat normal clothes, super fat clothes, and pregnancy clothes. Since I’m not planning on having more kids, I’m getting rid of the maternity clothes and super fat clothes. I’m working on getting out of the fat clothes and into my normal clothes.

I’m really trying to downsize (see next resolution) and become financially fit. Accumulating more clothes will not help me accomplish my other goals. I’m not a big spender when I do buy clothes (I shop at Ross, Goodwill, TJ Maxx) but I do buy quantity. I frequently go to the $1 sale at Goodwill and come home with 20 new things for $20. Such a deal, but stuff adds up fast.

Instead of buying clothes, I will wear what I have, exchange clothes with friends, and “re-fashion” my current wardrobe.

Exceptions:
A few items that are on the books that I will allow myself to buy: If my black cardigan needs replacing, I can purchase a new one. I wear them almost everyday and I’m in love with them. I also get a new bathing suit this summer, as I currently own one maternity bathing suit and new underwear since I am in desperate need of those too.

If I happen to get money or a gift card for my birthday/other holiday, I can buy clothes with them. I’m hoping to get some brown boots from Title Nine ☺ I will also happily accept clothes as gifts.

I can buy clothes for my kids. Jax is a big kid and is growing quickly. I know they will both need shoes (at least) during the year. Madi has a ton of clothes too, so she shouldn’t really need anything either.

If by some miracle I loose all of the weight I want to lose (25lbs) I get to buy myself a congratulations outfit. Who knows, by July I may be so desperate to go shopping that I’ll kick butt and lose weight just so I can get a new outfit.

Obligatory outfits – you know, weddings, etc. I’m hoping there is a wedding that I’ll get to be in somewhere in the near future (2011). If that’s the case, then I get a bridesmaid dress, and possibly a new dress for the rehearsal dinner/etc.

Become Financially Fit
I say this every year: I’m going to set a budget and stick with it. I never do. This year, I’m going to take small steps and work on little goals at a time. I’m not planning on getting rich this year (unless I win the lottery, which would be nice) but I would like to be in a better financial place at this time next year.

So here are my mini financial goals:
1. Get my Subaru fixed. Ballpark estimate is $2000 for a total overhaul. Transmission, rear-end service, the works. Hopefully this will last us a while. The plan is to get the car fixed in January.
2. Get my emergency fund back up to $1000. When Nathan lost his job this summer, I was so thankful that I had that fund to tap into. I only used half of it, but now I want to get it up to at least $1000, hopefully more.
3. Save $250 per paycheck for my funds this summer. Unless I teach summer school, or find something else, I’m not going to have any income for about 6 weeks this summer. To ameliorate this, I’m going to save $250 per paycheck for my summer fund, to help with bills, fun stuff, etc.
4. Pay down our debt. I’m hoping to supplement our income by selling unused/unwanted stuff online and possibly tutoring. Extra income will go toward paying off debt.
5. Save money for a new car. We own three cars. Only one works right now, and it even has its occasional problems. After getting the Suby fixed in January, we will have two working cars. I am planning on selling my 4-Runner as-is to someone who can work on it, and I’m hoping to convince Nathan to sell the RV that we NEVER use. It’s cute and all, but seriously, we don’t need it. Once we sell the other two cars, I want to save money for a new used car. Nathan wants a newer Tacoma or something along those lines. I think it would work for us, as we need lots of room. I know that we will need a new car within the next 2 years.

De-Clutter
I seriously need to get rid of at least 25% of the stuff I currently have. I have way too much stuff. The hard part is that it’s good stuff. I don’t want to get rid of it, but I know that I really don’t need duplicates of everything. My goal is to house everything that I own at my own residence (minus Nathan’s quads and c-mas decorations) and not use my mom’s for storage. It’s a big goal, but hopefully after a few weekends in the garage, a couple of yard sales and some trips to Goodwill, I’ll be able to have a much more organized and de-cluttered house.

I currently have 3 boxes of clothes in the garage, in addition to the closet full in my house. I have more jackets and blankets than I know what to do with. I own over 20 pairs of shoes (easily) and more jeans than I can wear in a month. It’s going to be hard to get rid of some of my clothes, but I need to down size to the point of all my clothes fitting in my closet and one dresser. The exception being my snowboard gear, which lives in the snow box in the garage.

As Jaxson grows out of his toys, I plan to sell them on Craigslist. After Madi, I stored everything, which accounted for many of the boxes in our garage. Since we aren’t planning on more kids, I can get rid of things as Jax grows. Bittersweet.

Get Outside!
Nathan and I are serial hobbyists. We have surf boards, snowboards, golf clubs, soccer gear, softball gear, climbing gear, hiking stuff, camping stuff, mountain bikes…. the list could go on and on. We don’t use our stuff half as much as we should. It all started in 2006. We were too busy to do things because we were planning a wedding. In 2007 I was preggo, in 2008 we had a new baby, in 2009 we actually got to do things! In 2010 I was preggo again. Now, it’s 2011 and I am determined to use the stuff we have. Since we already have all the necessary equipment, our adventures should be relatively inexpensive. I am going to plan at least one fun trip every month. I want to go camping at least twice this year, snowboarding at least once and start mountain biking again. I really miss riding my bike. Hopefully we can get down to San Diego and do the Sweetwater ride again. I really miss mountain biking in San Diego. Those were good times…

So that’s it for now. I’m planning on re-visiting my goals monthly to see how I’m doing. Usually, I have good intentions, but I fizzle as time goes on. I’m hoping that by writing down my goals and posting them on my blog I’ll stick to them this time. I’m really not expecting anyone to read this but I’m making it public to keep myself accountable.