Goal Update

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! I really do appreciate it. I just thought that I would pass a long a few very helpful things that I have discovered as I've been trying to reign in spending and save a little more every month.

For help with grocery shopping costs, sistersavings.net is a very cool site. It takes all of the local grocery ads in Utah and Arizona, and it puts all of the special deals into either an Excel spreadsheet or a pdf. I love the spreadsheet, because I can look at what's on sale, and delete things at a certain store I'm not going to buy, and then add my own shopping list, print it out, and take it with me. As I've been trying to plan a menu, sometimes I even choose things to prepare based on what's on sale. It's also nice to stock up on food storage type items that are so cheap. A little a time is how we're supposed to do it, right?

Another site I love is pinchingyourpennies.com. You sign up for a free weekly email newsletter, and you get tips on all sorts of specials. You get grocery store specials, but also other random things. For instance, today I got a code for an extra 50% off clearance items at oldnavy.com. If you like to shop online occasionally, like I do, it's nice to see special little deals all in one place. If you need a code to get the deal, they usually have it there.

Also, I have to plug Dave Ramsey one more time. If nothing else, the budget planning software on the Total Money Makeover website is incredibly helpful and easy to use. It's making it very easy for me to plan and track our monthly spending.

Anyway, little things like these are very helpful to me, so I hope they can be helpful to some of you as well!

Resolu-SHUN!

So yeah, not a big fan of the New Year's Resolution. Why? Because it never sticks. I do really, really well for a week, and then it's off the wagon and back down bad habit road. So I'm taking a new approach. I'm trying a little something I learned in my class, and I'm going to form some new habits.

So, this year I'm setting some betterment goals to help me learn some positive new habits. These are things that need to be done, and things that I need to work on this year and every year. And I'm getting Cam in on this, too.

So, for the new year, and for the long haul, beginning in 2009, I will:

• Get in shape! We have been able to figure out some out of whack things in my body that have been making my life miserable, and we've come up with a solution that is FINALLY helping me to lose some of this nasty, stupid, mean, stubborn weight. Now the trick is actually getting in shape. Cam and I both really enjoy getting out into the wild and hiking about. The goal here is to be able to be my hiker chick self without getting too winded and side-achy. That is no fun, and me no likey.

• Simplify! We have too much crap sitting around our house that we don't use, or don't use often enough to justify keeping. So, off to D.I. it goes. Or, if you know anyone who wants an old (but still decent, though no matter how much we clean it, still smells slightly like dog) vaccuum with hose and hardwood floor cleaning attachment, let me know.

• Cook! We both like to cook. However, we hate our kitchen. Whoever designed it totally sucks. We have ZERO counter space, which is really discouraging when you want to prepare a meal. So we're going to move some things around, see if we can't figure out some system that will give us some more space to cook. It's just too easy to eat out a lot, where it's just the two of us. But the benefits of cooking far out-weigh the convenience of spending our hard earned cash in a restaurant. More cooking=healthier meals and lower food costs, and that will help with:

• Follow a Budget! We have stupid debt and we don't save money very well at all. To help remedy this, I have enrolled us in Zions Bank's free 3 month trial of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover program. I have made a budget. We are going to stick with it. And we are going to pay down our debts and save for a rainy day! Hooray!

There you have it. Should be easy, right? We shall see. Here's to starting 2009 off right! Wish me luck!