2014 RESOLUTIONS

2014 RESOLUTIONS

Every year at this time I come up with a huge resolution that I know I will never follow.  Then after not following through I get discouraged and feel as if I failed.

So this year I'm doing things a bit different!  I have a HUGE to do list.  You know the little things that you keep pushing off until you have time to do them.  Well this year I'm forcing myself to tackle them all!

Here is my list:

Get an out of debt plan

Un-clutter my home

Spend more time with my hubby

Okay so I know not a huge list, but still its nice to get these things done.  I want to give a few tips on how I plan to do each of them.

~Get an out of Debt plan~

This one I already started.  First my hubby and I got a list of all our debt.  Credit cards, house payments, car payments and so on.

We made an easy to read list.  We wrote how much we owe on each, how much we are paying each month and how much the APR is.

Now we are realist we know we wont be 100% out of debt this year  or even the next.  I mean we still have 10 years on our house.

We have a 3 year plan for our basic debt.

After looking at all our bills we picked our biggest APR credit card and we plan to pay it 100% off with our income tax.

Its my Walmart card.  So after paying that off we will have an extra $160 each month.  Instead of pocketing that money we are going to put that extra towards our 2nd biggest APR credit card each month.

If we figured it out right by the end of year 1 all the extra money should have that one paid off too.

This is just year 1.  

We made a 3 year plan (again not including our house)

After our 2 top cards are paid off we only have smaller cards that we pay around $25-$40 on each month.  

In year 2 we plan to pay them 100% off.  Again with income tax money and the extra we have each month.

Since we will have so much extra each month we are going to put it towards our car payments.

Year 3 we plan to pay off the car with income tax.  At this point we will have lots of extra money each month.

We want to put a large portion of that towards savings accounts for our kiddos.  When my hubby and I first started we had nothing.  That is how we got so far into debt.  We want to make sure our kids start off with something.  They can use it towards college, a home or anything they want.

Another huge part of getting out of debt is saving money where ever we can so we also made up a monthly budget.

Each month we figure out how much we should spend where.

Our list looks like this:

House payment

Car

Electric

Tv

Internet

Insurance

Credit cards

Groceries

Gas in cars

                                            Random (This can be clothing or my

 oldest plays sports so we are always putting money towards that)

Also on some months we have extra.  Like in April we have heating oil, Nov. we have the boys birthday part, Dec. we have property and school tax.  I'm sure we forgot something and I know things can go wrong like car repairs and stuff like that, but we have the rough draft and I think if we have a plan its easier to stick to it.

So my 2014 resolution of making an get out of debt plan is done!  So huge pat on the back for getting number 1 done :)

Next is the un-cluttering my home.

This is even easier then the first! 

I have 7 rooms in my home, 1 shed and a front porch.

These are the areas I want un-cluttered.

Instead of driving myself insane trying to do it all at once I assigned each room/area 1 month!

That way each month I can focus on that particular area.  I decided to start in Feb.  because after Christmas and taking down all the holiday decor I just need a break lol

Here is how my plan looks

Feb. - Living room

March - Kitchen

April - Bathroom

May - Spare Bedroom

June - The Boys Room

(At this point I'm having a yard sale, anything that doesn't sell is getting donated)

July - Is my room (Should be easy I don't keep much in my room)

Aug. - Laundry Room

Sept. - Front Porch

Oct.- Shed (I'm going to wait for a cooler day)

Then in November we have a toy purge!  I know some of you are thinking what the heck is that??  Well my boys have November B-days and of course Christmas is in December.  So every year in November we go through toys that are broken and throw them away.  We also get toys they no longer play with and donate them.

By 2015 my home will be un-cluttered... Hopefully!

Last by not least is spending more time with my hubby.  We were high school sweet hearts.  Well he was mine I was 17 and a junior when we started dating he was 20.

We use to do everything together!  Now we are lucky if we get to have a 20 minute conversation.  Its to the point were we need to make a change or we will grow apart.  It scared me last November when I was making life plans and realized I did not even include my hubby.  The man I use to not be able to function without was becoming just a random person in my life :(  It was a scary thought.

  So the 2 of us sat down and came up with a plan.  Each month no matter what we are dedicating 2 Saturdays to us.  My mom and his mom will watch our boys and we are going to have the whole day to ourselves.  It doesn't have to be something expensive.  Heck I can see us getting a pizza and renting movies most of the time.  I just want time with him to get to re-know my hubby.

So we got out our calendar and marked down our date nights!  Rain or shine we will be going out on those nights.

We both also picked things we really want to do.

My hubby wants to see a live sporting event so we are going to work that in.  I want to go horseback riding.  My hubby got a look of pure panic on his face when I told him this, but he said he is going to try lol.  According to him men and saddles don't mix... I call Bull I seen enough cowboy movies to know men and saddles mix just fine :)

Here is an old photo of the hubby and I :)

Prom 2006

I love before and after photos....  So here is a photo taken in November of 2013

So those are my 2014 goals!  I would love to know yours.  Or if you have advice on mine I'd love to hear it.


A few of my blogging friends are posting this resolutions also!  If you have time check them out :)
Melissa Say What?
Oh Wholly Life
Saving For My Family
The Pretty Kitty Blog
Coupons and Lesson Plans
My Unentitled Life
Sweet Silly Sara