Happy New Year!
I’m not sure it was the smartest thing in the world to launch the blog and then take some time off for the holidays, but there you go.
I try not to make resolutions, because I tend to break those pretty much within the first week of January (often the first day. <g>), but I do have plans for the new year that I’m working on getting into motion.
1. The Budget
I’m a little intrigued by the envelope system that I’m seeing so many people following. I don’t really budget per se, I know generally how much money is coming in every month, and what my fixed expenses are, and I aim not to spend more than the difference, but I can be a bit of a splurger, and I would like to have a bit (okay a lot) more in the savings account than is currently there.
Scarier was realizing how much I’ve paid towards my mortgage in the past four years, and how little it’s decreased in that time, so my biggie, in addition to having more of an emergency fund, is getting that mortgage paid off quicker.
So, the big plan is a spending fast on the wants – jewellery, clothes, shoes, purses, makeup, electronics, etc – for the next three months at least. Better tracking of what’s being spent and where is also in the works, and once I know where the money is going, I can attempt a real budget to start hitting the financial goals.
2. The House
We’ve lived in this house for not quite four years, and we’ve been in a ‘we really need renovations’ place for that entire time. It started when our contractor disappeared right after I bought all new cupboards for our kitchen (fortunately, we hadn’t paid him yet), but those cupboards are still taking over the entire living room, the stuff for the kitchen is all over the basement and every room is sort of trickling down into overflow from things that need to be in other rooms.
This blog is a big part of the house plan – I’m hoping to document all the stuff I want to do here, and that putting it out onto the net will get me out of procrastinating on all the things that need to get done.
3. The Balance
I’ve gotten to a point with my company where I work probably more than I should, though I am doing a lot better at being firm about not working on the weekends. But, because I work from home, it’s a lot harder to turn off at the end of the day and there’s been more than a few nights that have found me still coding at 2 a.m.
My plan for this year is to actually use the room I have set as my office and at the end of the workday, close the door and leave work in that room. This should give me more time to tackle the house projects too, though I kind of feel like I won’t know what to do with my non-work time.
4. The Body
Oh, you know, the whole eat better, exercise more thing. 🙂 I’ve added Treadmill Time into my daily schedule (starting with tomorrow’s work day), so it’ll be a start.
So, that’s the plan. Let’s see how well I can keep it by the end of the year…