Just like everyone, I like to take a little time at the first of the year to reflect on past goals and plans and figure on a few for the new year as well.  Sure, I know they won’t all happen, and many new year’s resolutions go out with the first of February, but still, it’s a good thing to take a little time to reflect and ponder and the dark, cold evenings of deep winter are perfect for that!  

Here are my dozen resolutions for the new year… 2014!  

1.)  Online Shopping and Bulk Buying – We got a gift subscription to Amazon Prime for the holidays and I intend to use it completely this year.  I want to make sure we limit some of our errands and trips to town by utilizing the free shipping of orders from Amazon no matter the cost.  So far we’ve done about 7 orders this month and just love it.   Considering that a trip to the big city costs us about $20 in gas, this is a great savings for us.  And bulk buying is a way to save money on the things that we buy often, and to end some of our trips to the dollar store which always seem to add up to a little more than we want.

2.) Made from Scratch – Food and Projects – I want to make sure that we stay away from processed foods… they are just not that healthy for us.  And I want to try and make our projects and such from found materials, things we have, or get through bartering and thrift shops and online lists.

3.) Large Garden and Use Local Seasonal Food – We’re hoping that this year will be the best of our garden growth…  ready to grow a good crop for our pantry!  And we want to make sure that we utilize all of our local harvests from other farmers through the year.

4.) Really Focus on New Products and Company Marketing – Our companies are doing okay, but faltering a wee bit.  Every year seems a little less.  Which means we really need to do a little more marketing, and to create some new products for our various lines.  We haven’t had a lot of growth over the last two years and I believe it is not helping us.  Been reading about low cost and effective marketing plans and ideas.  Going to really focus on building our market this year.

5.) Work on Improving Health –  Things have been improving, over all, but they can be better.  Diabetes is nothing to shrug off and I hope that I can continue to do battle with this thing through better living, good exercise and healthy eating.  I’m so excited that my daughters have chosen to give up pop!  Yeah!  And we plan to eat more and more simple, basic whole foods, to help towards this.  And more exercise, walking and such.  (After all, no good set of resolutions exists without some better health goals!)

6.) Barter, Trade, Used, Local – NO MORE DEBT –  We will continue to do the best we can towards this way of life we’ve accepted.  So much of all we’ve done here has been through barter and trade and by buying used and local.   It was very hard of us to deal with a debt last year, concerning our electric bill which got out of control last winter with heating and it took us all year to overcome it.  This year, we will have no long term debt for our heating.  We can work on a tax bill next and hopefully remove that from our budget.  Everyone seems to have some sort of debt, but we’re really committed to getting free and clear from all debt.  Maybe this year!  Hope so!  I figure if we stop taking on any debt, we will eventually reach a point that we are debt free!  Wouldn’t that be wonderful!  We shall barter or trade, pay cash or do without.  Pretty simple.

7.) More Creative Time!  – Over the last ten years or more, it seems that I have less and less time for creative pursuits.  And it’s killing me!  I love to craft and create.  I want to use up some of my long waiting craft supplies before they are useless!  And I want to create for the mere sake of creating.  So often I am always thinking that anything needs to be done to help the budget and our living expenses.  It robs some of the joy of just creating.  So, this year, I really want to start DOING more creative things…  and so far, I’ve been doing just that!   Even if it’s just a few hours here and there, its more than nothing.

8.) More Music – Gigs and Jams!  – Music is very important to me, and after a somewhat low year without a lot of band gigs and concerts through our Opry, which we had to stop doing, it’s been a dull ache.  I want to spend more time playing music, whether the banjo or the piano.  Taking time each day to include a little more music in my life will be a very good thing.

9.) Record Every Penny Spent!!   – So far, so good.  I’ve got a little notebook and every day, I list in the receipts of the day, money spent.  I don’t plan to do a lot with all the data, just simple to act as a mindful reminder that I do need to be careful about careless spending.  It seems that a dollar here and there add up over the year.  I may consider each month, and just oversee what is coming and going, but primarily, I’m using it as a sort of check and balance that I don’t just waste money.

10.) Upgrade a Few Things Around the Farm – We really need to upgrade a few things here…  our kitchen sink is in rough shape, and we need to finish some fencing plans…  and we could use a new to us stove.  (The heating element in the top of the stove is broken, and so the oven heats poorly and unevenly.  The cost to replace it is too much, so, we work around it with a pizza stone in the bottom rack to help even out the heating, but overall, it’s just something that we need to replace over all.)  Soon, we will need a new computer or two, since ours are getting old and upgrades to software that we use in our businesses are no longer compatible.  Our plan is to slowly upgrade as we can budget for them.  And of course, we’ll scout out used, decent things for our needs.

11.) To Do Cards 20 or Less!  – Right now, we have about 65 cards in our deck.   We are working to reach a nice comfortable 20 hopefully before the end of the year.  It would be awesome if it were more like middle of the year!   Some are fairly easy and others, well, they are more larger projects, but we shall work towards that lovely number of 20….

12.) Write a Book!  – I really want to get my focus in line and really get a good foot into that book I want to write.  I’ve outlined it, and have jotted down a lot of ideas for each chapter and of course, write it daily in my head!   I think this should be the year that I get it out and on paper!!!  Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing!

 

I hope that you have spent a little time in reflection of the new year and have a few ideas and resolutions that you hope to work on.  I might have to revisit my post like this, last year and see how many goals we reached!  That would be an interesting little post.  Share with me some of your goals and resolutions of the new year!!!  Leave a comment and declare them to the world!  (Or at least the readers of this blog!!!)  Happy New Year!!!!  

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