52 Week Money Challenge (Pinterest)

52 Week Challenge

I’ve seen this pin floating around on Pinterest for awhile as a fairly painless way to save some money. Start with a small amount of money each week and keep adding to to it to end up with over $1300 at the end of the year. Sounds good doesn’t it? I would love to have some money saved up for my summer vacation. Unfortunately, I don’t usually start thinking about it until its close to school being out and by then it’s too late. My plan however is to do it backwards…$52 now….the down to $1.  It’ll be less painful to put in a smaller amount of money as the year progresses. If I let it go all the way until Christmas I’m pretty sure putting in a couple dollars a week will be easier.

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Eating From the Pantry

This year one of the things I’m trying to do is to be more organized and to gain a few more skills. I have a fairly good sized pantry but it’s not very organized. Things get put in there randomly….then they get pushed to the back and then they get gotten. Sound familiar to anyone?

So…. one of my goals for the year is to reorganize my pantry and refrigerator so that I don’t have to get rid of things that have expired or that turned into a science project at the back of my refrigerator.

Yes, I’m really putting myself out there putting a picture of my refrigerator on the internet. Honestly, I really don’t know how it happens. It gets organized and then things get shoved in there and it looks like this. Scary.

I also need to get into my freezer. ( No pictures of my freezer will be happening. It’s in my garage and today it’s just too dang cold to go out there to take a picture. This is coming from someone who is not dealing well with the freezing cold weather we’re having here in California). I  have an older chest freezer that tends to have items at the bottom that get forgotten. One of my goals for January is to clear it out. I’ve been using items from the freezer from the pantry and fresh stuff from the fridge for the past 2 weeks with a set a goal of not spending more than 20 dollars each week. Originally, I was going to set some restrictions for myself on just buying fresh fruit, vegetables, bread or dairy. But, I decided not to be so restrictive so I’m just giving myself 20 dollars each week to spend on what’s necessary. So far I’ve spent 28 dollars. For the thirteen days. That’s a serious record for me.

One thing I’ve discovered, I have a lot of tomato products. Really a lot….tomato sauce, tomatoes juice, tomato paste, spaghetti sauce, frozen tomatoes from my garden, sun dried tomatoes. I won’t be buying tomato products for quite some time. Anyone have any creative recipes? You can only eat so much spaghetti.

Wish me luck as I dive deep into the recesses of my pantry…..

Linking up with Adventures in Country Living at Shalom Engedi Farm who is also Eating to the Bottom of Her Freezer.

Goals for 2013

I had an opportunity to get away for a day to relax and think about any changes I want to see for the new year. First and foremost….as usual for me….is the being healthier theme. Exercising has never been one of those things I jump into doing. When I was younger I always was involved in some sort of sport activity and stayed in shape easily. Now, in my 50’s…with lots more aches and pains…it’s much harder to get motivated. But, I got an exercise bike over the holidays and have been riding 2 miles each day. It hasn’t been difficult…although I honestly don’t know how long distance riders deal with hard bike seats. Talk about going numb in a sensitive area…..
I’m thinking I might post my weekly miles and post something about an area as if I was really biking on the road. Kind of a virtual bike ride across the USA. Might keep me motivated…and I won’t have any excuse about bad weather….

Another theme is eating healthier. Definitely want to incorporate more fruits and veggies into our diets. And because I live in an area where I can garden year round I’m going to see if we can eat from our garden each day of the year.

I have other goals…participating in 13 skills…but, I’ll post more on those later.

Anyone else have goals for this year?

What’s in store for 2013?

      

A new year is upon us once again. I’ve always liked fresh start. A new year is a great way to throw out the old and try new things. The plan is to learn a few new skills, get better at some old ones, and become a healthier me. I’ll be blogging about it exercising, eating little better, organizing my home and some preparedness stuff.
Here’s to 2013!

2012

It’s hard to believe 2011 has come and gone.  I see folks all over the internet reflecting on it and picking it apart.  Frankly, it was a pretty tough year for me and personally, I’d just rather let most of it stay in the past. 2011 is over and I’m ready to move forward.  Guess those could be my “words for the year.”

Evernote Challenge

A few months ago I found Evernote…a wonderful free resource for saving and organizing all of the information that can found on the web.  I have used this to help me save all of the great ideas I see on other peoples blogs but don’t have time to get to right at that moment.


Well, just like ideas scratched on paper can get out of control, so can ideas saved on the web.  I have over 700 pieces of information saved in my Evernote account ranging from recipes to try to preschool activities to ideas to improve my marriage. 


I think it’s about time I actually tried them out, don’t you?


So, my own personal challenge to myself is going to be that this year I’m going to try the recipes (and write them down in a notebook if they’re keepers), do the activities with dd2 and kids in my classroom, and bless my dh with the wonderful ways of improving my marriage…along with the many other categories I have in my Evernote account.


I have come to terms with the fact that I’m an information gatherer…now it’s time to use it or lose it… 🙂

New Beginnings

I always love New Years Day. It’s a day to reflect on the past year and see what worked and what didn’t. It’s also an opportunity to look forward with hope to the coming new year and what it might bring. Hope you all are doing some of that.

Why did I start this blog? I thought it might be a nice way for the members of our family to communicate with each other and to let you know what’s going on with us.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Stacy