New Year - New Ideas

Wow, we have started the year off right!

New Years day was spent driving 2 hours to Ikea, buying 2 car loads full of furniture and things, driving 2 hours home, setting up said furniture, and then relaxing in our brand new living room. There are a few things that make me so happy with our new space. First - it was cash only. We purchased the things we HAD to have - a couch and two chairs. Then loaded that into the 4Runner. We counted up the remainder of our cash and stuck to our budget. We walked out of Ikea $150 under budget and bought everything we wanted. Including two new floor lamps, a new duvet and cover, a wicker "trunk", a new cheese grater, and two storage cubes. We have completely transformed our living room. We scrimped and saved and took our time finding exactly want we wanted. I AM STOKED!!!Especially because this showed my husband how cool it is to delay gratification. To walk into our house and know that everything is bought and paid for. No credit card payments. This had got him on board with some other financial decisions. =) {I.E. saving every month for something we want... hello chest freezer here I come!}

I am starting the new year trying to do more things at home. Make more dinners from scratch (take out style dinners) and make more things at home (laundry detergent, hand wash, eye makeup remover). {I love pintrest - all of these things have come from that website. In love. No joke}

Financially I have tweaked our budget around. Gotten rid of some cash categories and condensed some envelopes. Added some money for haircuts for the dogs every 2-3 months. And I know that on a regular 40 hour week schedule we can easily stay within budget for our month. And then with bonuses, over time, and J's new pay (woo-hoo for ranking up!!) all of the extra will go towards saving and then paying off our last credit card. Which I know we can pay off within the next year. And then we will be consumer debt free! We will have 1 car loan and a mortgage that is never going away. {I love me some budget and cash envelope action}

For our little family.... we will probably start talking seriously about expanding it in the next year. Thankfully we don't have to have and serious talks until our little ninja is 1 year (3 months away!!). And the only major impact to the budget will be day care... and I don't want to think about that yet. And I really want to enjoy our little man in the here and now. He is growing and changing every day. And his personality is so much fun. He is such a joy. {OMG... I can't even think about another one right now. My parts are scared!}

Personally I have a few things I want to do over the next year. I want to spend more time with God. I want this to be the year that I am drawn closer to him. I want to actually read my devotional every day. I want to blog more. Yes, I may be boring but maybe blogging will help me complete more things (like my monthly goals!!). {Maybe I can become less boring =)}

In 2012 I want to enjoy my family. J will probably deploy, and I have an idea of what it will be like. And it's not easy. So I want to enjoy the sense of normalcy we have right now. I want to enjoy how much fun my son has with his dad. {2012 will be a year of changes}

So there we are.... No no resolutions, but ideas for how I want the next year to go.

Oh how I love new years and new months! It's a fresh start =)