Happy New Year! I hope this year has started good for you. I have definitely been feeling the excitement of the new year and fresh start. I really shifted gears in mid-December and felt ready to tackle life with a bit more intent and purpose that just going through the motion of every day. This last year I've purposely taken it easy and given myself lots of grace and time to process but I'm ready to tackle some things now!
Here are some things we are doing in the new year. Some are things we were already doing and some are new ones we have added in.
Sleep. This is huge. This last year we really prioritized sleep and making sure we were getting at least 8 hours a night. Instead of staying up until 10pm or later, my husband and I are often in bed around 8-9pm. It has been transformative for all of us to truly feel rested when we get up. It affects so many things and this is one that is worth the effort to cultivate.
Family devotions. This is something we have talked about doing for years and just never started. Since eating supper together is already an established routine, we decided to have devotions right after supper before anyone left the table. My husband reads a few verses of the Bible and then each person prays. It is very sweet and simple. We have all been enjoying it and wondering why we didn't start this years ago!
Family night. We started having Friday Night Family Night a long time ago and then life and moves happened and we didn't start it back up. We are bringing that back this year and we have all enjoyed that! I make a homemade pizza every Friday Night and then we will play a game, watch a movie, do a fun craft, or bake something together as a family. It doesn't have to be much to be meaningful.
Water tracking. I always feel so much better when I drink enough water but I have to be pretty intentional about it or I forget to drink enough. Tracking my water intake each month has been fun and eye opening and helped me be proactive about staying hydrated.
Finances. This has always been a big priority to us but I'm excited about some of the changes we are implementing this year. Some are things we've done for a long time and just re-implementing and some are new. I'm using The Budget Mom's Budget by Paycheck workbook to track and budget this year. I have no idea whether I will like it or not but I'll keep you updated! I'm excited to try it and it's more organized than my former notebook. I'm excited to be using my cash envelopes again as well this year and to see major progress towards our goals.
Holidays. I really enjoy doing simple, special things to mark events, holidays, birthdays, etc. I am really looking forward to finding ways to celebrate and make things special while maintaining a strict budget.
My no-buy month is going really well. I haven't spend any money so far. My husband is not doing it but he hasn't spent much either. He got lunch out one day and then we went ice skating on a free skate night with our friends and afterwards they wanted to go out to eat. We hadn't planned on that and were planning to come home and eat here. He wanted to go and so he paid for the family pizza out of his misc envelope.
My pantry challenge is also going really well. I haven't been to town for groceries at all this month yet. I will need to go this week for milk and eggs but otherwise we are doing really well just eating from what we have on hand. Would anyone like me to share my menu plans? I may continue to do pantry challenges throughout the winter to use up some of the things I have on hand. My goal is to reduce the level of inventory I have in the house as I feel like I have a much better grasp of what and how much we use of things and how much to keep on hand given how rural we live.
I've tackled organizing my pantry as it was looking a bit wild and we finished my coffee bar! It's so nice to get things checked off. I have more projects to tackle in the months to come as we settle into our home more and more.
My basic phone bit the dust last week. : ( I knew it wouldn't last long term as it was a very cheap phone but I was disappointed that it didn't last longer. It couldn't have happened on a worse month as this is my no-buy month! I could either break my no-buy month or I could get my old smartphone out. I had planned to either buy a phone called the Wisephone by Techless or a flip phone by Sunbeam Wireless. Both phones were more money than I wanted to spend right now, even without the no-buy challenge. I ended up deleting everything off my iPhone that I could and only leaving the things that were important to me like text messaging and the camera. I can do another post on that whole thing, but I'm really happy that it is working and that my phone is continuing to work for me and my priorities, not the other way around.
More exciting things coming!