Truce & Tenacity
2012 #5
I’m slowly crossing off items on my 2012 to-do list. But as I do that, I add more items. It’s okay though; I still feel accomplished.
On my list was this item-
#5: Learn to use the $500 espresso machine I have sitting, collecting dust and taking up space on my kitchen counter and wean myself off of the $7/cup of Starbucks I have every morning (and sometimes in the afternoon too).
A couple of weekends ago I enlisted the help of my wonderful neighbor, Paula (who used to own a coffee stand), googled up a YouTube video and an instruction manual and am very pleased to say I have been using my Starbucks Barista home espresso machine daily! I have treated myself to a peppermint mocha from Starbucks a couple of times since then but gone are the weeks of spending $50 or more on coffee! Yahoo!
So one item down and more to go. It’s a work in progress. :)
2012
So I know the world is 27 days into 2012 already but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently and I have decided that I need to write down my thoughts, hopes, and wishes for the year and hopefully by Dec. 31, 2012 I will have accomplished all of them. These are in no particular order of importance.
- Learn to cook real, homemade meals and maybe even start to enjoy it. Hopefully without gaining any weight.
- Put together a monthly meal plan and stick to it. This will save us money (not splurging on takeout/delivery), time (less trips to the grocery store), and of course the 5 o’clock question of “what’s for dinner?”
- Start eating healthier and lose weight. Ideally I’d like to see a loss of 20-30 lbs. I was doing awesome on the treadmill at the end of 2011 when my motivation was our vacation to Hawaii. Now that we are home and swimsuit season seems so far away my motivation is seriously lacking.
- Start —> Finish the Steve Jobs autobiography. Enough said.
Learn to use the $500 espresso machine I have sitting, collecting dust and taking up space on my kitchen counter and wean myself off of the $7/cup of Starbucks I have every morning.(DONE!)- Learn to strategically coupon- Not like the nuts on the show that have had to build additions onto their homes to house their stockpile.. but I want to be able to coupon effectively so that the money I save can go into savings and to get out of debt.
- Um..get out of debt…yeah that’d be nice. Once our debts are paid we’d be working on the boy’s college fund.
- Get back into my crafts. I feel at peace when I’m locked in my office creating but my husband says I cant buy more supplies without selling what I have already made so..
- Get my Etsy shop back online and start selling. As much as I’ve tried, I can not get decent pictures of my products. I have even went so far as to make a photography lightbox but no matter what I can’t get clear pictures to put online. I’ve got a call in to a local photographer who posted on Craigslist and is interested in bartering her services so hopefully I have stuff of value that she’d be interested in. Also, maybe have a booth at a craft fair or Saturday market this year.
- Think much more seriously about getting back into school. I just don’t quite know what I’d go back for. My mom would like to see me go for business but I’m terrible at math and frankly, what I do know about business school bores the hell out of me. I’m already pretty good at all things computers so my husband suggested schooling for IT and get formal training in that. Either way, my little man will start Kindergarten in the Fall and it would probably work out that I could take a few credits.
- Start my garden. I have a very brown thumb and struggle to keep even a potted plant alive but the house we moved into recently has 3 very large above ground planter boxes in the backyard and I really want to put them to good use. This could also help save us money by growing our own veggies. I have a very good friend who loves to garden so I am going to enlist her help when Spring comes around.
- De-clutter! We have so much stuff around the house that has no use for us anymore. I just need to stay focused and get the stuff listed on Craigslist or Swap.com but it takes time and that’s something I don’t have a lot of anymore.
- Better Myself.
(This isn’t all I’m hoping to accomplish in 2012 so I guess this post will be a work in progress- like myself- throughout the year.)
