What are your resolutions for 2012? > Reviews (12)

I love the start of any new month as it is so full of promise of things to come. None more so than the first of January as I have a whole year to go at it and keep trying out new things.

Like most people, I would love to be a bit trimmer, and a bit fitter, more organised, and just generally me but a whole lot better. For this, I think you have to look at yourself as a whole, and not just the individual aspect you want to change.

I set myself a challenge in 2011 of paying £10,000 off my mortgage balance. I managed to hit £7000, which was pretty good going, but because I was so focussed on this goal, I became obsessive to the extent that I was neglecting other areas of my life, and it was making me a bit unhappy. So though I still have a long held ambition of being mortgage free by 35 (and I only have 2 years and 4 months to do it) I also want to regain interest in what should be my priorities this year, and remember that however close I come to the original mortgage free aim does not really matter, as I have already done enough of this to achieve an earlier aim of being a stay at home mum.

So for me, this year can be split up into:

Health

One of the things that plagues me is depression. It can hit me from no-where, and really, there is no need for it to be like that. So I vow to spend some time each day doing a little bit of something just for me to stop me getting to that state. Whether that is a bubble bath, a walk in the sunshine with my lovely little chihuahua dog Murphy, cuddles with my boys, or any other means I choose, I deserve it. I am not required to be doing something to either earn money or keep the house tidy every minute of the day, so there will be more time to smell the flowers in 2012. This will be hard for me as I don't tend to let myself relax.

I also aim to be a bit fitter by not hopping in the car to pick up my youngest from nursery, walking my puppy as many days as I can in the fresh air, going out geocaching with my family, and cooking lovely fresh food that hopefully we will grow in our garden again.

Wealth

I have forgot the basics of budgetting, and been spending so much money in 2011 on things I just want, and not necessarily need. So I plan to start keeping a spending diary again, and keep up with it for the whole year so I know a lot better where my pennies are going, and make sure that more of them stay with us where they can do most good.

I will be cooking a lot more, meal planning, and not throwing so much in the bin. No longer will I be seduced in the supermarket with things we won't eat. I will keep a list in a notebook to try and shame me into being better. When I know what effort goes into growing food it really is criminal to bin it.

Up the ante

I can be very focussed when I want to be, and I do this by saying to myself I will have a little challenge. Some of these in 2011 were things like write 100 reviews between September and the end of December. Have so many no spend days in this month. Have no alcohol for a month.

This year, I want to:
- write 300 new reviews in the year, which I will break down to 25 per month
- open a folksy shop where I will sell some of my knitting
- try to be as electric neutral as possible over the year.

We had solar panels fitted at the start of December 2011, and when they generate more than we are using, our old style meter goes backwards. So I am plotting ways of using all this lovely electricity within my house, such as using my slow cooker and halogen oven to make our meals instead of the gas cooker. No idea if this will work or not, but I have written down the start of the year meter reading, and I am going to have fun trying.
- try and earn more money than I spend on gifts. This is a big area for me as I have a fairly large familyand we spend a lot on gifts, so I hope my money I earn from surveys and reviews will cover this completely in 2012.

frugal fun

I am going to be trying to do things as cheaply and well as I can in 2012. I got an English Heirtage membership using my Tesco clubcard points, so I want to make full use of that, make what I can, grow what I can, mend what I can, use what we own. Our lives are so full, and we have so much stuff, that life can only be improved by living in a more ordinary manner and enjoying what we already have around us.

Overall

Life is likely to be just as busy as in 2011, but I want to spend more time doing things with my family, not just for them, and remember what I am doing all the other stuff for. I want to look back on this special time with my family, and have us all remember a fun time, and not one where mum was always saying in a minute, or being a grumpy so and so.

I want to feel that I have done the best job that I can, and not a bit of everything a bit half heartedly.