Wednesday, December 30, 2009

New Year's Resolutions



I know I haven't written a blog in ages, and I figured now was as good time as any to get back into the swing of blogging! I wanted to keep the picture light and upbeat and I just love anything lolcats :)

I have a few New Year's Resolutions, or somewhat of resolutions that I'd like to do and work on in order to help my well-being, health and mentality. Here we go. It's quite a list and I know I won't accomplish it all, but let's see how far I can go:

1. Stop spending money frivolously. DH and I will go to breakfast a lot on the weekends because we're just too lazy in the mornings to make breakfast. Don't get me wrong, the occasional breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and the Diner are great, but not every weekend. Perhaps if i signed up for the Dunkin Rewards thing, I can spend $25 and get a $30 gift card replenished with my AMEX card.....

2. Save every extra penny I can in order to build up our Down Payment Fund. We have been discussing getting out of our condo for over a year now, but when we decided to sell, the market crashed and we didn't get one offer. We tried to sell on our own, which didn't help either. However, I'd like to have 20% saved for a house within 2 years, that's the longest I would like to wait to get a house.

3. Get rid of all the high school drama going on. Recently, I found out some stuff about people (good friends supposedly) that I thought I could trust and it really made me step back and look at everything. It sucks having a safety net of sorts ripped out from under you. People you trusted with everything, secrets, everything, is now not who you thought they were. Those people who I can no longer go to when something happens when I need a friend to confide in. Which stinks b/c I have a lot of male friends, but my one co-worker here says I need more girlfriends to talk to, but that's my issue....trust. So far, I have not really had that girlfriend(s) that I can go to and trust completely.

4. Exercise more frequently. I know this is probably on everyone's, but I keep starting to exercise for like a week, and I'm really gung ho, then something comes up and I don't have the time, or energy or both. I need to FIND the time to do something each day, whether I like it or not.

5. Eat healthy. This also ties in to #1. If I cook more at home, then I'll most likely be eating healthier. I need to incorporate a ton more veggies and fruits into my diet and less chocolate and junk food.

6. Organize recipes and make up weekly mean plans. Another great idea, but just lacked the motivation and time for this. I have a TON of cooking shows in my DVR to watch. I printed out a ton of recipes from Food Network and put them in my binders. I have a few episodes to watch and print out recipes for, then to add to my binders. What I'd 'like' to do is go find a recipe (dated of course) and then go to the DVR and watch how they did, then make it. Sounds like a great plan, just never put it into action yet.

7. Level up to the Black Card Level at Borgata. Okay, I know a lot of you disagree with my gambling, but it's all DH and I do. We don't go to clubs or bars or anything and we make the occasional trip (yes, occasional as of late) to AC. I've been off my poker game, so we are going to play some Blackjack and see what happens. DH's uncle has a black card and can make about $70 comp a night....$1000 comp dollars earned over the course of 12 months will net me a black card. This is NOT one of my top resolutions, but I'd like to up my play a bit and see where it leads me.

8. Find a new job. Mine is relocating and DH cannot move to Maryland, so I have to find another job. I've been putting in for a ton around here, but nothing just yet. I actually did get referred for one, but I wasn't one of the first 50 to apply so I didn't make the first round just yet, so I'm still waiting.

9. Plan for baby. 2010 may be the year of a Baby Russo. We have been talking about it for awhile now. We know the timing will never be right, but we have all of our consumer debt (minus student loans) paid off. We are taking all the extra money that we were putting towards debt into saving for a house (about 3 weeks so far) I would rather be in a house then have a baby, but I would be happy to have a healthy baby and we can always use the 2nd bedroom as a baby room (not a storage room).

10. Clean and organize the house. This is key if we want to sell! We got an email on Christmas Day from someone asking about our condo. Apparently, it's still on the website I listed it at well over a year ago, so that's good I guess. Didn't hear anything back from him, but I'd like to be one of those wives that has the house clean all the time so if a guest comes over, I'm not running around to clean up to let them in the house.

Okay, I think 10 is enough for now. What are all you resolving to do this new year?