New Years Resolutions ... (a little late)

So I've thought about it and I think I came up with a few reasonable resolutions for the new year... I'll try to post throughout the year and let you know my progress! 

1- Try at least one new recipe every month.  I'm getting tired of making the same dozen-or-so dishes I know how to make and to make well.  I'm also going to *try* and make these a little healthier, but we will see. ;)  I'm wanting to expand my "repertoire" of stuff I know how to make!  And of course I will share my new recipes on here-- and possibly YouTube.  I'm always looking for new ideas too so if you have any please share!!!

2- Get in better shape.  I know this is like, everyone's resolution but I have found since I've been trying to get pregnant I've quit doing pretty much any physical activity (other than clogging but I don't do that often enough to really amount to much).  Before I was going on long walks daily with Duke, or doing Wii fit or some workouts on streaming Netflix.  Ever since we've been TTC and especially after we moved and got the fence up so Duke doesn't HAVE to be walked everyday-- I've slacked off MAJOR.  I don't necessarily want to lose weight (though I don't want to gain any--until I do get pregnant at least.)  But I always feel better when I exercise and I want to get in the habit of it.  I don't like running at ALL, so I added a couple dance workouts to my instant queue on Netflix as well as a Pilates one.  I plan on Monday through Friday doing 3 days of the dance workout (cardio- if I have a clogging show or something that would sub for it) for about 30min, then 2 days of the pilates or something else more "strength training" oriented.  Saturday I will take the day off (or maybe do something light like a walk with Brew & the dogs), and Sunday I have clogging practice.  So I will let you know how I'm doing with it.  Hopefully I can keep it up. :) 

3- Save more money and take steps towards reducing debt.  I'm setting a goal at depositing $100/month into our savings account.  If we have a month where I work a lot, I'd like to increase that.  Our savings account was pretty depleated after we bought our house.  (We used it to pay our closing costs.)  So I'd like to build it up a bit again, to help us out in a "rainy day" situation.  If I get pregnant before the year is out, I need to increase the amount I deposit as much as possible because being a sub I don't get paid maternity leave.  I also want to start reducing our debt.  We don't have a LOT,  not including our house, we have one car payment, and three credit card payments.  One credit card is a Lowe's card which we put our fence on.  It is going to be the first to be paid off, we are using our tax return money to do so.  Once we do that, we have two credit cards and the Jeep remaining.  I had been just paying about $100 on each credit card, but after doing some research I think instead I'm going to focus first on the smallest debt and pay the minimum amount on the other two, then taking the money I would pay for the others and put it towards the smaller debt.  (That was confusing-- so instead of paying $100 on both credit cards, I'll only pay the minimum payment of $50 for example on the larger debt, and pay $150 on the smaller debt.)  I think it'll help get it paid down quicker.  At any rate I want to get both credit cards paid off in the next couple years.



And that's all!  I don't have many but I think it'll be better for me to stay focused when I only have three.  I created a new label for these posts (goals in 2012) so you can click on that to see all of my progress as I go!  Wish me luck :)