The Word of 2015

It's that time of year again .... time to come up with that ONE word that I hope will define my year. In 2014 my word was Steadfast and it encompassed a lot of things. In some areas I succeeded, in come areas I failed. Perfection is not something to be attained, but of which we strive. The areas where I failed most are the areas that I hope to concentrate on in 2015.

In an effort to cut back and focus on the things that I feel are most important in my life, I went a little overboard. I closed up in my home to take care of that and those about which I care most. And I, dare say, moved a little too close to laziness. Some of it is physical, but some of it is mental. Therefore, I feel a need to have a little more balance, or as my word of 2015 says ....

Budget.

Photo Credit

I want to be a more determined steward of my time and money. Instead of just letting things flow I want to be a tad more intentional.

A couple of specific financial goals are ....

• To stick to the very thought-out budget Rick and I have prepared for our household. I have categories for each and every thing that we spend money on for our household, kind of like a Dave Ramsey system. I don't use physical envelopes, however. I am thinking that I should. It's too easy to borrow from Peter to give Paul a little more money when it's in my checking account and accessible by a debit card. If I have to physically go to the bank to deposit money to make a purchase, I lose interest more times than naught. So, I am going to go back to pulling out cash for the majority of our categories (some, like for online bill paying, need to stay put) and put them in real life envelopes, or an expandable like I used to use. That way once the envelope for, say, clothes is empty, then we can't buy any more clothes that pay period. I have done this system before and it really does work.
• To put the extra money I have left over each pay period from gas for my car and utilities toward debt. We do have debt. And my budget has me paying for a couple of them (my small credit card and another store card). I want those paid off this year and I am hoping to use the extra money that I don't spend on gas and utilities to go toward that goal.

A couple of personal goals are ....

• Get back to my morning quiet time. This has definitely fallen by the wayside. I have to be up at 7:00 a.m. to be ready for Macie to come over and I sleep until 7:00 a.m. Then I don't "get to" my morning quiet time because I might lay on the couch while Macie is watching some t.v. and fall back to sleep when she does. Instead, when Macie gets here I will grab my cup of coffee and head to the sitting room for my quiet time while she watches that t.v. show and/or sleeps. I have plenty of time to do that before I have to wake the kids up at 8:30 a.m.
• Get back to exercising. This one is not one I am looking forward to, although I know how much better I feel when I do it!! So, gulp, I am going to get up at 6:15 a.m. Monday through Friday and brave the bitter temps to do some 5K training. It's been a while so I am just going to start over. Then I am going to come home and do some circuit exercises before Macie shows up.
• Get ready for the day. It is so easy to just lounge in comfy clothes, not fix my hair, and not put on any makeup during the week. Rick is not here to see me. I am homeschooling the kids all day. And we rarely leave the house. But, lazy dress equals a lazy mind. We are having way too many pj days around here. So when I am done with my quiet time I am going to hop in the shower, get dressed (I can't say I won't be in one of my "uniforms", though), put on some makeup and fix my hair. Again, I know how much more productive my whole day is when I do this. It must be done.
• Eat better. What I really mean is lose 10 pounds so I look smokin' hot for Kyndal's wedding in July. I mean, I am the mother-of-the-bride and I don't want to look pudgy and out of shape. I gotta look better than the mother-of-the-groom and she's a cutie! I am just kidding about the competition with my sweet friend Pam, but I want to be able to show the world that I still got it. And I do. I just need to lose a tad bit of IT and firm IT back up. Know what I mean?

I've already made strides toward budgeting my time. I have pulled out of several activities and concentrated more on the ones to which I want to stay true. It is important to me to teach my Sunday School kids with devotion and excitement. And I want to be available to all of my kids in their activities. Eli and Brynne still bowl every Saturday. Brynne plays sports all year round. Dawson will be graduating from high school this year so I don't want to miss a thing. And Kyndal is, like I mentioned, getting married and I will need lots of energy this year for that event. I have sweet nieces I like to see and love on. And I have a husband who doesn't need an exhausted wife when he shows up on Fridays.

So that's it for me. It's not too over the top, just tightening things up a bit in a few areas. These goals are all doable.

Just got to stick to the Budget.

What about you? What's your Word for 2015.