New year Old Style resolutions...

thriftmonster

I'm joining in as well - only a week late (thanks to another ghastly bug)

1. Keep going with Flylady - this makes a huge difference to our house
2. Use up some of the stuff in the larder/ freezers to get it down to a manageable level
3. Use the local stores as much as possible - no excuse as we have everything available locally, apart from fish
4. Declutter........
5. Carry on losing weight in an OS way - over a stone gone so far
6. Encourage the kids to spend less time with electronic equipment - and more time reading

CurlyTop

Hi everyone

Count me in on this as well. I plan to and have started on the following:

1. Maintain a spending diary - bought week to view and list everything in there. It is going okay up to now.
2. Have lots of NSDs.
3. Get organised in terms of having a separate present book, for birthdays, Christmas etc, instead of buying stuff through the year and then finding it later on and thinking "Oh, I could have given that to so and so", which will hopefully mean less duh moments.
4. Cut food spending down further. Its pretty low as it is and has been getting lower, but I suppose in the MSE style of things, there is always room for improvement.
5. Am going to have a bash at growing my own veg. That should be a laugh. I usually kill anything I grow.
6. Make more presents.
7. Spend more time on here for tips (I really mean spending time constructively, because I can quite happily "jump on for 10 mins" but still find myself here 3 hours later). roflololololololol:rotfl: Yeah right.

Think that's enough to be going on with.

pink_princess

Oh can i join please.
I would like to do lots of positive changes to my life this year.
1/grow my own veg(just potatoes onions carrots garlic and peppers.
2/cut down grocery spends further (this won t be easy)
3/only have a drink every 2 weekends.(gulp)
4/keep in touch with family better.(im not good at this)
5/join the flylady thread(my home needs it lol)
Great thread op
Good luck every-one.
PP

Lalaladybird

How are you all getting on with your resolutions????

Ess-six

Well I've joined the January GC, and am meal planning etc, although I may have pitched my January target (£150) a little low - we'll see.

Am tracking my spending everyday in spendingdiary.com as well.

I've won £5 from each of the tv and radio GFK surveys, and claimed a £10 voucher from Toluna and from Valued Opinions, and have another £10 'pending' from Valued Ops. I've withdrawn just over £30 from topcashback, so all of this will go into my Christmas/birthday pressie cost-neutral fund.

I haven't faced the spare bedroom clutter yet, and am waiting until next week to see how much there will be left from my December salary to go towards paying off my debts.

So not too bad a start.......how about anyone else?

The_Dragon

Menu planning is happening and no stash bought! so far so good :rolleyes:

Topher

Things are going well so far.
My last week's shop cost £22. 80 and the milk bill £7.60 For everything else, I'm determined to continue to eat up from cupboards and freezer(s). We're still eating up Christmas stuff, and I didn't go overboard this year. (Shows I didn't really need what I did buy in). There has been some waste (food thrown away) but 'm learning.
I've re-negotiated my contract, to work four days a week instead of five. Less money, but more time, so cooking from scratch should be more viable, and I'm hoping for fewer arguements about housework.
I've done a good clear out & charity shop run, now to attend to streamlining the hobbies.
Bought some ceramic spoons from Boot's sale, so hope next Christmas to add this to home made preserves etc. -- saving used jars for that too.
Baking own dog biscuits once bought treats are used up.
T

EssexHebridean

update:

"Originally Posted by EssexHebridean

In 2009 I'd like to:

Get more organised with regard to meal planning. Kitchen diary is now working well - I'm in the habit of referring to it already and am using it as a reminder for all sorts of food stuff (veg box deliveries, farmers market dates etc). I have made and stuck to meal plans so far this year.
Inventory my larder, storecupboard and freezer, and take part in the storecupboard challenge regularly Freezer and storecupboard inventoried - decided against the larder as I pretty much know what is in there. I must pay more attention to storecupboard challenge meals though. The freezer inventory is being kept up religiously too.
Resurrect the "Don't throw food away" challenge that was going on earlier in the year........We realy have a handle on food waste again at the moment which is great, and the thread seems to be getting lots of attention from OS'ers. Annoyingly at the moment our composter is full to the brim so we've had to resort to dumping fruit and veg waste, it really irritates me to have to do it!
Have a go at making birthday / anniversary cards for people - I've always fancied trying it. Two cards made, and this years christmas cards now cut into tags ready for next year.
Grow more stuff to eat. We have barely any space for this so there are going to be some containers on the go! I have some spuds which have sprouted which I think I'm going to stick in buckets and see what comes up.
Do more home made gifts for christmas next year - the ones we did this year went down SO well! I was really proud! Who needs to wait for christmas?! A good friend is coming to stay next weekend - the week before her birthday. I was totally stuck for a present for her, but have decided to do a framed set of pictures of her Jack Russell puppy - I took some shots a few weeks ago and some have come out beautifully so they will look gorgeous all framed up and I know she will be thrilled
Make gifts rather than buying when we go to visit friends for dinner etc.
Have at least one night each week where the TV doesn't go on. Tuesday nights are now "TV free night" in this house - can't BELIEVE I got MrEH to agree to this, and still sticking to it!
Continue with decluttering.... This is an ongoing project and I suspect always will be as MrEH is a dreadful hoarder!
Finally finish decorating the spare room - preferably ahead of the planned visit from my friend who helped us start the process about three years ago - that's in late January! Coming on brilliantly - walls are all painted and the coving is bought and mostly painted - we'll make a start on getting that up tomorrow night. We've also put up 6 shelves in one corner which look great - we were looking for a bookcase but the shelves look much better and we far cheaper!

How's everyone else doing?

bellaquidsin

I am still planning for my vegetable growing. Seed potatoes (free offer on a magazine) are on the way to me as are raspberry canes, also a free offer.

We have invested in gro bags for potatoes too and these are on order.

Meanwhile I am cutting my spending on salad veg by using red cabbage, grated carrot and sprouted seeds for my salads. I've sprouted peas and some of them have been planted into compost which will hopefully give me pea shoots like the ones Mr. S sells for silly money per bag.

I have the seed for salad leaves, radishes and tomatoes. I have a small problem in that we are away for the first two weeks in August so watering is a big issue so apart from the tomatoes for which I will devise some sort of irrigation scheme everything I grow will have to be harvested by the end of July. I am looking into what I can plant for later in the year when I come back.

Bella.

Lalaladybird

I need some serious inspiration to get back on track with my resolutions already and it's only March (tomorrow ) My spending is out of control and I've been wasteful and have been ignoring my seeds :rolleyes: My diet was over before it even began.... I have managed to keep up with my house cleaning resolutions and I have been a bit more organised!:j

This thread was so inspiring so I'm bumping it back up to find out how you are all getting on with your resolutions?