Thoughts for the New Year - 2014

I have been reading ideas and thinking of things I want to do to simplify my life for the next year.

I saw a fun money saving idea for a year to save $1378.00 in 52 weeks.  Week one you put $1 in a jar, week two $2, week twenty $20, and so on.  I will be easy to do at the beginning, but hard to do the last few months of the year.  I calculated that to be $26.50 a week.  We are going to save the $26.50 a week and use that money to fix some minor home repairs. You can find one of the schedules for this here on my Pinterest site.

Another site I looked at had an idea for downsizing the amount of stuff in the home.  The lady stated that she was going to eliminate 2014 items from her home during the year of 2014.  And for every item that came into the home an item had to leave.  So if see added 100 item that year then 2114 item must leave (2014 for the year plus 100 for the newly added item).  No cheating by saying a 100 piece puzzle is 100 items.  It is only one.  Consumable items do not count.

I have not put a number on the amount of  items to eliminate in my house, but I am going to downsize a lot.  We have another family moving in with us and a college student moving in this fall.  Right now our house, garage, and shed are packed and only two people live here.  It is definitely time to downsize the items at home.

Five or Six years ago I didn't buy any sewing or craft items except what I needed to complete a project.  It was so nice to have all those things done by the end of the year.  Well I have filled the space back up with projects again and plan to shop only for needed items again this year to finish projects.

My mom and I grow gardens and have fruit trees, grape vines, berry bushes, and other edible plants.  We can and dehydrate everything we can get.  This year I plan to concentrate on making more well rounded meals with the things we have preserved.  No more skipping meals and snacking on dried fruits and nuts,not to mention the store bought junk food.

Every January 1st I inventory my home preserved food and plan a basic menu for the year.  The last two years I have not used what I canned like I normally do.  I can blame it on poor health (which I do), but reality is that if I ate healthier I would feel better.

I printed out blank menu forms for January through July.  I also made a cute weekly menu board to hang for the family to see.  I will post it on my crafting blog when it is finished.  You can find lots of ideas on Pinterest also.

I hope everyone who reads this has a wonder 2014 year and can simplify their year.