new years resolutions.

my new year's resolution this year was to get finn on a schedule.  
billy had a new year's resolution for me as well...
he asked me to be more "thoughtful" with my spending.

he phrased that very well. 

but i took it to heart.
since finn and i are doing so awesome with our schedule, i have had a lot more free time around the house.  it's been great.  i've gotten to do some things i really missed doing while having a baby that didn't nap... like reading! i'm on my third book of the new year!

but i also inadvertently realized that succeeding at my resolution paved the way for me to succeed at the resolution billy had for me.  my extra downtime gave me plenty of opportunity to clean up around the house... something that was almost impossible before... so i bumped our cleaning lady to once a month instead of every two weeks. 

i realized that taking care of the house and reading are things i like to do when i have free time, but that i rarely turned on the tv during my downtime.  so... i cancelled it!  there are a handful of shows (modern family, up all night, project runway) that billy and i like to watch, but most of the time we forget to watch them on the nights they are actually on and end up watching them online some other night.  200 dollars a month for cable just didn't make sense.  and i can honestly say that we haven't missed it one bit! 

i have also really tried to be more conscious during my daily spending.  there have been many times in the past when i've gone to target to pick up toilet paper and spent a hundred dollars.  i don't even know how that happens!  but i have really been trying to pay attention lately.  and not buy a random assortment of vnecks when i run in to get shampoo.  (darn you target with your extremely appealing and comfy looking tshirts!)

there were a couple of christmas gifts that we got each other this year that had to be returned because they didn't fit.  billy got me a great pair of dansko's that were too big, and i got him a cool leather yurman necklace that was too small.  but instead of exchanging them, we just returned them and decided to save our money. 

with our combined "thoughtful" spending we are hoping we'll save enough money for bigger projects this year that need to be done around here... like finally getting new kitchen floors.  (i thought the cracking 1960's faux brick linoleum couldn't get much worse and then finn started crawling around and licking it... now it's gross and hazardous!)  we actually had someone come out and measure today!

mom and dad also volunteered to come up to help with finn one weekend so we could bust out some painting in the kitchen and back mud room.  the mudroom is so scary looking i won't even go in there unless it's daylight and someone's holding my hand, and the kitchen somehow is the last room on our renovation list but it's the room we spend the most time in... so something has to be done!  i think a fresh coat of paint will hopefully work wonders.  stay tuned for some kitchen renovation pictures in the coming weeks! that's money well spent! :)

i'm feeling accomplished that finn is sleeping so well and i have the time and energy to get some stuff done around here for myself and for my family!  and i'm happy that billy's thoughtful spending challenge has been a blessing and not a curse.  (i really didn't need any more vnecks...)

what was your new years resolution and how is it coming along?