How long until doing an activity daily does it become a habit?
I have been increasing my "frugal factor" and watching my money/planning since the end of October when I started this blog. While I am nowhere near my ultimate goal of living frugally and my debt is still out of control, I wonder if my behaviors are changing?
Here is a quick rundown of my new behaviors:
1. I have gotten in the habit of using cash for all purchases.
Someday, perhaps I will be able to use my credit cards responsibly, but while they have these horribly high balances I know I can't use them. *(Emergency this month is necessitating utilizing appx. 500.00 on credit BUT I have gone through my bills and this will get paid off in January.)
2. I have organized my pantry/cupboards/refrigerator and they have stayed organized!
This is something of a miracle.
3. Together with my family, we have been planning out all our meals and the closest we come to "eating out" is frozen pizza from Walmart. (we love digiorno with the cheese in the crust)
4. I have my family involved in this process. Especially my husband. I feel like we are collaborators on this venture to rid ourselves of debt. He has been doing so awesome. He is even giving up his dream tires for his truck so we can save money.
Now, following are some things I want to change. Call this early musings on upcoming new year resolutions:
Have a designated place to put all my bills.
I am so bad about this. Half the time they stay in my bag and the other half they lay on the kitchen counter until I pay them. Need to fix this.
Organize my laundry.
This is something that is embarrassing but I am putting it out there. We live out of laundry baskets. The girls wear mismatching socks the majority of school days. They hunt for clean underwear daily. We need to get this under control NOW.
Get some kind of coupon organizing system. I may have to break down and buy something. I have coupons laying on the bottom of a side table in my living room. Yes, I have been using them but it looks a mess.
Clean my bedroom and finish ripping the carpet out of the walk in closet.
Organizing the laundry will solve a lot of this. The cats peed in our closet awhile back and despite cleaning the carpet with a cleaner at least 7 or 8 times it is still nasty and has a stain and it grosses me out!
So, that is all for now. I am slowly but surely working on a major list of 2009 goals and will post them soon.
A habit yet?
December 7th, 2008 at 07:59 am
December 7th, 2008 at 01:43 pm 1228657417
December 7th, 2008 at 04:04 pm 1228665879
I think your behaviors are changing. In just a few months you've done great! Having your children and DH on board and enthusiastic greatly increases the fruit of your efforts.
December 7th, 2008 at 04:14 pm 1228666452
I do laundry about three times a week. My daughter's each have their own basket. DH and I share. When I fold, I put the laundry back in the appropriate basket and send to their rooms...they have to put away their own laundry. Shirts don't get folded, but lay on top of the basket in a stack, ready to be hung!
As I sort laundry for folding. I pull out things out from biggest to smallest. Pants, towels, shirts, then underwear and then socks. It works for me. Obviously, there are many systems that work. I just thought I'd share in case it helps motivate you! Keep up the good work.
December 7th, 2008 at 06:46 pm 1228675577
December 7th, 2008 at 11:10 pm 1228691403
December 8th, 2008 at 06:58 am 1228719512
Coupons go in a plastic container I have that is roughly the size of a file box to hold index cards. They are organized by category, and if it's a big category like Health & Beauty or Cleaning Supplies I put them in alphabetical order. I've heard of much more elaborate systems and notebooks and briefcases even (good grief!), but (a) I'm too used to my system and (b) I'm too cheap to buy something special. LOL!!
I don't know if either of these ideas would work for you, but maybe they'll give you some ideas.