Friday 8 January 2010

The Rest Of The World Becomes A Gift Shop

I started off 2009 with high hopes and many resolutions. I may have laughed a little while re-reading my New Year's resolutions for 2009 ... and then cried a little (on the inside) because I successfully completed only one of my resolutions. Well, one and a half. My one triumph was that I ate beets once a month for all of 2009. I ate beets twelve times in 2009 (and am quite happy to never eat beets again, thank you.) My half-triumph is that Wolfie rarely pees inside anymore (I say through gritted teeth because really, he should not be peeing inside at all. Do you hear me, puppy? You are on notice! One more accident inside and we're sending you back to the farm from whence you came.)

I decided to do things a little differently in 2010. Instead of spouting off a slew of unrealistic goals at the beginning of the year, I'm going to make a new goal each month (drawing inspiration from Nilsa's Challenge series.) I want to see if holding myself accountable at the end of each month makes me more successful in completing my goals.

So, my New Year's resolution for 2010 is to come up with a monthly challenge; tell the internet about it; then post my successes and/or failures on the last day of each month. (I realize that we're already a week into January but I decided before January 1st what my January goal would be and have been sticking to it.)

My goal for January is to curtail my shopping. This extends to fun things like clothes, books, music, kitchen gadgets, and Ed Hardy air fresheners. It does not extend to groceries (including fancy cheeses and the expensive ice cream, baby steps, peeps, baby steps) or bills or items purchased with gift certificates.

Though if someone wanted to buy fun things for me (like this gorgeous bag or this gorgeous clutch ... ummm how long til the end of January?) I wouldn't object.

13 comments:

  1. I love this idea!!! Can't wait to watch the year progress for you :)

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  2. Oh drool, I heart me some mat and nat!

    I think that's a great idea for the resolutions. Can't wait to hear about your progress :)

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  3. i love the idea of month-long challenges! i agree, they seem much more attainable (and i seem to hold myself much more accountable).

    that said, i.. uh.. haven't made any.

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  4. The monthly idea makes SO MUCH SENSE.

    Good luck, girl!

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  5. I love that you're making a whole year of this challenge, Hillary. I lost steam after a little while, but am still holding true to some of the challenges. Not too bad! Can't wait to read more!

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  6. Oooooh, Matt and Nat! *swoon*

    We moved from the big city out to the rural Maritimes and our shopping got curtailed by necessity (this was three 1/2 years ago). Wow, it has vastly improved my life! Our stress re: money is much more manageable, we have more "quality" time during the evenings in weekends... It's quite rewarding and I don't think you'll regret it.

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  7. What a fabulous idea. I just wrote my "progress on my resolutions" post and felt totally proud of myself for keeping 5/6 but then realised it wasn't achievement-worthy in the slightest being JANUARY 8TH lol.

    Goals are much more managable in month-sized chunks - I may have to steal this idea!

    And maybe an obvious question - but why beets? lol

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  8. Best of luck! We've been watching our own budget, and it's the fancy cheese that's been our serious weakness. Hopefully you'll have a stronger will than we!

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  9. One of my goals in 2010 is to have a No Spend Month where I only spend on things I absolutely positively NEED. I think it will really open my eyes to how much money I waste.

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  10. This is a really good idea! :)

    I usually just quietly make some personal goals for myself and try and keep to them.

    Good luck for the month of January.

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  11. Love this idea! I've been having fun with my inspiration posts every month, and with setting goals- focusing your energy in on something really does help you get it done.

    As does promising the internet you're going to do something =)

    PS - I'm a huge matt and nat fan. I think they should sponsor us. I'll get working on it.

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  12. oh that is such a great idea, goals per month would definitely help keep things in check. maybe i should look into doing that with my goals too, haha.

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  13. I'm glad to hear you will not be cutting The Cheese out of your budget because we both know how important it is.

    VERY IMPORTANT.

    And now I want some cheese.

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