Three Days Off

I have three glorious days off before going back to work.  Today was such a beautiful day - sunny and cool, perfect chamber of commerce weather for Florida.  To celebrate the end of 2010, I'll be attending a gospel concert with some friends from church and then I'll be toasting the new year with sparkling grape juice.

I can't help it; even though I don't make resolutions, there's just something about January 1st that makes me want to wipe the slate clean and start all over again.  I'm looking forward to new challenges and new accomplishments.  As our new governor says, "Let's get to work."

Christmas 2011 - really?

I have been giving a lot of thought to the various ways that a person can save money and simplify their life.

I know that one way I can simplify my life is to begin thinking about Christmas 2011 now - yes, now!  My tree is still up, my outside lights are turned on, New Year's is only a couple of days away and I'm already thinking about next Christmas.  I have 5 stockings to stuff and without careful planning, I can blow my whole budget just on stockings.  Plus, there are gifts to make.  I have two stockings to cross stitch and sew by next Christmas and  I am not the kind of person who sits down and finishes a project before beginning a new one; I usually have several projects going at the same time.  Right now, I am crocheting an afghan for a wounded soldier and I am crocheting baby caps for infants in underdeveloped countries.

I have a list of projects that I want to do and I keep finding more great ideas every time I'm online.  I need to go through them all and decide what I really want to work on next year.  This is all part of my master plan (hehe) to living a more simplified life in 2011.  We'll see.

365 Days of Frugal Living in the Suburbs

I am not a big fan of New Year's resolutions.  I've made too many of them in the past, only to give up within the first two weeks of the new year.  What I am a fan of is setting goals.  So...my goal for 2011 is to find a simpler, more frugal way to live.  I want to get rid of all the excess in my life.  How am I going to do this?  Well, over the next few days, I want to break down this HUGE goal that I have into smaller, more manageable goals that I can achieve on a short term basis.  I want to incorporate these ideas into my suburban existence - I want to achieve my own En-gedi.