Looking Ahead To A New Year

I don't know about anyone else, but I love New Year.  I especially love looking ahead and thinking about what I want to achieve in the coming year.

Next year, I've got a whole raft of things that I am aiming to achieve or maintain.  I've made a lot of changes this year that weren't on my list last year and maintaining these changes is important to me.

Talking of last year's list, I did manage to complete more than two thirds of the things on it, which was quite positive and some have subsequently become less important, so the fact that I didn't achieve them, hasn't been too disappointing.

Normally, my personal aims are quite a personal thing and I don't always share them on this blog, but this year I thought I would, as they aren't anything different to what I blog about regularly anyway, so anyone who reads my blog will recognise the themes from various posts I've already written.

Here goes:

• Complete my dental treatment and get to that clean slate state with regard to my oral health, as described in this post by Courtney Carver.   I am determined to take control of my dental health and continue with the healthier practices I introduced in the latter part of this year. I also want to finish paying for the treatment too!

• Use my credit cards/overdraft less - I do pay them off every month, but ideally I'd like to use them less often and only buy using cash or debit card when the funds are in my account. Only that way can I honestly say that I live within my means.

• Save regularly - even if this is just £50 per month towards Christmas/birthday gifts/holidays, it would help take more control of my finances. Ideally though, I'd like to start saving more for the long term future too.

• Buy less/buy as ethically as possible - I started this practice in earnest this year and hope to continue where possible.

• Rejuvenate Little Bird's wardrobe. Last year it was my turn, this year it is LB's, as she is growing up so fast and she has outgrown many of her basics.

• Make more of my own cosmetics/toiletries/candles.  I think I might try to attempt at least one recipe/make per month.

• Cycle more - I do love it when I get on my bike and cycle around, but I just don't do it enough. This year I want to do it a lot more, enjoy getting the extra exercise and saving a bit of money in the process.

• Live more simply - By this I mean just to try to enjoy more of life's simple pleasures.  Be happy with and make use of what I already have, instead of constantly seeking more or better.

• Read at least two books per month. - Although I was on a book buying ban last year, quite a few more books did find their way into my life at various points, so I still have at least two full shelves of books waiting to be read.  I want to work my way through these this year and to aid me the book ban will stay in place.  Once read I may donate the books, if I no longer want to keep them and am unlikely to read them again.

• Reduce waste - Keep thinking of ways to reduce our household waste, recycling waste, food waste, etc.  A few changes this year have resulted in creating less landfill waste/recycling waste and in using more recyclable products, which has helped, but there is still a long way to go with regard to permanently reducing the rubbish we throw out.

• Shop around more - By this I mean try to shop in more local independent shops and not mainly online and in big supermarkets. This may mean changing the way I shop, i.e. not doing a big weekly shop, but I can't honestly see myself doing this, as I do like to just shop the once weekly and not everyday, but who knows I may be able to find a system that works for me, such as doing some local shopping one day per week and some supermarket shopping another. I also want to start taking cash out of my account each week to use for food shopping, as this will encourage me to shop locally more and stick to my budget by not using cards.

• Get a cholesterol test - I'm just curious to know what my cholesterol level is.

• Declutter 500 things in 2016 - After successfully decluttering over 1000 things in 2015, I've just got the bug and want to continue.  I'm not sure I can find another 1000 things over the year so I'm setting myself the goal of 500 for 2016.  If I manage more then great, but this is my target for the year.

• Be more generous - Donate more to charity, help others more, give things away where possible, give my time, etc.

• Adopt a more regular cleaning routine - My current cleaning routine is virtually non-existent, in that I tend to deep clean when the state of the house is getting me down and I can't ignore it any longer, or when we have visitors. I would like to adopt a more regular routine, that keeps me on top of the more common jobs around the house, such as changing bed linen, cleaning the bathroom and toilet, changing towels, hoovering, mopping floors, etc.

Anyway, that should be enough to keep me going.  A Happy New Year to all of you.  I hope the coming year is a good one for you all.