Happy New Year ! Yes I Know it is a Month in.

I hope everyone has a happy and blessed New Year. I hope every one had a joyful Christmas too. We had a quiet day together enjoying my husbands lasagna. My children were happy with there gifts and treats, probably because daddy did most of the shopping. Although my husband enjoyed all the gifts I gave him.(even the slippers). The first year in ten that there was not a clunker, and there have been some doozies, the butter bell comes to mind as a big one. I always felt so bad for him because I love everything he picks for me. This year it was a cook book. "The Take-out Menu Cookbook" that was my favorite. I love it! More importantly my family loves what I am putting in front of them. The biggest hit so far is the goulash. My goal is to try and make one from each nationality each month. I am so great full I do not have a picky family.

DH and I quit smoking the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It was not pretty. Fast forward to the end of January we are still not smoking but I have gained 20 lbs. I have to say it was really painful to quit this time. I think I might have gone into a depression for a while, I am only now starting to feel normal again. It probably had more to do with the junk food I was putting into my body. We ate out so much in December and January. So now hubby and I are on the right track, counting calories and making better choices. Meal planning is important for making sure I stay on track, and I am helping keep my husband on track too(left overs= his lunch). It helps us stick to the grocery budget also. I even got off my butt and played on my Wii fit. I have a great workout game EA Sports active that really kicks you in the butt and I need to just get up and do it. DH is talking about getting the Kinect for his Xbox. That would be good for us both but I will believe it when I see it.

The great thing about all these little goals is they tie into the one huge goal we are working towards, STICK TO THE BUDGET. Not eating out so often, meal planning saves money too and we save $52.00 a week by not smoking. Our goal is to pay off our credit card dept and live within our means. Again. There was a time in the beginning of the decade we paid off the car and credit cards.That was very relaxing. We are fortunate enough that our tax return this year combined with the bonus DH gets from his job will cover it. Paying it off in one swoop would be ideal but we have a few things around here that definitely need repairing. We might pay off most of The card and use a couple grand to do that. I am leaning towards paying it off and building up the savings with all those payments we don't have to make. Being a home owner there will always be something that need fixing, isn't that what savings are for? Now if I stick to the diet though that will blow the budget out of the water. I will need a new wardrobe.

We have been very busy around here this month. we rearranged the house so now I have an actual dinning room. WooHoo I wanted this to happen since we moved in but I had to wait for it to be DH's idea. ;) We moved the futon and kids T.V. with the Wii and DS' Xbox into the office. The office was consolidated down to one desk. you know what that means? DH and I are sharing a desk. It has been about two weeks and we are still alive... I mean happily married what ever. So any way back to my dinning area. We bought curtains and some wall decorations. All picked out by me. DH picked out something too, a small television. Yeah I said it. It is like having a new home. And we did not spend oodles of money. Our next project is my bed room. If I find it under our laundry.