Hi Everyone! My name is Annie. I am a yarncrafter, wife, mom to two teenagers, and an RN. I decided that 2015 was going to be a "clean slate" kind of year for me. There are things in my life that I want to take control over, things I want to learn, and fun that I want to have!
My first mission was to get control over my knitting and crocheting. I had 5 WIPs (Work In Progress) from 2014 that I decided to finish before I could work on anything else. The first FO (Finished Object) was a crocheted afghan for my oldest when she goes off to university. It is done in her school colors and will keep her toasty warm. I kinda like to think that it's also like me giving her a hug after a long day even though I can't be there with her. My second FO was a pair of knit socks with an after thought heel. This was the first time I had done an after thought heel and I really liked this method of heel. The pattern I used was Laura Linneman's After Thought Heel Socks and can be found on www.ravelry.com. My third FO was from a CAL (Crochet-A-Long) done by The Crochet Crowd ages ago. It was a mystery CAL then, but I started it and, for what ever reason, never kept up. The pattern is called Mike the Monster and it's Mike from Monsters, Inc. The pattern can be found on www.ravelry.com. When I started this CAL it was a mystery so I just picked up a skein of yarn that said "Monster!" to me and I ended up with a neon-ish green color, which, as it turns out, was a great choice! My fourth 2014 WIP is a prayer shawl for the Prayer Shawl Ministry at my church. It's about a 1/3 of the way done. It's garter stitch, so I think I should be done with it fairly quickly. The fifth and final 2014 WIP I will be working on is a Harvest Cardigan from tincanknits (www.ravelry.com). I did about 2 hours worth of knitting on this one before it got put aside for a different cardigan. Since I did so little work on the Harvest Cardigan in 2014 I think that when I get to it, it will be safe to start another project. Like many yarncrafters, I prefer to have one "at home" project and one "travelling" project. Travelling projects are great because they are small, easy to put in your purse or bag, and can be pulled out whenever you have a little time on your hands, such as waiting for practice to end, waiting at the orthodontists, etc.
My next mission is to get out of the "food rut" my family has been in lately. We tend to eat the same things week in and week out and we are all tired of it. We are now exploring recipe websites and trying to find new things to make for dinner. As we try new recipes and evaluate them I will post them here. This mission will also tie in to the budget mission I have for this year. I will start meal planning and actually writing out a shopping list instead of shopping off the top of my head, thus saving us money.
My third mission is to have fun. Now I know that sounds pretty vague, but this one also ties into the budget mission I have for this year. My family and I will be on the search for no or low cost activities in our neck of the woods that will appeal to adults and teenagers alike. More on that to come.
My fourth mission is a long term project - getting and staying debt free. There are so many people with so many systems for getting debt free that it can be confusing! I particularly love the ones that want you to spend hundreds of dollars to buy the book, etc. to get debt free! It kinda doesn't make sense to me to spend all that money on a system when you could have used that money to pay a bill! So, I am going back to my roots. I am a simple, homebody, country girl at heart and that is where I am going to start. My first objective is to stop spending my hard earned money on crap! Just because people say this or that is the latest and greatest does not mean that I have to have it! Just because something is new and shiny doesn't mean I have to have it! I am changing my mindset! I will also be leading by example on this one and showing my kids that I am happy with what I already have, so that they know it is okay to not have the latest and greatest and still be content and happy. My next objective is to start paying off the "little" debts first and early, like my youngest's orthodontist bill. When that is paid off, then I will add that money to what I am already paying on the next largest bill and get that paid off. Then we will get to what I call our "middle" bills, like the credit cards and car payment. We have two credit cards and my goal is to get down to one and pay that balance off monthly. I know we will have to have at least one credit card as there are some things that just can not be paid for with cash these days. After all that is said and done with, we will move on to the "big" debt, the house payment. Now, while doing all of this we also need to beef up our emergency fund. Most of what I have read to this point says three to six months of living expenses. We are going to go for the six month level just to be on the safe side. Once the emergency fund is taken care of we will put extra into our retirement accounts. We put money into these regularly and have for years, but we want start adding extra. The time table for this plan is 5 years. If we get it done quicker than that "yippee!" for us. We are planning to have set backs; every good plan needs to allow for the unexpected. I am no financial advisor or expert, but I think this is a solid place for this family to start from!
Thank you for spending some time with me today.
I encourage readers to introduce themselves in the comments section. I appreciate any feedback or suggestions as well.
Annie
