2009 Resolutions

2008 has been a long and exhausting year for me. I started out the year with a 2 year old and a 2 month old. Now I am ending the year with a 3 year old and a 14 month old.

I have been pretty much in survival mode up until the last 2 months.

At the beginning of the year I would feel so accomplished if I were to get a shower AND dry my hair on the same day! The house was never really clean. I would either start on the kitchen and then someone would start screaming and if I were lucky I would be able to also make it to the den. That would be about as far as I would go.

Out of desperation to live in a seemingly clean house I started a schedule.

Mondays- laundry, and the grocery store
Tuesdays- bathrooms
Wednesdays- downstairs
Thursdays- Kitchen
Fridays- Upstairs

This truly saved me. I felt as though I had at least a little bit of a hold of my house again.

It is the simple things that make you happy.

At least the older you get.

Then this year I also started couponing. (Don't know if that is an actual word, but it is actually a verb in my house)

I have always been a sale shopper. When walking into any store I walk straight back to the sale section not even looking at anything else in the store. I could always find the best deals on clothes, furniture, even shrubs, but with groceries I just didn't know how to even start.

I really wish I knew about how to coupon when Mr. Genius and I first got married. We were so poor then. Our first Christmas we barely made it through. I remember I was so embarrassed we bought my cousins socks for Christmas because that was all we could afford.

Then I was introduced to www.moneysavingmom.com and that totally opened up a new way of shopping to me. The main place I shop at that I have never paid attention before is CVS.

On CVS's receipts it keeps a tally of the money that you can saved by buying their same items. This doesn't include the coupons that you have used more the Extra Care Bucks that you used to pay for the item (for those that do not "CVS" Extra Care Bucks are it is like store credit) I have saved over $1600 and only spent out of pocket for the whole year a little over $70. Now remember I have gone to CVS every week starting in April or May (I can't remember exactly) and have only skipped out on only 3 weeks since starting. I have probably gotten over 30 tubes of toothpaste, 15 toothbrushes, 20 deodorants, 20 hair styling products, more lip gloss that I care to count. I even have enough mascara to last me to the year 2015 just to name a few items that I have accumulated this year.

Now don't get me wrong I think it is a great thing to never have to pay for essential toiletries. The problem with all of this is I feel like the junk is overtaking the house.

I think I will have enough toothpaste and I will see that CVS has a sale of their crest health pro toothpaste (my fav) where it is on sale for $2.99 and they will give me $2.99 of ECBs (Extra Care Bucks) back. I also have a $1 off coupon and $2 of Extra Care Bucks left over from the week before so I walk out with another tube of toothpaste for like 15 cents. So you can't pass that up.

I have given bags and bags away to family and friends or whoever even mentions that they use a certain type of medicine. But it stills more keeps coming in.

Which also brings me to another point. Because of "CVSing" and couponing we have been able to give to people who truly needed it when we couldn't give financially. Because lets face it everything has gotten ridiculously expensive and if you have to run to the store just to get your basic needs of toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, and body wash. You could easily spend $30. When that $30 could really need to use to put food in their mouths. This is not to toot my own horn but to show you that couponing can lead to helping others when you wouldn't normally be able to help.

Sorry about... that didn't mean to go there.

Now I am quietly backing off of my pedestal.

Any who.

So because of all the stuff that we have been stocking up on I have an amazing urge to ORGANIZE!!

I really can't stand it any longer.

So my New Years Resolution is the organize every room in my house.

And now you are rolling your eyes at me.

I want to post about this so I will help myself stay accountable/motivated about it.

I have even come up with a schedule to keep me on track. Plus I will try to post pictures up. Depending on how humble I am feeling I may even post some before pictures. But then again you all did see my disgusting carpets before we ripped it up. So I guess I have no shame.

Well so far this is what I am thinking for my schedule:

January- Kitchen

February- Boy's room- Consignment sale will start the next month so I will be going through their clothes anyways to get them ready to sale and see what I need to buy

March- Attic, I am thinking that this time of year it won't be freezing cold and it won't be so hot will be passing out either. Oh and we don't just have 1 attic we actually have 3. We have 2 side attics that are connected to the boys rooms. Which actually are wonderful. But it is very easy to just throw stuff in there. So there is no telling what we are going to find in those side attics. So this will be a long month. Lucky Me.

April- Garage- I picked this month for kind of the same reason I picked the attic, plus my parents and us are planning on having a garage sale this summer so we really need to clean out the attic and the garage before that so we can get out as much as possible...and make a little dough in the process.

June- My bedroom, my goal is to have lost all of my weight by this time. OK... stop laughing. I really want to get rid of all my "fat" clothes. So if I haven't lost all my weight by now I guess I will have to go around naked. Wouldn't that be helpful for the psychological development for my boys. All the more reason to make sure that I make this goal.

July- Den- I now have 2 pantries and one is in my den. I think I still need both of them because of stocking up but it just some type of rhyme or reason about it.

August- Playroom- With have two kids fairly close in age, over the past 6 weeks with their birthday and Christmas they have inherited the entire selection of toys from Toys R Us for kids 3 and under. If you are looking for any type of toy I am sure we have it here for you.

September- Dining room, not much to do in there. Come to think of it maybe I should move this one to January considering we just redid our bedroom and put up and took down Christmas decor all month. We may need to rest to keep our sanity.

October- Laundry room-Eventhough it is our smallest room it is one of the rooms that gets the most traffic since you walk through it to get to and from the garage. My next house will have an actual laundry room. Not a closet or a breezeway. A room where you can close the door and the only reason you need to go in there is to DO THE LAUNDRY. Just a thought.

November and December- I think I have listed all the rooms in the house so either I can rest or I can think of another project to do on the house.

I probably should rest but I am pretty sure I will be doing the latter anyways.

I have everyone has a great New Year.