Our Main Resolutions

I just read a good post on Bruggie Tales about finances. The link to the article Dad's Basic Methods is worth reading. I think G and I need to try to do this Saturday financial overview every Saturday. I also think we could eliminate tens of thousands of dollars of frivolous spending every year. Little bits of money add up...fast. Look at Christmas. I felt good about our Christmas spending because we spend way less than the average American family on gifts. I don't know where they got their stats, but one article said the average American family spends $800 per person (not family!) on Christmas gifts! And the same article said that most American families go into debt for this and don't pay it off until October of the next year!

And here we are- December 30. Christmas is over. The remote control cars broke within five minutes (which we returned and got our full refund back). After "sampling" all their gifts, there are really only a handful of toys that they are really utilizing (and I'm proud to say the books are a hit). Note for next year: Christmas comes and goes. Set a budget and don't go over it. This year we really did okay on the amount spent, and we didn't go into debt over gifts, but we could have made some smarter choices too. We kept emphasizing the real meaning of Christmas, and Jon and Jer get it, but when you're their age it's hard not to focus on the toys.

Ordering online was a good idea, I think. I price compared and found good deals. I did my online shopping in November, but for next year, try to give yourself two months advance purchasing just in case a package goes MIA. When the disneyshopping.com package was lost, Disney told me they couldn't do anything until the package had been missing for ten days. With shipping times and everything else, two months should work. Also, don't buy remote control cars. The ones I bought were higher quality than most of the others I saw, and they were still crap. Try those rockets that G likes for next year.

So here is my idea of what our main resolutions should be;
1. Exercise regulary and eat healthy. G needs to do more weights than cardio, and I need to do more cardio than weights.
2. Weekly spending overviews on Saturdays.
3. Going along with #2, cut back on spending by atleast 33%. Sounds like a lot, but I think we could do it. No eating out, no big clothes purchases, shopping for necessities on sale (and remember just because a sweater is on sale, you don't need to buy it. You don't save the amount of money that has been discounted- you waste the price of the sweater if it isn't something you really need).
4. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. I need to be less flaky.

G and I need to be better about our prayer time and study time. We need to get up earlier and go to bed earlier and get ourselves on a more predictable schedule.

And here is the video. It is Body Moving. Gray even likes it and says,"Bah-dee moo-bin! Bah-dee moo-bin!" There is a sword fight where a guy gets his head cut off, but it is so fake that the boys laugh.