Every year, I sit down & make up a list of New Years Resolutions with great intentions but never any information on HOW to achieve my goals.  This year, I decided to do it a little differently.  For each goal I chose, I researched tools I can utilize to make things easier for me.  Here are some of tools I found, along with tips I learned along the way.

Weight Loss

I want to lose 50 lbs this year. I lost 10 lbs between Thanksgiving & December 22nd, so this is completely doable for me but will require a LOT of planning & dedication.

• Meal Planning – plan out your menu for at least  week, including healthy snacks. I will be posting new recipes and our weekly menu with  printable shopping list every week
• Curves, 24 Hour Fitness, and other clubs often offer free consultations, waived join/key fees, or even a free trial!
• Not able to join a gym? There are many great workout programs for DVD, Blu-ray, Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360!

Financial Freedom

This year, I am going to finish paying off my old medical bills and double my savings. I’d love to be able to go on a REAL vacation this year too!

• Create & follow a budget! Get a free 30-day trial at MyTotalMoneyMakover.com. This is the site I use & love. Don’t forget to print off the “useful forms”!
• Monitor your credit!  Credit Sesame is FREE service that lets you view your Experian credit score for free – no CC required!
• LearnVest is one of my favorite financial sites.  They have an online budget creator as well, but my favorite is their daily email!
• Another way I’m going to help is by increasing our income with surveys, reward programs, and rebates.
  • SavingStar is a great way to get back cash for your grocery purchases.
  • Global Test Market Panel, Harris Poll Online, Opinion Outpost, and Survey Savvy are just a few of the survey companies I’ve worked with before & will really utilize this year.
  • Make sure to check with your grocery stores & drug stores for any reward programs they offer.  I’ve been racking up some great savings with Walgreens Balance Rewards card & Hy-Vee now has a gas rewards program that works with Savingstar!

Get Organized

I hate clutter & being disorganized, yet my house has WAY too much stuff & I’m constantly forgetting appointments.  This year, I’m going to use some of the tools below to get back on track.

• Flylady breaks it down into simple babysteps to help you get your house under control.
• Cozi is a scheduler that works for the entire family. They have apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android. When I’m out of the house, I just add the appointments to my phone.
• Out of Milk is the app I use for my grocery list.  I can scan items onto the list when they get low and keep track of my “stock up” prices. I have the pro version and love the sync feature. I type in my list on the computer & have access to it on my phone while in the store.
• More Time Moms is my favorite calendar!  It has huge spaces to write in our plans for each day & lets me keep track of when DH’s parents have Dr. appointments, space for the boys’ chores, and notes. The boys love helping put the birthday stickers on, too.
• Take a picture of the calendar after you make changes!  I snap a pic on my phone, just in case.  Make sure to write down events from Cozi onto your calendar every night so everyone can easily see what’s going on.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

You may know from previous posts that I am working hard on getting out of debt, building a well-funded emergency fund, and donating to the charitable organizations I support.  Payoff allows you to set goals, such as paying off a loan or credit card, building a savings account, buying a car, and more.  I decided to start with a baby emergency  fund in our new BoA savings account (one of those that rolls over the change from every purchase) and build this up to $1,000.  I don’t remember how often BoA throws our change in there, so I set up automatic transfers from our checking to savings to help me meet this goal in my selected time frame.

I love how it let me connect my Savings to Payoff, so they can track it for me. I can also earn neat little badges, a nice reminder of the baby steps I’m taking to meet my larger goals!

Payoff doesn’t just provide the tools to help get you on track. They also provide many articles ranging from how volunteering can provide a financial benefit to how to haggle.

The only thing I don’t like is that I frequently get booted for inactivity.  I’m hoping to find a setting for this, because I’m very easily sidetracked and flip between tabs constantly.  Until then, I’m going to have to focus on whatever I’m doing on Payoff and try to ignore everything else my sidetracked brain thinks of.