Day One of turning 40

Today is the day that I have turned 40.  I feel like it is a turning point in my life and onto bigger and better things.  I LOVED my thirties, it was probably one of the best times in my life.  But now I have grown more and have new goals.  I am starting this blog to document and keep myself accountable to the goals that I want to achieve.  Journaling and writing have always helped me to do this, and maybe this time I will get to where I need to be in the next 10 years. 

So to start my goals are:
*Get out of debt - 2 years max.
* Lose 45 lbs. - 1 year max.
*Declutter, get organized, and use my small space to its full potential.
*Put "Baby Max" in preschool. He is one now, by the time he is three.
*Run a half marathon. June 22.
*Build up my Scentsy business.

So to elaborate on each of these a little bit, I want to get out of debt.  I am sick and tired of paying minimum payments and watching my paycheck go to unwanted bills.  So I am going to use the snowball effect, pay off my highest interest credit card first, (while still making the minimum payments on my other credit card) and then combine payments to pay off the second one.  I am going to use any extra money I get to pay this off! 
In the long run, it is saving money.  In the meantime, I am really trying to live a simpler, more natural way of living.  I hate the word frugal, so I will use simple instead. 

Lose 45 lbs.  Last year, I gave birth to "Baby Max" and gained quite a bit of weight.  I was already overweight to begin with, and now have 45 lbs to lose.  With today being my birthday, I am not going to start a diet plan today.  But tomorrow I am going to hit it full force and move into 40 with style, grace and ending up 41 as a skinny hot mama!!  I want "Baby Max" to have a healthy mom, one that can play ball with him and run after him.  I don't want to be sitting on the sidelines just watching.  Some diet plans that I am researching right now are WHOLE30, and Metabolic Research Center Diet along with Weight Watchers.   I am going to try to do it on my own for the first couple of months and hope to have lost 10 lbs by March 31.  I think that is doable.  I will weigh every week. 

Declutter and get organized.  I live in a very small space, and with the addition of "Baby Max" it is imperative that I get cleaned up and organized.  Don't get me wrong, I am not like those hoarders you see on TV, but I have A LOT of clutter, and just stuff laying around.  Stuff that is junk, and paper clutter is huge for me too.  It seems that I am always bringing home paper clutter and junk clutter.  So to get a handle on this, I have implemented a NO SPEND MONTH.  For this year I am going to do that twice a year, the month of February - (it is a short month) and the month of June.  I can only by necessities such as groceries, gas, and what I deem as necessary. 
Necessary items: 
1-2 32 oz diet pepsi per day.  The rest of the time drink water.
Groceries - try to cut the budget by $20 every month.
Baby supplies.  Nuff said.
Gas for the car
And my yikes, bad habit of smoking.  Those are necessities still, but looking to quit when I get everything else in order.  Baby steps.

Unnecessary items:
Coffee at a coffee shop
Eating out
Clothes, internet shopping, anything that doesn't fit in with my necessities list.  I am a huge internet shopper, and I tend to impulse buy when at the grocery store.  No more for one month. 

Put "Baby Max" in preschool.  Start researching preschools and get on a waiting list.  This will cost money, so I need to budget for that also. 

Run a half marathon:  Make training a priority.  This falls in line with my weight loss goals. 

Build up my Scentsy business.  This is far down on the list, but hopefully by the end of this year, I can increase my sales somewhat.  My first thing to doing this is attending the Spring Sprint at the end of February. 

New goals will be added, and old goals will be updated, but I think for this year I have a reasonable amount to work with and hopefully this won't completely overwhelm me.  What goals do you have for the coming year?  Would love to hear about your goals and attempts to get there. 

Thanks for listening!
Char