It has been awhile since I’ve been blogging. So long that I barely remembered my website log-in info!! I have spent the last several months catching up on all those things that have been pushed aside during my nearly 7 year blogging adventure on Coupon Geek. I’ve been cleaning and organizing and more importantly—resting! You would not believe how little sleep I had all those years I worked on that site. I’ve also been focusing on my health and getting myself to the point where I feel pretty good. And while 2016 will bring me to the Big 4-0, I have to say, I am feeling the best I have in a long time. This goes back to what I’ve stressed before about the importance of taking time out for yourself to recharge.
And now I’m ready to get back into the blogging arena! And it’s a great time to do it as the new year is quickly approaching. As silly as this may sound, it almost feels like when that first day of the new year hits, we kind of have a clean slate at starting over. While I’m not one to do resolutions, I do make a few goals that I’d like to achieve. And this year’s biggest goal for me is quite a doozy. I would really like to have a simpler year. One where I make the most of each dollar I spend and seek out fun that is free or fairly inexpensive. I’d like to take on the challenge of just how little one can spend throughout the year. How low can you go? It’s time to begin the Spending Limbo Game! (Queue the Limbo Music…)
This is actually how my Coupon Geek site started. My husband and I were determined to pay off all our debt, aside from our house. And just reflecting back to that time, I don’t remember it being stressful but a fun challenge. I appreciated the things I had more and the outings we did take were extra special.
So while I’ve been fairly vacant on Glowing Gazelles for several months, you can now expect to see me here quite often. I’ll be sharing all the things I find to help myself save money and the ways I find to bring more happiness to our lives.
When you have an incredibly ostentatious goal sometimes the hardest part is defining where to begin. So these are the 3 steps I am planning on having in place before the ball drops on New Year’s Eve:
1) Set up a budget for us to follow in 2016. This will mean having a plan in place for any vacations or special events we’d like to attend throughout the year. We’ll have a “family meeting” and vote on the things that are most important to each of us.
2) Inventory the food pantry, fridge, freezer and household pantry/cabinets. This will give me an idea of what I have to work with and the items I need to look for deals on throughout January. And you know what will happen for those things that I need to buy? Yup, finding a sale and a coupon to match! I may no longer be “Coupon Geek” but I do try to avoid paying full-price for anything!
3) Create a rough-draft monthly meal plan for January. Since we tend to have cold and snowy winters this is a great time to do this as I am not a fan of several shopping outings in that kind of weather! My goal is to try to have a no or low spend month in January and “eat from the stockpile.” I will need to budget some for fresh veggies/fruit, though, as I am not sure I could technically be happy without those! 
These are the 3 places where I’ll begin and I’ll share how I went about accomplishing them as they happen. I encourage you at this time to think about what goals and/or challenges you plan on tackling in 2016. Perhaps you can play the Spending Limbo Game along with me and see how low you can go for your yearly spending, too!
Preparing For The New Year and The Spending Limbo Game!
