This is the New Year

I have been thinking a lot about ways to dig deeper and live better in 2012, and there are several ideas bouncing around in my head.

First, I've decided to go sugar-free. No sweet baked goods, no added sweeteners, and no sodas (not even diet). I have been getting on and off this bandwagon for the last 6 months, but it's finally time to embrace it. I simply feel awful when I eat sugary things and I feel better when I don't. More about this in a future post.

I also, after creating a spreadsheet, have figured out that I can save $6000 and pay down my student loan debt to under $3000 by year's end, so I'm going to to do that. The trick is to stop feeling like I'm rich by investing my money immediately into the areas that need it--my savings account and my debts. If I know my checking account is low, I will be less likely to spend on more frivolous items. So the plan is to invest $500 into my savings account and $500 into my loans every month. It ends up being a hefty portion of my take-home pay, but it's definitely worth it.

These two things, I think, will really help cover the rest of my goals. Which are:
1. Get serious about reducing my belongings, both personally and within our household; sell what I can, give away what I can't and reduce the amount of new things that come into the house
2. Stay focused on creating inexpensive, nourishing, home-cooked meals full of nutrients but without expensive additions
3. Stop going to Starbucks and other coffee shops and instead take 2 minutes to pour myself a tea to-go
4. Drink more water instead of snacking in the afternoon
5. Spend more time reading (news, fiction, non-fiction) on my internet devices and less time shopping or reading blogs mindlessly
6. Grow more food; preserve more too
7. Meditate, do yoga, and take lots of walks (rain or shine)
8. Seriously reduce the amount of caffeine I consume; drink mostly herbal teas and water

Those goals may, at first glance, have nothing to do with my original two intentions, but they really do. I am so sick of putting money into loans--plain and simple. I can't stand what interest rates do to the amount you end up paying, and I want to finish the repayment as soon as humanly possible. Most of my other goals have to do with living more frugally so that I can manage this ambitious repayment (by the way, most loans are set up to be paid back in 10 years--I'm hoping to be done in less than 5). Not only do some of my money pitfalls have to do with impulse-buying, they are also connected to eating sugar. Even when I get plain latte's they still have sugar and caffeine. I tend to buy lots of snacks at work that are sometimes sweet, sometimes salty, but I am less likely to snack if I know I can't have cookies!

In the end, I want my money back. I want to have something to show for the salary that I earn. I want all of my money to go towards new adventures and investments, not into a past investment (my education). Who knows, I'll probably need to take out loans for graduate school at some point. But I hope I will have completely paid off my undergraduate debt before that happens. I also hate thinking about my decent-sized salary going towards lattes, burritos and shoes and having very little to show for the rest. So it's time to be in control of the cash that flows from my credit card and put it where it belongs. In a way, what I'm doing is preventing myself from the impulse-buys by taking away my money before I can spend it. Oh, the mind games I play on myself. In the end, I want to spend as much money as I can where it counts, so that I can truly take advantage of being debt free in a little over a year...can't wait...