My Real Life

I’ve been a member of the Frugal Village website since July 2001.

I started visiting the site when I was on maternity leave with Monkey Girl and then finally joined that summer.

Over time, the site owner, Sara Noel, made me a moderator who dealt mostly with the Home Organization threads in the Forums, and even though my attendance has been spotty in the past few years, she has allowed me to maintain that status. 🙂

I spend the majority of my time at the village reading and posting in the forums, but the entire site has wonderful articles and resources for people who are looking for ways to live more simply and frugally.

One of my favorite parts of the forums is the “Challenge” section.

People post yearly challenges for all types of things.

If you can think it up, there is probably a challenge for it at the village, and we use the threads there to hold ourselves accountable.

One of the challenges that I’ve decided to join for 2013 is the “Twenty Wishes” challenge.

The way the challenge works is like this: (and I’m just quoting directly from the 2013 challenge thread here)

The premise is simple, execution may not be! Make a list of twenty things you would like to accomplish in 2013. Your list may include self-improvement goals, decluttering, spiritual growth, finishing off those pesky UFOs (UnFinished Objects), remodeling projects, or whatever you would like to see completed by New Year’s Eve, 2013. Choose your list of items carefully. Don’t make it so difficult you can’t possibly complete the list, but do push yourself a bit to get through some things you may have been putting off.

I didn’t join in 2012, but I decided that 2013 might be a good year to join.

So, I came up with my list and entered it today.

Most of what I came up with goes along with my goals for the new year, (which I’ll be sharing on January 1st).

1. Take the family to DisneyWorld. We’ve been talking about doing this for quite awhile and just haven’t done it. I want this to be the year.
2. Get a playset for the backyard. I want the kids to play outside more, and I know my kids and a playset would definitely do it.
3. Get weight down by 9 pounds AND KEEP IT THERE. 
4. Incorporate more vegetables into the family diet.
5. Make $1,000 by selling on eBay.
6. Get blog readership to 200 per day average.
7. Make home office neat, organized, and functional.
8. Read 50 books (and keep track!)
9. Get pictures hung. We’ve been here a year and a half and haven’t hung up our pictures yet. Drives me nuts.
10. Have family photo taken.
11. Really go through my closet and be ruthless with getting rid of what I don’t wear.
12. Play piano at least once a week. I teach piano lessons, so I am always at the piano, but I rarely carve out the time to play for myself. I went to college as a vocal and piano performance major and I feel like I’m neglecting that part of myself.
13. Only eat out once a week, if at all.
14. Write in my journal more often. I only wrote in it twice in 2012, so anything would be an improvement! I think keeping the blog up every day takes it’s place, but they have different purposes and I don’t want to neglect my journal writing.
15. Really learn about self-publishing to see if it is an option for my novel.
16. Re-edit my novel.
17. Shred and pare down all of our files.
18. Sell the van.
19. Take more pictures.
20. Spend more time outside.

Some of the items are small, some are large, all are manageable, I believe.

Do any of you have a similar list?  Do you have any things you hope to have done by December 31, 2013 that you’d be willing to share?  I’d love to hear what you all will be working on in the new year!