4 Steps to a Fresh Start In the New Year

There are so many ways to start off the New Year, but a few things that have always been part of my end of year/beginning of year ritual include ending the year with a grocery spending freeze, a money leak scavenger hunt, Inbox purge, and a lot of planning and goal-setting exercises.

 

We seem to travel and eat differently toward the end of the year due to holidays and such so I have often stopped buying anything that isn't essential from about Thanksgiving until the weekend before January 1st. During this time, we eat up random things from the freezer and take inventory of our pantry. I look for expired spices, sauces, and more.

 

The trash goes out and if I'm planning to do any kind of reset or detox in January, I'll focus on using up ingredients like grains, sugar-containing foods, and more. Think about what you plan to do in January to renew your healthy eating lifestyle. Does what you have on hand match that? If not, start using it up now! The money you save doing this spending freeze will help offset the "startup costs" of doing a new healthy eating challenge in the New Year.

 

For about 9 years I have used a budgeting app called YNAB or You Need a Budget. I absolutely love this app, check it out here. It is an envelop style budgeting tool. You are educated really well on this method throughout the courses and videos. It is more of a lifestyle and not just a tool that you use. You commit to it. So all the money that comes into you is given a job. You do not forecast--meaning you do not plan to spend your money before you are paid. Instead, when you are given money- you assign every dollar. It has served us well over the years but I have since graduated to a simpler app because of my business income and expenses.

 

This app is amazing at finding money leaks, helping you cancel them, and negotiating your bills to lower them. It's called TrueBill. It is free for many of the services. You can pay for Premium and they will negotiate your bills for you and even cancel things automatically.

 

Whether you use the free version or the Premium, you WILL find money leaks. It's impressive how many charges come through that we don't remember signing up for or have decided we no longer need them. When a monthly charge for Netflix is due in 5 days- you will see it every day you log in on the dashboard. This reminds you that you aren't watching it and how much money you would save if you cancel it. Within my first day of using it, I canceled 4 duplicate subscriptions to Kindle! My family was all signed up but we were still logging into one person's account despite paying for four accounts!

 

Saving money through this exercise prepares you to set up your budget for the new year.

 

Ok, first off- you need to know that inbox zero is a myth. Once you get there, you will dedicate so much time to maintaining it! It's like tending to a garden! You can't stop. Instead, I use Chuck to help with this. Not only can you sort emails by sender, but you can sort them by time. So I can see only the emails I received today, this week, recently, this month, and by each month of the year. I view this once per day to help quickly erase and unsubscribe.

 

Toward the end of the year, while riding on the car on our long trek to Iowa, I will erase by the sender with one sideswipe! I unsubscribe from anyone that has more than 10 emails unread in my Inbox! If they had something so valuable for me to hear, I would be reading it often. I typically deleted between 5000-10,000 emails at the end of each year before I started using Chuck. Now, I have around 300-500 emails that get purged in December. This is a big difference and helps with my mental clutter!

 

This exercise requires it's own headline. I do everything from goal setting for the year to monthly and weekly goal setting. I plan our meals for the first two months of the year. I evaluate my fitness plans and set new routines. I evaluate our homeschool plans and routines and re-evaluate. I use a digital day planner called WunderBear HomeRoutines. I set up our day-to-day schedule for January. It's a lot but it is so refreshing to spend this time planning content and programs for my business.

 

By looking back at where I was and where I want to go, I am able to adjust my Time Budget to make room for the priorities that weren't getting enough attention previously.

 

I know all of this sounds very simple but I will warn you: it is not simple! It takes a lot of time. I give up a lot during this season as I plan. I stay up a few extra nights. I use every break that I can during the holidays to knock out all of this. It sets us up very well for the year ahead.

 

If you are new to Crunchy SuperMom, I encourage you to pick one or maybe two of these exercises to try this year. Perhaps you take one per month and apply them no matter what time of year it is when you start. For more personalized help, check out the courses and programs that I offer. Our Time Budget is truly the most important pillar for our success in this productively present role that we play.