Training wheels

It's the beginning of January and the question that keeps surfacing is, "What's your New Year's resolution?" I have to say that I do not believe in New Year's resolutions. They tend to be too grandiose and I am a firm believer that if your goals are too high, they will hurt rather than help. Baby steps, people. For example, I just read somewhere that a seasoned runner recommends to "newbies" that they set their goal on running a marathon one day. My jaw dropped. Are you kidding me??? This is the sort of thing that keeps people from ever running at all. "I think I'll be a runner. So I'm going to race through a mile as fast as I can." Then afterward... "That was awful! That hurt! I think I'll just watch T.V." You get the point. Small, attainable goals. This is one instance in where I practice what I preach. Let's see if I can manage to jog for 30 seconds, and maybe one day I'll make it to the end of the street.

So, even after that soapbox speech, it's still the beginning of January. If nothing else, it is a convenient time to begin something new. My new thing is going to be spending very little on toilet paper, diapers and related items. Who likes to spend money on that? As our friend, Brian, put it, "I hate spending money on diapers becasue I am literally throwing my money away." Well put, my friend, well put.

Since about September, I have been learning how to use coupons and store sales to save money. I would say that the training wheels are still on, but it is now time to step slightly outside of my Target and Hiller's (via Scott) comfort zone and include the drugstores. I swore them off early on because Rite Aid, in particular, was a pain in my hiney, and the "deals" are often gone by noon on Sunday. I am usually a little busy before noon on Sunday. The thing is that while drug stores usually have high prices (in my opinion), they offer up things like rebates and register rewards that, if used savvily, could very well lead to spending much, much less on things that we will use once and throw away. We'll see how it goes. This week's deals include nearly free lightbulbs, lip care products and body wash. We need those things anyway, and they could end up helping out with less ... waste.

Here's to a new journey.