Chedrhead in Flatland: New Year's Resolutions

I have been very bad about my blogging. It's not something I think of first but it is something that I enjoy ... even if there's only one or two people reading what I'm writing.

So, I've decided to put my New Year's resolutions in writing and hopefully they will be paid more attention.

Get my house picked up and kept picked up. This is not an easy thing for me because, as soon as I get the main living spaces picked up and cleaned, my husband and daughter come home. By the time we go to bed, the rooms are a disaster again. The kid is expected but the hubby does not help to keep things clean. He is the one that opens the junk mail and sets it on the table rather than throw it in the garbage. He empties the dishwasher and sets the Tupperware on the counter or dumps the pots and pans in the cabinet wherever they fit. So, to get my house clean and KEEP IT THAT WAY, I will need to begin to nag when things are not picked up or put away.
Pay off my debt. As of today, I have to start using only cash for everything. I need to stop using my credit cards completely. If I don't have the cash, I don't buy it or do it. As I began to discuss in my blog posts, my husband is a gambler and has given very little thought to the household and whether we have enough money. His bottom line is, and has always been, that he wants the debt paid down but he doesn't (or at least didn't) recognize how much he was spending and felt that I had all of the adjustments to make to my spending. So, he wanted me to completely stop spending but he did not change his habits at all. I tried to make him understand how much money he was really burning through and took the same amount out of our checking account that he did. We had nothing in the account in no time. After many, many fights, I began to use his gambling to rationalize my shopping, entertainment, whatever else I want to charge because I was trying to make myself matter to my husband and make him realize that I earn my paycheck and should be able to spend money too. In September, we separated our checking account. I slowed way down on my spending because I no longer felt I had to 'keep up with the Joneses' with my spending. We now have my debt, our debt and his debt. Christmas changed my shopping habits back to pre-split habits so now I have to get back on track. My post-debt plan is to put money into a 529 for the kid to go to college (regardless of what my husband thinks about helping her with college. Yes, he thinks she should have to get through college like we did ... in debt. I would like to assist her so that she doesn't have to start her life in debt.) and actually update our home and stop treating it like an apartment. We need new flooring, a new kitchen, a completely revamped basement, a new washer, new living room furniture, landscaping, etc.
As part of the pay off debt resolution, I will be going grocery shopping on Wednesday evenings. Our original agreement was that we would go shopping together and then split the grocery bill except that it's not important to him. Just like our bills, all that matters to him is that we have food in the house but he doesn't think about how it's going to get there. He doesn't want to make the effort to go regularly. He wants to go 'when we need something' but he doesn't realize that we pretty much always need something. The trips to the grocery store every few days costs us more because we pick up a lot more extraneous items and do not stick to the short list. So, I haven't been shopping except when I need something to send for the kid's lunch because I cannot afford to buy groceries on my own for the family. Now, I will give him the option of going with me or just reviewing the receipt and paying me half. Either way, he will pay half of our grocery bill and we will stop eating out.
Get back on track with my weight loss. Now, that's not to say that I've gained anything back. Before a couple days of noshing for the new year, I was actually down .7lbs from where I was at my doctor's appointment in November. I will behave myself again and start going to the healthclub on Monday after work. I need to do this for me.
Clear out my clutter. I realize this is similar to the clean my house but I have a lot of clutter that I set off to the side or in the spare room with the idea I'll deal with it later. I will ruthlessly go through that clutter and get rid of what I can. I will do this because I am teaching the kid some bad habits and she is having problems letting go of her toys. How can I expect something of her that I am not willing to do myself?
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