New Year's Resolutions

Ok - to be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge New Year's fan.  I don't like to stay up late.  I'm terrified of sparklers.  And I hate making New Year's resolutions.  But, I totally appreciate setting achievable goals and well, Dusty's been bugging me about them so I guess I'll jump on the band wagon.  :)  My cooking, grocery shopping, and budget-maintaining responsibilities in my house give me a ton of satisfaction so I'm going to center my goals around that. 

1. Try a new recipe each week.  I like routines and predictability but sometime that means that the food at our house can get boring.  I can get new cookbooks on my Nook super cheap and I've found a ton of other food blogs that I love (Pioneer Woman, Two Peas and their Pod, and Taking on Magazines one Recipe at a Time to name a few).  I'm going to set a goal to try a new recipe each week.
2. Have a plan.  Although I try to be organized, sometimes I totally miss the mark (we all do, right?).  Either I haven't planned meals for the week, or thawed out meat, or scheduled my time well.  I going to set a goal to write out a meal plan each week on Saturday and get organized for the coming week so that meal time isn't stressful and I'm totally organized.   
3. Eat out less.  I really want to eat out less.  Nothing against eating out, but we usually fall back to fast-food or kid-friendly restaurants when I don't have a plan.  If we're going to eat out, I want it to be for a special occasion not because I didn't have my act together.  So for this year, I really want to keep the eating out to once a month or less.  
4. Use coupons.  Coupons are like free money.  Yes, it takes some organization and little bit of extra effort, but the savings can add up super fast.  We are already staying away from the boxed/prepared foods (think inside aisles of the grocery store) and I know a lot of coupons are for those items.  But there are a ton of great coupons out there for cleaning and paper products, meat, cheese, fresh produce, and health and hygiene items.  I know some people the can figure out these deals on their own but the Grocery Game (check out the link below) makes it super easy for me.  I'm going to set a goal to keep up with the Grocery Game for the entire year (sometimes I get lazy and jump off the coupon train) and keep track of my savings.  

Alright, I think those are four great and achievable goals.  And I'll keep you posted through the year on how it's going.  :)  Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!!!!