At the beginning of January, I shared our goals for 2012 and promised you all a monthly update so you could check in on the progress we are making.

I’m not 100% satisfied with how January went, but I would still say it was a successful month.

Family Goals

1. Go to the cottage at least twice. This is obviously not going to happen until summer time.

2. Enroll Elliott in at least one social activity. Swimming will start in the summer and we are waiting until the end of this year to enroll him in skating.

3. Take more family photos. I took more than I did in December of last year, but I still haven’t been taking enough. Richard hasn’t taken any at all, except for my pregnancy photos. We need to step it up in February!

4. Do more crafts and cooking with Elliott. We have been doing more crafts, but I still get really impatient in the kitchen, so I haven’t let him help me as much. Time to relax a bit and let him get his hands dirty.

5. Do more active family activities. Um…. no. Didn’t happen. Unless you count our weekly Walmart shopping trip where we walk around for an hour. Ha!

6. Include Buddy (our dog) in more family activities. This didn’t happen either, but mostly because we ourselves didn’t do much.

7. Plan first Christmas at home. We won’t be worrying about this goal until mid-late 2012.

Marriage Goals

1. Have “date night” at least once every month. We had our January date night and it was fabulous!

2. Go away for Valentines Day (last outing before new baby arrives). We are planning that right now.

3. Schedule alone time once every month, where the other spouse takes care of cooking, cleaning, kids, etc. We did this in January and it worked out really well.

4. Plan anniversary event. I don’t think that we will be worrying about this one for at least a few more months (our anniversary is late August).

Financial Goals

1. Put all extra income into house fund. We managed to put away a very hefty amount in January. Yay!

2. Create & stick to a budget for Valentine’s Day & anniversary celebrations. Working on it…

3. Create & stick to a yearly expenses budget for 2012. So far, so good!

4. Put maximum amount allowed into both of our TFSAs (this will be part of our house fund). We haven’t done this yet.

5. Investigate and understand the Home Buyer’s Plan (HBP). I’m pretty sure we understand this now!

6. Create a will. Not done yet. I’m thinking it might be best to wait until after the baby is born to tackle this one.

7. Set up RESP for new baby. We will do this after she is born.

8. Rebalance RESP asset allocation for Elliott. Working on it. This is taking longer than expected (the bank likes to take their time, apparently!).

9. Allocate money to charities. We didn’t do any donating in January. Oops. Since we love animals so much, I’m going to look into donating to the local animal shelter in February.

Personal Goals

1. Drink at least 6 glasses of water every day. I’m not sure I hit the 6-glass mark, but I would say I averaged at least 4 glasses daily.

2. Make healthy meals at least 5 days per week. We didn’t eat as healthfully as I would have liked in January. I’m going to go ahead and blame the pregnancy on this one!

3. Read at least 1 book every month. I actually read 3 books in January.. and it was awesome!

4. Stay active. Booo – nope to this one. The third trimester has hit me hard and I am constantly exhausted. I know exercise will only help me, though, so I need to work on that in February.

Did you set any goals for 2012? I’d love it if you shared your progress in the comments.

I recently wrote an article for Bargain Moose on the Top 5 Baby Sites. Here’s a short sample:

If you have young children of your own, I’m sure you can sympathize when I say that shopping with a baby (or toddler) can be so difficult sometimes. I only have about 30 minutes before my 2 year old starts freaking out – I can’t imagine how hard things will be when baby #2 comes along.

Since shopping with children has been quite challenging for me, I try to do as much online shopping as possible. Of course, groceries is not really something I want to purchase online, but everything else is fair game – clothing, toys, etc.

Read the full article here.

I am often asked about online survey companies that are actually legitimate and I usually have to tell people that I really just don’t know of any. I don’t have much time for surveys, but when a friend told me how great Asking Canadians was a few months ago, I figured I’d give it a shot.

She was right – it is great!

For every survey that you participate in, you will automatically earn your choice of either Aeroplan Miles or HBC Rewards Points. The amount that you receive varies by survey.

Or, if you’d like, you can choose to be rewarded in other ways, like entries into contests and draws.

Asking Canadians is free to join and the surveys that they send you are actually pretty interesting and I’ve found that many of them don’t take much time to complete.

Click any of the links in this post to join Asking Canadians, or if you’re so inclined, leave a comment with your email address and I will send you an email invitation (I will earn HBC Rewards points for every person that I refer through email).

What survey sites do you regularly use and enjoy?

Last week my husband and I sat down together and went over our goals for 2012 (we don’t like resolutions – they are destined to fail – so we make goals instead).

This year, instead of just the usual financial and personal goals, we also created some marriage and family goals.

Since so many of you have asked, I’ve decided to share our goals with you.

Family Goals
1. Go to the cottage at least twice.
Richard’s mom is co-owner of a cottage up north and we really enjoy going up there in the summer. Since we will have an itty bitty baby with us as well this year, twice is probably all we will be able to
handle, travel wise (it’s a 4 hour drive each way).

2. Enroll Elliott in at least one social activity (skating, swimming, etc.).
We want Elliott to start socializing with more kids his age, so this is one thing that is very important to us. Richard is leaning toward hockey and I am leaning toward swimming. Maybe we’ll do both!

3. Take more family photos.
I already take lots of photos, but I really want to have more photos of Elliott (and the new baby, whenever she gets here!) and myself, as well as more family photos. Whether this means setting up the tripod more often, or hiring a professional photographer, I really want to have more photos of us together – ones that I don’t have to shoot myself.

4. Do more crafts and cooking with Elliott.
Elliott has really been interested in crafts lately, so we plan to start doing more with him. He received lots of craft stuff for Christmas, so this should be an easy goal to accomplish. I also want to include him with more of the cooking that I do on a daily basis. He likes to watch and really wants to help, but I don’t often let him because it usually just results in a mess. I need to get over it and let him pitch in.

5. Do more active family activities (Frisbee, hiking, etc.).
I’m really not a big fan of exercise, but I know it’s important, so I would like to incorporate more active family fun stuff (instead of lifting weights and running on a treadmill).

6. Include Buddy in more family activities.
I feel really bad that our dog was left out of a lot of family activities in 2011, simply because we didn’t feel like “worrying” about him (making a mess, bothering other people, etc.). He is part of our family and we really need to start treating him that way.

7. Plan first Christmas at home.
This will be the first year that we do not travel to visit family on Christmas day – instead we will be having our very first Christmas here at home. I’m excited to plan the menu and start our very own Christmas Day traditions.

Marriage Goals
1. Have “date night” at least once every month.
2. Go away for Valentines Day (last outing before new baby arrives).
3. Schedule alone time once every month month, where the other spouse takes care of cooking, cleaning, kids, etc.
4. Plan anniversary event. Stay on budget.

Financial Goals
1. Put all extra income into house fund.
2. Create & stick to a budget for Valentine’s Day & anniversary celebrations.
3. Create & stick to a yearly expenses budget for 2012.
4. Put maximum amount allowed into both of our TFSAs (this will be part of our house fund).
5. Investigate and understand the Home Buyer’s Plan (HBP).

6. Create a will.
This is especially important since we will have two kids very soon.

7. Set up RESP for new baby.
We like to do this right away so that the money has longer to grow in the account.

8. Rebalance RESP asset allocation for Elliott.
Richard is handling this one, because I am clueless about it. He says it’s necessary though, so it made the list.

9. Allocate money to charities.
Since we are no longer in debt, we plan to donate to our favourite charities as much as possible this year.

Personal Goals
1. Drink at least 6 glasses of water every day.
I made a goal of 8 glasses last year and failed miserably, so this year I am going to aim for 6 and then bump it to 8 once I can manage drinking 6.

2. Make healthy meals at least 5 days per week.
I don’t mind eating some “bad” foods every once in awhile, but we have been eating them much too often lately, so my goal is to stick to 5 days of only healthy foods and then we can eat whatever we want (to an extent) the other 2 days per week.

3. Read at least 1 book every month.
I love reading, but always seem to have the excuse that I never have time to do it – not anymore! I am going to make time to read at least one book monthly.

4. Stay active.
In an effort to lose the baby weight after our second child arrives in March, I need to make sure I am staying active. Going for walks and hikes, swimming, and all of stuff, will help me stay active and won’t seem like I’\m actually exercising (which I really don’t like to do).

We are very hopeful that most (if not all) of these goals will be met by the end of 2012. However, we will be adding a new addition to our family, and that can change everything, so we are being cautiously optimistic.

I will be going over these goals every month so you can see how we are doing and so that you can share your progress as well. Let’s all inspire one another to stick to our goals this year!

I’m very excited about 2012! Are you?

Please share your 2012 goals in the comments.

photo credit

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends.

Thank you so much for visiting MrsJanuary.com, posting in the forum, sending me emails, hanging out on Facebook, chatting with me on Twitter and overall just being wonderful people. I really do have the best readers in the world!

View the MrsJanuary.com 2011 Boxing Day flyer guide here.

Looking for an easy way to earn Amazon.ca or Shoppers Drug Mart gift cards? Why not contribute to the MrsJanuary.com Boxing Day/Week Flyer Guide and earn a gift card for every 2011 Boxing Day/Week flyer you send to us?

We are looking for flyers for many stores, so if you have one, it’s likely that we want it!

Send flyer photos to: deals@mrsjanuary.com

If you are able to send us a flyer, here is the gift card credit you will receive:

$100 Gift Card:
- Old Navy *Received
- Sears *Received
- Zellers *Received
- Shoppers Drug Mart *Received
- Walmart *Received
- Best Buy *Received
- Future Shop *Received
- Babies/Toys R Us *Received
- London Drugs *Received

$75 Gift Card:
- No Frills *Received
- Real Canadian Superstore *Received
- Loblaws *Received
- Canadian Tire *Received
- Giant Tiger *Received

$50 Gift Card:
- Rexall PharmaPlus
- Zehrs *Received
- Your Independent Grocer *Received
- FreshCo *Received
- Co-Op *Received
- Staples *Received
-Maxi *Received
- Fortinos *Received
- Safeway *Received
- Metro *Received
- Food Basics *Received
- The Source *Received

$25 Gift Card:
- The Bargain Shop
- Extra Foods *Received
- Jean Coutu *Received

Note: If you are able to show us Boxing Day/Week sales for stores that aren’t listed here, let us know and we may be interested in those as well. You would be given a $5 gift card/certificate for each of those stores.

Send photos or scans of your flyer(s) to deals@mrsjanuary.com. Please make sure that they are easy to read, otherwise they will not be accepted.

Also, please note that gift cards will be given to the person who sends us the flyer(s) first. Gift cards will be in the form of an online code (for Amazon.ca) and will be able to be used immediately or in actual gift card form (for Shoppers Drug Mart), mailed to your address after we receive your flyer(s). Please specify which gift card you would prefer to receive. If you would rather somewhere other than Amazon.ca or Shoppers Drug Mart, let us know.

Rules:
1. You must have received the flyer(s) legitimately.
2. You must be the first person to send us the flyer(s).
3. You must email your photos to us (deals@mrsjanuary.com) BEFORE December 23, 2011.

There will be many 2011 Boxing Day flyers posted in the forum, so be sure to check the list of what we’ve already posted before submitting your flyer photos.

Ready to earn some gift cards?
Send us your 2011 Boxing Day/Week flyer photos: deals@mrsjanuary.com

View the MrsJanuary.com 2011 Boxing Day flyer guide here.

After months and months of preparation, I am pleased to annouce the launch of our community forum!

Many of you have been asking for a place to come together and chat, trade coupons, talk about current deals, etc. – so I figured it was about time to set you all up with this forum.

We are still working on a few things behind the scenes, so please don’t be alarmed if things look funny at some points.

I really hope that you enjoy this new feature on MrsJanuary.com and that you will sign up and chat with me and others. I can’t wait to see you inside!

Click here to join the MrsJanuary.com community forum!

I thought you would all be encouraged by this story that a reader sent in to me.

I have been keeping an eye on your site for a while. I had not read “your story” until today however, and after I did, I had to message you!

My husband and I were $16,000 in debt due to a car that we purchased that was now falling apart. We ended up spending an inheritance that I had received because we were paying $300 in interest per month and that was basically coming off our credit card. Soon after, we found out we were pregnant.

At the age of 22, we worked as hard as we could, but it never seemed to be enough. We went and talked with an expert at money managing and after an hour he told us that there was nothing they could do for us, that this baby was going to cost us more money then we had! We didn’t even have enough for the baby furniture!

We became very frugal – getting rid of everything that wasn’t on contract (cable TV, telephone). We began going around at the end of the month to apartment buildings in the area and taking the furniture and articles that the people moving didn’t want to bring. We sold them on Kijiji and made enough to buy all the necessities for our baby and still had some money left over for about one or two months worth of diapers.

When my son was about a month old, I was introduced to couponing and took it on as my full time job/obsession! Because of sites like yours, we NEVER go hungry and my son always has diapers and formula. I now teach all who want to learn about the art of couponing.

Thanks to sites like yours, we don’t live paycheck to paycheck anymore! Thank you for all you do (especially your articles & videos!).

- Cynthia

Do you have a success story to share? Please contact me! Let’s inspire one another to live more frugal lifestyles.