new year, new semester, new textbooks

So in keeping with the whole full-disclosure on my life deal, I'd thought I'd write a bit about my next semester coming up. It's going to be a real challenge; 3 science courses, including a re-take of bio 101. But, more pertinent, all morning today I worked on a table and did a bunch of internetting to figure out how to get my books for this next semester as cheap as possible. Obviously, the student store is a rip-off, but unlucky for me I go to a college that likes to customize textbooks and make it impossible to find a decent deal for them on Amazon.

 

This is the fancy-schmancy chart I made. Just looking at those prices kills me. But the #1 rule of college, in my opinion, is to never let yourself get ripped off by your bookstore. There is absolutely nowhere on the internet cheaper than Amazon. Amazon is your college BFF. Just looking at that total estimate absolutely kills me.

food

Start meatless mondays

I'll be honest, I don't have enough willpower to become a vegetarian. I think we all want to cut down on our meat consumption though- it's annoying to cook and ridiculously expensive. I loved the meatless mondays initiative that my college's dining hall has in place, and I'm going to incorporate that into my kitchen. The difficult part will be getting my man on board! ;)

Have at least one fruit or vegetable with each meal

I like to be healthy! But sometimes you order pizza and all of a sudden you've eaten 2/3rds of it with no recollection of what actually happened. Fruit and vegetables are too accessible for me to not be eating at least one serving with every meal. Starting the year off with a healthy habit like this will definitely help me refine my diet even further.

Go to the farmer's market more often 

I love the farmer's market in the town where I live. It's two days a week, a 15 minute bike ride from my apartment, and never fails to have some delicious, home-grown veggies! And now that my saturdays aren't perpetually booked by football games, I really would like to start going every weekend. My ultimate, unrealistic goal is to entirely stop buying vegetables and fruits at grocery stores, but I'm going to start smaller.

fornication

Have sex at least once a week

Haha, oh man. I'm in a long term relationship, and we live together. This is definitely tmi, but as of forever we've never really had sex that often- I'm talking what you would probably think ridiculous intervals of time between sexy times. We thought that since we're living together we'd work our way up to a decent schedule, but schoolwork and stress prevented that from happening. But if I can get an iud put in like I'd like to and we can start to handle school work better, I think that a more active sex life will better our relationship.

Go out for date night at least once a month

We rarely plan date night anymore, it's typically on a whim and involves dinner at one of our regular places followed by coming home and watching tv. We really need to get back into the swing of romance and have some scheduled time to just focus on ourselves. This might prove to be my second favorite resolution.

Make dinner together at least twice a week 

If there's one thing my man and I like to do together, it's mess around in the kitchen for an hour and make something delicious. This is really good bonding time for us, not to mention it helps us save money. There are some nights when I cook before he gets home and when he cooks before I get home, but we love to cook together and need to reestablish this habit. I think it will help us save money and stay focused on each other.

financial

Start couponing to pay less than $50/week for groceries

So I didn't do awful last semester with my money, but my textbooks for this semester are somewhere in the range of ridiculously expensive, so I'm going to be a bit worse off than I was. Also, I'm not going to be able to work as much so that will be detrimental. I think that if I not only plan out my meals but start couponing and taking advantage of sales every week, I should have a fighting chance of staying under my goal of 200$/month for groceries.

Pay off my credit card

I'm not sure how I'm going to achieve this. There are a few possibilities- 1, take out some more loans from the school and pay it off; 2, just set aside a monthly portion of my budget and use all of the money I get from work to pay it off, or; 3, just keep paying whatever the heck I feel and have that bite me in the butt later.

Use cash to organize my budget

My mom started doing this a couple of years ago. She'd take out her cash for the month at the beginning of the month and sort it into envelopes based on what it was for, then work her way through that cash for the month. I think that if I start doing that it will help me actually see the money leaving my hand. I'm really good at avoiding discretionary spending like clothes and whatnot, but getting takeout or Arby's really gets to me sometimes.

family

Call my mom once every two weeks

This seems a little ridiculous. I know a lot of people probably talk to their mom practically daily. Unfortunately, when I got really busy last year, we fell out of the conversation habit entirely and now only text a few times a week. My mom has done way too much for me for me to only be talking to her every so often, and I owe her better updates and details of my life. Plus, I like to talk to her.

Text my dad once a week

This might be a tough one. We don't talk very often at all, just because we're not close at all. I had a rough childhood with him and now that my parents are split, I never spend time at his house or anything. I don't want him to think I don't love him though, so I should start to at least check up on him every so often.

Have one conversation with each of my siblings every week

I love my little brother and sister. We get along fantastically. They took me going away to college really hard, though.  I normally get up with Kimmy on a regular basis, but Christian is tougher. He's been rebellious lately and while I like to talk to him, I can't help but mention how he needs to get his act together, which then ticks him off and we're back at square zero. Hopefully by keeping up with them I can make sure they keep things straight.

introduction

My name is Julia, and I'm a sophomore at UNC. Life is tough. I turn 20 next year. I realized lately that there's a lot of stuff I'm doing right in my life, but there's also a few things I'd like to do better. I figured that I'd make them into new years resolutions, and use a blog to write about them and to hold myself accountable. A few of my resolutions are ridiculously petty, but I hope the others will help me delve into who I am and can be as a person.