Does September Change You?

I view the month of September as my second chance each year to truly make life changes. I love when Summer rolls into Fall and the schools start up again, the leaves change color and there’s a crispness to the air. For me, it’s my personal signal to get myself in gear and make some changes. Sure, we all start the year with lofty goals and New Year’s Resolutions, but, mine rarely stick. I always say, “my intentions are great, it’s my execution that’s lacking.” For me, it’s always been September that brings on the need to change, grow, and better myself. It’s probably the physical changing of the leaves that psychologically gets to me, but, whatever it is, September seems to urge me on to better things.

Since I started blogging I have been researching various ways to become more money-savvy and household efficient. I have taken baby steps towards that end but have not yet committed to a set plan. It’s time I dropped the hammer! (Is that the right saying?) I need to make managing our household and our finances a priority. While I have made some strides in that general direction, there’s still lots of room for improvement.

One of the budgeting moves we made early on in moving into our new house was to eliminate our cleaning service. The house is much smaller so surely we can handle the upkeep, right? The truth is, we could if we had a plan but there’s currently no plan in place. Hence, you could most likely write “clean me” with your finger in the dust on our tv stand right now. This really grosses me out! I intend to implement a system that we can follow that will keep the house clean if we all pitch in and do our parts. I am praying my husband and son will be on-board. (Erin gets a temporary pass since she’s at school.) This one really needs to be a group effort in order to be successful.

For the past six weeks or so I have been trolling the internet looking for blogs that discuss budgeting, grocery savings, and couponing. Holy moly, there are so many of them! I have spent hours reading through them and must say there’s a lot of inspiration out there and many folks with success stories that will make you want to follow in their footsteps. Some of the advice is very basic but sometimes you need to hear the same thing again and again until it sinks in and you take action.

Clearly, the most consistent advice I read during my beginner budgeting research was to start by trimming your food budget. I have decided to take action! I am going to Aldi, the grocery store so many budget-conscious bloggers recommend (I found one twenty minutes from my house). Armed with my grocery list, my meal-planning list and a budget of $100 I am determined to make this work. I scoped this place out once before and tried a couple of their products. Surprisingly, I liked all of their house brands. This will be my first attempt at doing our full grocery shop there. I have high hopes this is going to go well!

I also need to make a run to CVS to re-stock our toiletry items. I will be armed with a list and my 35% off my entire purchase store coupon in addition to various other coupons for individual items. If I can miraculously keep the CVS budget under $75.00 I will be ecstatic! This will be a tough one but I’ll never get there if I don’t try, right?

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Summer! I am excited and ready to welcome September with my new goals and look forward to reporting back on my successes!

Does September typically bring changes to your life? What are they?