New Year's Resolution... Can I do it?

With our adoption in the works, my resolution for 2010 is to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE money. Is it possible for an active mom of three kids and one husband to actually cut back enough to help fund our travel to Ethiopia? It will be a huge challenge for me! The way I figure it, the first step is to stay home. That’s right. No more dropping the kids at school and making a Target run or going to check out all of the post Christmas sales at the mall. It makes me crazy every year to not buy a ton of stuff in January when everything is so much cheaper than it was just a few weeks before! So, goal number one is to stay home. The second step will be to organize my house with all of the free time that I have (since I won’t be out shopping). The way I figure it, I could eliminate half of our personal belongings and still have way more than we need. I am going to start to compile boxes full of goodies for what I hope will be the biggest, best adoption fundraising garage sale in history! Hopefully by May (it is freezing here in Wisconsin…things might thaw out by May so that we can have a garage sale) I will have loads of stuff to sell and thus raise some money for our trip. The third step is for me to make some money in creative ways. I have some awesome fundraising ideas in mind. So many bloggers have inspired me with their fundraising ideas. I plan to have a “gold party” in February where friends and family can bring their unwanted, old, broken gold items to my house and (while we enjoy an evening of food, cocktails and friendship) a jeweler will pay them money on the spot. My friends get to keep the cash and the jeweler will be making a donation to our adoption fund as a thank you for hosting the event. Another creative way to raise funds is to have a raffle for an iPod touch. Thanks to all of you bloggers that inspired this idea…I’m all set for this one. By buying tickets, people can enter for a chance to win a brand new (3rd generation) iPod touch. I am pretty excited about this. I love my iPod and hope that someone else will be excited to help a good cause and win an awesome prize! And of course, I’m selling the wonderful Suubi necklaces that I love so much. The word Suubi means “hope” in Uganda. Selling the necklaces is so cool because they help us raise funds and they help to support women living in Africa. Through Suubi, women in Uganda are able to support their children, send them to school and learn English. I love, love, love these necklaces! They are packaged so nicely, and I love that when people wear them, they are spreading “hope.”
Well, these three steps just might help me meet my New Year’s resolution . For those of you who are following me on this journey… please remind me of my goal whenever I stray off course… if you see me at the mall or find me enjoying too many chai teas from Starbucks, don’t hesitate to give me a not so subtle kick in the rear. I know that bringing our little one home will be more valuable than anything that I can fit in a shopping bag! Time for me to get busy. Hoping you have a wonderful start to your New Year,
Deena