If there’s one thing I love about playing ping-pong blogging, it’s the record keeping of all your life’s events on one tidy site :) Or rather, one tidy page. I used to think I could remember everything of importance in a given year, but the truth is I’m getting more and more forgetful in my old age. Plus, we tend to not realize just how much goes on in our lives anyways in these short amounts of time.
So today I’d like to slow it down a bit and recall a handful of events that marked 2012 for us before we say hello to the new year. A time of thought and reflection, if you will. And I encourage you all to do the same afterwards too! Though you might have to refer to your beautiful Facebook pages instead ;) For once they’ll be more useful than just wasting time or stalking ex-boyfriends, haha….
Here’s everything that went down this year:
- A new baby came into our lives
- An old pet, and friend, left our lives :(
- We survived living off 1 paycheck!
- And watched our Net Worth grow by over $50,000
- All helped by our newly formed money management system
- Though our house lost $15,000 in value
- And our water heater broke
- Followed by our moldy bathroom needing gutting
- Then our 2nd bathroom taking on water
- But I won a giveaway of $1,001!
- And a new interest in coins soon came about
- As well as an older interest in yard sales
- I also became a consigner for the first time!
- And made my very first garden too
- After solving the case of the mysterious wallet ;)
- And learning the biggest con of working for yourself
- But sprucing up my blogger den with a built-in library helped!
- Where I continued to retire a few of my projects
- Then sell some off
- And recently start some new ones
- All the while setting a personal beard growing record of 4 consecutive months :)
- And being named Blog of The Year by our financial community! Woo!
- (BudgetsAreSexy also crossed 4 MILLION page views this year :))
What a whirlwind to say the least. But that’s the beauty of life, eh? Tons of blessings mixed in with tons of trials. Which also reminds me that I sat on my first jury duty case this year too – hah!
In the end though, it’s always nice to hit pause and reflect back on the years as they come to a close. You can’t ever go back and do anything about them, but you sure can set your feet off right into the next one. So today ask yourself what you learned and got out of 2012, and then tomorrow we’ll lay the groundwork for what we hope to accomplish in 2013. Who knows what our lists will look like this time next year?
God bless, everyone – be safe tonight :)
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[Photo credit: Creativity103]
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4 million page views! Hot Dog that’s amazing! Here’s hoping for an even bigger year next year for you =)
I’d say you had a pretty darn fantastic year. I appreciate the reading, advice and the chance to live your experiences, vicariously. Congrats.
Welp, there goes my morning. I’ve already opened six or seven of your 2013 stories in new tabs to read or reread. Quite a year. And an excellent way to identify the successes and mistakes before charting lofty goals for 2013.
I wish my Facebook profile was more helpful in helping me recap 2012. But if I ever want an archive of my rants against friends who use Facebook as a political soapbox, or my attempts at lame pop-culture jokes to prove I’m still current, I guess I’ve found where to go.
May 2013 be the sexiest year yet.
Wow that’s a lot of page views! I hope 2013 is even better! :)
I love your succinct post. I’m going to do the same for my blog post recap. Not that I’ve had that many accomplishments, but hey, 250 average page views per day sure beats the “ZERO” that I had when I got started 10 months ago, right? HAHAHA
P.S. You’ve had a hell of a year! Can’t wait to see what 2013 holds for you! Baby #2 perhaps..? ;)
It’s amazing to see how much happens/we learn in a year when we take the time to sit down and think about it. Believe I’ll follow suit – thanks for the inspiration, and happy New Year! :)
I can’t wait to read the 2013 version of you moving and all of your other goals!
Wow, you have accomplished so much. Wow!!!
I wish you all the best in the new year!
Happy New Year!
Wow, what a crazy year. My year was pretty crazy as well and I hope 2013 will be a bit more calm. Happy New Year!
Wow. Those are some massive achievements. As someone who used to work in a greenhouse, I can’t tell you how happy I am that you’ve taken up gardening.
I think this year was the first year that I was reading your blog.
I love that since you blog daily you know exactly what all you’ve done this year.
Congratz. Love the blog. Good luck in the new year!
What a year you had. The most impressive fact was that you lived it on one paycheck, increased you net worth AND did some home projects. All in the same year! I am definitely going to check out your money management system. :)
I remember reading your post about Bob a little while after the event passed so I didn’t comment but whenever you mentioned it, I re-read it and get teary-eyed. I think it was one of the sweetest posts about a pet and family member passing that I’ve read. It’s obvious he was loved. (And it’s true – dealing with their end of life costs and decisions is very strange.)
Wow, what a year. We, too, went to 1 paycheck after having a baby. It’s really been an awesome adventure, definitely a lot of work ahead of me. And nice work on 4M pageviews!
You’ve had an overall great year. But did you convince the millionaire mailman to tell you how much his retirement nest egg is worth? ;) Happy New Year to you!
It’s been a hell of a year! You absolutely deserved to win Blog of the Year too, no question. All the best to you and your family in 2013!
@Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies – Thanks! I hope your year (and future year) goes swimmingly too!
@jolie – Aww, thanks Jolie – appreciate that :) I wouldn’t be writing if no one was there listening!
@Johnny @ Our Freaking Budget – HAH! That’s what drives my wife crazy about Facebook too – all the crazies spouting political “facts” without doing any research… she spends hours on there sometimes debating people and I rarely think any minds are changed, haha… But hey – it’s her free time, not mine ;) I’m glad you enjoy the site and articles my friend, really means a lot that you said that. Here’s to a great year for all of us!
@Michelle – Thanks! As they say with money, “the first million is the hardest” ;)
@Serena @ Thrift Diving – Thanks friend!! And yes – you TOTALLY should do a recap! I bet you’ve redesigned TONS of items you’ve forgotten over the year! Most of us forget what we’ve done, which is the whole inspiration behind me doing this look-back too :) I want to soak it all in before moving on w/ our fast paced lives.
@Emily – Wonderful! That’s what I wanna hear – happy new year! :)
@Lance @ Money Life and More – You’ll be reading about the mindset of them all tomorrow :) Though I happened to get carried away with a lot of my past goals too, but oh well… I found them kinda interesting at least.
@debtgirl – You too debtgirl! Sending you an e-hug :) (Was that cheesy?)
@Joe @ Retire By 40 – Well you better tell us about it so we can see *just* how crazy it was, buster! :)
@Edward Antrobus – Haha, well thanks! :) I’ll admit I haven’t touched it since, but I do have a better appreciation for it now and definitely plan on keeping it up in the future. Especially as Spring time comes back again. Happy new year bud!
@Brian – Thanks! And awesome! I should have noted that on my list up there, eh? :)
@Aloysa @ My Broken Coin – Haha, well, living off one paycheck didn’t happen until the end of the year, but it certainly helped with a lof of things for sure :) More importantly for future management!
@jesse.anne.o – Awww, really?? I can totally remember how I felt, and what was going through my mind, when I was posting about him too – it’s crazy how certain times of your life gets imbedded so well. I’m glad you enjoyed the article, and I really appreciate you letting me know too :) Sometimes we (as bloggers) don’t know how our articles affect others, so thanks!
@Jacob @ iheartbudgets – Oh yeah. It’s one thing to get away with 1 paycheck for a while, but to keep it up going forward? Whew. Lots of work for everyone until we figure out how to get used to it all :) Glad you were able to pull it off too this year though! I’m sure it’ll only continue!
@K.K. @ Living Debt Free Rocks! – HAH! NO!!! It’s like I jinxed myself because I’ve only seen him ONCE since posting that up, and it was only in passing :( What if he DOES randomly read my blog?? He’d totally know it was him! Haha… But I’ll def. have to snag him soon for sure ‘cuz for the first time in my life I will be giving my mailman a tip :) If he doesn’t deserve it, I don’t know who does!
@Cassie – Thank you Cassie!! Much love to you and your fam too in the new year! And in all years, for that matter, hehe… :)
I live off of one pay cheque because I am single. Not having a back up pay cheque is very scary. I had a minor illness this year that shrunk several of my pay cheques and so this year I am trying to increase my emergency fund.
One of my 2013 goals is to figure out how to calculate my net worth and then setting a goal for a raise in that amount.
MY resolution went pretty good! I celebrated all but one of Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding anniversaries :)
@Jane Savers @ The Money Puzzle – LOVE IT!! Very very smart stuff, on all accounts. The more you have as padding, and the better grip on a a game plan you have, the better you’ll not only be during an emergency, but you’ll also FEEL great every month too! It’s such a great feeling knowing you’re on track and every day/week/month getting closer to your goals :)
@KJJ – Haha… Not sure what that means exactly, but go you! :)
Sounds like you have had quite a successful and busy year! Nice!
Haha, oh yeah – def. busy! And lots of highs and lows :) Hope yours was awesome too!