2019 was a big year for us! We worked hard towards living our travel dreams in 2020. Many lists were made. We researched many things and learned everything we could about life on the road with kids, Rving, tow vehicles, traveling with a large dog, travel trailer layouts, homeschooling, places we want to visit, boondocking, passports, health insurance, blogging, vlogging, and a ton more. Spending as much time as possible with family and friends was our main goal. We finished out the year by losing a dear friend. She will be missed. We learned a lot about ourselves while researching and talking about the kind of life we want to live. We’ve worked a lot and budgeted our money. We worked hard toward our goals. We really discussed what we want in the future and streamlined our goals accordingly. It’s been a crazy year but we have made so much progress. I can’t wait to see what 2020 holds for us!

2019 Goals

• Finishing paying off our credit cards
• Pay off the loan (from the AC/Furnace)
• Pay off Ivy’s dental work
• Save money for our new car
• Pay off Michael’s student loans
• Continue our decluttering process
• Organize the items we’re keeping
• Work on the blog
• Work on our home
• Eat better
• Exercise
• Children’s education/Homeschooling?
• Finish my next degree

We paid them all off but we do still use our credit cards on a regular basis. We just pay them off now instead of leaving them to charge us interest. The loan from the AC/Furnace and Ivy’s dental work is paid completely.

We saved money and purchased our towing vehicle at the end of the year. We love it but had to go all the way to Colorado for it! You can read about that adventure here.

We weren’t able to pay off Michael’s student loans. This was a lofty dream of a goal but aim big, right?

We continued to declutter our possessions and brought much less into our home in 2019. Once we stopped buying things, it was much easier to start clearing space because we began to use up the stock we already had. We haven’t bought soap, nail polish, lotion, or baby shampoo all year. Very few cleaning products, art supplies, books, and clothing were bought. We really used what we already had on hand. We have done a good job organizing things that we decided to keep. It started by gathering like things all in the same spots. We had way more of some items (for example soap and lotion) than we ever realized. It’s funny how things accumulate.

We have tried to work more on this blog and learn more about blogging. It’s hard because we don’t always have enough time to get everything done that we would like to do. We have made improvements this year. When I look back on my writing from years ago, I can tell how much my writing has really improved. We have spent this year focusing on trying to learn as much as we can about the many other aspects of blogging. We plan to continue with this blog and hopefully make a little spending money from it while living on the road. Blogging is something we really enjoy and we plan to add vlogging to the mix in 2020.

We have done some work around the house but there is still so very much to do before we put it on the market this summer. We will be hard at work on projects for a while.

There has been a lot of work toward eating better and exercising more. We don’t want to be miserable when we start our trip because we are out of shape. The girls and I spent much of the summer and fall walking around the zoo, hiking, and visiting playgrounds. This helped all of us to get into better shape. Michael has been working a lot but he has a physical job that helps to keep him in decent shape.

We did start homeschooling Isabella (10) in the fall of 2019. She was so bored in school and has really been enjoying how much she is learning now. Octavia (3) has started to work on some preschool activities. Ivy is a senior in high school this year. She is working on an online program that the county offers and graduates at the end of this school year.

I didn’t finish my next degree for many reasons but the main two are money and time. I did take a couple of classes toward it but chose to stop. We didn’t want to take out any additional loans and I didn’t want to take that much money out of our savings right now. I will likely finish this in the future but now didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel like I had the time to dedicate myself to doing it right now either. I’m currently doing so much that adding one more thing didn’t seem like the best idea. I feel like this is a good future goal to work towards. Maybe even something I will enjoy when my plate isn’t so very full.

Did you achieve your goals in 2019? Setting any for 2020?