Happy New Year! This post is way overdue, but life as a mom is obviously busy. Christmas break is over and I’ve had time to really sit down and think about what my goals for 2026 are.
While most of these goals seem arbitrary, they all tie into the big picture goal: financial freedom.
In 2026, my husband and I really want to get serious about our finances and start saving to build our dream forever home. We currently have over $120,000 in debt, with a plan to pay it off in 3 years. You can read more about my financial goals here.
My goals for 2026 will save the family money, while also filling my cup with hobbies I never make time for.
Start a Garden
Have y’all seen the prices of berries lately? I don’t know about where you live, but strawberries cost nearly $5 for a pound. That lasts a day in my house with these kids.
Not only are prices extremely high, the quality is also abysmal. While I would love to shop at a farmer’s market for quality, they’re not open year round and typically only open on weekends in my area. That leaves me with getting produce from my local Walmart.
Growing our own fruits and vegetables could save my family hundreds a year in just fresh produce costs. Better quality and convenience to shop in my backyard are added bonuses.
Start Preserving Food
If I’m going to grow my own produce, I can’t let the bounty get wasted. Canning it is a great way to preserve it. It’s no wonder it’s been around for generations.
In a more modern sense, I also plan on looking into ways to preserve food that can’t be canned, like vacuum sealing, dehydrating, pickling, etc.
We pay for convenience, so a lot of the food we get from the grocery store is already processed for us. Why buy canned green beans, when I can grow them and can them myself? Why buy expensive pancake mix? I can make the mix with the ingredients in my pantry. Why buy dried beans? Grow them and vacuum seal or can them.
We’ll save so much money when we put a little effort into preserving the food we grow. Imagine only having to buy sugar and flour when you go to the grocery store.
Get Better at Baking
Similar to starting a garden and preserving food, getting better at baking is high on my priority list because I enjoy baking. I recently got back into baking and made ten dozen cookies over the course of two weeks!
Over the years, I’ve lost myself and stopped doing things I’ve enjoyed. Life was just so busy between having my first child and attending college, I couldn’t tell you the last time I baked anything from scratch until a few weeks ago.
Those two weeks I steadily baked cookies, I was the best version of myself I have been in a long time. I wasn’t pouring from an empty cup anymore!
I already have some baking skills, but in 2026 I plan on learning how to bake new things. I want to first learn how to bake sourdough bread. My sourdough starter is almost ready, so send me your favorite recipes!
I also want to learn how to bake a cake from scratch. While I think baking it will be easy, I want to be able to decorate it like the bakeries do.
Baking has already saved my family so much money because we don’t buy sweets often, but improving my skills will save us even more. If we can stop paying for sandwich bread and decorated birthday cakes, we’ll save hundreds every year!
1000 Hours Outside
I spend wayyyyy too much time inside, so my kids spend way too much time inside. Spending time outside is crucial for development for children.
1,000 hours seems like a lot, but the average child spends nearly 3,000 hours a year, which is 7.5 hours a day, looking at screens. Increased screen time can lead to emotional and behavioral problems according to the American Psychological Association.
We’re going to limit screen time to 1 hour a day in 2026 for our preschooler. We’re going to attempt to spend 1,000 hours outside playing, reading, having picnics, and whatever else it takes to meet the goal.
Financially, this is still going to save us money! Being outside of the house will save us on utility costs AND on the snacks my preschooler mindlessly eats while watching television.
Read More
I have a shelf full of books I bought when I was pregnant in 2025. I just knew I was going to be “nap trapped” or nursing the baby, while reading novels like my life depended on it. I totally forgot about how much babies wiggle around while nursing and how impossible it is to turn a page one-handed.
I was an avid reader in high school and I still enjoy reading. Somewhere between starting college and having children, I just stopped reading.
I plan on spending 2026 reading through the books on my shelf instead of doomscrolling. Everyone knows when you’re doomscrolling, you’re likely to “doom spend.” I’ve wasted probably thousands of dollars at this point just from mindless shopping on my phone, buying things I don’t need.
Start and Follow a Budget
My husband and I have always made enough money to live the lifestyle we want, though we’ve tended to finance the majority of our big purchases. We also came from vastly different financial backgrounds and neither of our families showed us how to handle money.
We, thankfully, have also been able to pay our bills on time and have never thought we needed a budget. That’s where the issue was though! We never had a budget.
Even though we were able to pay our bills on time, cutting back on frivolous spending when I wasn’t working (extended unpaid maternity leave to stay home with the children), we were still ending up living paycheck to paycheck like more than half of Americans.
Our bills didn’t even account for the majority of our spending though! We had no idea where our money was because we didn’t have a budget to stick to.
I’ve already created a simple budget spreadsheet that you can grab a copy of here. In 2026, I’m going to use that to check our spending regularly, and find money to put towards our debt to meet our financial goals.
Progress Not Perfection
My 2026 goals are all aimed at filling my cup while saving my family money. While I don’t plan on being too hard on myself to accomplish these things, I do plan on seeing progress by the middle of year.
If I start a garden and it doesn’t produce anything, I’ll try again next year. If we only spend 500 hours outside, that’s 500 hours we didn’t spend indoors. If I don’t do a weekly budget check-in, maybe I’ve been doing a monthly check-in.
If moms are constantly striving to be perfect and failing, we will get burnt out! Any progress is progress.
Feel free to share your goals for 2026 below!