In November I was trying to get my head wrapped around goals and plans for 2019. I had my annual 101 Things list started, but I wanted a way to organize the family data and goals. A place to line out our direction for the year.

As I sat there I thought, “Man! It’d be nice to have something like a business plan for our family!”

And then I realized…I could write a business plan for our family! Duh! I wrote a business plan for my business as a part of my courses for the International Academy of Wedding Photographers, so I already had a great form in place. I just had to tweak it to be family oriented instead of business oriented.

And guys…it worked amazing!

Every quarter we’ll review it and make small additions/tweaks as needed (mainly to the budget and chores/roles portion as those changes are needed), and then every month at the beginning we’ll go over it to refresh us on our goals and to help us stay on track.

I’m so excited to have something to help us stay organized and to line out all our goals in one place. I’ll show you bits and pieces of what we have (minus things like budget numbers and exact routine/personal info), and then I’ve got a template for you if you want to make your very own family plan!

2019 ANNUAL FAMILY PLAN –Mower Family
PANSIES DON’T PROSPER.

VISION

Mission Statement: 

Wilderness Mowers work together to live frugally and opt out of the consumer culture, grow spiritually, support each other, build and serve community, and be each other’s sidekicks, because together we can do hard things.

Success Goals:

• Hold Regular Family Home Evening
• Live within our budget
• Contribute monthly to the savings account
• Regular date nights for Cameron and Marquette

ROLES/ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

SWOT Analysis (Strengths|Weaknesses|Opportunities|Threats)

Strengths: (Characteristics that help our family move forward)

• Personable
• Desire to do what is right
• Faith
• Quick and Eager to learn
• Want to build community and support others

Weaknesses: (Characteristics that hinder our family’s progress)

• Impulse Buys
• Laziness with budget
• Quick to judge
• Says yes too easily/don’t protect time

Opportunities:  (Areas that our family can focus on to exploit our strengths)

• Gila Community College
  • Opportunity to take classes
  • Community of teachers and resources
  • Possibility to teach overload classes for extra income
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
  • Church Meetings
  • Community
  • Resources
  • Places to serve
• Tuesdays Together
  • Serving the community
  • Learning
  • Building community

Threats: (Areas that can cause trouble for our family)

• Satan, that dastardly devil.
  • Doesn’t want us to have faith and move forward in God’s plan
  • Wants to separate us
  • Wants us to be tied to money
  • Fosters discontent
  • Fosters feelings of judgement and pride
• Social Media
  • Waste too much time
  • Comparison
• Location
  • Few young families
  • Hard to find others with similar life goals and outlooks
  • No space to garden traditionally
• Finance
  • Without the extra income from photography, we need to live much more frugally.
  • We’re going into 2019 with no savings after having to dip into them for various medical payments this year.
  • Poor budgeting skills

PLANS AND GOALS

Family Education Plan:

1. Marquette start taking Cameron’s courses through the college to give student insight
2. Budget Bootcamp by Jordan Page
3. Darrow finish Preschool and start Kindergarten
4. Bi-weekly library trips

Family Faith Plan:

1. Family Home Evening Weekly to introduce weekly study topic
2. Make Ministering a family event, not just Cameron/Marquette
   1. Help make goodies
   1. Kids come where appropriate
3. Family Prayer
4. Family Scripture Time
5. Come Follow Me for Families and Individuals

Family Frugal Plan:

1. Start Garden
2. Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without
3. Cut unnecessary costs (internet, keep off of Netflix and Amazon Prime, walk where possible)
4. Explore more of the local area

Family Health Plan:

1. Exercise 3 times a week
2. Home cooked meals
3. Family hike once a month

Kett and Cam Strong Marriage Plan:

1. Weekly Date Nights
2. One out of home date night a month
3. Weekly planning

There’s SO much more involved in the family plan, but I won’t post it all here…there really isn’t a need. But if this sounds like something that might help you get your 2019 plans and goals organized I got a quick template put together for you.

You can get the Microsoft Word version here
You can get the Mac Pages version here

Don’t have Word on your Computer? You can upload the Word file to Google Docs and use it there just fine