August Aims

Hello August! A month that we’ve been counting down to, looking forward to ever since we found out we were expecting a baby. The time has finally come! Although the change to our lives will be unmeasurable, I am so excited for the next chapter and expanding our family. I’m also interested to see what kind of impact it will have on our finances; monthly household income is reduced and outgoings will presumably increase, so keeping that balance between the two will become more of a challenge. However, I like a bit of a challenge 🙂

 

Every month I like to set myself aims for the month, to keep myself focused and to make sure I actually use the time during the month wisely! There are two sets of aims: Finance and Personal. July worked out in our favour but August’s aims have been much harder to make, purely because of venturing into the unknown.

 

Financial aims for August:

– Have 18 No Spend Days (or NSDs)

– Overpay our mortgage by something

– Put £400 into savings

 

Although I hit our NSD for July, I’m reducing it slightly for August. There will undoubtedly be some unexpected spending during August, due to lots of variables, so 18 might even be slightly high. But, I shall try my best! Our mortgage overpayment targets have changed again; I want to continue overpaying but I don’t know if we can commit to a certain number at this stage. I’m sure by the end of August we’ll have a better idea of expense/income ratio is and therefore September will be easily to forecast. Lastly, I want to have a savings target but this might be widely optimistic, I just don’t know! I’m hoping to hit this; £400 doesn’t seem a lot even with the reduced income, so I’m going to keep my fingers crossed.

Personal Aims for August:

– baby.

 

This is where I really struggled to write anything for personal aims, apart from baby. The only thing that we’re focusing on this month is the new arrival. The safe arrival of our baby; nothing else particularly matters. Then, finding our feet as new parents and not being pressured into anything by anyone, just finding our own way which works for our little family. There are going to be so many people, all with different ideas on how we should do things, but we need to do things our own way. No doubt we’ll have lots of visitors, so time will be precious and a bit of self preservation will need to take place. Here’s to August being the best month yet!

 

Do you have any aims for this month? What will challenge you the most? I’d love to hear from you!