How on earth is it the end of January already? I can’t believe how fast January has gone by. I suppose sleep deprivation will do that – all the days seem to merge into one. But, we’ve survived 🙂 and our two boys are thriving, though one is slightly more testing than the other!
In all serious, January has been a month where we’re adjusting to it being the four of us. Sleep is sorely lacking in our household – both boys aren’t sleeping particularly well – so here’s hoping February will be better in that respect. Frugal Toddler also started nursery this month. He’s going two moorings a week for three hours, and he absolutely loves it. He goes running in when we arrive without so much as a backwards glance, but that’s a good thing. He was ready for something new and challenging 🙂
But, January hasn’t been quite the calm start I thought it might be in terms of finances. I need to be slightly more organised – we’ve run out of milk a couple of times, plus I’ve forgotten items we need during the week. We also seem to go through an alarming amount of nappies and wipes, so have had to pop out for those too. I just need to buy more at once, I suppose!
My Financial aims for January were:
– Have 18 No Spend Days (NSDs)
– Overpay our mortgage by £85
– Put £700 into savings
As mentioned above, we’ve had to pop out to the shops on fairly frequent occasions this month, mainly due to me not buying enough in one go. Or forgetting something. So, NSDs again have been difficult to obtain. I have managed 15 NSDs, which is ok but not the best start to the year. I’m planning on having a No Spend Month for February – come and join my Facebook group if you want to join me – in the hopes I can meet my target for these.
Overpayments have taken a back seat whilst I have been building up our Ultimate Dream fund, but they are important and being mortgage free is part of our plans too. So, that’s why I upped my aims for this in 2018. However, one month in and I’ve totally failed! The amount I overpaid on our mortgage this month? 24p. Yes, that little.
Finally. savings are going to be tough for the first seven months of the year as I’m on maternity leave so our household income is reduced. Plus, it seems like January has gone on forever. So, I have managed to put £614.08 into savings, which is less that my aim but I’m happy with that at this stage 🙂
My Personal Aims For January were:
– lose 6lbs
– to not put too much pressure on myself
– start to get rid of some of my clothes
I mentioned over on Twitter that I have started Slimming World again. I was doing it before falling pregnant with Frugal Baby so I know it works if I stick to the plan. It does take some getting used to though. But, that being said, I’ve lost 5 and a half pounds in January, so I’m pleased with that 🙂 half a pound off my aim isn’t bad! It’s all in the right direction too 🙂
I think it’s very easy to be self critical when you have a newborn and lack of sleep impacts your judgement. I can sometimes feel like I’m not doing enough or I must be doing something wrong because my X week old baby isn’t sleeping well. Putting pressure on myself doesn’t help! I have tried this month to not do this, though it’s easier said than done.
Lastly, my clothes. It feels like they’re my nemesis at the moment; I need to make a start but not entirely sure how. I have thrown out one top, as it was too worn and baggy. That’s it! Must do better against this aim, I feel.
The top 3 posts on The Frugal Cottage during January were:
How has January been for you? AÂ good start for 2018?
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I am a pensioner but back in the days before computers and with high interest rates I looked into paying our mortgage early To pay it in 15 instead of 25 was very doable but 12 was a lot more a month. So we went ahead and increased our repayments to pay it of in 12 years. With interest rates so low it might be wiser to pay into your mortgage rather than savings. We changed our mortgage to one where we could take some of the money out iuf we needed it so in the end we used it like a bank account and any spare cash was put in.
I think that you are doing amazingly well considering you have 2 small people.
However, thankyou for mentioning menu planning on a past post. Have taken it totally on boardand although we never spent a large amount on our weekly food bill (about £50), I have managed to reduce it by at least 20%! Trying for 25%.
January has proven a good start to the year.