January 2021 - A Month In Review

Just like that, January 2021 is over! Does anyone else feel like it’s gone by quite quickly? January has definitely been a strange month. I am missing seeing other people now; working from home is good in the sense I am staying safe but I don’t get to see other people very often.

Inevitably January has been quiet. Apart from working and general day to day life, we haven’t done much. The weather hasn’t helped in that respect! We have had a LOT of rain recently so have stayed indoors. Hopefully the weather will get a bit better next month so we can get out a bit more.

One of the exciting things that happened here during January is that I finally launched a new product. Whenever I mention doing work as a virtual assistant, I always get messages asking me all about it. So I put al of my knowledge into my latest product – the How To Be A Virtual Assistant Handbook! The launch was on Friday and have had some lovely positive feedback from people who have purchased it so far. If you have ever wondered about working as a virtual assistant from home earning hundreds a month, then definitely have a look 🙂

As always, I continue to work towards our long term goal of early retirement. It can seem painfully slow at times but we are plodding along. These monthly aims help that 🙂

My Financial aims for January were:

– Have 20 No Spend Days (NSDs)

– Overpay the mortgage by £100

– Put £500 into savings

I feel like a broken record saying this but I love NSDs. They definitely help me stay on track! Of course, having to stay at home means that the temptation to spend is less. Even if I have been going to the Costa drive-thru a bit more often ☕ I do like a chai latte from there. However, I have still managed to have 21 NSDs during January so I am pleased with that 🙂

Our mortgage overpayment aim is less this year as we are focusing on other things. But, it still is part of the bigger picture so we will continue to overpay, just smaller amounts. That being said, I have managed to overpay our mortgage by £122.84 this month 🙂

I changed our savings aim for the year back at the start of January and it’s because we have other things to factor in this year. That was before we were put into another lockdown! This number is spread across both our investment accounts and our emergency fund savings and I have managed to save £890 during January. SO much more than I would have thought but it’s because we are hardly going anywhere, again.

My Personal Aims for January were:

– get ahead with blog posts

– plan out YouTube content for the month

– be organised!

Hmm, these could definitely have gone better. I have got some blog posts drafted but not complete so not ahead with that. Again, I’ve got most of YouTube planned for the month ahead but not got any of it filmed. Organised? I suppose so. Definitely could do better though.

The top 3 posts on The Frugal Cottage during January were:

And over on YouTube, the top 3 videos were:

How has January been for you? What has been the best thing that has happened to you during the month?

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