Goodbye July! And another month over 🙂
The month started off well with the new site design being revealed. I still love it and think it looks so much better than my previous layout. It’s much cleaner and easier to read. What do you think? It took me four years of blogging to take the plunge into paying someone to design something, but I’m very glad I did.
The other most obvious thing to talk about is my return to work after being off on maternity leave. I went back to work when Frugal Baby was six and a half months old. To be completely honest, it was tough to begin with. It was hard leaving both boys plus the change in routine was a shock. Also, having to be in work mode and not Mummy mode took a while to get used to! But, I do enjoy my job so I’m sure it’ll be fine 🙂
Our Financial aims for July were:
– Have 20 No Spend Days (NSDs)
– Overpay our mortgage by £85
– Put £600 into savings
I knew that 20 NSDs would be a stretch, especially getting used to a new routine and being out and about. And I was right! I only managed 17 NSDs during July. When I think about how busy we’ve been, I’m surprised it is that high to be honest, so it could have been worse. It feels like I haven’t hit my NSD target for months now.
I changed my overpayment target for 2018, as it had been sitting on the back burner and not really thought of at all. But, as being mortgage free is definitely a part of our early retirement plans, it needs to be in focus somewhat. This month I have managed to overpay our mortgage by £20.47 which isn’t the biggest number, but plodding along regardless.
Our savings target whilst I’ve been on maternity leave has been much lower than it needs to be, but it’s still been a struggle to hit this. In fact, I haven’t this month; I have managed to save £311.16 which is far from it. But, hopefully when our income settles down a bit more, we’ll manage to get back on track.
My Personal Aims For July were:
– have 20 days on plan on Slimming World
– finish reading Friend Request
– get my hair cut
Urgh, the less said about Slimming World, the better. I’ve had a really rubbish week. I am finding it really hard to stick to when I’m so tired and have little energy. I’ll keep plodding along, but my weight loss is slower than I’d like. I finished reading Friend Request and loved it. I also actually read another book during July – Thirteen – which I loved as well. Definitely two of the best books I’ve read in ages! And didn’t get my hair cut, even though it desperately needs it.
The top 3 posts on The Frugal Cottage during July were:
How has July been for you? What has the best thing that has happened to you during the month?
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Don’t you end up with a dichotomy between your goals of saving a certain amount each month (which you seem to struggle with) and things like putting away a tenner a week for Christmas as outlined in the previous post?
Same with the NSDs, isn’t it the amount you spend as well as the frequency that count, after all having 29 NSDs would sound great … unless you blew £10k on the one day you do spend 😂🤑😂🤑
Surely saving for Christmas is a good thing? And we’re only struggling at the moment as SMP is fairly rubbish. And of course the amount you spend matters; can’t say I’ve ever spent £10k in a day though…
Yes of course saving for Christmas is a good thing – allows for monthly cost averaging. The point I was making is one post you want to save £600 and in another you want to save £10 for Christmas … so are you really saying you want to save £610?? That would be unrealistic if you can’t save the £600 in the first place would it not?
Never spent £10k in a day … really … never bought a house, a car, a house extension or new kitchen / bathroom etc … it’s surprisingly easy to spend £10k in a day in a day if you look at the big picture and not just the nick nacks.