Hello November! November and December are my favourite months of the year, as the nights draw in and I can get away with wearing big chunky jumpers and slipper socks. Our bathroom renovation got postponed in October, but is due to start November 17th, so I’m looking forward to having that completed this month. It’ll be so much better once it’s all done.
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. October was pretty good to us in terms of both Finance and Personal, so let’s hope this continue for November.
Financial aims for November:
– Have 18 No Spend Days (or NSDs)
– Overpay our mortgage by the interest added on only
– Put £600 into savings
Although I met my NSD aim for October, I’m keeping it the same as we need to start our Christmas shopping and get organised. I’m still hoping to keep spends relatively low, but we shall see!Like last month, our mortgage overpayment will just be in the interest added only as I’m happy with how that went in October. And I have left the savings target at £600, though I’m hoping it’ll be more in the end, especially as my savings in September and October ended up being pretty poor. Reaching my NSD target does have an impact on savings, so the two go hand in hand.
Personal Aims for November:
– make some gingerbread men
– lose 4 lbs
– see some girl friends for a catch up
I love gingerbread men and do buy them often but I’ve never made any! So, as a bit of a challenge to myself, I’m going to make some this month. I’ve left my weight loss goal at 4 lbs and I hope I do it, I just need to write down what I eat a bit more so I can work out where I’m going astray. Lastly, I’m hoping to see some of my girlfriends from university for a catch up which will be great.
Do you have any aims for this month? What will challenge you the most? I’d love to hear from you!
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I so agree with nicola. Having aims for the month is such a good idea. My aim for November is to have a shed and fit it out. I will be able to buy a bike so I can get in to town more easily and save cash on expensive bus fares. I also intend to have some N.S.D ‘s but for me that will mean staying in and not going out at all. I get easily tempted by eating scones, tea cakes and tasty lemon cake once I am out and about!, yum yum
Good luck with the shed 🙂
I too am looking forward to November but despite the warm autumnal weather I do look forward to warm fires in the evening. I am having a shed for my new bike this month. I am hoping to save money on expensive bus fares when I need to go to town. I am trying to have no spend days as nicola says. However, I feel I will not go far when I have these days as I am tempted to buy scones and tea cakes and my favourite of all lemon drizzle cake. I will try following your suggestions though. Food for thought. Now back to my shed!!!!
Our goal for this month is to not add to our debt. With Black Friday this month, this could prove to be a little challenging. Time to get creative!
Good luck with that – Black Friday isn’t a big thing in the UK so it’s easy to avoid 🙂
Good luck overpaying your mortgage. November is typically a big spend month with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up! I’m with you on the weight loss!
Jay
Thank you 🙂 good luck on your weight loss!
I have a high hope for this month of November. I want to save as much as I can to prepare for the Christmas. Thus, I have to spend less and do more hustles. Good luck to you Nicola on overpaying your mortgage. We really can do this!
Good luck to you too – let’s make November awesome! 🙂
18 no spend days is quite a bit. Curious to see how that goal pans out for the month. Good luck. How are the investments coming along?
Thanks – I hope to reach 18 this month 🙂 well, I’ve done more research and think I’m almost at the stage where I can begin to slowly invest…! I think I’m going to stick with funds for now, rather than individual shares, to begin with at least. It’s a scary yet exciting step!