Keeping on the Straight and Narrow...

DancingInTheRain

Thank you for your lovely post @Bubblesmum and good luck with your assignment too. 
Work is chaos (hence I'm on here having 5 minutes respite) but I'm trying to keep calm and carry on, my situation could be much, much worse. Only 5 more working days after today until my Christmas break so need to just keep going.
I'd forgotten that DH and I have a nice treat to look forward to this weekend - a night in a hotel in the Lakes! It was a gift from my friends for my 40th but with lockdown,etc it has been rescheduled so many times I've almost forgotten about it! We don't live too  far away (same county) so it's a relatively short drive, it will be good to have a change of scenery, the boys are looking forward to having a sleepover at Grandma's as it's been a while so they'll have fun there too Meals are included so should only cost the price of a bottle of wine or 2 to enjoy with our meal

savingholmes

Enjoy your time away. Sounds idyllic

DancingInTheRain

Hello, back from a lovely evening away. Lovely locally produced food, beautiful wine and a chance for DH and I to spend time alone. Really appreciated the break and the boys had fun on their sleepover at Grandma's. As is usual in the Lakes, it rained the whole time we were there then the sun came out as soon as we arrived home 🤣 can't have it all!
Just had another £20 eBay sale and also got 2 of the £10 off a £40 spend in Lidl which we used to do the weekly shop yesterday meaning I've transferred £40 to the EF, signature updated.

DancingInTheRain

We spent some time in Keswick before heading to our hotel, very quiet compared to a normal Friday in December, their Xmas lights were lovely though x

DancingInTheRain

DancingInTheRain said:

So plans for 2020...

Debts
Target is to have a debt figure below £5,000 by the end of the year.
Stretch target is to clear the credit card (currently at £6,029).
Shoot for the stars target is to be totally debt free but, realistically, unlikely to happen. But you never know do you?
Also joined the MFW 1% Challenge for 2020, signature updated. Target for this is £565 which should be achieved by adding a little to my usual mortgage account tidy I do each month so that the amount owed ends in a zero

Savings
Started rebuilding savings pots which were decimated in November so feeling back in control.
EF currently at £2,870. We haven't added to this for a while but feels like this should be a nice & tidy £3,000 doesn't it? Or is that just me and my weird brain? :rotfl:

Fun
We've not been far in the last 2 years so have booked 2 short breaks for May and October half terms for us as a family. Both relatively local to where we live (within 50 miles), but lots to do and I think it will do us all good to have a couple of treats to look forward to this year. Total cost for these is £600 plus fuel costs and spending money.
Finally, I have a big birthday next month - it starts with a 4 and ends with a 0 :eek: and again, in the interest of having more experiences/treats this year. DH and I have booked to go to the Grand National in April, including an overnight stay.
There's a couple of jobs we need to get done in the house too so we're setting money aside for this so the cash is in place first.

Health
I've been slowly but surely losing the baby weight over the last 6 months but still have a stone to go so that's a focus over the next year, also still trying to get my blood pressure under control so eating well and looking after myself more will help with this too.
DH is also keen to lose weight having been fairly immobile the last few years. He continues to recover well from surgery so is much more mobile which will help him massively.

Reviewing the goals for 2020 I set on here 29/12/19:
Debts - 100% as a result of the pandemic we did become debt free earlier this year, we have been incredibly lucky to remain employed during these turbulent times and it continues to be a relief that we will enter the new year maintaining this debt free status.
Savings - ended 2019 with £2870 in savings. At the moment we have £5300 split across EF/PB's/S&S ISA
Fun - all the plans we made this time last year were cancelled but we have managed to still have 1 small family break and 1 night away for just myself and DH in recent weeks so not too bad. Definitely made the most of living in such a beautiful location over the last 12 months.
Health - Honestly speaking I'm no further forward on this front, blood pressure is still not under control so still under investigation for this and haven't been on the scales for a while but can be sure my weight hasn't changed much from this time last year. I have been making more of an effort to try to get 10,000 steps a day in recently so need to use this as a starting point to make a bit more effort to shift the weight and look after myself.

Overall, we have a lot to be thankful for this year even if we have spent a lot of the year feeling pretty fed up and frustrated by the ongoing situation. We're very fortunate to have not been subjected to some of the horrors many have faced this year and I think this review has been a timely reminder we should count our blessings.

We're going to spend some time reviewing our goals over the next 2 weeks and will update on here once these are set in place. Need to focus on the last few days at work and then the final (enjoyable) build up to Christmas first.
The boys are ridiculously excited, exhausted and bonkers with only 11 sleeps to go... they've been hard work but also a lovely reminder of our own childhood memories of Christmas - DS1 and I enjoyed a date at the cinema over the weekend to watch The Grinch which was fun

Hope everyone who pops in here is staying safe and well xx

beanielou

Amazingingly awesome 👏 

savingholmes

Glad you had a good night away. You have made fab progress on your goals this year.

Lookafterthepennies2020

Just having a good catch up @DancingInTheRain you seem to be doing fantastic with your overpayments, especially for this time of year!

Your pictures from your trip away look lovely and it's a great idea of budgeting for the school bits and bobs, my two are the same there seems to be a donation here or £1 there every other day at the moment, so far we have had a charity reindeer run, Christmas stocking contributions and donations towards Santa coming into school with selection boxes lol!  I saw on another thread your upside down nongenderspecificgingerbread treat’s lol and will be giving these a go this weekend with my ds’ so thanks for posting that!! If you have any other idea’s on the run up to Christmas please do share as I have a 4yo on Christmas overdrive ATM 😊 x 

DancingInTheRain

Thanks all x

@Lookafterthepennies2020 we're going to do some low key/easy activities with the boys - if the rain eases they'll be sent to play in the garden or taken to the playground, we'll also be going out for a walk to hand deliver a few Xmas cards, downloading a simple Xmas themed scavenger hunt, giving them some left over cards and wrapping paper to make some pictures or decorations and watching films with an indoor picnic/hit chocolate, making cupcakes.
They're both so hyped up I'm trying to stick with relatively calm ideas although I also accept they may have other ideas! 🤣

savingholmes

Good luck with that - sounds anything but peaceful