Ready for the next stage!

riotlady

2021 in review

• Our house deposit fund went up from £3218 to £9465, meaning we saved £6247!! I am so very proud of that
• We also saved an additional £2500 for our wedding and paid for it all up front. This means we saved a total of £8747 across the year
• Our emergency fund was used up to cover The Lean Period and we briefly had some credit card debt. Thankfully that has all been paid off now and the emergency/short term savings fund stands at £358 (shortly to be raided again when I have my MOT next week) 
• Big life events: we got married! Mini turned 3, my best friend had a baby, I had a great hen weekend with my friends, I got diagnosed with CFS/ME and I finally finished my masters with a commendation. 

2022 goals

• Hoping this will finally be the year we buy a house! We need a deposit of around £15k, which means we need to save just over £4k and receive another £1k in LISA bonuses 
• Build the emergency fund back up to £2000
• Over the course of 2021, I managed to slowly build my daily steps up from 1800 to about 3800. I would like to get to around 5000 steps a day this year. 
• I also want to get better at reverse parking, because I feel like that's a necessary life skill! 
• Things to look forward to: Getting going with my new job, graduation, mini starting school, girls trip in February, hopefully finally going on holiday

MovingForwards

Sending positive thoughts for your dad and hugs to you all.

Your budget and plans are great.

Don't push yourself and slowly increase your steps, can't have you undoing / having a set back. 

Hope you're all set for your start date, it's very exciting for you.

savingwannabe

I am sending my best wishes for your father. God bless him and keep  him well. You have done soo well this year. At present you are doing better stepwise than me i think. Stay happy and give mini riot a hug. Have a good day.

Skint_yet_Again

Another one here sending positive thoughts for your dad xx

You have done so well in 2021 despite your diagnosis. Just take your time and get plenty of rest and I’m sure you will achieve your goals for 2022 😁

riotlady

Thanks a lot folks  

riotlady

Well I made it through my first proper week of work and it's all going well so far I worked from home today and it really helped with my energy levels (getting ready + commute + being around people all day has been really tiring me out!) so hopefully will do a bit more of that in the future. Think I was putting myself under pressure to show my face a lot because I'm new, but most people only seem to come in once or twice a week.

Budget is ticking along ok, some overspending on takeaways because I've been so tired. I've got a Morrisons order coming tomorrow for £59 with some easy foods to help with that

I've also booked a day festival in July with my friends for £35, and cashed out £50 from populus

MovingForwards

Congratulations on getting through, how's the actual work?

You will sus out a routine and should factor in more WAH. Perhaps 2 days in the office per month, then 3 and 4. See how your body adapts to it. Can't have you pushing too hard.

Get some batch cooked foods in the freezer for ease of eating after work, takeaway gets expensive.

Skint_yet_Again

Glad to hear your first week at work went well. Hopefully more wfh and once you get organised with easy meals will help with energy levels. I get exhausted just sorting myself and the dog and wfh every day, so you are coping really well, but going into the office so much may be unsustainable at the moment.  

savingwannabe

I am so glad you will be able to work from home, being comfy at home makes a difference. Well done on doing a week, hurrah. I hope you can rest this weekend. I am shattered. 

riotlady

Thanks sorry to hear you’re so tired SW, hope you get a good rest this weekend! 

Thanks Skinty, yeah I think I need to rein it in a bit! 

MF- so I’m in training for three months so mostly I’m just doing e-learning at the moment. The job looks really interesting but I can’t say I've really done any of it yet! 

Funny you suggest you batch cooking as I took mini to her first dance lesson today and then to my mums, so riotdude stayed home and made an enormous pot of veg soup and another one of bolognaise. So that’ll keep us going for a while  

Mini loved dancing so she’s going to do that on a Saturday morning now, £6 a week. I’m used to doing baby classes with her where the parents have to participate, so it felt very strange to drop her off and go! I realised her trainers are a bit small so I went on Vinted to find her some “new” ones- found some nice Adidas ones for £8 and as I went to pay discovered I had £10 already on my account that I’d forgotten about. So that was a happy surprise  

Mini says she wants to make biscuits tomorrow so we might pootle round to Aldi and get some chocolate chips to make cookies. Pasta bolognaise and garlic bread for lunch then riotdude is off to get his booster jab.