Small steps lead to big changes...

Sunshine_girl2

Hooray for getting over £300. Enjoy the rest of your day off .

jwil

Sunshine_girl2 said:

Hooray for getting over £300. Enjoy the rest of your day off .

Thank you   I've spent a decent amount of time with my nose in a book, so always good!

teapot2

Whoop, congrats on the great PADs this month 🎈🎉  sorting out some niggly bits and pieces on a free day is also a result as is having your nose in a book

jwil

teapot2 said:

Whoop, congrats on the great PADs this month 🎈🎉  sorting out some niggly bits and pieces on a free day is also a result as is having your nose in a book

Thank you   Those are always the best days

jwil

Today's PAD - £8, £5 yesterday

Jan - £319

jwil

Happy Payday!  It's finally the end of the month!

A nice couple of pads over the last two days has given me a great total for Jan.  Let's hope it continues.

Other successes:

I added a fair amount to my PBs last month, and today have sent £450 so I've hit the £5k mark on there!

I won't grow it by that much every month, but it is helped by the council tax and water free months.  £5k was my first goal so that's achieved.  Fingers crossed for some wins now!  

I've also padded the small amounts to my Kroo account which is a current account, but pays 4.35% interest.  That's now sitting at £69 odd so not bad for a month of adding small change and some pads.  That I hope to sit and grow, but it means I can access it easily if I need to.

I did open a new regular saver with Nationwide, but haven't bothered with the FD one.

I sent a small overpayment to the mortgage for old time's sake.  I need to overpay to pay it off by the time the fixed rate ends, but now the savings are my focus, so if I haven't used them before, I can hopefully have a lump sum to pay off in 2032.

My AVCs are increasing by £100 a month, and £40 a month to my LISA so that I can get the £10 uplift.

So not bad in terms of savings.  I'm probably not maximising interest at this stage, but I'm comfortable with my choices for now.

I've kept up my spending tracker and that will be useful in the next few months so I shall keep that up.  I've not really done much in the way of frivolous spending this month, so that's good!

In terms of my health goals,

I walked to school every morning bar one this month.  I'm super pleased with that!  I think it is becoming a habit now.  It's definitely less challenging for me, and it means that as a minimum I've done the 150 minutes of brisk walking a week as recommended. 

I've stuck to my 9-7 time restricted eating hours, and have mostly stuck to the 3 one hour windows within that.  Sometimes life just gets in the way, but I'm pleased with that.

I've been much better on eating a lot more fruit and veg, so that's good too!

No movement on my weight, but I've seen positive improvements on my blood sugars and blood pressure, and how I feel so that's good.  I wouldn't mind if I was just a bit overweight, but I'm twice as heavy as I should be, so it does get frustrating when nothing changes.  I'm sure there are more changes that can be made in due course to help!

My anxiety has eased a fair amount, and it's become evident with my time off this month that it's quite significantly related to work.  That helps me keep my focus on building savings and becoming financially independent.  Yesterday's news that they want to reduce the workforce by around a quarter this year doesn't really help.  I'll just carry on hoping I survive for now.  I keep looking around, and this is the best option in terms of pay, pension and flexibility, so I'll cling on for as long as I can. 

WinterWarrior

That’s a really positive update today. I can’t lose weight at the moment, no matter what I do, so I feel your pain. I’m trying to get my nutracheck mojo back. The exercise and fruit and veg will be doing you a lot of good.
fingers crossed for the pb wins. I had a good run of 3 months in a row , but last month I didn’t win at all. I didn’t start winning until I crept painfully over £10k, but I guess I was just super unlucky up to that point. Good luck for the next draw. 

NeverendingDMP

Well done on the pad and the PB target. Lots of good things happening. X

jwil

WinterWarrior said:

That’s a really positive update today. I can’t lose weight at the moment, no matter what I do, so I feel your pain. I’m trying to get my nutracheck mojo back. The exercise and fruit and veg will be doing you a lot of good.
fingers crossed for the pb wins. I had a good run of 3 months in a row , but last month I didn’t win at all. I didn’t start winning until I crept painfully over £10k, but I guess I was just super unlucky up to that point. Good luck for the next draw. 

Thank you   I've had a few £25s since I started, but not many.  I'm hoping my luck kicks in before £10k   

NeverendingDMP said:

Well done on the pad and the PB target. Lots of good things happening. X

Thank you

jwil

Today's win - a 4.5hr meeting turned out to be an hour long instead.  Hurrah!  Having a quick break before getting on with some actual work!