October has been such a strange month. Firstly, it seems to have gone on for ages! Does anyone else feel that? Frugal Toddler continues to love nursery full time. He must have fun each day as he comes home shattered and usually covered in either paint, sand, or water so it’s obvious he’s had a good day. I love hearing about the things he’s learning, or the new phrases he has picked up whilst he’s been there.
Also, which probably hasn’t helped during October, is that either Frugal Toddler, Frugal Baby or myself had had a cold, continuously. In fact, the last week or so I’ve been struggling a bit with a chest infection which is doubly tricky when you have two young children to look after! The boys seem to be passing the same cold back and forth between them, which means sleeping can be a bit hit or miss. No idea how to stop this from happening either! So any tips here would be much appreciated.
My Financial aims for October were:
– Have 18 No Spend Days (NSDs)
– Overpay our mortgage by £85
– Put £700 into savings
I finally managed to hit my NSD aim last month for the first time in ages, so I kept it the same this month. And I made it! I have had 19 NSDs during October. Although, I am noticing some patterns by tracking my NSDs (if you follow me on Instagram you might see how); for example I spend money on a Thursday, every week. Why? Because I don’t work on a Thursday! It’s much easier to spend on a day when I’m not at work. So, something to think about during November.
I have changed our overpayment strategy again this month; I have going back and forth about this for a while so I posted about it asking for advice. Quite a few people answered and then we made a decision about it so our overpayments will be bigger going forward. At least in the short term anyway. So, my overpayment this month is £159.36 🙂
Finally, as a consequence of making our overpayment bigger, our savings rate will go down slightly. Again, only in the short term, I hope! I am looking at ways of making our side income more consistent so hopefully this won’t have too much of an impact but we shall see. I have put £500 into savings in October.
My Personal Aims For October were:
– find some time just for me.
– use my budget planner throughout the month
I haven’t been the best at trying to find time for myself; it’s more difficult it sounds when you have a busy family. Even my early nighttime routine has somewhat lapsed. So I definitely don’t feel like I’ve managed to find time for myself very often during October. I know that I need to make myself a priority more often sometimes, but it is difficult. There is always something I could be doing! I am still loving my budget planner, especially for tracking my NSDs. Definitely going to keep this going next month!
The top 3 posts on The Frugal Cottage during October were:
How has October been for you? What has the best thing that has happened to you during the month?
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After finding your blog I have been inspired to take up the no spend days and I also started to record what I spent on which day. However, I haven’t been too successful with that. I shall push on for November.
We went on several picnics to enjoy the nice fall weather instead of eating out. I talked with our cell phone company & got a lower rate. I’ve been hanging our clothes to dry on an inside clothes line in our basement instead of using the clothes dryer & seen a decrease in the electric bill this year. October was a big spend month due to property taxes & vehicle registration being due. Thursday is my day to spend every week. That’s the day I do errands & grocery shop.
Don’t worry too much about the colds. Frugal Toddler is exposed to a whole community of new germs at Nursery and this is him sharing and becoming part of that group, and bringing you and Frugal baby in too. It is also part of building immunity to autumn moulds and spores for everyone to get a runny nose and worse. I always get proper rhinitis (hayfever) at this time of the year.
I hope so – just fed up of all the snot in our household!