December is over, and what a fantastic month it has been for us. I had a brilliant birthday, we’ve had a fantastic Christmas surrounded by family, and all in all, I feel very grateful for what we have. The break from work has been lovely and it has given me some time to reflect on what has been a good year for us. It hasn’t been amazing but we definitely can’t complain.
December marks the seventh month of blogging and I love it; it feels like this is almost like a journal for me to mark our process along the way. I like reading financial blogs and I’m also enjoying the process of coming up with blog posts and then writing and posting them. I have lots of ideas and posts to do so I’m sticking around for now! I love reading comments that people take time to leave and they often conjure up other thoughts to do with how people manage their money. I now have 323 followers on Twitter and I have had 16,414 views on the blog at the time of writing this post. Thank you if you follow me on Twitter and read my blog – it really does mean a lot to me!
Our Financial aims for December were:
– Have 18 No Spend Days (or NSDs)
– Overpay our mortgage by the interest added on only
– Put £600 into savings
I can finally say that I have hit my NSDs target for the month – I managed 18 in December! I haven’t been too hot in terms of not spending recently, and I did wonder whether I’d manage it in December with everything else added on, but I did. Very pleased with myself! The interest added to our mortgage this month was £287.15 so that’s what we overpaid. I’m still happy with how this is going for now – I know we’ve missed our yearly overpayment target (more on that tomorrow) but I’m not too worried. Lastly, and I’m pretty proud of myself this month, but I’ve managed to put £1,010.56 into savings. I can’t believe it! We have reigned our spending back and it just shows what we can do with a bit of focus. We have some things to purchase in the new year (see my 2015 aims post coming soon!) so this will help us along the way.
My Personal Aims for December were:
– make some gingerbread men
– maintain my weight
– relax over the holidays
I am (slightly) ashamed to say that I still haven’t managed to make any gingerbread men. In fact, I haven’t done any baking in December at all. I seem to have lost my baking motivation – I tend to go through phases of things – but I’m hoping to get this back in the new year! I weighed myself this morning and I am exactly the same weight as I started December with, so I’m happy with that. Especially with all of the food around at Christmas! Finally, the holidays have been fantastic, so definitely completed this one.
So, December has been good for us! I told you it was my favourite month of the year.
How was your December? Have you hit your aims? I would love to hear about it!
P.S do you have twitter? Follow me here!
Nicola,
Glad to hear you had such a fantastic december. Good job on the blogging front too! Many people seem to drop off the radar lately, so I’m happy to see you stick around.
My december was pretty great too. The city trip to Dublin and another week vacation definitely didn’t hurt!
Happy holidays,
NMW
I know – people seem to disappear all the time! Some of my favourite blogs haven’t updated in ages 🙁 Happy holidays!