Goodbye November! Normally I start a monthly review post by saying how fast the month has been. But, for November, that doesn’t seem to have been the case. I’m not sure why, but it seems to have gone by so slowly. It also seems madness that it’s almost December, which means due date month!
It has also been a more expensive month for us. We have bought a few things for Frugal Baby #2 for a start. Plus, Mr FC and I are going away for my birthday at the weekend, just the two of us! We booked that a couple of weeks ago. We’ll mainly be eating and sleeping I think 😀 very much looking forward to that, though obviously that has cost us a bit.
I also had a couple of scares with bump, so had to make the decision to leave work slightly earlier than planned. However, I think that was the right decision to make for both mine and baby’s health. It does mean that my maternity pay started sooner but I don’t think that’ll make too much of an impact. Hopefully!
One of the most amazing things that happened during the month was that I got to film with the BBC – BBC breakfast to be exact. Steph McGovern was sat at our kitchen table! That’s madness; if you’d said when I started The Frugal Cottage that it would happen, I would never have believed you.
My Financial aims for November were:
– Have 18 No Spend Days (NSDs)
– Overpay our mortgage by £50
– Put £600 into savings
Ah, so close with the NSDs. For someone who runs a Facebook group about having a No Spend Month, I don’t seem to do very well with these. I think this time of year makes it much more difficult too. I managed 17 NSDs for November, so not too far from target. Overpaying is taking a backseat but it is nice to see our mortgage balance go down every month. I have overpaid £9.72 this month, so less than I aimed for. Not going to make much of a dent with numbers like that. Finally, I transferred £508.87 into savings. So I haven’t met any of my aims for the month! Not great, I’ll be honest 🙁
My Personal Aims For November were:
– sort out everything for Frugal Baby #2
– be in bed by 10pm every night
– book a pregnancy massage
I think we’re sorted for Frugal Baby #2 🙂 all the clothes are washed and ready. Both mine and baby’s hospital bags are packed. We need to get the carseat down from the loft and put the Snuzpod together, but that’s it! I’d forgotten how small newborn baby clothes are. It seems a bit strange that we’ll soon be looking after something so small again 🙂 my bedtime routine has been better, purely because I am so tired all of the time now. I think I have been in bed by 10pm every night, even if I’m not asleep by then. Finally, I haven’t got round to booking the massage and don’t think I’ll get to have one now. Oh well!
The top 3 posts on The Frugal Cottage during November were:
- How To Financially Prepare For Your Second Child
- Why You Need To Start Saying Yes
- How To Save Money On Food
How has November been for you? What has been the best thing that’s happened to you this month?
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Not long now! Hope that’s it with the bump scares…you did the right thing to stop work early and just look after yourself.
That’s exciting about the BBC filming. Are you able to give any more details about it?
Sarah http://www.livechicandwell.com
Thanks; I think it was my body telling me I needed to slow down. And yes – we did some filming for BBC Breakfast last week, about the budget! 🙂