Another week over! We’re already half way through January, and I’m aware I haven’t put much thought into our goals, yet alone put anything into practise. I need to look at that! The time seems to be rushing by. It has been incredibly cold this week here and we had a light dusting of snow in the middle of the week. It looks pretty, but snow is a nightmare to drive in so I’m glad it didn’t hang around.
January continues to be positive, money-wise. I am now up to 11 NSDs, and we’ve both been careful with spending. We did go furniture shopping last weekend and ordered two new bedside tables for our bedroom, but we got them in the sale so they didn’t do too much damage to our budget. We also paid for our car insurance this week, which we managed to get for £215 which is fantastic. This was budgeted for in January’s budget, and is less than we thought we would end up paying, so pretty happy with that.
5 things I’ve enjoyed/been grateful for this week:
1) I know I put something similar last week, but my Saturday morning lie in. It is the best time ever.
2) Last Sunday I made this baked rice pudding recipe, and had some for breakfast on Monday too. Lovely!
3) A hot cup of tea with ginger biscuits to dip in – very British thing I suppose but I love it.
4) Cat cuddles with the Frugal Cats who don’t want to venture outside in the cold.
5) After hearing some sad news this week, I’m grateful for those people I have around me.
5 blog posts I’ve enjoyed this week:
1) New Year by the sea (+ things to do in Northumberland) by Kat Got The Cream. Northumberland is one of my favourite places, so I really enjoyed reading this post.
2) The Best Banana Bread Pancakes by Foodie Crush. These look SO. GOOD.
3) What I’ve Learned About Happiness From Diego by Dividend Mantra. A lovely post featuring Diego, Dividend Mantra’s dog!
4) You’ll Never Believe How Much the MMM Family Spent This Year by Mr Money Mustache. I love seeing how much people spend, and this post is no exception.
5) Frugal Homestead Series Part 2: Here’s The Budget by Frugal Woods. I’m looking forward to seeing their journey and this post includes the numbers!
And, in case you’ve missed them, these are the topics I’ve posted about this week:
– 5 Easy Ways To Save For A Holiday – get through those dark nights by planing a get away!
– How To Avoid Temptation When Shopping – a reader question, but an important topic about budget.
What have you enjoyed reading this week? Any plans for the week ahead? I’d love to hear about it!
P.S do you have twitter? Follow me here!
A hot cup of tea with ginger biscuits to dip in…that sounds so good and yes it does sound very British. Sounds delightful though.
It is very good – you should try it 🙂
Nicola,
11 No-spending-days is incredible! I should try and do that too to make sure I buy my groceries in bulk rather than going into the store across the street almost every day.
My plans for the week ahead will be lots of work, as usual. Don’t mind it though since I’m part of an exciting project.
Have a great weekend,
NMW
I do our grocery shopping every Saturday, in preparation for the week. Have a good week!
Hope you are ok and glad you have a good support unit around you.
Absolutely love ginger biscuits! Sounds like a good start to the year! Am right behind you with the NSD’s thank you so much for getting me on this. It makes such a difference!!
NSDs really are such a help to our budget – I’m glad you’re finding them so useful 🙂
I really enjoyed learning from Diego this week too!
Sorry to hear you had bad news this week, I hope you’re feeling better now.
I am thanks, it’s just one of those situations that make you feel grateful for those we have around us.
Nicola,
Thanks for including me in a great list of posts up there.
Keep up the great work with the NSDs. Your wallet will thank you! 🙂
Hope you’re having a great weekend over there.
Best regards.
Congrats on the 11 NSD’s, keep up the good work!
Thank you – they do wonders for the budget 🙂
I love the sound of cat cuddles and ginger biscuits with tea :). Congrats on the no spend days–that’s awesome! And, thank you so much for including my post, I really appreciate it :).
You’re welcome 🙂 and tea with ginger biscuits is the best thing ever!