Happy New Year to all my Monday Money regular readers. It’s January and I have awoken today feeling positive and full of the joys of a fresh start, a new year. All this despite the worsening of the lockdown and now all my children doing remote learning from home.
I am feeling very grateful that I can work around my children and don’t have to stress about sorting last minute childcare, I know this is an issue for so many.
January is the perfect time to so a big refresh of your finances. Re-do your budget, come up with a new debt repayment plan or a new savings plan. You can read all about these new year finances and everything else personal finance in my book, The Money Guide to Transform Your Life now just £12.99 from my website.
Spending Diary
I am restarting my spending diary and will be reporting on it each week here in my Monday Money. I did this during the last big lockdown from March until July and it really helped me to understand my spending and my triggers of spending. Expect this in next weeks Monday Money, starting off with all my bills and direct debits to hit today.
My Spending Diary will include everything I spend from my bank account, cards, paypal, cash, direct debits. I keep a log of everything in a notebook and then analyse it in a spreadsheet every Monday morning. You can also use some clever app to analyse your spending, I like the Emma app and also Snoop is really great for telling you about deals that will save you money based on you direct debits and bank account spending. Both use open banking so connect to your bank account and cards.
Keeping a spending diary for a few weeks is then a perfect template to create a budget from.
No Spend Days and no more Gaming App Spends!
I am going to try really hard to have as many no spend days as possible, and this means no more mobile game app spending in particular. This has been my crux for the past couple of months with an addiction to a game called Matchington Mansions. I’ve admitted it, despite the huge embarrassment, I have been spending money on coins for the game. On some days its been bad with £10 spent, mostly £3 a day, but add that up Ive been wasting £100 to £200 a month on a meaningless game.
Enough. It has to stop. And writing this confession here for you all to read means I will stop! I would have had 3 no spend days so far this year except for £3.70 spent each day on coins for that game.
Mindful Chef Meals are back again
The past couple of months have been a challenge for me personally. I suffer with seasonal affective disorder and its hit hard. I have retreated to my lair and have not been eating well at all. My first step to a healthier life is re-start my subscription to Mindful Chef. I get 2 x meals for two people. I make up a meal and save half for the following day. This is cheaper than 4 meals for 1 person! Its costs around £26 to £28 for every four meals.
The food is amazing, packed with healthy ingredients and tastes amazing. I have learnt about so many great tasting vegan ingredients and cooking methods and I really enjoy cooking the food. You can save yourself 25% from your first 4 orders if you mention me as your refer a friend, just pop in my email address lynn@mrsmummypenny.co.uk when you sign up.
Quick Way to Save Money for the New Year
I shared this post yesterday, a quick read but giving lots of ideas of ways to save a chunk of money quickly and ways to make some money too. Have a read and let me know how much you save!
Back to Running
I am stating an intention here as I’ve not managed to get out to do this yet. I am restarting my running this week. After a break of three months I am not looking forward to that first run, but it has to be done. I need to lose the weight Ive put on over the winter months and running and healthy eating will get me back to where I feel happy with my body and mind. And of course running is free!!
