The Saving Journey

My Season of Stress is over and I’m enjoying a few well earned days off, although much of this has been used catching up with various chores – no rest for the wicked! I’m pleased with how well I’ve coped during this super busy month; I had moments where I felt overwhelmed but I feel like I dealt with them more effectively because I’d planned beforehand.

In particular, completing the food shop online and having it delivered plus stocking the freezer with healthy quick meals really helped. I’ve gone back to in store shopping mostly at Lidl and Aldi to save money now but I like that the online option is there as a back up. I also got into the habit of getting up earlier to fit in a short meditation and I will be continuing this as well as preparing all outfits for the week on a Sunday.

I didn’t do well with my plan of going to the gym in my lunch break as there was just so much work to do which I wanted to prioritise but I did get out of the office for a short walk nearly every day and found this to be very relaxing. I managed to restrict personal email checking to no more than twice a day but didn’t achieve this with work emails – that is my new goal when I go back on Monday.

As well as being a busy month, it was also pretty expensive! I’ve already posted about the wonderfully fun staycation that we enjoyed at the end of October. In addition, I had a lot of car expenses after popping a tyre and paying the annual insurance renewal.

Overall my assets have increased by £3k to £402k (no thanks to the markets!) and my liabilities have remained largely the same at £170k giving me a slightly higher net worth of £232k an increase of just 1.3%. This has been my first experience of significant volatility in the markets and so far I’m still happy with my investments. It was disappointing to see them dip but as I don’t have large amounts invested yet I haven’t seen any huge downswings which I assume is more nerve wracking! On that note, I’m off to make my monthly ISA and SIPP investments!