So I'm going to be honest, I didn't do as well this quarter as I had hoped. If imI honest the start of this year has been a lot more stressful then I was expecting and some other things have had to take priority. That being said, I still have reaching my goals a good go and I still have the rest of the year to make up for where I feel back.
Minimising
This is one area where I have actually done pretty well on. If you follow my blog you'll know that I've been working on a version of Pick Up Limes '30 Days to Minimalism'. Through that I've managed to reduce my items from what would have been three car loads to what would now fit in one. And I haven't stopped there, if I'm no longer using an item anymore or no longer feel an attachment to it it goes into the donation pile to be given away when there's enough items.
I have also reduced my purchasing whilst making sure I actively use the items and products that I have. One of the positives has been realising the number of books I had which I hadn't actually read, making me realise I really needed to put time aside each day to read. I've really been enjoying this and it has been great to have this little 'me time'. Whilst I don't think I will ever go back to having the amount I had, having a small studio flat has definitely helped me keep my things at a minimum.
Healthy Eating
Now this is an area in which I've really struggled. As I said before, this quarter has been quite a stressful three months and I am someone who does still do a little bit of comfort eating (not going to lie about that). I also find that when I'm stressed I find it a lot more difficult to make the healthy choices that I should. I'm still drinking fizzy juice pretty regularly, but I have managed to reduce the amount of chocolate, biscuits, and ice cream I eat pretty significantly. As ice cream tends to be my go to when I'm upset and am a little proud of myself for that. I have also managed to make most of my meals from scratch, which has been much healthier and cost effective and has meant that I've already started on the next stage.
So what's next for this goal. I haven't done as well with reducing the processed sugar in my diet as much as I had hoped, but there's still time and I will keep working on that for the next few months. As I've already started cooking from scratch most of my meals I'm going to take that even further and only allow myself one processed meal a week. I don't have a fridge or a freezer at the moment and I don't know if that's going to be a hindrance or a help. I guess we'll just see what happens.
Finances
I done a good job at making a budget and roughly keeping to it. This is still a learning curve for me and so I've had to tweak it here and there to make it more realistic to what i actually need. But it has been a good way of learning where I overspend unnecessarily and where I can and need to reduce.
The main issue I've had has not been starting the job I'm going to be doing for the rest of the year and so not having a realistic idea of how much money I am going to have. Because of that I've been concentrating on the essentials and reducing costs where I can. Once I have a better idea of what my income will be and what I can do with the rest of my money. The next stage for me is to start working on my whole budget with a realistic income in place and start the process of researching the best pension scheme to be on for my age and income.
So, I haven't managed to reach all my goals for this quarter, but I have still managed to give them a good go despite everything else that has been happening and I'm going to give myself points for that. It is also only just the beginning and I have time to catch up. Things should hopefully settle down a little bit more now, giving me more time and energy to put towards completing these goals this year.
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