We are now, somehow, at the end of the month and it is time for me to look back at the goals I set and reflect on how I have done. Three of them were financial goals and very much in line with my debt free journey. The fourth was a more personal goal, though just as important in ensuring I can maintain motivation and positivity! So did I achieve my goals for July 2018?

My goals for July 2018 were as follows:

• Save £500 for my emergency fund
• Put £1000 into debt payments
• Find one new income method
• Take time to nurture my mental health

Let’s look at my financial goals first. I wanted to save my £500 emergency fund and pay £1000 to debt. To put it simply, I haven’t completed either of these, however I am not disappointed. My emergency fund is now sitting at a total of £298.17 and will increase again this week. My debt has gone down by £321.97 and will drop a bit further before the month is out.

You might say this is a failure, I’m no where near either of my goals! I am however, £620.14 closer to my goal of becoming debt free and counting. I’ll take that!

Income has been a tricky one for me this month as I have been working so hard to ensure my freelancing work increases again after an incredibly quiet June. (It’s getting there but I would still like to see some improvement). New income streams are still something I am keen to discover though and I do have something particular in mind. All going well that will be in place in the next week or so and then I can tell you about it in August!

As for looking after my mental health, I feel like I have done quite a good job with this in July. When I have found stress building I have taken the time to pause from work for a second and step outside. One morning I took my cup of tea outside and just sat in silence listening to the birds and that was really therapeutic. I wrote a blog post on debt and mental health on Monday talking about the importance of…well, talking.

You’d think having only really achieved one out of my four goals that I would be a bit lack-luster. I am actually feeling really motivated for August now! I have still made progress and now I know what I am capable of I think I can manage even more in the next few weeks.

I’ll be setting my goals for August next week so keep an eye out for that post!