We are already half way (and a bit) through October so I thought this would be a good time to check up on my progress with the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the month. I often find that if I don’t remind myself of them regularly I can lose my focus. I’m going to be checking in with you around mid month from now to help me stay on track. Here is my goals update for October 2018.

Buy all my Christmas gifts:

As of yet I have not purchased anything. What I have done however, is choose several of the gifts I’m planning to buy. Not only this, but I think I have found a couple of affordable options too! I have four people to buy for this year thanks to Secret Santa plans. Better not share any details in case nosey eyes find them of course.

To keep things organised I’ve set up a new folder in my bookmarks. I’m saving all relevant links to gifts in there. I think I’ll be buying everything online, for ease and because I am more likely to find a good deal that way. It also means that if I am unable to afford all of the gifts this month for whatever reason, they are easy to find as soon as I have the funds to buy them.

Continue with “no spend days”:

We are now on day seventeen of the month and I have so far managed 12 no spend days. Considering we have had several evenings of drinking, eating out, a few trips to the shops and so on, I’m really pleased with that. We are going away with family for five days shortly. We are staying in a cottage in the country and plan to cook several meals ourselves. Thankfully I’m not too worried about spending a lot of money and ruining my good streak.

Clear £500 of my second credit card:

On the very first day of the month I put £200 straight over to my credit card. It felt so good to clear such a big chunk in one go! Since then my income has been focused directly at my loan payments. Now that they are made I am able to return my attention to the card and should be able to hit my goal within the next week. As long as plenty of invoices make it out the door of course.

It’s so exciting to be making such good progress. If you read my post about paying off my first credit card you will know how happy I am to be heading towards clearing my second and final card. You can read that post here.

Save half of my tax payment:

Whilst this is the last goal in my list, it is an important one. My tax payment is due at the end of January and so I only have a couple of months left to prepare this. If you read my goals post you will know that I have been so focused on my debt payments over the last few months I forgot to prepare for the end of the financial year.

Knowing that November and December are often quiet months for my income, most of the saving needed to be done in October. As of today I have managed to save £350, so I’m getting on really well. Ideally I’d like to put £500 away in preparation. If work continues steadily I will manage this no problem. I’ve spoken before about the impact stress around debt can have on my mental health. This will really put my mind at ease!

I’m actually really chuffed with my progress so far. A few focused days of work and time spent on careful gift planning this week and I’ll be well on my to hitting my goals before the 31st. How are you getting on with your goals? Let me know in the comments and be sure to join in with the linky myself and Charlotte host!