January 2017 Challenges

Happy New Year everyone! It is the New Year, with all that new year new me sort of thing! I would rather not fall into that sort of thing but there are many things that I want to accomplish this year and January is just the start, so why not make them a series of challenges and have a follow up on them at the end of January?

£100 Food budget for January

The very first thing for this month is the food budget. Over Christmas the budget managed to stay low, mainly due to the fact that we were away in Florida until the 19th of December, you can check out our vlog and hauls of the holiday on Youtube.

Although we kept our budget low our cupboards, fridge and freezers are at bursting point! Due to our reduction shelf raids on Christmas Eve and Degustabox, both of which can also be found on Youtube, shopping apps, such as Checkoutsmart, Shopmium (if you join using this code KHEMYGGZ then you will get a free Lindt reindeer on your shopmium), we have meaning we get items for a reduced rate or for free, and of course the Christmas leftovers.

This month we plan keep to our budget and even beat it. £100 has been withdrawn from the bank, this makes it so much easier to keep track of how much has been spent. The only products that will be bought are going to be fresh products such as fruit, vegetables, milk and bread. The true part of the challenge is that we have spoilt cats.

De-clutter Challenge

Even before December my wife and I both realised we need to de-clutter more items from our house, this is even more the case now. We are struggling to even remember where some things are. Most of this is due to not having finished unpacking and finishing rooms in the house, so it does feel at the moment that nothing has a set place at all and even that it doesn't even fully feel like home yet.

There are plenty of challenges out there for de-cluttering but my wife and I are going to do a simple variation in which we will de-clutter 500 items. This is how many you would end up de-cluttering with the #minsgame but we find that we can't stick to the limit for each day.

Improving our Health

During the summer and Autumn of 2016 my wife and I both agreed that we wanted to get fitter for Florida, as such we rejoined the gym, went out for walks most days and made better food choices. This helped our fitness in Florida to no end (it was still tiring days though but still fun), and even though we was still on holiday we chose healthier options, and realised that it is ok to not eat everything on the plate as the portion sizes are huge! We still felt guilty though maybe it is a British thing?

We are both aiming to continue with getting fitter and healthier during the new year, a hard thing to do in the cold of winter when all you want is comfort food under a blanket! During the Florida holiday, Emma got into Pokemon Go and has several times wanted to go for walks due to this game, this is something nice that we can do together, and maybe sometime we can fight over the local Pokemon gym (we are on different teams Mystic and Valour).

We still have our gym memberships and are both going to continue with going at least twice a week. During the summer I saw one of the staff and he put me on a exercise regime for when I come to the gym, so hopefully the month out has altered me too much that I can't continue effectively with this.

We are also doing a Diet Bet.

House to Home

Earlier I spoke about how our house doesn't yet feel like home, and we have set January as our deadline for finishing off everything in the house to make it home!

There are many varied things that we need to do to get this house to the way that we want it. Pictures need to be hung up, we need a carpet for the eBay room, shelves need to be put up, we still have a few boxes that need to be unpacked, our spare room has no curtains or even a pole for curtains (good thing we haven't had guests stay over yet) and I need to build our other wardrobe, this is a few of the things we still need to do.

Our main areas of the house such as the living room, dining room and kitchen are near enough done, they were the priority to get sorted when we moved, however that means that our personal offices (one of the reasons we went for the house) have been neglected a little and are as such a main priority for us to get finished and sorted. After all how are you meant to work effectively when you are surrounded by mess or things that need to be put in place?

The de-clutter challenge is also going to help with this by removing all the things we don't need or want anymore, making things easier and nicer for us.

The Blog

Over the last year I have kind of neglected my blog, not posting much and focusing more on Emma's blog, housework and other activities. Back in September I attended the Show me the Money Bloggers Conference (Shomo) with my wife, who was also one of the speakers during the event, and I was re-inspired by the people and energy of the place.

My wife and I both agreed though that I could most likely not do much until the new year, and especially when we moved home, I really showed off my organisation skills, muscles and energy during this time to Emma who was quite impressed (she was ill and busy with her blog as well so can imagine).

The new year is here and so I will be focusing a lot more on my blog. I am aiming to have at least one post a week up, which I will increase in a month or so. So I hope that you will all look forward to the new content on the blog soon.

I will be doing a conclusion to this post at the end of the month to tell you all on how successful we have been this month with our various challenges and things to accomplish.

Does anyone have their own goals for January? Or does hiding under a blanket count?