January 2016 Progress Report

At the end of every month I sit down to crunch the numbers on my budget.

I trawl through every expense for the month, looking at whether it was necessary or not. I look for ways that I can reduce or eliminate each expense for the following month.

In doing so I not only remain intimately familiar with my income and expenditure, but my budget becomes ever more accurate each month.

As a result, I’ve found managing my finances ever easier – and it’s a process I plan to continue into the future.

This year, however, I want to take things up a notch.

For the first time ever on this blog I’ve revealed my own personal goals.

At the end of each month, therefore, I plan to produce a monthly round-up post that will comprise two distinct elements…

Goals Update

One realization I had recently was that many personal finance blogs forget about the “personal” element. As bloggers we’re perfectly happy to talk about other people, but far less confident talking about ourselves.

I want to change that.

By clearly revealing my personal finance goals, and then updating you regularly throughout the year, you’ll be able to learn from my mistakes. And hopefully, you’ll look forward to checking in each month to see how progress is developing.

To that end, what happened with my goals this month?

Project 10K

In order to hit £10,000 of savings in a single year, I’ll need to average savings of £833 per month. That’s a lot of money to me.

Worse, there are some months where this is likely to be far more difficult. For example when it’s Christmas shopping time, or if/when I head off on vacation this summer.

What this means is that I want to get as far ahead as I possibly can with this goal, in order to provide a little breathing room later on in the year if I need it.

I certainly don’t want to be playing catch-up all year long!

Fortunately, January has been a good month.

We had loads of food left over from Christmas so grocery shopping was almost non-existent. I also received a number of checks for money earned from my websites, and I got a bonus at work.

Things won’t always be so easy, that’s for sure, but January has started with a bang. By the end of the month I was able to put a total of £1,450 into savings – putting me well ahead of where I need to be.

Don’t worry though; I won’t be slacking off! January may have been great, but it truly was a one-off month where everything came together. Next month I expect saving to be roughly half that so I still need to keep pushing hard if I’m to hit my target…

Start A New Blog

My second goal for this year is to start a new blog. In reality, I have an old, unloved blog from years ago. It hasn’t been updated or added to in over 5 years.

My main task in January was to set myself up for success. I installed a new theme to make it look more professional, I updated all the old plugins that were out of date and I carefully checked through the old blog posts to make sure the information they contained was accurate.

With all that prep work out of the way, in February I intend to start actually producing some new posts for the blog, and to get my social media channels set up and working.

Here’s what the traffic looked like in January:

That’s a total of 483 visitors – probably half of which were me updating the site and checking that everything was working OK.

At present, the site has no monetization at all – no ads and no affiliate links – so earned zero.

In other words, I won’t be retiring any time soon on this project 😉

Newsletter Publishing

After testing out dozens of tools to help me gather, curate and create the forthcoming Frugality Magazine newsletter, I think I’ve finally hit on a tool that works.

Infact, it’s the same tool that I used to gather this month’s recommended reading (below).

I’ll be testing it out fully over the next few weeks and hope to publish the first issue of the newsletter at the end of February.

Pillar Posts

Keyword research has been done and I’ve selected three topics for detailed articles in the coming months. I’ve started work on creating the first hugely valuable personal finance post, which I hope to publish in February.

Goal Summary

So far, January has been a good start to the year. Lots of preparation is now done and I feel ready to really start digging into the nitty-gritty details of content creation and promotion. Let’s hope there are some developments to discuss at the end of next month.

Reading List

I spend a lot of time reading online. I’m active on social media, I subscribe to a ton of blogs and I can also be found on forums from time to time. That means I come across dozens of personal finance articles each month.

While I try to share these on Twitter as I find them, I’m well aware that many readers either aren’t on Twitter or, due to the nature of Twitter, don’t see every update posted.

I therefore thought it would be useful to reveal my “top 10 reads” from the last month.

The hope is that you, too, will benefit from this carefully vetted and curated list of articles that I personally have enjoyed. Rather than having to crawl through the quagmire of never-ending blog posts being published, you can instead look forward to a short list of recommended reading.

Over the last month I’ve stumbled across a ton of awesome personal finance posts. If you’re looking for some serious money-saving tips then read on for this month’s reading recommendations…

Is It Actually Cheaper to Order Everything from Amazon?
Amazon’s pretty much the go-to place for cheap gadgets, books, music, food, and just about everything else. But we wanted to see how much cheaper it really is compared to other stores. So, we tallied up a few shopping lists and compared.

Little Ways to Make Budgeting Easier
These little ways to make budgeting easier will help you figure out how you can start making the habit of managing your money a part of your real life.

Don’t Buy It, Do Without It- 4 Reasons to Challenge Yourself to Go Without
Whether it’s because you don’t have the cash, haven’t budgeted for it, or just want to simplify, doing without something you want (or even need) can be good for you (and for your kids).

How to Budget: A Step-by-Step Guide that Actually Works
Learning how to budget doesn’t have to be a chore. Take control of your money! Use this step-by-step guide to create a budget that actually works!

Pay Off Your Mortgage, Live Debt Free: How One Guy Did it in 3 Years
Thirty-year-old Sean Cooper wiped out his $255,000 mortgage in just three years by living like a pauper and working three jobs.

Secrets of ‘Supersavers’
Being a ‘supersaver’ is about having big goals, building a plan to achieve them, automating that plan, and then enjoying life with the remaining money.

30+ Ways To Save Money Each Month
Here are 30+ different ways to save money each month. If you do all of them, you may be able to save hundreds or thousands of dollars each year!

15 Smart Tips to Save Money When Eating Out
Who doesn’t love to dine out?

24 Quick Actions You Can Do Today That Can Change Your Financial Life Forever

15 Inexpensive Laundry Hacks That Will Save You Hundreds

How are your financial goals progressing so far in 2016? Please leave a comment below…