January Goals Update

I set myself some goals for January, which you may be familiar with if you read my New Years Resolution post. My goals were;

• Dry January
• No Takeaway in January
• Not Allowed to Buy Any Clothes, Products or Accessories (other than essentials, i.e. deodorant etc.)

I wanted to follow up at the end of the month with January goals update on how well, or not, I had done with these goals.

Dry January

Dry January was something I wanted to take part in for several reasons; the health benefits of not consuming alcohol, the reduction of sugar which I would have been consuming in alcoholic drinks and the cost saving. Both Andrew and I decided this would be our goal for the month, and we’ve both achieved it! There have been some evenings during the month, particularly a Friday or Saturday night, where I would have quite enjoyed a glass of wine with my dinner, but we abstained. When we went out for dinner, it seemed strange not ordering a bottle of wine, but the nice surprise came at the end of the meal when the bill was a lot cheaper than it would have been usually, as well as being able to drive home, rather than having to pay for taxis.

Over the four weeks, I’ve actually lost 4lbs, which I think is due to the drinking ban. You’ll see an update on food below, but regardless of healthy meals, we haven’t been strict with treats, and I’ve had a few evenings of cookies and milk!

No Takeaways

Andrew and I have at least one takeaway per week, which is usually an Indian. We had fallen into having more than one per week in the run up to Christmas, so we decided it would be good for us to cook healthy meals, as well as saving a lot of money, as we usually spend around £18 per takeaway, so at least £72 per month, which over a year is £864; shocking!!! These figures are also considering one takeaway a week, not the two we had been having. Up until last week we had been sticking to this, despite me saying to Andrew every other night, “should we just get a curry?”, he definitely has more will power than I do. I was loaded with cold and decided the only thing that would help me would be an Indian curry, purely for medicinal purposes, obviously! We said this would be a one off, but last Friday we went to Newcastle unexpectedly at 19:30, having had no food, and arrived at 9pm, we ended up stopping for a takeaway again. I must admit, I didn’t really enjoy it.

I’ve felt a lot better eating healthy food, a lot of the recipes we’ve cooked have been from Joe Wicks Lean in 15 cookbook, and the fact these don’t take an age to make, has made it a lot easier to stick with. We’re both tired when we get in from work, and sometimes the idea of having to cook a meal just isn’t as tempting as ordering takeaway.

Spending Ban

For Christmas, I asked for a lot of products, so I really didn’t need any skincare or makeup products throughout January, however, this never usually stops me! I also decided that unless I lost some weight, I wasn’t going to buy any new clothes. I thought I’d struggle with this goal, but I haven’t bought any products I’ve bought some cuticle sticks and acetone to remove my acrylics, rather than pay for infills (another money saving decision), which I used my Boots points to pay with, the same which I did with my deodorant and face cloths that I bought from Boots. I do have a £15 voucher for Cult Beauty that has to be used by midnight today, so I’m struggling a bit to lose out on that… I think I will probably use it though.

I have ordered a pair of trainers on payday, which was Friday, so I guess I haven’t been successful with the clothing buying ban.

I also decided to stop with the acrylic nails, which I was spending around £40 per month on, which if I kept up all year would equate to £480; ridiculous!

I’m going to keep trying to save money wherever I can over the coming months, as it’s one of my overall resolutions for the year. I’ve actually cancelled my gym membership, as I’m not using it enough to justify the £53 per month I’ve been paying for the last two years. I’m also going to try cutting out some of the treats, as I’m pleased with the weight I’ve lost this month already.

How are you getting on with your New Year’s Resolutions?

Lauren xx