January 2020 Recap

I started 2020 with some lofty (but manageable) goals – read about them in depth here.

1. Money – Read about this more in depth here
Debt Paid: In January 2020 – I paid $2,023.00 toward debt, with $700.00 of that being toward my car loan.

Car loan is down to $4,400.00

Budget: I stuck with my budget – except I did realize that my grocery budget was too low. By not eating at restaurants as much, I DEF had to increase my grocery budget for February, so I increased it to $75.00 per week. I also wanted to eat out more than I budgeted for, so to appease my cravings AND still stick to my budget, I forced myself to pay for my extra meals out from my “travel” savings account.
Also – not drinking alcohol helped me save a lot more than I normally would have.

Starbucks Budget: Stuck to it and made it to the end of January only having spent $5.09, which is actually under my $7.70 budget for the month!

Income: I managed to finish out the month with a total of just over $150.00 in sales of clothing and jewelry. This will be applied toward my February payments toward my car loan.

2. Health/Fitness
Alcohol: I managed to finish “Dry January” with a total of only 4 alcoholic beverages. As I wrote before – this is a DRASTIC improvement on previous months (I had months with 50+ drinks in past) and a good exercise in self control.
Diet: Less alcohol meant good things for my diet – though I did notice an increased sugar craving, as a byproduct. My diet wasn’t as great as I might have wanted it to be – but it wasn’t bad. With that, I am taking 40 days to “focus” on my diet and attempt to stay within/count my Macros.

Exercise: I was fairly consistent in January – making sure to do 30 minutes (or more) of movement each day. I typically even did more than that – but I didn’t want to set myself up for failure.

I ended the month about 4lbs lighter than I started – which is fine with me.

3. Blogging
Consistency: Really I have just been trying to be consistent, over anything else. I know that in the past I have let my blog come and go – but I want to see if I can create content on a regular schedule.

Letting my opinions be known: I enjoy having a space to let out my thoughts and feelings. I enjoy sharing the things that I love, or that I feel are helpful in my life. It’s fun and challenging to make my thoughts come to life, and in a way that is meaningful to others, not just myself.

Lessons learned:
1. I am somehow now mildly allergic to shrimp. This has been a fun (not) lesson to learn but alas – I must now take this into consideration. Though frustrating (and deeply saddening) I am glad to have pin pointed the one (of many) causes of my stomach pains and bloating.

2. I am not a morning person – but I can get up in the morning. I don’t think I’d call myself a morning person by any stretch of the imagination – but I do know now that I can get up and be productive. I can set the tone of my day and I DESERVE the time I set aside for myself. I got up every weekday at 6:15am!

Places Traveled:
None – BUT I am planning and saving for a few little in-country trips in March 2020 with my man friend, who will be coming to visit from Scotland – So January and February are the preparation stages for that!