Looking Back On January | 2017 Goals

In collaboration

January was both a brilliant month but also a traumatic and sad one. Not only did I celebrate the birth of my daughter but I also lost my Dad who passed away after a short illness. January has been a tough month to try and get my head around and I’ve been burying my head in my work (I decided not to take maternity leave as it wasn’t financially viable for my family) around the times when Olivia sleeps.

I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at January and see how I am doing in terms of my 2017 goals. So how am I getting on?

My blogging goals were to achieve a better balance, relaunch Keene On Saving, guest post on 5-10 blogs in 2017, stick to my guns more, focus on my YouTube and Instagram and to complete more blogging e-courses and projects. So far I am still struggling to find that balance (but that’s understandable after the events of the past month), I have slightly relaunched KOS but not completely, haven’t started any guest posts, am getting there with sticking to my guns but could definitely be more firm, have totally neglected my YouTube but am getting better with Instagram and have signed up to a few courses – not too bad, eh?

Freelancing wise, I wanted to pick up some more long term clients, get back to using my work website and get a staff writing job for another blog. I haven’t yet picked up any more long term clients but I have been working for someone for a month or two now and it is going great, I am very happy. I haven’t touched my work website yet and have applied for a few staff writing jobs so far but not many – and heard nothing back as yet.

Health and fitness wise, I wanted to lose the baby weight and get back into exercising. I am only three weeks post partum so haven’t really done any exercise yet but I did lose 13lb in two weeks after having Olivia..although I did put 2lb back on this week (but it was my birthday so it’s allowed, right?).

Personally I wanted to enter more writing competitions and complete my GoodReads challenge. I haven’t entered any as yet and haven’t even completed one book towards my challenge yet with everything that has been going on…eek!

Finally, my financial goals. I want to get debt free or as close to debt free as possible in 2017. I managed to clear a few things at the end of 2016 and am planning to clear two more within the first few days of February. I’ve also been in contact in regards to any other debts and have arranged something with them – but am also planning to pay them down aggressively once these two are out of the way. We also aren’t sure where we stand with inheritances at the moment (due to a few family deaths in recent months) so we are paying down a specific amount each month (and any extra we can) but we may be able to pay them off – we don’t want to rely on ‘what if’ money though. I will be keeping an eye on my credit score using a free credit score website such as http://www.mycreditmonitor.co.uk as those debts make their way off my score – I’m feeling so positive that 2017 is going to be the year we get there or almost there, I’m so excited!

I also wanted to increase my income and declutter/minimalise the amount of stuff we have in the house. Income wise, January has been quite good and I hope this continues into the rest of 2017 – it has been tough working around everything that has been going on but it has been a welcome distraction and has definitely helped us out a lot this month with Steve obviously being off work for paternity leave. I’ve also been decluttering loads and have tons of stuff up for sale on selling apps and local Facebook groups – although I must remember to bump them up!

All in all, January has been a crazy whirlwind of a month. It has had some major ups with the birth of Olivia and a great income month but also of course some major downs. Here’s hoping the other months won’t be as bonkers!