How many of us were expecting to end February with a huge amount of snow? Not me! I'd rather assumed it would have warmed up a bit by now. But I really like snow, and I'm fortunate to be allowed to work from home by my boss, so I quite liked looking out the window and seeing the snow settle.

The arrival of March also means it's time to review my February goals. Sadly I started doing this last weekend and realised how many I'd forgotten about! After the lovely week off for Christmas I had loads of energy in January. But my long commute has sapped a lot of that and I found February to be quite tiring. 

February results;

Health

- Reduce portion sizes for dinner < I think I did quite well with this! Can still be difficult with pasta though, but generally I've found that I'm feeling full but not stuffed after dinner, so that's working.

- Only eat crisps at work < I thought I would struggle with this, but I only failed twice! So will maintain this in March.

- Exercise video once a week < I completely failed at this, I didn't even do one video this month DX But I did improve my walking so I did get some extra exercise.

- Take a vitamin c and d every day < I failed at this too, I remember to take these about once a week DX Might start leaving them on my desk at work to see if I remember to take them at lunch.

Other

- Print off wedding photos for frame and hang it up < This was carried over from January and this time I got it done! My husband has put the frame up at the top of the stairs, so I get a lovely reminder of our wedding day every time I go up and down the stairs.

- Sort & photograph wedding china < I did the cake stands, milk jugs and sugar bowls and listed them on Facebook. Not sold much so far but at least I've started!

- Sort out all the used stamps and send them to a place that buys them < Going to donate the money to my favourite charity, the MND Association < I emailed the guy who buys them and got signed up, so I haven't sent anything yet but I will next month!

- Buy a tumble dryer < Another month has passed without me sorting this out DX It would have really helped with the snow this week!

- Comment on one blog post a day < I only remembered to do this occasionally, but it encouraged me to read and retweet more blog posts, so I'll try to continue this next month.

- Update car log book with married name and address < Ooops....

As you can see, a limited amount of success. I do find my memory gets worse when I'm tired, but I won't be able to take any time off work until the end of April, so I might have to get in to the habit of reading my March list every other day to remind myself of what I need to do!

Speaking of my March list...ta da!

Health

- Continue with exercise video once a week < I didn't even start this last month, maybe I should change this to something more sustainable XD

- Work days = 9k steps, home days = 5k steps < I've been testing this out last month with some success, just a case of motivating myself when I'm at home!

- Reduce biscuit eating to once a week < Eating sweet foods at work has been sneaking back up again so I really must stick to this!

Other

- Sell the wedding china! < I've started this, need to photograph the teacups next!

- Buy shelving for the bathroom, plus a paper shredder and extension cords < These are little bits that we need around the house so getting them done this month will be good.

- Sort out the garage < Our vendors left a load of rubbish behind so we really need to clear it out!

- Update car log book with married name and address < Carried forward from February

- Sort out all the used stamps and send them to a place that buys them < Going to donate the money to my favourite charity, the MND Association < Carried forward from February

- Buy a tumble dryer < I've been trying to do this since September, will March finally be the month it gets done?

I might stick the "no biscuits" thing to my computer screen at work to stop me feeling tempted XD Hope you all have a lovely productive March!

Review: Carluccio's in Colchester

In January I spotted a voucher mentioned in the Money Saving Expert news letter - buy one main course and get a second for £1 at Carluccio's. I'd recently spotted a Carluccio's tucked away in the corner of the top floor in Fenwick's in Colchester, so this seemed like the ideal time to have a discounted lunch date with my husband! 

We booked ahead and I was very glad we did as the space was quite small. We saw several people get turned away as they didn't have a reservation and all the remaining tables were booked up. Despite it being busy the service was still very good and we order drinks while we browsed the menu. Well, I should say while my husband browsed the menu - I'd already looked at it several times on Friday night and decided what I wanted XD

For a drink my husband had a very odd "Rosemary water", which I'd never seen before. It's sparkling water infused with rosemary, and came with a sprig of the herb in the glass. I had a little sniff at the bottle and smell was overwhelming, but my husband said it was very nice. 

For starters I ordered the garlic bread. This was possibly the best garlic bread I've had in years. The bread was a freshly made focaccia, with a lovely garlic butter melted on top, and then placed on a grill to give a fabulous chargrilled taste. I'd already told my husband to have half of it, as I don't like filling up on starters, but I seriously regretted saying that after finishing off my piece XD My husband had calamari, which he said was very nice and came with a little pot of sauce and a slice of lemon.

My main was a spaghetti carbonara. This was the key reason why I was so happy at getting the voucher, I'd been wanting a proper Italian carbonara for weeks. It was as good as I had hoped, although I thought there was a bit too much parsley on top. But apart from that it was lovely, the pancetta had a wonderfully strong taste and there was just the right amount of sauce to cover the spaghetti. Husband went for the Penne Giardiniera, which was large penne with courgette, chili and garlic, with crispy spinach balls on top. It genuinely wasn't something I thought he would pick as he's not a huge fan of spinach, but he said it was delicious and he was very happy with his choice.

The only problem I had was that at the end of my very large bowl of pasta I had no room for dessert! I had sacrificed half my starter to no avail. I'd already seen someone's tiramisu go by (husband thought my reaction was hilarious) and had been determined to order one myself, but there was no way I could fit a dessert in to my full tummy. 

2018 Goals - February

Did January seem to stretch on endlessly? Judging by my Twitter dashboard and I'm going to say that answer is - yes! But we're now in to February and in the back garden the crocuses are starting to come up. It's still very cold but now we know that spring is on it's way.

Because it's February I can now review my goals from January and tell you all about my aims for the new month! I was actually quite impressed with everything I managed to tick off last month, only one thing needs to be carried forward!

So my results for January were;

Health
- Drink 2 litres of water a day < Not quite there yet but I'm definitely getting a lot better at drinking more.
- Reduce biscuit eating to twice a week < Was doing really well on this and then fallen off the wagon this week, but again I'm improving.
- Take a vitamin c every day. < This is the bit I have real problems remembering, even though I keep the bottle on my bedside table 

Other
- Open an ISA (future house move funds). < Opened and first payment made!
- Open an easy access savings account for car and holiday savings, and a fixed rate savings account as a future maternity fund. < Did both of these! The rear tyre replacement meant that I didn't pay anything in to the car fund this month, but I did make a holiday saving payment, and paid £150 in to the maternity fund. I also opened another easy access account for an emergency pot and shoved £1000 in there so it's out the way.
- Print off wedding photos for a frame we got as a wedding gift, and hang it up. < This is the one thing I didn't do, DH needs to pick a photo of me as part of it, and I need to decide what other family ones to print off. It's on the list for February.
- Sort out all the filing for bill paperwork. < Done, although when sorting through some papers the other I found another few bills so I need to file those.
- Buy a blind for the living room. < Did this right at the end of the month, Blinds2Go had 5% off on the one we wanted so we saved a few pennies. It should look really nice when it arrives!

Phew, what a list! As you can see the only thing that didn't get completed was the wedding photos. I'm especially excited about the blind as our living room is south facing. It gets lovely and warm but the sun really gets in my eyes when I'm on the sofa. I've been planning on buying a blind for months so getting it done at last is a big relief!

And I'm now all nicely set up for February;

Health
- Reduce portion sizes for dinner
- Only eat crisps at work < Going to really struggle with this DX
- Exercise video once a week < Going to struggle with this too
- Take a vitamin c and d every day

Other
- Print off wedding photos for frame and hang it up
- Sort & photograph wedding china < Can then start selling some of it!
- Sort out all the used stamps and send them to a place that buys them < Going to donate the money to my favourite charity, the MND Association
- Buy a tumble dryer
- Comment on one blog post a day
- Update car log book with married name and address

I think that's all quite enough to be getting on with for the time being, what are your aims for February?

2018 Goals - January

Happy 2018 everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are enjoying the New Year. Last year I didn't come up with any particular targets in my life. I'd just bought a house and was due to get married so that seemed like enough to be getting on with at the time!

But this year me and my husband are now settled in at our house and we don't have any big life events planned for 2018. So this seemed like the ideal time to come up with some things to do throughout the year.

Health, finances and the house are the key areas that I've planning on working on.

My overall aims for 2018 are;

- Lose a stone in weight.
- Generally improve my health overall.
- Overpay £1000.
- Get my savings back under control.
- Improve the house by decorating/completing rooms/tidying it up all the little bits that get forgotten about.
- Find a new job with a shorter commute.

I've split some of these down in to smaller targets month to month. I think a lot of the problems people have with resolutions is that they try to make lots of big changes all at once.

The health ones for example are going to be a series of small changes to make all year round that will hopefully help me lose weight, and improve my health.

After working out my plans for the next couple of months, I've now set myself some specific goals for January and that should put me in the right frame of mind for the rest of the year.

Health
- Drink 2 litres of water a day (I've downloaded an app called Plant Nanny, which you use to track how much you've drunk and grows a little digital plant for you XD).
- Reduce biscuit eating to twice a week (this has really become a problem at work as we're constantly buying biscuits for the office).
- Take a vitamin c every day (DH does this already).

Other
- Open an ISA (future house move funds).
- Open an easy access savings account for car and holiday savings, and a fixed rate savings account as a future maternity fund.
- Print off wedding photos for a frame we got as a wedding gift, and hang it up.
- Sort out all the filing for bill paperwork.
- Buy a blind for the living room.

Half the time I delay things because getting them set up is a nuisance. If I sort out specific areas now then it should be easier to continue with them in the future.

Have you come up with some goals for your 2018?