Friday Five: 17/01/20

In these (semi-regular) posts, I share five things.

Loves, hates, ideas I’m pondering, places I’m supporting, whatever.

Here we go:

EXERCISE I’M DOING:

My husband bought me a FitBit for Christmas (at my request) so that I could aim to walk 10,000 steps per day. It’s been a real eye opener how much time and intention it takes to meet that goal, which I’ve done every day apart from one (yay!). Honestly, if we didn’t have the pup who gets three walks a day, I really dread to think how sedentary I would be. Or phrased differently, how sedentary I was before September 2019 when I made the decision to get outdoors and walk every day.

I’m also surprised by how obedient I am being to the FitBit’s demands. I get the notifications saying I need to stand up and move to reach the 250 steps per hour for however many hours a day, and I jump right up and walk around.

This is yet another example of tricking my obliger self into meeting internal expectations by making them feel external. I do this with my writing too, and I’ll blog on this topic in the coming week or two.

HABIT I’M BUILDING:

I’ve decided that this year I’ll blog on here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It’s a nice rhythm and I’m enjoying mapping out blog topics in advance. If there’s anything you’d like me to cover, you can contact me and let me know.

HABIT I’M NOT BUILDING:

Planning for lunch! Why does it surprise me that I need to eat lunch every day?!

I really need to get organised with some go-to lunch options so I don’t end up having to buy lunch each day. And judging by the tin of soup that’s sat on my desk all week and failed to tempt me, soup isn’t the answer.

EXPENSES I’M CUTTING:

I cancelled my Kindle Unlimited membership this month. It’s something like £8 a month which seems insignificant, but these monthly subscriptions can really add up over time.

I wasn’t using the membership. Some people have Kindle Unlimited and make sure they read only (or primarily) books enrolled in KU, but I’ve never been that price conscious when it comes to books. I also still prefer to read paperback.

NEW THING I’VE TRIED:

I’ve talked about financial independence on here before and will keep talking about that journey, and this week I made my grand debut with investments! I bought my first index funds using Vanguard and am slightly obsessed with logging in to their dashboard to see how much my net worth has changed. I’m up 0.83% today!

That’s all for now!