End of May Review.

[sweetpumkinpye]

Did we even have May, where did it go? I think despite how quickly it went I managed to do all I wanted with the 5th month of the year.

What worked for me this month?

CHRISTMAS/Holidays

• Continued with plans for Christmas and holidays for the next few months. I am working on CIJ plans both for here at home and here at MHH as part of our CIJ celebrations.
• Continued buying ingredients for baking and for meals around Christmas/Summer. Added a CIJ lunch to the mix so will need to think about what I would like to do for that day. I have some ideas and will share the meal with the guest so should be OK.
• Continued looking for stocking fillers as I like to get these out of the way early. Did some shopping with Mum and a few things for both stockings and gifts. Overall quite pleased with how the gift closet is looking at this stage. I could probably ease off a bit and still be OK.
• In May we celebrated both Mother's Day and Mum's birthday. DD, Mum and I had a nice lunch for Mum and her gifts were well received. I got a fire pit and some workshirts for Mother's Day and they will be very handy.

PERSONALLY

• This year one of my goals is to stay connected to family and friends. With people being busy I have taken to writing reminders in my diary to contact people. Got together with former co workers for our bi monthly lunch, it was the first one without our 4th member but it was a lovely day. Had a meal with DSIL parents, they are lovely and it is always nice to catch up with them and chat about our lives.
• Mum and I got together a few times, made some plans and had a few shopping days together.
• Did not catch up with DS as much as I would have liked, he is busy in his new job and settling in well
• Continued Winter prep. This month I worked on the kitchen, laundry and outside and the house is now cleaned and ready for Winter. Will do some maintenance over the next few months and then start HGP in September which is Spring for us.
• I rejoined DrillDance as a judge and have started some online learning to continue with that also did some pre course study for a first aid course for work.
• Continued meal planning and my 5 chores a week. This is so beneficial to me. Keeps the house ticking over and means that nothing gets too out of hand. Had a house inspection and the estate agent said that the house is perfect so a nice thing. The meal prep and freezer cooking was so handy when I worked more than usual through May.
• Booked accommodation for a trip to Sydney for DD, Mum and I for November, need to look at the train timetable and book that soon.
• Applied for some holidays from work for October and December.

What did not work for me?

• Weight control/exercise/diet.
• I put on again this month, too much snacking, eating incorrectly and lack of exercise are the reasons. Feeling a little disappointed about it all but I am the only one that can improve it, it is up to me.
• Finances. Money was OK this month. I worked extra for 2 weeks so the extra income certainly helped. Last month I trialed readjusting my budget so that what is left over after my main shop I can then use for a top up at another supermarket the following week. This means I can have the same amount in the budget but spread it over the whole fortnight. I continued with this and it is working well. I completed a no spend week in May and this was a great success. I did plan by making sure there was enough milk and petrol but besides that I only spent $7 on parking for work and $300 on a car service that was booked in and had no choice about. I plan to do another no spend week in June.
• Procrastination Nothing changed here but I do want to get things started with selling things. I did however decide on my major project for the Winter, I will be sorting through my family history research and tidying it all up.

Cannot believe that we are into the 6th month of the year!! A lot of nice things happening over the next few months and towards the end of the year.