Happy New Year everyone! Hoping you all had a lovely break and feel refreshed in the beginning of 2023.

We had a wonderful week camping with our friends and got home yesterday. We are still very tired but are slowly getting back into the swing of things - I did two loads of washing today, got some groceries, caught up on the blogs and thought about the things I want to achieve for the year ahead, which are as follows:

• continue reworking the budget. We have two insurance policies to review and hopefully reduce to ensure that we’re not getting overcharged 

• reinstate some old spending habits and adjust them to inflation, as follows:
• Groceries:  our grocery bill for the week has always been $170 per week and we have kept it the same consistently. With the price increases of supermarket goods this is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and we are having to resort to not having certain things or brands. I checked on the inflation calculator what $170 worth of groceries in 2016 and it is now $185 per week so I’m going to increase our budget for groceries to $185 per week now. 
• Wine:  one of my favourite things and I have got into the habit of buying more than usual, or more expensive wines than usual. I probably spend about $30 per week however many years ago it would only be $15 per week, and I would only buy 2 bottles per week. $15 in 2016 is now $17 per week as per the inflation calculator, so that is what I’m going to change my spending on this per week to. 

• Set up a new business with the aim of getting an extra 6-8 hours work per week.  My bookkeeping business is super hard to get off the ground because it is so highly regulated (as well as competitive) and I have found that it’s not a worthwhile part time business. It is a worthwhile full time business but it is a nightmare getting the experience required signed off to become registered, and you can’t trade without being registered so it is not worth my time. The course I did enabled me to move across industries into a bookkeeping job, so I’m happy with that. The two clients I have are winding down so the business is organically closing down and I’m not moving forward with it anymore.   I’m really grateful to work 30 hours per week in my job and because of the travel won’t be increasing my hours with my work.  
  But an idea has come up where I can get an extra 6-8 hours per week. One thing about my work is pretty much everyone has a side hustle - one girl has two businesses! I noticed that the wives and partners of the owners’ sons each have very small businesses. One has candles and room diffusers, another has aromatherapy oils, and another wants to start up a drop shipping business (we do drop ship some of our products that are bulky, so it is not a new concept). The thing is though that I think they do this because they all have kids and don’t want to have businesses that are too big or time consuming. Which is the the same as me! (Not the having kids part, but wanting to create something small). I think it would be great to get another 6-8 hours work to boost my income to what it previously was, without having to look for a second job.  My thoughts are that I want to sell a small range of products to keep the business small and I have found a Chinese supplier that will sell to consumers and the cost is low enough that I can add on 30% to cover costs/ add profit, so in theory this should work. I think that doing this will also add value to my current job because I will gain more knowledge in profit margins relative to retail industries (my work is in retail). Anyway I will let you know how this goes in due course!

• I have realised that I’m ready to start working out again, so a non financial goal is to work out 3 times per week and will be setting up the gym room today (it currently has a lot of stuff in it that needs to be put away to create some space).  I haven’t worked out since the start of last year because of the energy involved with looking after a new puppy, moving house and adjusting to working extra hours, but now feel rested enough to bring exercise back into my life. 

That’s all my goals for 2023! Maybe next year I’ll have some savings goals too, but right now this is enough for me.