1. MAINTAIN £1,000 EMERGENCY FUND IN PREMIUM BONDS

For the first time ever, I've had a full year without having to touch my emergency fund (thank goodness, and touch wood). By keeping my EF in Premium Bonds, it's been harder to access, so I've not been tempted to spend it, and anything that has needed an urgent payment, I've been able to use my other sinking funds then top them up. I've not had much in winnings, only £50 but that has been re-invested so my current emergency fund sits at £1,050. The goal for the year is to maintain this, and if I do need it, then to top it back up again straight away,

2. OVERPAY THE MORTGAGE £100 PER MONTH

This is again a continuation from next year! As mentioned last year, I know this is technically not the best thing to be doing whilst paying off consumer debt, however with a renewal due in October and being so close to the next LTV stage, we thought it was for the best. We've done a year of £100 per month overpayments so far, and it's helped me feel much better about the mortgage and the upcoming renewal. We currently have 38ish years left on the mortgage and continuing to pay £100 a month will save £64k and be mortgage free 7 years early. The long-term aim is to be mortgage free by 50 which gives us 20 years to clear debts and overpay as much as possible after this point!

3. CLEAR TWO DEBTS

In total, we go into 2025 with four 0% credit cards and two cars on PCP contracts (with balloon payments due this year). We haven't counted the cars towards the debt total but this will be added as some point as the plan is for us to both keep the cars and put the balloon payments on 0% credit cards. The aim this year is to clear two of the smallest debts which are:

• Barclaycard | Holidays we probably shouldn't have booked - £3,970
• Santander | Bathrooms from the house we moved out of almost 2 years ago, yikes - £5,415

4. MINIMUM £10K TO DEBT

This is another that we had last year and we managed to hit this goal! It was very close, and hard to hit which is why we are not pushing this goal higher (although we will work to pay as much as possible off anyway). If things go to plan, we should hit £10k paid by October, so it gives us a couple of months playroom as things always crop up in the year! 

5. 200 'NO SPEND DAYS'

This one is new! I managed 190 no spend days last year, so I'm upping the milestone slightly to 200! This is only 10 extra days to last year, so if I manage to do 10 more at an average of £5 per day, it's an extra £50 saved/extra on the debt. I'm feeling pretty confident about this one. I have set myself some rules about what I am allowing and not. Food/bills/anything specifically budgeted for do not count, coffees/takeaways/new clothes/lunches out at work etc all count towards spend days.

I'm feeling confident, and I'm not going to lie, slightly excited at the prospect of this year financially! To follow the journey, head over to my instagram for more frequent content!