Hmm, it seems I've not updated my list of reading since November. I haven't stopped reading, although I do seem to have slowed down a bit after my initial flush of enthusiasm. 

It's a bit of an odd (and not very long) list this time, a combination of Christmas presents, a library book, and a charity shop find. I've not felt that inspired by any of them really, for different reasons, and I think I need a good long trip to the main city library to shake me up a bit. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. So, what I've been reading since November... 

The Year of Living Danishly (Helen Russell) 
This was a Christmas present, and a fairly jolly quick read, although I did get quite irritated by the author's magaziney style, emphasising how odd everything was (when really it wasn't). It did make me think a lot about being outdoors more . Not one to add to my list of favourites though. 

Flight Behaviour (Barbara Kingsolver)
Another Christmas present, and one I already have a copy of, although it's buried deep in the cellar and has been for some time. I love reading the same books over and over, and this is on my list of favourites (although not as much as some of her other books). I love losing myself in the story of someone else's life, and this is a vivid portrait of stuckness and spreading of wings that pulls me in every time. 

Jazz (Toni Morrison) 
This I found in a charity shop for 50p, and it's sat on a shelf for several months before migrating to the side of the bed. I read a paragraph or two then fall asleep with my face in the pages. It's not gripping me - I do want to get to the end but I have to keep going back to the beginning to make sense of what happened as I was falling asleep. 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen Covey)
I wasn't sure whether to include this on the list as it doesn't really feel like the type of book you put on a list of books you've read... But it's a book, and I've read it, so here it is. As it happens, I've read it before, possibly more than once. I love the idea of being 'highly effective' (whatever that means), and one of my shameful secrets is this type of 'do this and your life will be great' book. There's a bit too much of an air of smugness about this for my liking, but there are some good suggestions - being proactive, differentiating between what is urgent and what is important (and making sure you do more of the important stuff), and 'sharpening the saw' (taking time to step back and renew your strength, whether physically or emotionally). It's not a read-in-bed book, but it's a good one for the bathroom shelf I think. 

So there we are. Two I've read before, one I didn't enjoy very much and another I'm struggling to get past the first chapter of. I don't think I'm going to turn literary critic any time soon... 

It's been a here-and-there few weeks. Decorating, of course, and an unexpected trip to a permaculture gathering which made me think differently about a lot of things. And I've been cycling, in preparation for a 62 mile bike ride that's sneaking up on me faster than seems fair. 

I've been trying to fit more cycling into my life without taking up too much time at the weekends. Cycling to work and back is good, but the round trip is less than three miles. I've been cycling to other places too, but haven't done more than six miles in a day for months now. I keep intending to take a detour on the way home from work, but it's dark and cold, and I'm usually tired and well in need of my tea (I know, excuses!)

This week I had a brilliant idea - why not take a detour on the way to work? I don't know why it didn't occur to me before. I've been trying to limit the amount of time I spend wading through social media posts in bed in the morning, and a happy outcome of that is that I get up and about earlier - and what better to fill that time with than cycling! 

By happy chance I've stumbled on the perfect route - one I often run when I'm training for a longer race, but usually in the opposite direction. And so bright and early (well, early anyway) on Monday morning, I wrapped up and set off, whizzing down and then up along the road for the first three miles, then turning into this local Site of Special Scientific Interest. 

I love it in here. It's a valley, so the path winds upwards, but I was cycling along an old carriage track so it's relatively flat (it made up for it with mud and cobbles though). There's a steep drop to the side of the track, which looks down on a small stream running over boulders with a steep rocky path alongside it, lovely to walk but for braver cyclists than me. 

I reached the top eventually (as usual, it would have been quicker if I hadn't kept stopping to take pictures) and whizzed the final few miles downhill to work. 

Nearly ten miles done before half 9, and it was glorious to be out in the sunshine and feel I'd done something weekendy before work. It's amazing what a difference it makes when you feel like the day isn't just work and dark. I'd not do it on a day I had an early meeting, but I'm normally pretty flexible about what time I start, and I was at my desk and ready by 9.30 which is no worse than usual. 

This is definitely going to be a regular feature of my week, even when the ludicrous bike race is a distant memory... 

No, this was not my lunch on the last day of January (although I did add these sorry looking vegetables to a tasty stew - no food waste on my watch!) Actually we felt remarkably un-deprived during Uber Frugal January. Would you like to see how we did? 

The plan
In this post I outlined what we wanted to achieve: 

• saving as much as we can towards moving expenses so we don't have to add them to the mortgage and pay interest on them
• dropping some spendy habits and cultivating some cheerful non-spendy ones

I planned to eliminate all spending on taxis, clothes, takeaways and books, and to think carefully about what I spent on food and socialising, and to see where else we could make savings. 

The results

Tea and cake (just me and my friends, not Peter)
Spent in December: £44
Average monthly spend over last year: £45
January spend: £24.95

Clothes (just me)
Spent in December: £0
Average monthly spend over last year £27
January spend: £0

Travel (taxis, bus fares, not things that can be claimed back, just me)
Spent in December: £23
Average monthly spend over last year: £21
January spend: £0

'Other' (a dangerous category... this is my personal 'unnecessary' spends)
Spent in December: £52
Average monthly spend over last year £89 (crikey!)
January spend: £9.43

Joint treats budget (covers both of us for takeaways, breakfast at the farm etc)
Spent in December: £71
Average monthly spend over last year £76
January spend: £24.26

That's £199.01 right there over the monthly averages. Goodness me. We spent roughly £120 on food, when we normally spend around £160-180, so altogether Uber Frugal January saved us around £250. Gosh. 

How did we do it? 
Clearly we'd drifted into quite spendy habits, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to save that much. Here are the main things we did differently this month. 

Meal planning
We made a meal plan and a shopping list every week, and stuck to both. We've never done this before but both quite enjoyed the lack of decision making on week nights. I took lunch and snacks to work every day, and anywhere else I went. I didn't buy a single bar of chocolate, cup of tea or any kind of snack while out and about by myself. We had no takeaways at all. I did a lot of baking. Read more about our food planning here. 

Cycling everywhere
​I started cycling to work, and other places, which I wrote about here. I normally walk to work, so in itself that didn't save anything, but because I already had my bike, I cycled to places I would normally have got the bus to, or a taxi, and even one or two places I would have driven. It already feels easier to get up those hills. The other advantage of cycling is that it's not as easy to wander idly into a shop for a treat or 'something for tea'. I've not bought a single thing on the way to or from work all month. 

Avoiding charity shops
I never thought of myself as a 'leisure shopper' but charity shops are, it seems, the source of a lot of my discretionary spending. We have a lot round here, and I've often just wandered in on the way past, looking for nothing-in-particular, and coming out with a book, or a candle, or a new skirt. Fifty pence here, two pounds there, it all adds up. We went in one that had a 'fill a bag for £5' sale and were sorely tempted, but decided there was nothing that we truly wanted, so left empty handed. 

Making different choices
Sometimes we did spend money. I met friends in cafes, and a pub, and we bought beer and the occasional treat to take to someone's house (although I tried to make treats when possible). I wrote here how I just had tea, rather than tea and cake, or had tea and cake rather than lunch. That made quite a bit of difference too. 

What happens next? 
We were both surprised at just how much we managed to save, and we plan to continue many of our new (or rather old) habits into February. However, we will likely relax a few things. We've missed going to the farm for brunch at the weekend. I hate to admit it, but we've even missed the odd takeaway. And I'm not promising I'll never go in another charity shop (although I'll certainly be more mindful at what I come out with). 

But we'll certainly keep meal planning, and doing one weekly shop rather than endless 'picking something up for tea'. I'll continue taking food and flasks of tea everywhere, and baking our own treats. 

We've enjoyed Uber Frugal January, although it's difficult not to berate myself for just how spendy I've been (and yes, the main culprit is me - Peter barely spends anything). I'm almost inclined to plan to do it every few months just to keep spendy habits in check...