November Letter 2024

Fancy a clearing-saving-money-creation challenge in time for Christmas?

No escaping it now, the Christmas songs, the ads, the thinking about ordering a turkey. But also, in the current clime, the worrying about affordability.

We don’t do Christmas gifts for adults in our family anymore, a ‘rule’ introduced several years ago (non-enforceable between couples). Small and his cousins don’t need new toys either. But they want things. Even though we set a strict £30 per child limit, factor in extra food, heating, trips or additional holiday activities (small loves Glow Wild at Wakehurst), and the costs can quickly mount. Which can be extremely stressful at a time of year when incessant jollity is the societal expectation.

Besides, being excessively in debt is a horrible way to start any New Year.

In this spirit I’ve devised a November challenge to make saving for Christmas ‘fun’ with some clearing thrown in for good measure… admittedly perhaps this is only my kind of ‘fun’ but what have you got to lose? Only stuff you don’t need, that someone else might really love, and you could save a minimum of £496 to treat yourself to something properly experientially fabulous come December — theatre tickets; some cashmere; a quick nip across the channel to a Winter Market? Who knows.

Here’s how it works…

1. Download the Daily Checklist for Saving Money

2. On the 1st November, put aside £1; £2 on the 2nd; £3 on the 3rd and so on. The easiest way to do this is to have an online savings account linked to your current account and then you can swipe it across each day. I suggest this because the small sums might be straight forward to pop in a jar as coins, but when you get to £12 on Day 12, your resolve might falter.

3. But, alongside the saving, I want you to find one thing to clear (aka giveaway, recycle or donate elsewhere) on Day 1, two things on Day 2, three things on Day 3, all the way through to 31 things on Day 31! I will be doing it alongside you, and you can follow my progress on my Instagram Stories. Check also my previous #lessisnow Instagram Highlight for when I did this in February.

4. And then we go extra… of the things you are clearing, are any of them saleable? While the majority of things are probably destined for recycling or charity donation, in the first week of the challenge could you list one thing to sell on Day 1, two things on Day 2, etc etc. It might not always be possible, or you might list a whole heap of stuff on Day 5, it doesn't really matter. On the checklist, you’ll see there’s a box to tick each day if you manage it. And as we head into the second week, the line changes to ‘Sold Something?’ which if yes, then you add that bounty into your Balance line.

5. Heading into week three-ish, we’re back listing things to sell but then I also invite you to consider where you might deliberately not spend, as this all counts. The un-bought lipstick, magazine, or new sweater; the item returned; the discount earned. It all counts, so add those savings into the kitty too.

6. By the end of the month, if you managed the straight saving swipes alone, when you deposit £31 on Day 31, you will have stashed away an incredible £496! But maybe you could make that with the selling and un-spending alone, or double it? So, challenge accepted?

7. Below I’ve added the link to a previous post about money because we don’t talk about it enough, and we should… ways to be thrifty, to live with less and jettison excess, to rent rather than buy, and to save energy and unnecessary expense, are important, not because it’s ‘fashionable’ or ‘eco’ but because watch-the-pennies-and-the-pounds-will-take-care-of-themselves is a homily that works.

And now a quick word about water…

I’ve written before about the importance of hydration, suggesting that six glasses of clean filtered water a day should be our minimum. And in trying to concertedly do this myself last month, it was clear how hard it can be! Especially when considering that tea, coffee or any other beverage does not count, and that alcohol (alongside tea and coffee), are actually diuretic, so they dehydrate you.

But I’m mentioning it because I read recently that you only need be 1% dehydrated to experience a 5% decrease in cognitive function — think depression, sleep issues, brain fog and afternoon fatigue. And 2% dehydration reduces aerobic performance by upto 10%.

PS If you’re thirsty, you’re already mildly dehydrated, and that can cause headaches, fatigue, dizziness and more.

Dehydration (alongside heightened levels of stress) is also a primary precursor to an overly acidic state of being, but because our bodies cannot exist in a state of acidity (blood ph. needs to be mildly alkaline), excess acid is sometimes ‘buffered’ by pulling minerals from our blood and bones. But if this happens a lot, it can lead to mineral deficiencies and most notably for women, a risk of osteoporosis. While our kidneys do most of this work automatically (maintaining our acid/alkaline balance), the goal is to avoid undue strain on any one organ. Healthy hydration is therefore the go-to to give our kidneys their best shot at doing their job. in fact, to give all our organs a lift.

So, here’s a Daily Water Tracker for you to download to chart your intake per day! The idea is to do it just long enough to establish regularly refilling your glass as a healthy habit, then you don’t need to keep a check. One glass by your bed for first thing in the morning is a great way to start!

And finally…

I just started reading Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty, Australian author of Big Little Lies and Apples Never Fall, both of which have been televised (and now I’ll have to watch). The premise is, if you were told the time and manner of your death, does that make it inevitable? What role does fate, choice and self-determination play?

Also binge watched both The Perfect Couple on Netflix (was late to this!) and Ludwig, the BBC series starring David Mitchell as a introverted puzzle-setting genius doubling as his police detective identical twin brother, when the latter goes missing.

Now trying to resist Series 2 on Netflix of Manifest, which I chanced upon by random — a series about the passengers of a plane that sets off as normal but unbeknownst to them lands five years later (yep, they time-travelled!), and now some of them seem able to predict the future, or can they?