What’s behind the advent calendar doors today? A quick look into the future.

In 2012 there will be all kinds of interesting things coming up on the site, and you’re all welcome to join in. First of all, I’ll be shunning those unattainable New Year resolutions (too much pressure) and filling January with daily ‘microresolutions’ – that’s doing one simple, easy thing every day to improve personal finances and/or quality of life. It’s called Jump Start January and it’s going to be happening on pennygolightly.com and The Lean Times websites, along with anyone else who wants to give it a go. More details to come after Christmas, and if you’re a Twitter user please keep an eye out for the #JSJan hashtag.

Meanwhile, in the last few years the cost of living has risen quite dramatically, but wages haven’t kept pace with this. If you’ve always been reasonably good at finding deals, budgeting and keeping the bills down then you’re probably already finding that there isn’t much left to pare back any more. The squeeze is on. One option for many of us hoping to maintain our standard of living is to earn an extra few quid here and there outside the day job, so with that in mind The Extra, Extra project begins in the first week of January. Watch out for that over in the Features area of the site where you can track my personal progress.

Finally a quick reminder. In February, if you’re within reach of London and hoping to grow your own veggies and herbs in a small space (allotment, garden, window box, windowsill) there’s My Seedy Valentine, an event where you can swap seeds with other gardeners. Most packets of seeds are far too big for a small growing space, so this allows people to buy fewer packets and swap anything surplus for free  to get more variety into their plot. Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll email you the location nearer the time.