Tenner Week January 2023: Day 2
It’s Day Two of the latest Tenner Week budgeting challenge. How are you doing today?
Our general theme for the January 2023 challenge is simple daily ideas and activities to help with stress reduction, and today’s activity is called ‘Make a note‘.
Many people find writing things down, keeping a diary or journaling to be a great help when they’re feeling stressed, or wanting to look after their mental health. All you have to do today is put about 10 minutes aside to write down any of the following:
- Anything you’re worried or upset about
- Thoughts you’re finding in your head a lot lately
- Things you feel grateful about, or that went well (it doesn’t have to be negative)
- Hopes, fears, dreams, or plans for the near or far future
You don’t need to use a special diary, and it’s better for most people to use a relatively simple notebook that doesn’t have dates in it. You can add dates as you go along, if you like. You could also use an app on your phone or tablet, if you’d find that easier. Just remember your journal is for your eyes only, and it’s not meant to be shared.
If you decide to write down anything about your worries or fears, after the ten minutes of writing are up then take a break and do something else for a few minutes. You can come back to it later with a bit more perspective and decide where or not your fears are all likely to come true. Often we worry about things that do not come to pass, or are nowhere near as bad as we’d imagined, so challenge anything that feels unrealistic afterwards. If there’s anything genuinely serious, think about how you might be able to take some positive action.
For more information and ideas about journaling, have a look at:
- How to start journaling for mental health at Psychologies Magazine
- Could keeping a journal help your mental health? at Patient Info
What’s happening here
After spending £9.00 on an exercise class yesterday because I’d already committed to it as part of my other January mini-resolutions, I’m now looking at a £1 personal/discretionary spending budget for the rest of the week. By the way, if you’ve already done a block booking for a term of exercise classes or have a gym membership then definitely make the most of what you already have there, and don’t waste it.
Meanwhile, £1 isn’t going to get me far and I’m hanging on to it just in case of emergencies. Really small emergencies, obviously. Joking aside, the plan is to have a no-spend day today, and ideally to carry on like that until the weekend.
I’ve put pasta on the menu tonight, mainly because I have a red pepper at the bottom of the fridge drawer that needs using up soonish, and there’s a pot of leftover veggie ragu sauce kicking around in the freezer I can add to it. Plus it’s good to have something quick and unfussy to throw together as we approach midweek, a hearty bowlful of goodness to fill us up during this current cold snap.
This evening’s plans are to catch up on some recorded TV shows, including The Last of Us. I’ll probably be watching that one from behind a cushion and dreaming about being chased by very fast zombies after that. Eeek!
Total spent so far this week: £9.00.
How’s your budget looking right now? The end of January is always a bit tough, isn’t it?
