I hope that whoever takes the time to read this final personal challenges update had an amazing Christmas. I know that it’s not quite the end of December, but as I’m aiming to share my 2021 review post with you tomorrow, I thought I’d publish this post a day early.

This month, what I describe as my blogging mojo has unfortunately been a little up and down. I wrote myself a list of ‘blogging goals’ for the Christmas period, but after experiencing some quite severe migraines – I blame the uncertainty we all experienced in the lead up to Christmas – I’ve been spending the majority of my annual leave away from my personal laptop. Fingers crossed my blogging mojo returns and my migraines stay away in the New Year.

If you read the three personal challenge posts I published at the beginning of the year, you’ll be aware that I set myself some money-saving challenges for 2021.

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If you haven’t read these posts, please check them out; Challenge 1 | Challenge 2 | Challenge 3

Challenge 1: Will I be able to get through the year without buying any new clothes and shoes?

It feels like I tried my best to fail this challenge, however, events outside of my control prevented me from spending any money on new clothes. I should probably be grateful to Mountain Warehouse for my failed spending attempt. I’ve always struggled to find coats that are long enough for me so when I saw that a lot of the members of a ‘tall clothes recommendations group’ I’m a member of on Facebook were recommending a Mountain Warehouse jacket in the sale, I decided to treat myself. I need a new jacket for parkrun volunteering and thought this looked perfect.

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Two weeks after I ordered myself a jacket, I received an automated email from Mountain Warehouse apologising for the delay. A week later I received an email informing me that my order had been cancelled, and that I’d receive a refund as the jacket I’d ordered was no longer available. Not a problem but I did feel quite frustrated when I looked on Mountain Warehouse and could see that the jacket was still for sale but at a vastly inflated price almost three times the amount I’d paid. Although I eventually got my money back, I don’t think I’d attempt to order anything from Mountain Warehouse again.

Challenge 2: Can this shopaholic get through the year without entering any races and without buying any more running clothes?

Last month, I made what turned out to be a slightly premature observation. I noted that the combination of my ongoing knee niggles, parkrun, and the Autumn Miles for Mind mileage target I’d set myself meant that the race and medal #FOMO stayed away. However, once I received my Autumn Miles for Mind and my replacement virtual Boston Marathon medals, I decided that I wanted to enter a couple of virtual events.

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After successfully walking 100 km between the start of December and Christmas Day for the Run up to Christmas virtual event, I entered the Runuary and the Miles for Mind February virtual events. I’ve set myself a target of walking 100 miles in January and February and hope that the weather stays mild, that my knee niggles don’t turn into injuries, and that I’m able to continue with my daily walks around Four Oaks and Saturday morning strolls around the Sutton Park parkrun course.

I’m aware that I’m repeating myself, but I’ve always found the second part of this challenge more difficult than the first. I almost treated myself to some shorts and trainers in the sales, but I managed to leave my credit card in my purse. I was given a Lululemon gift card for Christmas so I’m going to see if I can find some shorts with pockets to replace the pair of shorts I’ve quite literally worn out.

Challenge 3: Can I make £2021 in 2021 through a selection of side hustles and other sources of income such as cashback websites?

And finally, how much money did I manage to make through my various side hustles and other sources of income? Was December more successful than the previous four months? Was Prolific Academic prolific? As in previous months, I’ve listed each side-hustle and source of income separately. 

Selected side hustles

• Prolific Academic surveys – £64.68
• eBay sales – £0.00
• Facebook Marketplace sales – £0.00
• Sponsored blog posts – £0.00

 Other sources of income

• Overtime at work – £0.00
• Share dividends – £189.75
• Interest from bank accounts – £0.61
• TopCashback cashback – £11.94
• Vouchers from points and gift cards – £0.00
• Competition wins – £0.00
• Freebies – £25.00
• Roadkill finds – £2.13
• Random – £2.80

December total: £296.91

Final 2021 total: £3439.21

December was a positive month, and I met the more challenging target for 2021 I set myself a few months ago.

The targets I set myself for December were in theory both straightforward and achievable. I started the month with the aim of completing £20 worth of studies on Prolific Academic and of selling at least 20 items on eBay and on Facebook selling pages. Unfortunately, my what I call my selling motivation completely deserted me again and I didn’t want to risk any sales taking ages to arrive, so I stayed away from eBay and Facebook.

Prolific Academic was what I can only describe as incredibly prolific. December didn’t get off to the most positive of starts when a researcher instantly rejected my submission, fortunately, the appeal I submitted was successful. I ended up completing 32 studies during December and these combined with the studies I’d completed the previous month contributed £64.68 to the December total.

As for my other sources of income, I’ve said it before but without my share dividends, I would have struggled to meet my target for the month. I’m not looking forward to selling my shares in the New Year. Interest from my bank accounts added £0.61 to the December total and as I helped my friend with his online Christmas shopping – he let me use my TopCashback account – I was able to cash out £11.94 from TopCashback. I added the value of the products I was sent to review to the ‘freebies’ category and managed to rescue £2.13 worth of ‘roadkill’ during my walks around Four Oaks.

And what about the all-important ‘random’ category? I’m still without a car so I continued with my fortnightly Ocado deliveries and returned £2.80 worth of carrier bags. I considered adding the value of the M&S Light up Snow Globe I received for free with one of my Ocado orders, but I decided not to.

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Now that I’ve reviewed the final month of 2021, it’s time for me to look ahead to 2022.

Although I’ve enjoyed writing and sharing these update posts, I’ve decided that this will be the final personal challenges update post. My personal goals for 2022 include getting through the year without buying any new clothes and shoes, not buying any more running clothes, and making £2022 through selected side hustles and other sources of income.

And finally, I hope that you enjoyed reading these monthly updates as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. Thanks again for all of your support throughout the year 🙂

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