My 15 Minutes Of Fame…Now What?

Last week was super exciting. Having been given the title of PromotionalCodes’ Saver of The Year, I was featured in three newspapers (okay, four, but one of them misquoted me to an embarrassing extent so I’m going to pretend it doesn’t exist) and was invited onto BBC Radio Manchester’s drive time show for a chat! I was so nervous when sat in the studio that I had to hold my glass of water with two hands because I was shaking that much. I also kind of admitted live on air to taking a hip flask out with me. Classy.

Although I only really started this whole adventure in September, since then I’ve been working tirelessly to save as much money as I can towards my first home while also trying to create a blog that I’m proud of. Funnily enough, a couple of weeks ago I was starting to question what I want to achieve with this blog and whether I’ll ever get to a point where I’ll think “I’ve reached a blogging milestone here.” I’ve spent so many evenings and so many weekends writing blog posts and reading other peoples’ blogs, that I got to a stage where I thought “at what point am I going to give myself a break?”

So as you can imagine, suddenly winning an award for my saving efforts, seeing a sudden surge in press coverage, being allowed to talk rubbish on live radio, and watching my blog viewer count sky rocket felt bloody amazing.

Now though, even after a mad few days, I’m kind of sat here thinking “What now?” I’m now wondering what my next milestones will be! What else would I like to achieve saving and blogging-wise this year?

In February I managed to save £6,000 in six months, but, almost two months later, it’s certainly not going to be a case of £8,000 in eight months when payday comes around. I guess I was saving at a rate that was just not sustainable, particularly when I’m hoping to go on holiday this summer.

However, I do believe in the power of setting yourself a challenge, and so I’m going to be brave and aim to save £10,000 by September. If I succeed I’ve decided that I’m going to write an e-book sharing my experience and tips. I just like the idea of saying “Check out my book on Amazon!” And “I wrote a book, you know!” If I don’t reach my target, I’ll probably drown my sorrows and splash all the cash I’ve saved so far on fast cars and fast men. Just kidding.

I’ve only just started to use eBay, and so I’m hoping that if I work really hard to get rid of old clothes on that, I should see a boost in my savings.

I’m also going to have to be careful to cut back on everyday spending even further. If you’ve read my blog before, you probably will have seen me talking about the importance of cutting back on unnecessary impulse purchases. However, over the last month or so, even I’ve found myself giving into Twirl temptation in Tesco and drinking far more cans of Diet Coke each day than is healthy. If I ween myself off the stuff, that’s more money in my savings pot!

So that’s the money side of things covered, what about blogging?

I suppose my next blogging milestone is to go self-hosted. I’d like to have better control over how my blog looks and be able to install plug ins etc. I’ve been putting this off for a while due to having too much on, but now I feel like I’m at a point where I have a bit of time to get started. I think I’m a bit scared that I’ll get half way through the process of switching and will mess it up somehow. But I can do this!! Look out for lots of terrified tweets as it all goes wrong.

Although I blog for the love of it and because I like to talk a lot, it’d be great if I could eventually find a way to make a bit of extra pocket money through my blog. I guess this should be my main big blogging milestone of the year, but I know that it might be a long way off yet.

Did you reach a blogging or saving milestone recently? Or maybe you’ve just set yourself some challenges for the year ahead. I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.