I’m not entirely sure when it’s deemed socially unacceptable to cheerily greet someone with ‘Happy New Year’ but it’s still only the second week of January and I want to keep saying it. I hope you’ve all settled in to 2018 better than I have because after the calm of Christmas, it felt like a whirlwind trying to get back into the swing of things. This week I mixed up PE kit with school uniform (husband’s fault really) so had to rush back home like a mad woman to pick up the correct attire, I also forgot to make an important phone call which had been booked in from last year and then to top it all off, left my purse on the counter at the station after buying my ticket (luckily the lovely staff kept it for me until I returned). Fortunately for me it all worked out, but it did get my heart rate going at one hundred miles an hour unnecessarily.

It was also back to work for many of us. This week I was co-presenting the live programme of The Martin Lewis Money Show, so I was grateful to pick up some money saving tips as we start the New Year counting what’s left after the Christmas break. Whether it’s water, gas or broadband it’s sometimes worth making that switch to save a few pennies and as Martin also said to me, just because something has been reduced to £30 after being £100, it’s not a bargain if you don’t need it (never a truer word spoken in jest!). So, with his words rattling through my head, Michael and I headed to the obligatory sales as you do at the beginning of the year, to see what we could find….and really needed. We bought a couple of bits and spent the vouchers we had received for Christmas and by lunchtime had little energy left to carry on.

Anyway, I now feel like I’ve done my bit for the beginning of January and am slowly getting into my stride for this year and do you know what, before we all know it we’ll be in the shops looking for Valentine’s Day cards (that’s if you get drawn in to another commercial entrapment!). Come on 2018, we are ready for you!