Planning for 2026: Home Improvements, Money Goals and How Last Year Went

We’re going to ignore the fact that we’re already a month down on the year. But as it’s a brand new year I’ve been planning my 2026 goals. I love looking at what I want to achieve for the year ahead, even if it doesn’t always go to plan.

Before I look at my goals for 2026 I wanted to reflect on my goals from last year. Did they go to plan or did they fall by the wayside when Scarlett came along.

Reflecting on my 2025 goals

I had four key home goals for last year and I’m happy to say we achieved them.

The first was to finish up our utility renovation which is complete. There will always be little extras to do but that’s part and parcel of having a house.

The big one for the year was our garden log cabin project. We had the concrete base down in Jan/ Feb 2025 and the whole thing built and kitted out before Scarlett arrived. Again there will always be more storage we add or general decor but it’s such a great useable space. I like having a dedicated workout space, although I have only just started using it. And it’s great for storage, and for taking my blog photos.

Next up was our electric fireplace installation. The fireplace was installed in May and all the finishing touches were done later in the year and it’s such a great addition. Then finally we wanted to get the upstairs back windows replaced. This happened right at the start of the year and it’s made such a big difference. We even managed to get our big living room bay window changed in 2025 which was an extra.

Money goals from last year

Our money goals were slightly less successful than our home ones.

The one we did fully tick off was saving £5,000 into a sinking pot. I didn’t share what this was for when the post went out but this was a baby fund so we could buy everything we needed and cover Luke for being off work when Scarlett was first born.

Our next goal was to increase our emergency fund by £1,000. We definitely added to it, but we didn’t quite manage this much. Then finally we wanted to reduce or pay off our solar loan, we made a few payments but didn’t manage to clear this off, but it’s a top goal for 2026.

Thinking ahead to 2026

Previously I’ve discussed my home and money goals, but for this year I’m also going to touch on some others like fitness and reading.

Like always I’m trying to be realistic, and it’s not going to be possible to do everything, but we’ll see how it goes.

Home goals for 2026

I have six core home related goals which I’d love to get done in 2026.

Replace our dining room and downstairs loo windows

The next windows we want to replace are two in our dining room alongside our downstairs loo. Once these are done it will just be two bedrooms upstairs left to go which isn’t bad going.

Finish painting our log cabin

We still need to paint the door and window surrounds of our cabin. When it first went up it was too rainy and cold to be painting, and then Scarlett came so it’s just been pushed aside. So as soon as the weather gets nicer I’d love to get this done so it looks neater from the outside.

Replace my office door (and paint the inside)

Originally there was no door to my office as it’s through an archway at the end of our kitchen. Luke made a temporary door but I want to get one properly cut to size so it looks like it’s meant to be.

And I’d love to get the side in my office painted the same pink that I have on one of my walls.

Get a quote for our extension

We’re hoping to have a small extension in 2027 so we want to get some people out to quote for the work. We’ve done a mock up online and have a rough idea, but we want to talk through all the ideas and finishes so we know what the damage will be.

Get a new unit for our kitchen

Now we have all the basics in our house we want to optimise the space. We have a TV in our kitchen diner which is never used, so we’d like to remove that and use the space for some additional storage.

We’ve not found exactly what we’re after yet and it may mean some DIY. But we’d love to do this in 2026.

Do at least a partial garden renovation

Then the biggest one will be some work in our garden. We know we won’t be able to get the whole lot done (due to finances), but we’d like to get it into a better state so Scarlett can enjoy the summer outside.

Money goals for 2026

I have six core financial goals which I would absolutely love to hit. Most of them are reasonably realistic, but I would be surprised if I ticked off all six.

Save for nursery

Our funding doesn’t come in until September, but Scarlett starts nursery from 1st June for two days a week. So we need to save a few thousand pounds to cover for this gap before our funding starts. Once our funding hits we’ll only be paying consumables all year (as ours splits the 30 hours funding across the year).

Pay off our solar and other smaller loan

We have a few smaller loans (one to family and one to a bank). They’re not too high, but I’d like to clear both of them off so they’re done and dusted. The smaller one especially as it charges us interest, but the family one as well as I hate owing people money.

Pay off our larger loan

We have one slightly larger loan which covered for Luke’s work van and our solar battery etc. It takes a good chunk out of our money every month so I’d love to be able to clear this all off, or at least make a big payment off it.

Fully fund our cruise fund

We’re going on our first family holiday in October with Scarlett for a short week long cruise. We’re saving every month for this (and to cover Luke being off work/ cattery fees etc), and I’d love to have this fully funded by September so nothing has to be paid back.

Save 20k towards our 2027 extension

For our small extension we will remortgage, but I want to save some of the money ourselves. This figure may seem huge but I’m dreaming big and keeping everything crossed. This would make a huge difference to the overall costs.

Reading goals for 2026

I set reading goals for myself every year, but I know in 2026 it’s likely I won’t be reading as much. Scarlett will be getting bigger and napping less, and I’ll be going back to work. But I’m still hoping to hit 75 books. This may be super unrealistic, but I’m keeping everything crossed. Of these I’ve set about 30 books I really want to get to, so hopefully I can tick those off.

My biggest issue with my TBR is that I have a lot of series’ I’m in the middle of (40+). And that’s just when the next book is out already. So I want to get this under 25 by the end of the year and tick off some series that I know I love.

The final main reading goal is I want to read at least 10 books across mystery, thriller and horror as they’re genres I don’t read as much. Most of my reading is romance, fantasy or lit fic, so it would be good to mix things up a bit.

Fitness and other goals for 2026

I’ve just started exercising again (very slowly) and I want to get back into my Peloton classes as I really enjoy them. While I’d love to be back to working out 4 times a week like I was pre-pregnancy this doesn’t feel realistic. So I want to aim for eight active days a month. This could be one class in a day or three, but it works out at just twice a week which feels more achievable.

I’m focusing more on fitness, but I would still like to lose a bit of weight. Again there’s no point saying I want to lose half my body weight or anything as I’d be setting myself up to fail. Over the whole year I’d like to lose two stone. To me that feels like a good dent without pushing myself.

Other goals

1. I am doing my version of project pan as I have way too much stuff. I’ve got an inventory of everything I own and I’d love to use up at least 75 things from my stash.
2. My lego botanicals stash went up over Christmas and my birthday and I’d like to build all the pieces I currently have. For botanicals I now have five pieces (plus a few non botanicals).
3. I want to see Cabaret at the theatre while Matt Willis is playing the MC. He’s performing from now until sometime in May/ June.

What are some of your goals for 2026?