Finding New Recipes

One of the reasons we've been getting takeaway as much as we have is that I, at least, have gotten bored of the food we've been eating at home.  It's not that it's been bad food at all or that there hasn't been variety in what we've been eating, it's just that it's beginning to feel like we're eating the same stuff for a long time now.  A caveat I should probably add to this is that I don't really like cooking, especially if it takes a very long time or uses a hundred dishes.  This does limit the range of things we cook a little.

I have been looking for recipes that are vegan or at least vegetarian to add to our recipe book. However, most of the recipes I've come across seem to either be about making products that are like meat, such as burgers, or contain ingredients that are kind of pricey and aren't the easiest to find.  This is especially true of most of the vegan cook books I've looked at recently.

So, I'm going to keep searching for recipes online which are relatively quick (around 30 minutes cooking time) and simple, but hopefully lets us try different styles of food from around the world.  Most of the recipes I have come across so far have been Asian and we've been enjoying working our way through those flavours.  However, I think I'll need to do a more specific search to find vegan versions of food from other regions.  It might also be good to go back to the Redwall Cookbook to see what I can bring back from that, I seem to remember us enjoying a few of those recipes.

As well as finding more recipes I also want to see if we can incorporate eating more seasonally into our cooking.  This might be a little tricky and I have to admit I don't even really know what vegetables actually grow when, so that'll require a bit more research (I ended up finding these lovely magnets by Asking for Trouble from Etsy) but hopefully it'll just mean swapping the vegetables in the recipes.  We're doing it to be more sustainable, but I also want to do it so that we can get a better idea about what grows when in case we ever get the chance to grow our own food.  I'm also hoping we can start foraging for some of our food as well and that should give us much more of a connection to what we're eating as well.

I'm also thinking about finding a range of side dishes I can make to add a bit of variety to our lunches and which would allows us to make ourselves a sort of Budha bowl style meal.  I have to admit this might have been slightly inspired by all the kdrama we've been watching recently where they always seem to have yummy looking side dishes with the meals they eat. 

Despite how I feel about cooking I do feel that right now I might have actually given myself more work rather than the less when it comes to cooking.  However, I do think it'll be worth it in the long run as we should enjoy our food a little more and it'll stop us spending so much money on takeaways and eating out which we can then put into our savings.  It'll also teach me more about the other flavours that are out there and that should make my cooking better in the long run, especially when I'm making dishes that are basically me just winging it, which are most of them - I never was very good at following recipes. 

January 2023 Budget

It's been a pretty good start to the year when it comes to our finances.  We've still had a couple of slip ups, but nothing big and we've been able to make up for them pretty quickly.  The most important part of this month has been starting to form the habits that we're hoping to carry on for the rest of the year to reach the financial goals we have for 2023.

Our general bills did go up a little last year and we've had to take that into account along with the addition of the car payment of £220 a month.  Due to this we've decided that we do need to start being a lot stricter with our spending elsewhere - especially when it comes to our personal spending.  With that in mind we have been good with our groceries spending, keeping that in budget for the month despite including household spending and the fact that we're no longer using cash.  I think having a few months where we could only use cash broke our habit of just constantly spending on food and now we're able to keep that going whilst using our cards.  If we ever find ourselves slipping again we can always go back to cash.

We didn't do quite so well on our takeaway and eating out budget, but we pulled back on the spending in the last couple of weeks and managed to finish the month in budget.  Also, despite the amount of driving we did this month trying to see as many English Heritage properties as we could we actually managed to stay under budget for January, so the hybrid is definitely helping us save on fuel in the way we hoped it would.  It doesn't quite make up for the monthly payment we have to make for the car, but it helps pay towards it.

Even though I'm now paying less money into my pension then I did last year, taking it down to 12.5% of my pay, it's still quite a good amount and more than I originally thought it would be.  Any money going into my pension is good, especially as I recently did a calculation of how much money I would have after I retired based on what I have so far and it really wasn't good.  

As with the takeaways we did have a couple of blips with our personal spending, which is meant to be £25 each a week, but some of that was on having to get my engagement ring fixed and we also pulled that back across the month by reducing our spending later on.  So we've managed to end the month on budget with this as well.  Having the budget has been a good check every time we think about spending some money and we really think about whether we really need or want to item before we get it.  We also discuss our spending with each other a lot more, which is good as it makes me feel more like we're working towards our financial goals together now.

Lastly is our sinking funds and savings.  We were able to put in our first £75 of the year into our Christmas sinking fund and the last payment we needed to get our car repair sinking fund back up to the £500 we wanted (something we hopefully won't need to spend any time soon but good to have just in case).  We still need to work on our other sinking funds, though the sailing lessons sinking fund is on the back burner for now, and our four months savings funds but it's a start.  I'm expecting us to get better once we get more into the swing of things.

All in all, it's been a pretty good start to the year.  We didn't get as much saved as we would have liked, but this is a five week month and I'd accidentally planned for it to be a four week month so we've actually done pretty well.  We'll see how things go with February, which is actually a four week month - I've double checked.  One of the good things we found out this month is that we're not actually that bothered about not spending money on things and we do really enjoy the free activities we did throughout January.  Hopefully this is something we can carry on for the rest of the year.

Decluttering Again

We were pretty lazy over the Christmas period when it came to keeping the flat clean, tidy, and generally free of stuff to the point where it did actually get a bit out of hand.  We're finally getting back ontop of it now though, with my husband doing a good general clean and me getting back into the zone cleaning.

One of the tasks in zone cleaning is decluttering an area before you start the deep clean and usually you would only do this once you'd gotten to the specific zone.  However, I didn't want to wait before getting the cleaning done and it felt like I needed to do a much more in-depth decluttering this time round, especially after Christmas.

I know this is something I've written about many times before, but I do think this is something worth doing on a regular basis.  Especially as we tend to collect things and what we need or think we need changes over time.  For me it makes sense to have our home be in keeping with how we are now rather than how we were in the past.

So, I've been going through our kitchen cupboards, clothes, my crafting box, our camping box, etc to really work out if there's anything we're really not using now or won't be using in the near future to help keep our flat clutter free.

I do find I've become more realistic with myself every time I do these decluttering sections, which means I am able to get rid of more things each time.  It also feels right decluttering in January as there's something about the start of a new year to make you feel better about getting rid of the old.  Though the same could be said about Mondays.

Free Activities for Us

As things are going to be quite tight financially this year we've been wanting to look for free or really cheap activities we can do together to still make life enjoyable.  Thankfully most of the things we enjoy doing are actually free anyway so that should make things easier.

We have until the end of January before our English Heritage membership runs out and we're not going to renew it as it is unfortunately a little out of our budget at the moment.  So we've made a list of all the places we want to try and see before that point and it got me thinking about our National Trust membership, that's a gift so we don't need to worry about that, and we've made a list of these places as well.

We also want to go on more walks and swims this year and there are, thankfully, many of those around us.  We'll need to have a look at where we'd want to go and it'll be nice to have a selection of coastal and moor walks, as well as some historic areas as well.  The added bonus is that this will also help with our physical and mental health. 

The main costs of these trips will be fuel, but it looks like the hybrid car will be helping on that front so even though we'll be travelling more it shouldn't cost us more.

We've already started working our way through these and it's been good to get out of the flat and actually see the areas around us.  Obviously we don't want to make these a list of to dos we feel we have to get through as they're meant to be enjoyable.  It's also nice and perfectly healthy to spend a day or two doing nothing at all.  And by doing nothing I mean rearrange the flat and knitting a jumper.

Crafting 2023

This year I'm not going to give myself a set amount of projects to complete.  Partly because crafting in 2022 almost became something I felt I needed to do and I want it to remain an enjoyable hobby, and partly because I want to have more time to read more and to work towards gaining a secondary income.  So this is my list of things I'd like to do and I'll get through as many as I feel like this year.

Completion and Use Up Projects

I've already written about these in a previous blog and they're mostly little projects to finish off or fix a project I've basically already completed.  A couple are also about using up material I already have.  I've actually already finished a few of these so what I have left is:

• Fixing the jumper arm
• Resizing the hat pompom
• Changing the length of the strap on the dungarees
• Adding attachment to the top and bottom of the dungarees
• Socks for me
• Making a matching tie to my dress
• Leftover fabric top
• Crochet crop top
• Knitted /crochet strappy top

The Hobbit/ Lord of the Rings Cross- stitch - Riverdale

It's time to complete this, hopefully in the first half of the year.

Field of Fucks Cross-stitch

This is a pattern I brought a while ago off Etsy from a shop called Fandom Cross Stitchery.  I think it's hilarious and want to get it completed this year so I can finally have it up to cheer me up when I'm having a bad day.

Icelandic Jumper

At the end of last year my Mum gave me a bag of wool that she had gotten to while ago but never used.  When I saw it the mix of colours made me instantly think of Icelandic jumpers so I went searching for a pattern and found this one called Afmæli by Hélène Magnússon.  Though I vowed I would never do a colour work jumper again here I am preparing to make another one. 

The Maggie and the Coddy Jumpers

Speaking of other colour work jumpers, I would still like to do these sort of matching jumpers by Arne and Carlos from the Rowan magazine, issue 69.  I've worked out that if I buy the wool recommended, and I've decided it might actually be worth doing that at least one, I need to save up around £175 which is seven of my weekly spends so I'll bear that in mind whenever I want to buy something else.

Cut Embroidery Dress

When I was watching the Korean drama 'It's Okay To Not Be Okay' Go Mun Young wears a dress that was made of either a white cotton or linen with cut embroidery on it and it made me wonder if I could maybe make that.  I'll need to find a pattern for the dress and try and find some cut embroidery patterns to go with it, but it would be interesting to give it a go.

The Jabberwocky Embroidery

This was a Christmas present and I thought it would be interesting to try as it's been a while since I've done this type of embroidery and it is a craft I was thinking of getting back into in the future.  This is a kit made by The Fabled Thread and the colours are beautiful.

 

Ankle Trousers

I love my 1940s trousers and I wear them all the time but I do sometimes think it would be nice to have a slightly fitted pair that fall just above the ankles.  I've already found the pattern I want to use, Simplicity S9376, so if I have the time and the spare cash this would be something I'd like to make.

For most of these projects I already have the materials needed and so they shouldn't cost me anything to make.  At least not for the first half of the year.  The other items I will probably need to save up for before I can make them, but that is probably a good habit to get into anyway and should stop me from spending money on other things I don't really need or want.  Regardless, it's a good variety of crafts to keep my brain and hands happy throughout the year and I'm looking forward to it.

Goals 2023

To get straight to the point, the goals I have this year are going to be pretty much the same as the goals for last year so this it's going to be a particularly long post.  However, we are still aiming for the same long term goals and this year should see us carrying on in that same direction.

Financial Fitness

• Four months emergency funds - with the cost of living going up and the added monthly payments for the car we needed to buy our four months emergency fund has now gone up to £7500.  This is going to be a long term goal and, having looked over all our incomings and outgoings over the last year, I know we won't be able to reach this in a year.  I would like us to get a third saved in 2023. That seems more realistic.
• Sinking funds - we need to build up our original sinking funds again.  The Christmas fund has been put up to £800 this year, so we'll need to put aside £75 a month to reach that goal.  Thankfully we only have to put in £50 to get the car repair fund back up to £500 so that'll hopefully be one off the list of things I have to worry about.  I've also added surfing lessons, which we want to do two more of so need to save up £240 for that.  We did however ask for money for Christmas for that so we're almost there on that also.  The last sinking fund is for sailing lessons, which I've worked out for both of us to be around £1400.  This isn't a priority though and we'll only put money in when we can.
• Pension and personal spending - to help with out financial goals I've decided to reduce my pension payments to the recommended 12.5% of your wage.  This does mean that the payments will be about half what they use to be, but at least that means there will still be some money going in.  We've also decided to budget our own personal spending to £25 a week.  That means if we want to buy anything that is more than that we'll need to save up a few weeks before hand.
• Changing my bank account - I didn't get around to doing this last year so I want to do it this year.  I know which bank I want to move to so it's just a case of sitting down and getting it sorted.  It really shouldn't take too long.
• Secondary income - if we're going to reach our financial goals a little quicker it would help if I could get us a secondary income coming in.  Unfortunately it can't just be a case of picking up some extra hours as my responsibilities have remained the same, so it needs to be something I can fit in around the other things I do.  As I'll be spending less time crafting this year I'll hopefully be able to work out what that might be.

Learning New Skills

• Skateboarding - this is still something I want to learn to do.  It's not like I want to be able to do stunts or anything like that, I just want to be able to ride along on one comfortably.  The truth is, I'm getting in my own way here and being lazy about it, so I'm going to put in a goal of skateboarding two times a month and go from there.
• Surfing - we already have some money to take another lesson and are saving up for the second lesson this year.  My brother has also said we can borrow his surf boards whenever we want so we don't have to spend money there (though I do need to work out how we're going to attach them to our car).  After that it would just be a case of getting out and doing it on our own.
• Sailing - unfortunately I don't think we'll get round to this this year as it requires us to save up enough money to get the lessons.  However, it is something we need to do before we take this long term goal any further as we might be terrible at it.  However, if we get the opportunity we'll be there.  I do want to carry on researching boats etc as well, just so we're ready when it comes.

And that's it this year.  It doesn't really feel any different from last year, though for some reason it does feel like I'm trying to fit less in.  Hopefully that'll make them easier to achieve and I am mostly focusing on finances this year.  Wish me luck or maybe just motivation - wish me motivation.

December 2022 Budget

So this is the last blog of 2022 and it's definitely been an 'interesting' year to say the least.  I guess it's sort of fitting that my last blog is a financial one, seeing as everything has been about finances this year.  The December's budget went better than I was expecting seeing as Christmas was involved and having our Christmas sinking fund definitely helped with that.  This fund is something we'll look to build up again next year.

Apart from one week we've actually been pretty good when it came to spending on groceries and eating out.  It shows that we can do it just fine and I plan on carrying that on to next year as well.

In November we did have to do quite a bit of spending on the car which ultimately led to us having to get a new second hand car.  This time we had to get the car on finance, which we'll need to factor into our budgets over the next few years.  This month has been much better when it comes to the car and we did get our car tax for the previous car back again, which I put straight back into our car repairs sinking fund.  This month hasn't really been the best month to determine how much we're going to save on fuel with our hybrid car, so it will be interesting to see that in the future.  Another positive is that I managed to pay a full year of my pension in, the first time I've been able to do that - go me!

Our spending has also been pretty good this month, but probably because we've been so busy sorting out other things as well as presents for other people that we haven't had a chance to spend on ourselves.  Looking back over the year it's pretty obvious that we not particularly good on that front so that's something we'll need to think about budgeting next year as well.

We're also ending the year with no credit card debt and our own emergency funds still in order so I'm very happy about that.  Unfortunately the four months saving didn't exactly go to plan, but at least the money was there when we needed it which is kind of the point of it in the first place.

And that's it.  This year has definitely shown us how important having the sinking funds and savings have been when it comes to helping make things less stressful.  This adds a bit more of an incentive to get them back up and running next year so that we're ready for the next set of problems, or hopefully just reading for Christmas 23.  

Happy New Year everyone.