July 2022 Budget

It's been another month and another plague of illnesses.  I'm not going to lie, being ill this often is really beginning to wear a little thin for me.  This time I got food poisoning and ended up missing a couple of days.  Then Ed got COVID, which then led to me getting COVID (it's finally caught up with us) though thankfully his work still paid him for those days.  The joys of not being self-employed.  The heat also didn't help and there were some days that were missed or only half worked because of it as it just wasn't safe to be in that heat.  And on that note, here goes.

We've still managed to keep no credit card debt and have our own personal emergency funds fully paid up - always good to start on a positive.  I've also been able to put money into my pension every week this month and I'm very happy about that.

There's also the spending on groceries and takeaways which we've done a pretty good job at reducing this month despite being ill at the same time, especially the takeaways.  We can keep improving on this and that's the plan for the rest of the year.  If I can get the groceries down to £400 a month and the takeaways /eating out down to £200 I'll be very happy.  Fuel has been the main issue this month and you can see that the cost of it has gone right up over the last few weeks.  I've also been doing a little more driving than usual this month, but none of this can be helped and we just have to accept that this has become an increased expense.  At least we are able to do that without it having too much of an effect on the quality of our lives and for that I am grateful.

We have been able to put money towards our four months' savings.  Not as much as I had hoped to do at the beginning of July, but still better than what we managed in June so that's a start at least.  This is partly due to the fact that, due to how the budget months run, my husband's pay will actually go into next month's budget this time (along with our larger bills, thankfully), but that does mean that we will probably get two wages for him in August and be able to put more into savings then.  Everything else has pretty much been the same as the last few months.

And that's July over and done with, and over half the year already gone.  If we had been really strict with ourselves we probably could have been very close to reaching our main goals already.  However, we made a choice to allow ourselves some spending on the things we really enjoy knowing that this would mean it would take us a little bit longer to reach our goals overall and we're fine with that.  We'll see how August goes.  If the heat carries on the way it is at the moment we might be spending all the money we are able to earn on ice cream. 😂

Doing a Whole Lot of Cleaning - Update

This is going to be a pretty short post, but it's been a few months now since I started using our adapted version of the Fly Lady to try and get our flat in a better state than it had been at the start of the year.  And I have to say that, even in such a short space of time, the outcome has been pretty good.

It's obviously not completely spotless as it is a lived-in space and I wouldn't want to live in what is basically a show home anyway.  The real trick has been doing the 15 minutes clean every day to work your way through the list of recommended tasks.  I have to admit that there have been a few times where I really couldn't be bothered when I got home after work, but most of the time I've managed to convince myself to actually do it as it's such a short amount of time.  It helps that the flat is also so small that usually I only need to do a few days of 15-minute cleaning and the zone is complete.

Probably the most unexpected thing to come out of this has been just how much extra stuff I've been able to declutter.  There must be something about regularly looking at a space properly that allows you to see what you have there and what really isn't being used as the weeks go on.  There are still a few tasks that need to be done before that flat reaches the level of cleanliness that I would like, but we are getting there and this length of time is to be expected based on how long we let everything slide before.

One thing I definitely need to do moving forward is to rewrite the list of things that need to be cleaned in each zone.  At the moment it just has all the things that are recommended on the Fly Lady website, but that doesn't really work for our space and I've noticed that I've missed a few things when cleaning.  

At the moment I still leave the weekly home blessing to Ed as this allows us to share the housework easily and there are some things that we don't bother doing at all, like shining the kitchen sink and doing a daily wipe of the bathroom.  However, the flat is still looking a lot better than it did when we started this and it's also become a lot easier to keep it clean and tidy.  All I need to do now is keep up these daily 15-minute cleans.  What I'm hoping is that they just become a habit.....hopefully very soon.

Crafting Goals 2022 Update #2

I wasn't expecting to get too much done this quarter as I had decided to take a little break from crafting after the wedding as I'd done quite a bit for that and I didn't want it to turn into a chore.  However, I actually returned to it a lot quicker than I was expecting.

Vivien Fair Isle - Style Jumper

I decided to do this jumper next as we're in summer right now and this is more of a summer knit.  I couldn't get the wool recommended in the pattern (from the Knit Vintage book) and so had to buy a slightly different kind which had a different gauge. This means that I am using different needles from the recommended and I'm not sure I've gotten the tension right so I'm not certain it's going to fit quite how I originally planned, but I still like the look of it.  I've also slightly changed it as I'm knitting it in the round rather than doing each section separately.  I didn't actually start it all that long ago, but already I've gotten quite far as it's been quite enjoyable to make.  Something I wasn't expecting when it came to doing colour work.  The wool is 100% Alpaca by Drops Design and it is ridiculously soft.  I can't wait to wear this one.

The Wrap Top

I'm using the top section of the Butterick B6554 wrap dress to make a wrap top.  This is partly because I want a wrap top and partly because I want to practice this part of the dress as it's going to be the most complicated due to fitting it around my chest.  I've measured the back and front in different sizes to fit this and then I'll need to work around fitting the two together.  Unfortunately my back is actually needs pattern pack which is a size down, but I don't want to buy another pattern just for that so I've picked the smallest size in this pattern and I'll just have to make that do.  Once that's done I can transfer the changes to the top half of the dress when I make it.  I'm reusing the fabric from the culottes I made a couple of years ago but don't wear anymore.  I really do love this fabric so I want to get as much use out of it as possible.

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

These types of cross-stitch always take a while to do.  That being said, I've made more progress in this than I was originally thought I would.  I really love how it's looking and I know it's going to look great beside the Hobbiton one.  This craft alway takes a back seat to the other craft work I do and I haven't worked on it for a few weeks now, but I'll pick it back up again soon.

Once these are complete I'll have the Maggie and Coddy jumpers to knit and the wrap dress to sew.  I also picked up yet another project when we were on Guernsey, and that was making a Guernsey jumper using the 5 ply wool that unique to the island.  Whilst we were there I saw the Guernsey jumper which is made using 5 ply wool that is unique to the island.  So I brought some of their wool and was kindly given a free pattern, which I'm going to use to make Ed yet another jumper.  The poor guy will soon have more jumpers than he's ever had in his whole life.  It's especially humorous as he actually runs hot and so doesn't actually need them all.  Oh well, at least it's keeping me busy and that'll probably be the last one I make anyway - famous last words.

Goals 2022 Update #2

And just like that half the year is over.  Seriously, this year has gone by so fast.  I must be getting old, mainly because I've started talking about how fast time is going.  There's been a few not great things going on in this quarter, though at least we had a nice thing in our wedding, which has made concentrating on reaching our goals a little less of a priority than they might otherwise have be.  That being said, we've still managed to make some progress and I still feel that things are going pretty well.

Financial Fitness

The plan for this quarter was for me to have paid into my pension every pay day for six months, which I've managed to do, and for us to have saved up half of our four months emergency savings, which we have also managed to do.  I'm very proud of us for that and hopefully we can keep this going for the rest of the year.  It definitely feels like we're actually doing well on this front.  I've also put a lot of thought into what type of secondary income I could do.  It's mostly crafting type of things, but I now really need to experiment with these so that I can work out what would actually suit me best.

My plan for the next quarter is to have a good look at more ethical banks to move my own current account to.  It really is time that I took this step.  I also want to use this quarter to really look at the secondary income ideas to see how much of a possibility these could be.  It will entail me having to find the additional time to do it, but it should also be fun and hopefully worth it in the long run.  The last goal for this quarter financially is to have paid into my pension every pay day.  This could be the first year that I actually manage to do this for a full years pay.

Sailing Around the World

The plan for this quarter was to research what type of boat we would like and what would be suitable for just two people to sail and live in.

This coming quarter I want to research about electric motors for sail boats and all the components that you need to have to make this actually work.  Whilst electric motors on boats aren't common they're also not completely rare either so it should be easy to find out about them.  I also want to look at actually booking our sailing lessons so we can see if this really is a viable thing.  However, we will have to see how the finances are doing first before we think about that.

Long-distance Walking

There wasn't anything for us to do on this goal this quarter as we're not really going to do any of these until our financial goals are reached.  However, we have started looking at Offa's Dyke as something for us to do next year.  There aren't any goals for this next quarter either, but if we do have any spare time I think I'll keep researching Offa's Dyke.

Learning New Skills

I was meant to have practiced skateboarding at least twice a month this quarter, but it really hasn't happened......at all.  It really is just getting myself out the door that's the problem.  If I could just get myself to do that it would be fine, but it's just so much easier (with less possibilities of breaking something) to be lazy.  I'm not giving up on this yet though, so next quarter I want to aim for at least once a month.  You never know, it could happen.

The last goal was surfing.  I had no plans on this for this quarter either, but I do want to at least start lessons in the coming quarter.  For my birthday my husband brought me a gift card for a local surfing school, so I'm going to use this to book us a private lesson.  We can then take it from there.

All in all it's been a mixed bag when it comes to reaching our goals.  The main one this year was the finances and we're doing well on that front so I'm happy.  If we can get the other goals to follow that would be good and, seeing as there is still half a year to go, that is entirely possible.  I just need to concentrate a bit more and maybe 'relax' a little less.

June 2022 Budget

It almost feels like May was actually a turning point in our finances as June has actually gone pretty well.  This was even against the fact that June is actually quite a busy month birthday wise, so there's a lot of spending on presents and meals out.

Let's start with the usual.  Our credit cards and personal emergency funds are doing well and this is something we're going to aim to keep for the rest of the year.  

Because of how the months are running all the regular bills came out at the end of this month, just after my husband's pay day.  We've been able to build money up to cover these whilst keeping our standing balance in our joint account. Unfortunately we didn't get to put any money into our savings, but that should start again next month.

I've decided to add back the money we have in our joint account to our four months emergency fund as it's always something we're going to have to help out with the bills.  This means that the four month savings is now at £2522, which means we're about £80 of where we want to be half way through the year (something that my next pay with cover).  Hopefully we can put a good amount into this on a monthly basis now to reach the full savings by the end of the year.

I've managed to put money into my pension every week this month, which makes this the first month I've been able to do that on, and I'm very proud of that - go me. 💃

As I said before, we did spend quite a bit on eating out and birthday presents this month, but I did also get money for my birthday which I'm using to get the wool and fabric I need to make the clothes I want to make this year.  We are doing much better this month on spending less on food shops (including snacks we shouldn't really be buying both financial and for our health).  What has really gone up is, of course, the fuel, but there's nothing I can do about this as I need the car for work.  It is really making us think about getting a hybrid car sooner than originally planned though.

So this has been a pretty good month financially, despite all the little pitfalls, and that's made me very happy.  The plan is to keep this going for the rest of the year.  We might need to be a little stricter to actually reach these goals, but it's still a possibility.

Too much to do

You know that feeling where there's a whole lot of things you need to /want to do, but there's not a lot of time to do them in and you're begin to feel just a little bit overwhelmed.  Well that's me right now and I'm not really enjoying it. 

If I'm honest I could probably get a lot more done if I organised myself a bit better and didn't do a lot of the sitting around not really doing anything that has become my normal mode.  However, getting up the motivation to put my long-term gains over the easier, more appealing short-term gains has been particularly difficult recently.  It's time to make some changes, or at least some updates, to help me actually get where I'm wanting to go.

The first thing I need to do is have a look at my goals again to remind myself why I'm doing all this and what it is I actually want.  It could be that I actually decide that some of them are no longer right for me, in which case I can put them to one side, but for the others I just need a reminder as to why I want to do these things.  It might be a good idea to put up some pictures and photos around the flat as a visual reminder to help keep me motivated as well.

One thing I'm already doing now is that I've decided to reduce the hours I do at work, only by one day at the moment but we'll see how it goes.  This may seem a little bit counter intuitive as one of our goals is to save up money and to do things like learn how to surf and sail.  However, I do also want to spend more time with family at the moment and this help with that.  It'll also give me more time to research and pursue other forms of income that could actually earn us more and give us more financial stability and flexibility in the long run.  This extra time is also going to make me less stressed and less stress means less comfort eating, which means a little less spending money.

Which brings me onto spending a little more time in making sure I'm eating properly.  Firstly because that would be a good way of ensuring we're saving money as one of our biggest spends is on snack foods and take-aways /eating out.  But it would also mean that I'd have more energy to do all the things I want to do as the relatively high sugar diet I have right now is not exactly one that fills you with lasting energy.  If I'm honest I'm not really a fan of preparing food, I've basically lost all the enthusiasm I use to have for it, but the long term gain will be worth it.

The next thing that is important is that I need to properly organise my free time.  At the moment I have a list of tasks I need to do and the days I would like to do them on, but nothing more than that.  What usually happens is that when I come home from work I just space out for about 30 minutes if not more, than shower, eat, and then try and fit everything in to the time that is left usually leading to me going to bed late.  Not getting enough sleep is definitely a had thing and the doing nothing at the start of the evening also sets the mood I'm in for the rest of that time.  If I had a set schedule and got on with things as soon as I got home I would actually get a lot more done.  The same is also true for days on the weekend when Ed is at work.  This time gives me an opportunity to get more things done, especially if I schedule it out properly.  So far all I've actually done is not a lot and then again try to fit everything into a very small amount of time.  The scheduling would also mean I should be able to fit in things like reading and writing in my diary.  Things that I always want to do but never get round to doing.

And all this organising and scheduling will mean one very important thing.  That I will be able to have time to properly relax.  Even though right now I'm doing a lot of nothing, there's always the knowledge that I should actually be doing something so it's not actually as relaxing as it should be and there's always just a little bit of guilt involved.  By scheduling and actually doing all the things before hand I can then relax properly, go for walks, read a book, do my crafting, and actually enjoy doing these things properly.

So that's the plan.  Already I can feel a part of me that just can't be bothered and wants to put it off stirring.  The temptation is very strong, but it's not going to get me anywhere.  I need to make a choice between the immediate me or the future me enjoying the life I'm planning for.  I know which one I'd actually prefer, I just need to put in the effect to get there.

Walking: Princetown - Abbot's Way circular walk

Last weekend was my birthday and I decided that, as I was going to be spending it in my own, I would go for a long walk on Dartmoor.  Partly because I wanted to go somewhere beautiful and outside to celebrate and partly because I wanted to test myself.  I've noticed recently that I am feeling less confident in myself and what has been particularly weird for me is that I've really noticed it when I've been outdoors.  As being in the middle of nowhere is normally where I'm happiest it's important for me to fix this and one of the ways of doing this is to get myself out of my comfort zone.

The original plan was to do the longest walk in the Wild Swimming Walks Dartmoor and South Devon book, but when we were researching the parking situation Ed found out that they had had to close the car park due to overuse and damage to the surrounding vegetation.  It also turned out, when I looked at the route more closely, that we had done most of the walk already so I'd just be going over the same ground.  So a new route was needed and I decided I would plot my own.  I have the OS Maps app on my phone so it was pretty easy to plot a route that would be about a 5 hour walk and, because it's me, I wanted to pick a route that would need some orienteering to ensure I stayed on route.  I am a little rusty on that front and wanted to practice, but this rustiness definitely showed itself later in the walk.

I parked at main car park in the centre of Princetown and headed up the bridleway (called Jobber's Road on some maps) towards the South Hessary Tor and onto Nun's Cross farm.  It was at this point where I got of the main track and followed the route south east on a dog legged path that becomes Abbot's Way.  Part of this path didn't always seem particularly obvious, but it was easy enough to get a bearing and following in the right direction until it became more obvious again just before Plym Ford.  As it had been dry and pretty hot for most of that week the ground was pretty dry which did make it a lot easier to walk on than it might otherwise have been.  I always love looking at some of the odd names given to some of the areas on the map and at one point the path went between Great Gnats' Head and Little Gnats'Head.  Though thankfully there were no actual gnats there.

Up to this point I was pretty happy.  The weather was good, my legs felt strong, I had managed to navigate myself pretty well, I could hear sky larks, and apart from a few people in the distance I hadn't really come across another human being.  But it then went just a little bit off.  I had gotten to the head of Erme River, crossed over the ford and was looking for the path that basically goes directly north when I realised I had gone a little bit too far east.  My instinct was to retrace my steps to find the right location but for some reason I decided to override this and take a bearing that would have, theoretically, gotten me back on the path further up.  Needless to say it didn't, probably because at that point there weren't any distinctive features I could use to aim at and this meant that I drifted more east than before.  

I carried on much longer than I should have done, even though I was also checking my location on the OS Maps app.  However, once it became clear that I was really far off the mark and that I was getting into some pretty dangerous terrain I decided to stop being an idiot and cut directly west which I knew would mean I would find some features I could use to properly navigate from.  I was lucky that it had been so dry otherwise it could have turned out far worse than it had.  Although, if it had been much wetter I probably would have turned back sooner.

Thankfully it wasn't too long before I saw Fox Tor which gave me something to head towards.  However,  whilst seeing that was a mood lifter it was still a lot of work to get there and my legs where getting a real work out at this point.  It was a real joy to actually get to Fox Tor, sit on one of the stones, put on some layers, relax, and eat some lunch.  Once there I got my bearings properly and worked out what I wanted to do next.  The original plan was to to follow the path down into Foxtor Mires to Whiteworks and then walk west back onto the bridleway that would take me back to Princetown.  However, that route would mean walking through more mire and looking at it from above the path wasn't particularly obvious.  I decided I'd had enough of that for the day and that instead I would follow the old stone wall just below the Tor west which would take me to a path that would lead back to Nun's Cross farm and onto the bridleway much sooner.  This was a much safer route.

Despite getting lost on the second half of the walk I did still enjoy myself, mostly because I had been outside on my own in good weather doing something I really enjoy.  It was a very good reminder though to be much more careful when I'm outside.  Had the conditions been wetter and the mist come down I could have been in a much more dangerous situation.  I've learnt my lesson and will bear this in mind the next time I'm out navigating in wilder places.  

As for my confidence, well weirdly it hasn't dented it.  My initial instinct was actually right and, ironically, I should have had the confidence to just follow it.  I would have been in a much better situation if I had.  It's also weird how calm I stayed despite being in a situation where it would have been perfectly normal to panic.  I was aware that panicking was a possibility, but my brain remained completely calm which, in the end, allowed me to logically get myself out of the situation, and it was a good reminder to myself that that's how I react to these situations.  In fact, I now want to get out much more to do these walks and to get a lot more practice in orienteering.  Though next time I might take my OS map instead of my Harvey map despite it being bulkier and fiddly to use as it has a lot more detail on it to navigate from - at least until I get back into the swing of things.  Oh, and I have made the intended route public on the OS Maps app if anyone else wants to give it a go.