February 2021 Budget

This post is going up a lot later than I had originally planned as we haven't had any internet for the last few weeks.  This nicely segues into a big event that happened this month which has had quite a large financial impact on us, and that is that we finally have a flat.  We have still done pretty well this month though and, in this case, the positives of having our own space outways the negatives of delaying our financial goals.  The weather has also played a bit of havoc with my earnings again, but nowhere near as bad as January and I'm still very grateful to be earning at all during this time.

The positives for this month is that I've still been able to hold onto my £1000 sinking fund and the credit card debt has remained at zero.  We were also able to put money into the Christmas and Car Repairs sinking funds, as well as a good amount into the 6 Months Savings.  However, we did have to take out £500 from that savings to help with paying for the deposit for the flat and we haven't been able to pay this back just yet.  It is still over £1000 though so I'm happy regardless.

As I am self-employed I don't usually have to pay my taxes until the end of the financial year.  Whilst there is usually an option to pay off what you owe in the next financial year, I'd rather be able to do it straight away instead of incurring yet another debt.  For this reason, I've been putting aside 20% of all my earnings so that hopefully the amount needed will be available.  This may end up being far more than I actually need, but at least that would mean I'll have a bit of extra cash to play with.  I've put the money into a savings account so it at least earns a little income before it heads off to HMRC.

As I said earlier, we have recently started renting a flat and that has been the main, and quite large, out-going this month.  On top of the first months' rent and deposit, there was also buying contents insurance, setting up the Council Tax and TV license (for which we paid one year outright), as well as getting internet for the property.  There is, of course, all the little household things you have to buy when you move into a property (cleaning items and products, kitchen items, etc) that, whilst small individually, all add up to quite an amount.  We may also have brought a fair amount of take-away and processed food whilst getting everything sorted (and by may I mean did, we definitely did), and that increased our groceries bill much higher than it should have been.

We are also renting a parking spot outside the property for an additional £50 a month and, before this became available, I had to pay for some overnight street parking for four nights.  Other than that, all our other spending has remained the same.  We are spending a little bit more on fuel for the car than I would like, but there's not too much I can do about that right now.  It'll just have to be something for us to look at in the future.

One thing I haven't been able to do this month which has been a little disappointing is not putting money into my pension fund.  It's not the end of the world, but probably is something I should be making more of a priority and, once things have settled again, I am going to look at upping some of the payments over the next few months to make up for this lost payment in February.

So, quite an expensive month really and I am glad that we were able to put some money aside earlier, thanks to my parents letting us stay at theirs, to cover the additional costs going out.  It's also meant we've been able to get everything we needed in one go instead of making do and slowly bringing the items in over the next few months.  On that point, we have been very lucky.  I do expect some spending for the flat to roll over into March as well, but, for the most part, it should be an opportunity for us to have a real look at what our out-goings are going to look like for the rest of the year and what changes we need to make so we can reach this year's financial goals.

Healthy Eating on a Budget (with requirements)

As you know I'm trying to become financially fit this year, and that means budgeting.  We're pretty good at not spending a whole lot of money on unnecessary items, but one of the biggest spends for us is food.   We don't really spend money on items like meat (what with having a mostly vegetarian/ vegan diet), but we do spend much more than we should on things like chocolate, crisps, and fizzy juice.  Which is not only bad for our budget, but not very good for our health either.

There is also the added issue of me needing slightly more specialised food as I'm supposed to be a dairy-free vegetarian (definitely vegetarian, not exactly dairy-free all the time) with as little gluten as possible.  I'm actually quite happy to mostly just have vegetables and naturally gluten-free products, but having dairy and gluten alternatives does allow for a bit more variety in the food we eat.  However, these products do add to the cost.

So, this is the plan for budgeting our whilst still trying to be healthy:

• Keeping to a budget of £50 per week (for 2 people) on groceries
• Use as much whole food as possible as it's cheaper and much healthier for us
• Make as much of our own food as is possible, for the same reason as above
• Shop mostly at shops like Aldi and Lidl as their products are generally cheaper (though I'll have to keep away from those middle aisles).  I am slightly in two minds about this one as they seem to have packaging on absolutely everything.  I will keep looking for alternatives, but I'll stick to this for now
• Only buy a few specialised items to fit my dietary requirements

The biggest issue I'll be facing on this is the little sugar addition I've been developing over the Christmas holidays - ops, and the fact that I've lost all motivation when it comes to cooking.  I'm just bored of most of my go-to recipes I make right now.  I'll be on the search for some new ones, which don't have about 20 ingredients as no one has time for that (or at least I don't), and hopefully, that'll help reset my cooking mojo.

Putting this on the internet also means I have a little accountability now, which should give me more of an incentive to actually stick to it and you'll be able to see if we do by the budget updates I'll be doing throughout the year.  The additional plus is that, as well as saving money, we should actually be a lot healthier as we stop buying so much sugar, processed food, and take aways.  Always good.

Future Plans for my Wardrobe

As the work I do is outdoors and generally quite dirty my wardrobe tends to be split very distinctly into clothes I wear for work and clothes I don't.  For the fact that I'm normally not at work only two days a week, I do have a lot of non-work clothes, especially when you compare it to my work clothes pile.  I definitely know I don't wear a number of these items on a regular basis and it's not the most cohesive wardrobe, with a number of items really not going together.  What I would like to have is a wardrobe which is basically casual, but which all work together and can be dressed up easily when needed.  The plan is also to have items that I can layer so that the same set of clothing works for all the seasons equally.

I've had a long think about how I want it to look and have decided to take some inspiration from the 1940s, where clothes were scarce, feminine but functional, and were made to last.  In keeping with my crafting kick, I am looking to make a number of the items too, so that should help test the skills I've already learnt whilst building more.

This is how I want my non-work wardrobe to look:

• 1940s women's trouser to replace my falling-apart jeans (these I will need to make and will need to source a pattern for.  I want them to be made from quite a sturdy fabric, hopefully, pre-loved)
• a skirt (I have this)
• a dress (I  have this and really love the style of it as it suits my body shape - a wrap dress - so once it starts to fall apart I will probably make a pattern from it)
• a pair of shorts (I have a pair, though I would like a more tailored fit and will look for a pattern to make these myself when it comes time to replace these)
• 2 strappy tops (mainly for layering. I have these)
• 2 short-sleeved tops /shirts (I have these)
• 2 long-sleeved tops /shirts (I have these)
• a cardigan (already made)
• a short-sleeved jumper (have a pattern for this and still need to make it)
• 2 long-sleeved jumpers (I have these, but I would like to replace them with wool items.  I have the patterns but just need to make them)

As for the colours, I'll be keeping them pretty much as they are now, which is mostly blue, green, grey, cream, and black.  I do also have some additional colours, but I'll replace these with ones which are the colour of my original palette when the time comes.  I also want to add some brown in there as well as an additional 'warm' colour to go with the cream.  To begin with, I will definitely have a few more items than this in my wardrobe, but I just won't replace them when the time comes to get rid of them.

There are some items that I will keep in addition.  These are a set of workout clothes, which I don't really need that often but is good to keep, and a set of outdoor clothes for walking and camping - when we're finally allowed to do that again.  I also want to keep my trackie bums (mainly because they have Batman on them and they're very comfortable) and a set of thermals.

And that is it, my long term plan for my wardrobe.  I see this taking a few years to complete and it might change a little if my job changes during this time.  However, I really like the look of this wardrobe and I'm looking forward to making them item when the time comes.  I'll, of course, write about my bits of crafting (and failing) as I do them and how my wardrobe evolves.

Walking on Dartmoor - Zeal Tor Tramway and Avon Dam

 

This is a walk we actually did in November last year but I decided to write about it now as it would be nice to remember a time when we could go outside like this.  Though this walk is a looped one, it uses a couple of longer through walks and an old tramroad and is meant to give you a chance to see historic life on Dartmoor.  It's quite a short 7-mile walk, but as we weren't sure about what the weather was going to do it seemed like quite a good option.  We did find this walk in a book on short walks on Dartmoor (there's also a description of it here), but we decided to actually do it back to front as we preferred the idea of going straight onto the moor and ending with the walk on the surfaced road from the dam. 

The weather did start off pretty well and we were quite hopeful it would hold to the end, but the mist quickly came in and made viewing pretty bad and navigation a little bit interesting.  We did borrow my Dad's OS map to take with us as mine hadn't arrived yet, but neither of us could find our compasses and we ended up using the compass on one of our phones (not advisable at all) to help with some navigation later on.  Not the best idea, but it did get us back onto the right track in the end.

We started the walk by parking at Shipley Bridge, a very busy car park which was difficult to find a space in.  I would advise going pretty early on to get a space, something we didn't do and so had to find an 'interesting' spot.  There are toilets here and a number of industrial buildings which were mainly trying, but failing, to utilise the clay and peat in the area.  First, we followed the road towards the Avon Dam, before heading left on the road to the Avon Filtration Station and finding the point where the Zeal Tor Tramroad connects to this road.  This took a little bit of time as there are a number of tracks, but we were quickly heading up onto the moor.

Unfortunately, the view didn't last longer than about 10 minutes and a nice look at some cows before the mist came down and obscured any of the historic sites we had planned to look at whilst we were walking.  It also made it difficult to navigate off any landmarks and, without a compass to keep us on course, we did end up going a little off course.  However, a good nosy at the map and a look at the phone compass made us realise we had been baring further south than we should have been.  A little change in our orientation meant that we soon came into view of the Eastern White Barrow looming out of the mist and headed straight for it.  We then cut across to the Western White Barrow and Petre's Cross (which doesn't really look like a cross as the arms have been knocked off) we had originally meant to head to before our little detour, before turning east to heading down to the River Avon.

The weather cleared a little at this point which allowed us to get a view of what looks like some settlements visible on Brock Hill, before closing in again taking away any possible idea we might have had of exploring them this time.  

The path down towards the river was pretty obvious and easy to follow, probably due to the fact that it's part of the Two Moors Way, but interestingly slippery.  There is meant to be a crossing further towards the dam as part of Abbot's Way path, but it wasn't particularly obvious so instead, we stayed on the Two Moors Ways and headed over the river using a little clapper bridge.  I love these bridges and it always amazes me that they're still standing after all this time and the amount of use they've had.  We then turned south onto Abbot's Way towards the dam.

This route takes you by the Huntingdon Cross (the original maker for Abbot's Way which was also used by Sir William Petre to mark the boundary of his estate in the mid-16th Century) and by some more settlements somewhere in that mist before you reached the dam and the path becomes a surfaced road.  

As you would expect for a walk on the moor in the mist, most of this path very wet and sometimes quite muddy.  Was definitely happy to have my waterproofs and walking boots for this one.  However, because it was so close, I didn't actually need as many layers as I was expecting.  Once back at the car park we headed straight for the nice food van there to take the opportunity to have a nice hot drink and a cake.  Just what you need after a walk in misty, cold, damp conditions.  This was just a taster of the walking that can be done on Dartmoor and I'm definitely going to be doing more once we can get back out there.