May 2021 Budget

May has definitely been quite an eventful month.  Lockdown has been eased but the weather has made it difficult to go places, rain has had a bit of an effect on my earning potential, I finally bite the bullet and after months of umming and ahhing ordered the fabric I wanted to make my trousers, the scary tax returns were done, we've moved into the land of birthdays and all the spending that goes with those, and I finally got my first Covid-19 vaccine (always good).  Some of these have had a bit of an effect on our spending and earning for May.

As always let us start with the good.  I still have my £1000 emergency fund and no debt sitting on my credit card.

We've also managed to continue putting money into our sinking funds for car repairs and Christmas, as well as actually putting away £401 into our savings account this month.  Most of this money actually came from the money I had put aside for taxes over the last financial year but then didn't need to pay.  As it was savings any way I just transferred it straight into our savings, which was a nice little outcome and means that we are almost halfway to completing our savings goals for the year.

I also put £225 into my pension which I'm very proud of and means I'm on my way to completing that goal for this year as well.

We are still spending quite a bit of money on food and household products, but looking back at previous months that spending has reduced quite a bit.  So, whilst it's not great it is going in the right direction and that's what I'm focusing on at the moment.

I've also decided to add some more lines to our budget to give us a better idea of where exactly the money is going and what we need to work on.  These are take-away which has actually turned out to be quite high, birthdays which won't really change much but is still good to have it out of our general spending category, and wedding spending as we are getting to the point where we're starting to spend money on this and it'll be good to keep an eye on it.  We don't actually have a budget for this last category, but we should probably do a bit of research and make a decision on it so it doesn't get too out of hand.  Not that it's going to be a particularly pricy wedding anyway.

One thing that has gone up quite a bit this month and of which I have no control over is fuel costs.  This is because it depends entirely on the location of my worksites.  I just have to hope that we get some sites closer to home soon and this will then reduce that number significantly.  There's also been some additional money spent on doing sightseeing things in May and that's absolutely fine.  We decided right from the start of the year that we didn't want to save money at the expense of not seeing the area we are living in at the moment so, as long as it's not getting us into debt, we're going to keep doing that for the rest of the year.

I suppose this month could definitely be classified in the 'could do better' category.  It wasn't a complete failure and we have done better this month than in the last few.  However, there is still room for improvement when it comes to unnecessary spending as earning potential is all down to the whims of the weather, and that's what we'll be working on in June.  How exciting.

Having Dyslexia - and why it's helped you learn to just give things a go.

This probably isn't really a subject that fits with anything else I've written about in this blog, especially not in the last few months, but I have a feeling that it's probably pretty obvious that I have this based on how I write, or miss-write, my posts.  It's also popped into my mind more recently as I've had yet someone else who has been surprised to find out that I am actually dyslexic.  So I decided to write about it.

Obviously, I'm used to having dyslexia and the wonderful and usually comical way in which it affects my life.  However, non-dyslexic people's reaction to finding out I have it is always a little bit odd to me, especially the reasons behind why they are surprised.  Sometimes it's because they feel I shouldn't be able to string a coherent sentence together about any mildly complex subject, sometimes it's because of the way I use words to describe things, sometimes they feel I shouldn't have been able to get a Degree let alone a Masters, and sometimes it's because they're just surprised that I'm not.... well, to be blunt, stupid.  And it does make me wonder if I had followed the ridiculous stereotype that people try to fit you into how things would have been for me.

I could write a post about all the ways my form of dyslexia affects my life, like the fact I can't actually hear the different sounds that make up a word which makes spelling an interesting affair.  However, I don't see dyslexia as a disadvantage.  In fact, it has allowed me to understand mechanics and concepts that are apparently complicated and allowed cram all sorts of information into my brain, and I see that as an advantage.  So instead, I thought I'd write about how I've learnt to deal with my dyslexia and how that has had an effect on other areas in my life as well.

1) Dyslexia does not mean stupid.

This is the most important and I'm not sure you can ever say it enough - because you're dyslexic does not mean you're stupid.  No matter what anyone says, and believe me, I've heard it a lot, it's just not true.  It just means that you're not good at words or numbers or both, but that doesn't mean you're stupid.  Your intelligence will be in something else, like understanding concepts in physics that other people just don't get, and you just need to find out what it is.  So try out lots of different things, even in the academic fields that people tell you you won't be very good at, to see what it is you excel in.  It could be a very pleasant surprise and just because an archaic idea is attached to something doesn't mean it's actually true.  

2) How can someone else know what you're capable of when, most of the time, you won't even know yourself.

I'm very used as someone with dyslexia, and as a woman, to people deciding that they know what I will actually be capable of, giving me their opinion, and then expecting me to follow it.  However, the truth is that you'll never actually know what you can do until you give it a go, at least a couple of times, and if you don't know how on earth are they going to.  It's also true that they are rarely giving you their opinion for your own good but rather to box you into a behaviour that will make them feel better, and this makes it 'advise' to definitely ignore.  So don't listen to other people's opinion of your capability and find out for yourself.  Then you might find out that you can get a Masters whilst having word-dyslexia (why did they make that word so difficult to spell?) or have a job moving heavy objects as a woman.

3) It's very unlikely that you'll be able to do something, and definitely not be good at it, on the first go.

Most things that you give a go at will take time to be good at or even just competent at, so there's no point in being disheartened just because you can't do it straight away.  I understand it's disappointing, but you can use that feeling to decide if it's really something you want to be able to do or achieve and if it is then just keep going.  Almost no one is able to do something the first time, and just because you can't doesn't mean you are able to do it at all.

4) You need to find your own type of translation and accept the pitfalls.

And by that I mean you need to work out how your own squidgy brain works and then translate everything to fit that.  For me, my brain works in pictures and not in words, so everything I do and learn I translate into pictures so that I can remember and understand them.  Unfortunately, there are some things I just can't do that with, like names.  I'm terrible at names, but I just accept that there's nothing I can do about that and for everything else, it actually works just fine and allows me to fit a lot of information into a very small headspace.  My favourite thing about my form of learning is the way I can then move the picture around in my head and use it to look at something from a different angle.  Something I wouldn't be able to do if I tried to force myself to think in words.

5) Sometimes (or most times) you just have to work really hard.

This definitely isn't just for people who are dyslexic, but there are a number of times that you can actually do something if you're prepared to really put the graft it.  You might not be a genius at it, but you're not going to really know if you can do it without really giving it a proper go.  I had to work really hard to get the grades I did, but I accepted that that was just going to be the case and now I'm very proud of what I managed to achieve.  I also now know what I'm capable of, and that it s very useful piece of information.

6) It's absolutely fine if it turns out you really can't do it.

If after all that grafting you still aren't able to do that thing you had hoped to be able to do then it's time to step away and accept that that just isn't going to be a skill for you.  And you know what, that's absolutely fine! You can't be good at everything, because no one can be.  It also doesn't mean that that person who told you you won't be able to do it is right either as they didn't know you were capable of going as far as you did.  Now you need to take all the lessons you learnt from this effort, which is why failing at something is nothing but a learning opportunity, and go and find something that is the right fit for you. 

All of those are reasons why I tend to ignore it when people tell me that I can't do something and even why I ignore my initial reaction of "I won't be able to do this" as no one will actually know until you give it a go.  And it was having dyslexia and learning to work around it that taught me that.  My strengths might not be 'normal' strengths but they are still strengths and useful ones at that.  It would also be true to say that I was also very lucky when it came to academics in that I love learning new things, and there wasn't anything anyone could say that was going to put me off pursuing that.  No matter how difficult it was going to get.

So I hope that, in some small way, this might help someone who's having to deal with those people behaving as if you can't do something because of your dyslexia (or for any other reason) before you've had a chance to try.  It might be that you can't, but without giving it a go you're never going to know.  Now have a look at a very cute, sleeping kitty.

Exploring Devon: Part 1

It's been a little bit difficult these last few weeks to match up mine and my partner's days off so that we could do the exploring of Devon we've been hoping to do.  Due to this, we haven't gone as many places as we originally hoped, but we have managed to get in a couple of trips and they have definitely been worth it.  

Wild Swimming - Sugary Cove

This was our first (and only so far) wild swimming trip since getting our wetsuits, but it was definitely a good one to start with.  Sugary Cove is a lovely, small cove that apparently doesn't get a lot of visitors other than the locals.  To get to it we started by parking above Dartmouth Castle and then walked along the South West Coast Path for a couple of minutes before reaching the very steep steps that take you down to the water.

I'm not going to lie, the water was very, very cold, but it's a good, sheltered bay that feels very safe to swim in.  It would be good to come back with snorkelling gear and have a proper exploration of what's lurking under the water.  Especially as these waters are pretty clear, which means there should be quite a healthy ecosystem to stare at.  We didn't spend too long in the water as I'm definitely not used to that temperature anymore, but I'm hoping I'll become more acclimatised to the temperature so I can spend more time enjoying the swim.

Walking - Wistman's Wood looped walk

This was a lovely short-ish walk to get back into the swing of things and it felt really good to get my walking boots back on.  We decided to do a looped walk as the path to Wistman's Wood on its own wasn't going to be long enough.

We started off at the Two Bridges car park and heading along the well-worn path to Wistman's Wood.  Don't be fooled by the small size of the trees (mostly beautiful oak) as they think that this wood is the remains of an ancient forest.  Most of the trees have a contorted form which, along with being covered in mosses and lichens, would give the woodland a wonderfully eerie feel on a foggy day.  This is what most of Dartmoor would have been covered with and it's a shame that it doesn't cover more area.  I liked it, but I think it would be good to go back in summer to see what it's like when it's really green.

Once we'd had a good little wonder through the woods we headed uphill towards the Tors.  We decided to walk a little further north than we had originally planned as it was so lovely to be outside and headed for Higher White Tor which we could see directly in front of us.  It did go uphill quite steeply, but I felt very comfortable doing the incline despite the lack of walking recently and, better still, I felt like I was breathing very comfortably (a problem that I've had for a few years).  

Once we'd had a good look at the view we turned back south and carried on along the high ground to the east of the woods, scrambling over Longaford Tor and walking past Littaford Tors.  Then it was back onto another well-worn path that carried us downhill towards the car park.  

In total, the walk probably took us about 2.5 hours and gave us a good view of the other areas of Dartmoor we're planning on visiting in the future.  

So, only a couple of trips this time around, but definitely more to come in the future.  The nicest surprise how easily my body took to walking again despite the length of time since I've done it properly.  The cold during swimming has been the less enjoyable part, but I'm sure I'll get used to that soon.  However, we now have a taste for it and are already planning our next trips out into the 'wilds'.  On the plus, if it keeps raining the way it has been on our days off together that doesn't affect our ability to swim.

April 2021 Budget

I was hoping that as a big chunk of our expenses for April came out in March, that we would have a good month this month for savings.  Unfortunately, that didn't actually turned out to be the case.  Entirely our fault as we've been a little bit spendy this month.  Admittedly some of it has been on things we're going to use for activities that will cost us nothing in the future, but it still feels bad seeing them laid out in our budget and we can't put it all down to that.

Starting with what went well this month.  I still have my emergency fund sitting in my savings and haven't built any more credit card debt, with the balance staying at zero.

We've also put aside the £65 and £45 for the Christmas and Car Repair sinking funds we had planned for this year.

I was also able to put aside the £225 for my pension, which I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to do this month.

Unfortunately, we didn't put any money into our six-month savings fund, probably because we spent a little bit too much on snacks and buying ourselves goodies of the other kind.  Admittedly our savings do look a little worse than they actually are as our rent came out of the money we keep in the joint account to ensure we never get overdrawn and which I include as part of our six-month savings funds.  However, there definitely should be more in there had we been a little bit better behaved.

Despite me saying last month that we needed to do better on the spending when it came to groceries and, if I am honest, household items, we've actually spent more this month.  One of the biggest problems is the fact that, now that everything needs to be brought by card instead of cash, it's not that easy to see exactly how much of the money is going and all too easy to just keep spending on the  snacks.

The same is also true when it comes to additional spending, especially on take away food and maybe, just maybe some eat-in food now that we can do that again.

If we pulled back on the spending on groceries, household, and personal items then we could easily money aside into our savings, possibly around £400 a month.  We just need to think of a way of keeping an eye on our spending that we can both see and make use of, and isn't as fiddly as pulling up an excel sheet every time.  Possibly an app in the future, but maybe just pen and paper for now.