Crafting Goals 2022 Update #1

This is quite a satisfying blog to write as I've managed to get quite a lot of crafting done despite having a lot going on at the moment.  It obviously helps that a lot of the crafting this first quarter had to do with our wedding.  

Making the Wedding Invitations

This obviously had to get done pretty early on in the year so that we could get them out to people on time.  I think they turned out quite well.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to make ones for everyone and had to concentrate on those we were inviting in person.  However, I wanted to add something home made to these as well and made some origami hearts to put in with these.  I do love origami.

Making My Wedding Outfit

I completed my full outfit, including a shawl for when I'm outside, a matching tie for my partner, and matching face masks just in case.  I've already written blogs about the sewing parts of this outfit (skirt, petticoat, overskirt, and top) so those can be looked at if you want to know more.  Now that I've made it all I have to admit that I'm not 100% certain about the way the top looks, but I'm still quite proud of myself for making this none the less.

The Dottie Cardigan

This was a really enjoyable item to make and I love the outcome of it.  It was a nice break from doing all the wedding stuff and it gave me an opportunity to give my brain a rest from all the other thinking.  The wool is from Holst Garn and was the first time I actually used this wool.  I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of it, especially at the price, and you can order by the bolt not just the ball or skein.  I actually ended up ordering way too much, but I have plans for this extra wool so that's fine.  I really love the colour as well, so I'm glad I ordered something which was a bit out of my comfort.

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

I've only just started sewing this project, but I'm really looking forward to making this.  I'd already brought the thread for this so that meant I didn't have to put this project on hold whilst our finances are tight and I am very happy about that.  This cross-stitch is part of the LOTR series I brought from Country Magic Stitch on Etsy.

I haven't started the other projects yet and, with our finances being the way they are at the moment, most of them might have to wait for a little bit longer.  Out of all of them I will be able to work on the wrap top as I already have the pattern and the fabric for it.  As for the wrap dress, I could theoretically use the fabric I have left over from my wedding outfit.  However, it is a little lighter than I had originally wanted so I'll need to think about that first.  I have to admit that I am looking forward to not using the sewing machine for a little bit, so maybe I'll leave these until after April.  As for all the other knitting projects, they'll have to wait until I can justify the additional expense.

All in all, it's been a pretty good quarter.  I've managed to get three out of the eight projects completed, with the fourth started.  At this rate I'll have finished this year's craft goals by the start of the third quarter.  I'm sure I'll be able to find other things to do though if that ends up being true.

I'll be on my honeymoon next week so I probably won't post a blog, but will just be enjoying my time away.

Goals 2022 Update 1

Despite the last few months being a little bit of a disaster, at least on the health front, most of the goals actually went quite well this quarter...... surprisingly.

Financial Fitness

My plan for this quarter was for us to pay off my credit card debt, pay half of our Christmas sinking fund, fully pay the car repair sinking fund, have quarter of our four months savings paid, have paid into my pension every month, and researched additional incomes.

I did manage to pay off my credit card and fully paid our car repair sinking fund.  As for the Christmas sinking fund, we decided that due to the way our finances are going we should fully pay this off this quarter rather than spread it out over the first half of the year.  This meant moving money from our fourth months emergency fund to do this which, in turn, meant that we didn't reach out goal in this front either.  However this means we only need to concentrate on this for the rest of the year.  I also managed to put money into my pension every month, just not as much as I had hoped.  Once our finances are in a better place then I'll increase the amount I'm paying in to hopefully make up for this.

For the next three months I would like us to save up half of our four months savings, though that is going to be a real stretch with our low income and increasing cost of living.  I would also like to pay up my six months worth of pension with the additional payments made.  Again this might be a bit difficult. Lastly, I want to think more about what I could activity do as a secondary income.

Sailing Around the World

We're taking this goal pretty slowly as we can only really jump on it once we have some finances to, but it's good to keep it fresh in our minds and as a motivation for everything else we're doing.  We've found out about where we can get sailing lessons locally and the general cost, which are about £300 to £700 per person depending on what level we go for.  We are thinking about the more in-depth, more expensive one as this would give us a better idea as to what we could be letting ourselves in for and whether or not we'd be able to actually do it.

For the next three months I want to research more into what type of boat we might want and would be most suitable for us as a two person crew.

Long Distance Walks

This one was pretty easy.  I just added a notebook to my OneNote and then added a whole lot of sections for all the multi-day walks we are interested in doing in the UK.  There are some that we're more interested than others, but it's good to keep our options open.

I'm not really going to do much more with this whilst we're still sorting out our earnings etc.  But it'll be nice to start planning one soon, even if it's just theoretical for now.  

Learning New Skills

Yes well, this one didn't exactly go to plan.  We didn't manage to do any skateboarding in the first quarter, but hopefully we'll get some done over this next quarter so I can actually start to get used to it.

As for the surfing, we did research local surf schools we could go to.  These are also quite pricey if we went for private lessons, around £100 to £140 per person, though obviously much less if we just book with a group.  Depending on how our finances go we might get some lessons in the second quarter, but it's more likely to be later on in the year before we get a chance.

And that's it.  Apart from a couple of things, we've done a pretty good job at completing this quarter's goals.  I haven't made too many goals for the second quarter as I want to be able to relax for a bit after all the wedding planning.  We also don't really know what our finances will be like so we can't make any concrete plans on goals connect with this.  If we can do better than I will do more, but otherwise I'm going to aim at low hanging fruit this time.  But all in all I'm quite happy with how things are going.

March 2022 Budget

Another month and another illness.  This time vomitting, for about a week.  I'm not sure why I keep getting I'll, but it's really not helping with the finances especially as my partner has been unemployed for most of this month.

Unfortunately, this has meant that we've had to take about £800 of our savings to cover our monthly expenses.  It's not good for us building up our savings, but that is what those savings are there for and I'm glad that we have it.  It's definitely made our lives less stressful so it's done it's job.  We have managed to put about £340 back in, but we still have a long way to go.  We've also managed to get our joint account back up to the our planned base, which we've struggled with before, and this should help us cover the main April bills.

This is the last month where we get a break from paying a Council Tax and Water Charges.  This has been a god send for these two months of me being ill.  Unfortunately this won't be the case as of this month so we need to plan for these.  March was also one of those months where all our general bills comes out twice, so it does look a little bit worse than it actually is.

I haven't been able to put the amount into my pension as I had planned either.  Just £200 instead of the £250.  This means that I'll need to increase my payments from now on to reach my yearly goal.  I'm not sure how well that's going to go as I do have a honeymoon coming up next month.

On the plus side, I've managed to pay off all of my credit card so we can put any spare money just into paying up our savings.  We haven't had to use any of our sinking funds as well, which I'm very happy about as the car has been a problem in the past.

We have been better at not spending as much money on takeaways, probably helped by the fact that I haven't been able to eat properly even after the illness had gone.  It's taken a while for my stomach to he able to take food again properly.  I suppose that sort of a good thing.  We've also been better at spending on just general things as well and hopefully we'll be able to keep this going from now on.

Thankfully we already have the wedding and honeymoon money in savings so we don't need to worry about that and can just enjoy those events without the stress of money.  However, we do still need to think about our spending and saving money as my partner won't be getting paid until the end of April, and only for about two weeks.

All that being said, under the circumstances of unemployment and illness we have done pretty well this month to have paid off debt and built up our joint account.  We could have done better and spent less than we did have, but I'm going to take this win.  Especially as I'm still struggling to eat properly at the moment so any win is good for me.  Fingers crossed April will go a little better.