December 2023 Budget

I'm going to be honest here, I completely winged it when it came to our finances this month.  There were a few other things going on, as well as the whole getting ready for Christmas, so I had kind of expected that this month wouldn't go particularly well.  That being said, having the Christmas sinking fund was a really good thing and meant that we at least didn't have to stress about that.  It's definitely something I'll continue to do in the future.

Despite all that we actually didn't do too badly this month.  Specifically on the food spending, which is where we usually have a problem.  Our spending on takeaways and eating out stayed right within our budget this month and we only ended up spending about £50 above our planned budget for groceries, including the big spend on Christmas food.

Our mobile phone bills have gone back to the normal price now as well, now that we've taken the roaming off them again.  I've also been keeping up with using the app to reduce my phone bill even further.  It's not a lot but it all helps and I get a weird feeling of accomplishment despite the small amount.  I did have a little moment when I was sorting out our breakdown cover and accidentally booked two covers, but thankfully I contacted the company and they sorted it out for me straight away which was very nice of them.  Always good to see money coming back into your account.  I was also able to do it all by email so I didn't even have to interact with a human.  Nice!

We also spent a little less on fuel this month, though I'm not entirely sure how we managed to do that.  I believe it was partly because we had a week where Ed was off work and my drive to work is a lot shorter than his, so I actually didn't need to fill up during that time at all.  I also got my first wage from my new job this month, but as the amount they have taken for my pension is less than I have planned I did need to make an additional payment this month as well.  I do need to look into increasing this automatic withdrawal for my next wage.  However, first I do need to find out how much I can actually increase it to as some have a limit on this.  This might mean that I'll need to continue making an additional payment to my own pension account as before.

Our personal spending has been really good this week, probably because we've been too busy spending on other people, so I'm very happy with that and hopefully, this will be something we can continue to do in the future.  Probably the biggest win is that we managed to put more money into our four-month savings, which got us to our new savings goal for this year and over the halfway point to our long-term goal.  Whoop whoop!

So, despite not really concentrating on our budgeting this month we have somehow managed to do pretty well on it.  I have to admit that some of it will be because we've been way too busy to be able to spend on unnecessary things, but hopefully, we'll be able to continue this next year so that we can get to our goals a lot sooner than we had originally planned.  

Goals 2023 Update #4

It wasn't the most effective year this year when it came to reaching my goals and normally I do much better at these.  However, this year definitely feels like it's been one of those years in every respect, which means I'm not really too surprised by the outcome.  This is how it went.

Financial

• Four months emergency fund - on this we reached our 2023 goal and then some.  In fact, we've actually almost reached half our savings amount.  This is a pretty good achievement and I am happy about it despite knowing that we could have done better had we been stricter.
• Sinking funds - all of these were reached and we have been happily using them for their intended purposes.   This time of year has made it very clear how good it is to have your Christmas sinking fund all saved up as we've been able to spend without having to worry about how we're going to afford it all.
• Pension and personal spending - I reached my goal this year of putting 12.5% of each pay cheque into my pension scheme, which is good.  I just need to set up my pension with my new employee so that it automatically comes out of my wage without me having to do anything additional.  And that now ends the good streak moving us neatly onto our personal spending.  This definitely hasn't been great, for either of us, and it's something we'll need to work on over the next year if we want to reach our long-term goal.
• Changing my bank account - I still haven't gotten around to this, even though I know who I think I should change it to.  I am basically just being lazy about this, but there are some things I'm concerned about when it comes to moving to this bank.  I think I just need to write down a list of what they are and then research them instead of just putting it off.
• Secondary income - this has been on the back burner for now as I haven't really had the time or headspace to think about it properly.  This is something else to look at over the coming year.

Learning A New Skill

• Skateboarding - we did manage to fit some skateboarding in this year, but not as much as we had originally planned so I'm still not particularly good at this just yet.  Though at least I'm better than I was at the start.
• Surfing - we did have a lesson a little while ago and were told that we were good enough to practice on our own for a while until we felt it was time to go to the next level when we would need an additional lesson.  However, we haven't actually gotten around to that yet, partly because we find it difficult to find days off together that match and partly because on those days we're a little lazy.  Really I just need to be a little bit more organised.
• Sailing - this is still on the back burner whilst we learn other skills and save up to be able to afford the lessons.  As we do have other savings goals right now which are more of a priority it'll need to wait.

So not quite the year I was hoping for but we still haven't done too badly either and you can't have good years every year.  I also, perhaps, put a little bit too much on myself to accomplish this year anyway.  However, despite not completing everything we are still moving forward and that's a good thing.  I've also learnt some lessons which I can carry forward onto the next year.  One of the main reasons for not succeeding in the number of these goals was not properly organising my time, and that's a good lesson in itself.  Now I need to think about what I want to do next year, which will probably be along the same lines as this year but maybe with just a bit more teeth behind it.

Crafting 2023 Update #4

I haven't done a lot of crafting in this last quarter and definitely not much of the projects I had originally planned to do.  Specifically, I haven't worked on any of the use-up projects, but at least with those projects I have everything I need to do them and can just pull out when I want to.  To be honest, it's mainly because I've been distracted by other things, but as I had no real goal for this year, crafting-wise, I guess it doesn't really matter.

Christmas Cards /Quilling

This is where most of my time has been spent when I have been crafting.  I thought that this year, for the Christmas cards that I make, I would try quilling again as it was something I enjoyed doing as a child.  It probably wasn't the best idea as I ended up putting off making these for quite a while as I suddenly got nervous about them, thinking they would be too complicated.  However, once I got started it actually just clicked and I was able to get into a rhythm.  I did make some other styles of Christmas cards as well for items that were travelling a little bit further than the UK as I wasn't sure how well the quilling would hold up in the post for that long.

The Maggie Jumper

I have started my matching jumper to Ed's star jumper, but the size of the needles and thickness of the yarn means that this jumper is probably going to take me a very long time to make.  I'm also not able to dedicate that much time to it and just pull it out once I've completed everything else I need to do.  This means I'm only doing about two hours of knitting a week at the moment.  However, I should hopefully be able to give it more time now that all the Christmas cards are done.

King Cole Double Knit Shawl and Jumper (2793)

These are now complete and sent off to their new owner.  I really liked how they turned out and they were quite enjoyable to make.  It's always difficult to determine what the right size is at the best of times, but even more so when it's a baby that hasn't even arrived yet.  Hopefully, they'll work well once needed.

Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Society Hat

I of course brought some wool when we went to the National Wool Museum a little while ago and was looking for a project to use it on.  I had found this pattern on Etsy from the shop Swan Avenue and this was actually a hat I've been wanting to make since watching the movie.  It turns out that I'd brought exactly the right amount of yarn to do this, but there is some left over though not enough to make anything else so I'll be looking for more so that I can make matching mittens in the future.  No rush on that though.  I really like how it's turned out and I'm expecting to get a lot of wear out of it.

Fixing Ed's Trousers

A pair of Ed's work trousers ripped along part of the waistband, which they shouldn't have done as he hasn't had them for that long.  Rather than throwing them out and having to buy more, I decided I would just fix them using some of the leftover fabric I had stored away.  It's not the neatest fix ever as the original fabric was fraying everywhere, but there is no longer a big hole in his trousers, the joint is not particularly obvious when he's wearing them, and he should hopefully now get quite a bit longer out of them.

Field of Fucks Cross-stitch

I still haven't started this yet even though I had planned to.  I might try and start before the end of the year, but it's most likely going to be something that I start next year.

And that's everything.  Not a huge amount of projects completed and there are quite a few I had planned on doing this year that I never got around to doing.  However, that's fine as these crafts are things that I do to help me relax rather than because I need to make them for any particular reason.  I still have quite a long list of items I want to make and I'll just work my way through them over the next few years, depending on what we can afford.

Walking: Pont ar Daf to Dyffryn Cellwen

It had been quite a long week and I really felt like I needed to stretch my legs and give my mind a chance to just wander aimlessly, preferably in a location where there weren't other people.  So I decided to go on a long walk in the mountains.  For ease, I wanted to start somewhere where Ed could drop me off on his way to work, but I also wanted some parts of it to be in an area I hadn't been to before with some off-path sections so I planned on heading up Fan Fawr and then just going west.

I knew the weather wasn't going to be good and a little bit chilly, but it was meant to clear up a little as the day went by (though that didn't really happen).  I made sure I wore a number of layers and had more in my bag, along with a thermos of hot tea to make sure I was able to stay at the right temperature throughout the day and in case anything bad happened so I could protect myself from the elements.  I also took both my walking poles to give myself a bit more stability when crossing any rivers and when going through the boggier areas.  As an additional safety assurance, and because my route wasn't 100% fixed, I set my WhatsApp so that my husband could see where I was at any time.

So, from Pont ar Daf I headed to Storey Arms and up onto Fan Fawr, straight into the clouds.  It wasn't actually as cold as I was expecting, but it was as wet as predicted and I knew that my feet weren't going to stay dry for very long (I had also packed my trainers, some dry socks, and a miniature towel for when I finished - a luxury for sure, but definitely a good one).  However, I find as long as I can keep my body warm my feet do just fine in these conditions.

From the top of Fan Fawr I headed towards the trig point and then north with the plan of cutting across west a little bit later to look at some old, unused sheepfolds on Nant (brook) y Gaseg.  Unfortunately, at that point I couldn't see far enough in the front to be able to navigate properly so I decided to follow a path I already knew which would lead me to Nant Mawr, a tributary I could follow down to Nant y Gaseg.  From there it would be easy enough to find the sheepfolds.  As I was following this I finally came out of the clouds and could see them ahead of me and this allowed me to then take a more direct route.  

After a little nosey around it was time to cross over the brook.  It took a little while to find a safe spot as the water had risen quite a bit in the rain and the main issue was not trying to not get my feet wet (this had already happened) but more that you could see the rocks were a little bit too slippery to use safely.  However, I did finally find somewhere and I was very glad I had my walking poles with me.  Then it was straight up the very steep east side of Fan Llia back into the clouds.  If I'm honest, I actually quite enjoy walking in cloud cover and mist.  You may not get the views, but there's something very magical about it and I love how easy it is to mis-interrupt things you see in the distance and the changed noises that reach you.  

The plan was to then find a route down the west side of Fan Llia, cross the road, and look for a route around the side of Fan Nedd that would take me to the actual path leading to the top.  However, visibility had gotten even worse by this point and I knew this wasn't going to be a safe option at all.  So I changed my plans and decided to just follow the Beacons Way off Fan Llia and onto the Roman road I was planning on following later, leaving Fan Nedd for another day.  I have walked this path before so I took the slightly lower route this time, not that I could really see anything to make this really feel any different.  It was, of course, raining pretty heavily once I'd reached the bottom and it was time to have my lunch.  Nothing that a good, hot cup of tea couldn't fix though.

Then it was onto the Roman road for 2.5 hours.  I'd already walked just under half of this before when I had walked this section of the Beacons Way, and I have to grudgingly admit the other half wasn't any more fascinating than the first.  Up until this point, I hadn't bothered listening to anything on my headphones as I was enjoying the more natural noises of brooks, rain, and wind.  This time of year also meant that there weren't even livestock noises out on the hills, but now I needed a little bit of extra distraction so I put on some podcasts I'd been saving.  It was also quite a straightforward walk from here on so I could afford to concentrate less on where I was going.

As expected, it did get a little bit more complicated when I was walking through farmland and I ended up not being able to finish the very last part how or where I wanted.  Instead, I ended up walking along a B road which allowed me to look into the fields where the Roman fort and camp were meant to be.  It turns out there wasn't actually too much to see so I didn't feel like I'd missed out too much.  Then it was onto Dyffryn Cellwen to meet up with a friend who kindly drove me to get a pint or three.  Though things didn't exactly go to plan this walk was still exactly what I needed and, though physically tired, I felt much better afterward.  I also ended up with a lot more energy again, managing to get quite a lot done in the days following that walk.  It's definitely something I need to remember to fit into my days a lot more often.

November 2023 Budget

There have been a few things going on recently and I've had a lot on my mind, so I've been pretty distracted and really haven't been concentrating at all on budgeting and looking after our finances.  So, as expected the spending this month hasn't been great, not helped by the fact that my pay was much less this month due to there being a gap between my old job ending and my new one beginning.

All the usual bills are pretty much the same as before, though our electricity was a little bit more this month, partly due to it being darker for longer now and partly because I've been at home a lot more which naturally means using more electricity no matter how careful I try to be.  Our phone bills were also a little higher this month as we had added roaming to our phones when we went to Brittany, but that will only be for this month.

We have managed to reduce our spending on food this month but it's still much higher than I had originally budgeted for.  Some of it has been us spending on things we really didn't need to spend on, but I have noticed that the cost of food has gone up a bit which means our original budget might actually be a little bit unrealistic.  I'll need to think about increasing this for next year.

We spent more on travel this month as well as I headed down south to help with some family stuff.  For this, I took the bus down (which without a doubt is the cheapest way of travelling far in the UK still) and then my husband came down when he had his days off work.  We also had to spend quite a bit on the car this month with its MOT being due and needing to sort out the advisories that came from that including changing a tyre, renewing our insurance which has gone up quite a bit for everyone now, and renewing our breakdown cover.  I haven't used the money from our car repair sinking fund for these as I want to see if we can get away with leaving that for now.  However, if we need to I'll move the money over.  

This month I also put across my last pension payment from my old job.  I will need to look at moving what pension payment they made into their own scheme into my own account, but hopefully it's just come back to me in my last pay.  I will need to see my wage slip to be sure and I haven't had that yet.

There has also been quite a lot of gift buying this month as there have been a few people's birthdays and we've started buying for Christmas.  I know it's early but I do need to send some of the gifts and I also find Christmas a bit stressful so I like getting it all sorted early so I can just enjoy the run-up.  I am really glad we worked on our Christmas sinking fund during the year as it's made this whole time a lot easier and we don't have to worry so much about money.  We did back peddle a little bit on our personal spending this month and both of us overspent quite a bit.  Specifically me as I spent about £80 in IKEA.  We went to get some things we needed but of course, ended up getting additional things we suddenly realised we needed once we were there.

So not great really.  We weren't able to put any money into our savings this month, which means we only have December to try and reach our new savings goal, but I'm not going to worry too much about that as it was being a little ambitious.  I had a feeling that November wouldn't be great based on how the rest of the year has gone.  However, that could just have been a self-perpetuating idea and it definitely hasn't helped that I haven't made budgeting a priority this year at all.  I'll be back to work in December so it'll be good to start having more money coming in again, but should also reduce what we spend a little bit on electricity and food.  It'll just be Christmas spending now and I can't think of anything extra we'll need to get for ourselves.  I guess we'll see how that goes.