May 2024 Budget

There isn't really a huge amount to say about this month as, as with most of the other months, our bills have basically remained consistent and we have now gotten into a routine of spending specific amounts on each category as we've tried to save.  We have had one big win this month.

And that win is to finally finish completely paying into our four months' emergency savings.  This now means that we are now covered if any big changes happen in the future and we can be a little bit more relaxed about it.  It does make me feel more secure and gives us a bit more flexibility when it comes to the decisions we make in the future.  We also had a little bit of money left over to then put some into our holiday sinking fund.  If we keep doing as well as we are now then we should be able to book our holiday by the end of the year.  It's a really big thing for us to look forward to and a reward for all our hard work.

We did spend a little bit more than we should have on our eating-out budget by about £20.  However, we underspent on our groceries by £70 so I'm not too worried about it as, overall, we actually made a saving on our spending on food.  Our fuel bill has gone up a little bit as well as we took a trip to the coast to do some surfing.  But that is an extra expense we're happy to accommodate as we enjoy it.

We've also both been good and underspent on our personal spending.  Not spending on things and really asking if we really want or need something just seems to have become a good habit for both of us now, and that's probably a big reason why we've been able to put so much into our savings this year.  We have spent a little bit more on days out, but one of the spends is to do with us booking stuff for our holiday we'll be taking soon in Pembrokeshire (a break my husband in particular really deserves right now).  There is also the surfboard hire, but that's coming out of the sinking fund we still have for surfing.  We have about five more times we can rent boards using this sinking fund, but it is only £20 a go for both of us so I think that's an expense we can accommodate.

It's still taking a little while for me to organise my pension payment through my wage at my new job, but when I finally get it finalised it will mean that we will have less coming in from my wage.  This will probably be around £200, which does mean there will be less going into our sinking funds.  However, this is less of an issue seeing as we have now completed our big long-term goal when it comes to our finances.  In fact, it's coincided with our saving success pretty well.

All in all, it's been a pretty good month and the habitats we have formed over the last year have definitely helped us get to the point where we can put money towards our security and have experiences that really mean something to us.  From now on we can actually be a little bit more relaxed about what we spend our money on, and get a few more experiences under our belt.  However, I never want to go back to the spending I did before.  It wasn't helpful, nor did it make me happy, and now not doing it means I can have experiences that are more meaningful and that I've always wanted to have.

Getting Rid of Stuff and Organising....again

Recently I've been getting that nagging feeling that I get when I feel like I just have too much stuff.  Stuff that I'm not using.  Stuff that's gotten disorganised and that is maybe making me feel a little bit stressed.  Admittedly I do use most of the things I own or at least have set plans for it in the future, but there are still a few things here and there that I could get rid of. 

There are quite a few books, but they're staying as I will be reading them in the future.  I just need to dedicate time to do so.  I'm also leaving our board games as we need to play them more before we can decide if we want to get rid of them or not.  And we tend to go in cycles when it comes to what we enjoy playing.  Although Exploding Kittens is always going to be a favourite game.

The camping gear is also all staying but clothes is an area that I can downsize in.  Either because it is an item I haven't worn in ages and am unlikely to in the future (like my thermal trousers), or items that are just not comfortable (like my sandals that I love the look of but just feel uncomfortable walking in), or that I genuinely don't fit in now that I've put on weight.  Unfortunately, the last items are clothes that I've made so rather than get rid of them I'm going to put those to one side so that I can alter them.  I'm also moving my winter things, like my thermals, out of the way so it's easier for me to use the rest of my wardrobe.

My stationary box was a quick one as we do use most of the stuff in there, but there were a few things that I was keeping just in case but never actually use so I've gotten rid of those.  My craft boxes also have a lot in them, but as I went through each one I realised that they were all items connected to projects I have planned.  Once I've completed those I'll go through the boxes again and get rid of anything that is surplus and no longer needed.

It's only a small declutter this time, not like some of my previous ones.  However, for some reason, even this little clearing out has made me feel so much better.  As I read more books and work through more projects everything will naturally get smaller as well, especially as I've put no buys on these two areas as I work through what I have.  Maybe I'll get to the point where I don't feel the need to declutter anymore.  Admittedly that does seem pretty unlikely.

Crafting 2024: Update 1#

As I expected at the start of this year, I haven't completed many crafting projects so far this year.  This is partly because I've put aside a lot less time for crafting, but also partly because of my depression which that I wasn't really in the mood to do anything at all.  I have, however, managed to get a few things done over these last few months and I'm still happy to just let myself slowly work through the projects without putting any pressure on myself to do them at a certain time.  That being said, I have completed one project and have been working through another.

The Maggie Jumper

This jumper did take quite a long time to complete, not because the pattern was particularly complicated but because the stitching was so small that each row took a while to complete.  However, it is now finished just in time for.......some very hot weather that doesn't need a jumper.  I do love it though and it's very soft so I will be wearing it as soon as the opportunity arises.  

Quilling Christmas cards

I started this off really well, making about two cards a week, but then it fell to the wayside and I haven't made any more progress since.  I have still made twelve though, which is about a quarter of the total number I need to make before Christmas.  They are very beautiful and I got the kit off Etsy from the shop TillyViktor.  I would definitely recommend this shop for quilling things, especially if you're just starting out.

My plan next is to make a top using the Grogu fabric.  I have a style in mind, but I haven't been able to find a pattern I like so it's going to be more of a 'winging it' type of project.  After that, I'm going to work on the Field of Fucks cross-stitch, and I'll still be making Christmas cards alongside both of these projects.  So I haven't quite got through as many projects as I have done in the previous years, but crafting for me is all about doing something I enjoy and I'm fine with the idea of not getting as much done this year.  Maybe I'll speed up in the next half of the year, or maybe I'll only get four projects done, and that'll be fine too.

What is left on my list:

• Sew the Field of Fucks cross-stitch
• Crochet a crop top with leftover yarn
• Re-knit the Icelandic jumper in a larger size
• Knit matching mittens to my hat
• Sew a left-over fabric top
• Sew the Welcome to Erebort cross-stitch
• Sew a Grogu fabric top
• Sew the cropped trousers
• Crochet a long-sleeved top
• Sew the cut embroidered dress
• Sew an apron
• Knit the Underwing mitts
• Knit another vintage cardigan in simpler yarn
• Start crocheting a leftover yarn blanket
• Start sewing a leftover fabric quilt

Goals 2024: Update #1

Whenever I get ready to write my goal updates I always hope that there will be positives to write about, and this year did start off well but then depression snuck in in February.  And then it lingered.....and lingered.......and lingered some more.  I tried to deal with it whilst carrying on with everyday life and working towards my goals, but it was getting worse and, in the end, I decided to just stop.  So I stopped doing my budgets for a while, and I stopped trying to practice new skills, and crafting, and trying to eat healthy, and I even stopped doing as much housework.  I just let myself be.  Am I 100% better?  Not a bit.  Do I feel less overwhelmed?  A little.  At least enough to start doing some things again and to start looking at my goals for 2024.  

Financial Freedom.

• Saving another third of our four-month emergency fund - this has been one of the big positives so far this year as we're already very close to completing this goal already.  Even though we have been spending more than we should, we've still managed to keep all our bills and spending down enough that we've been able to put a good part of our monthly wages into our savings.  We might actually complete this long-term goal before the end of the year.  Which makes me want to give us both big gold stars.  
• Sinking funds - at the beginning of the year we concentrated mostly on putting money into our Christmas sinking fund and we've now got a fully funded Christmas fund.  As it looks like we'll be reaching our emergency fund goal much earlier than we had expected we'll be able to start putting money into our holiday sinking fund this year as well.  We still haven't quite decided where we're going, other than it'll be somewhere on the African continent.
• 12.5% of earnings towards my pension - I did change jobs at the beginning of March and with that job comes the company pension scheme.  I'm just waiting for my details to come through and then I can change my payment amount to fit the 12.5% that I want for this year.  The good thing about this job is that they will match pay into your pension up to 10% and I intend to make full use of this.
• Secondary income - this has gone completely on the back-burner for now, but hopefully, I'll be in the right mindset to think about it again soon.
• Changing my bank account - still to do, but again I'll come back to this at another time.

Learning New Skills.

• Skateboarding - I have given this a few tries and I do feel more comfortable than I did before.  However, I'm still nervous about hurting myself so maybe I just need to bite the bullet and buy all the protective gear.  Then I can just get on with it.  I haven't done much of this recently though as I've just been letting myself sit instead of trying to do things. 
• Surfing - I had started the process of looking into hiring surfboards for us to practice with, but that fell to the wayside when the depression came along.  But we both enjoy this so it's definitely time to get back to it again.
• Drawing - this was one of the first things to go when I started feeling low.  I don't mind though, as I had already managed to fit some practicing in and that gave me a bit of an idea as to where my skill level is.  I will bring this back, but as an 'every now and then' thing instead of a 'must do regularly' thing.
• Flute playing - I did get quite a few practices in for this and it did feel good, though I'm not sure how far I'll be able to go without having a teacher guide me along.  As with everything else, I stopped for a bit, but I will start it up again.  I'll see if I want to carry it on once the year is out, but for now, it's been enjoyable when I do play it.
• Reading - this one hasn't really gone to plan, but it'll be easy enough for me to pick it back up again.  I just need to make the decision to.
• Learning another language - funnily enough, I haven't even looked at this.  Future George decision I think.  For now, I'm just going to concentrate on getting back to where I was at the start of the year.  This can wait a little.

And that's it.  Depression has meant that it hasn't been quite the success I was hoping for, but then it hasn't been a complete disaster either.  Especially when it comes to our financials, which we have managed to do pretty well.  We are already a third of the way into the second quarter, but hopefully, I'll be able to pick things up for the next couple of months, though I'm not going to push too hard just yet.  I'm going to take it slow. After all, I have plenty of time this year to achieve what I want.  No need to try and get it all done now.

How are the additional hobbies going?

I had decided to start these new(ish) hobbies last year, but it was at the start of this year that I properly set everything up to make it easier for me to do them consistently.  Including putting together a little tracker in my diary for most of them so that I could tick off when I did them.  It's only been a couple of months but this is how they're going so far.

Skateboarding - this is still taking a little while to get myself into actually doing it and that's probably because it's something I have to do in front of other people which always makes me uncomfortable.  There's also quite a big possibility of me hurting myself, which I always worry about as it could affect my ability to do my job.  However, if I want to learn this skill I do need to get over that, especially as I could also hurt myself just tripping on a pavement.  I usually wait until my husband is off on the same day as me so we can do it together, but that has led to there being very few times available to do it so I've stopped doing that and now just go out on my own on Saturday mornings, with my bike helmet on regardless of how it looks.  I do feel that I am beginning to get the feel of it a little bit more.

Flute practice - I've been managing to practice this around once a week.  Obviously more often would be better and as I get more into the swing of it I'll probably try practicing on the weekends as well.  It's really just finding the time to fit everything in.  It is beginning to come back to me, but it's still frustrating to not be able to play how I used to.  I'm going to give myself until the end of this year to see if I want to keep going or not.  At least I can now string a song a long, even if it's not particularly well.

Drawing - again I have managed to get this in about once a week.  At the moment I'm just practicing drawing the shapes that become animals from a book I brought on how to draw Kawaii animals.  However, I do want to start being able to do this on my own and I think I might need to look a little more into the reasons behind each shape that then becomes a being.  I also want to look a little more into how to actually draw the human shape if this is going to lead to where I hope it will, so I'll need to find something on that as well.  Again, I'm giving myself until the end of the year to see how this goes and after that, I'll decide if I want to keep going.

Board games - we actually haven't really done this that often.  In fact, it had gotten to the end of January and we'd only actually played some games once.  So we decided we needed to make an actual effort and place the games in an area that was right in front of us, and now we are playing board games once a week as planned.

Reading - this is another thing that had already started to fall to the wayside before the end of January even came around.  I realised that it was partly because I wasn't making time for it like I should have been, but also partly because I hadn't given myself the variety of things I usually like to have when I'm reading.  So I've added a non-fiction book into the mix and the wildlife magazines I keep forgetting about and this has made things a lot more appealing.  I might not be getting through as many individual books but I am getting the variety that I like and, in the long run, it'll actually lead to more books being read than before.

I am hoping that having a tracker I can keep ticking will lead to a number of these hobbies becoming habits.  Unfortunately, it wasn't working particularly well to begin with, but now that I've made the rule that I'm not allowed to miss any of these two times in a row that has made all the difference in making me keep up with what I want to do.  It may seem a little bit weird to do this with hobbies, but if I don't make time for them it's very likely that I'll never do any of them.  There are a lot of hobbies I would like to try and do and if I keep on not doing any of them I'll always wondering about them and my abilities.  This way I can keep trying new things, seeing if they are something I can take to, and then making a decision to keep doing them or not.  At least this way I'll actually know.

February 2024 Budget

February has been a mixed bag when it comes to the success of our budgeting.  We did spend over what we had budgeted for, some of which couldn't be helped but some definitely could have been, but we also somehow managed to put a good amount towards our savings.  Could we have done better, obviously yes, did we still do really well...also yes.

As always, our spending on our general bills has pretty much remained the same, which is actually lucky as it means none of them have been put up just yet.  We did, however, spend more on our gas bill and that's because this month has been a little bit colder than the last so our heating has had to work harder.  I'm expecting March to be pretty similar, but then after that, we should be able to get our gas bill back down again.

I did buy a few more things for our house than I normally do (in fact normally I spend absolutely nothing) but that's because we've decided to stay here a little bit longer than we had originally planned so I want to fix some things that had been annoying me a little bit.  It's not really that important, but it does make living here more enjoyable for me at least.  We also quite a bit on food again this month.  Whilst it's been nowhere near as bad as the spending we did last year we are sneaking back into old bad habits.  It's not anything we can't pull back on and March will be the month we do that on.  Food spending is always going to be our weak point so we really do need to keep an eye on it.

We've been spending more on fuel as well and a big part of that was due to the fact that my work was in a different location to Ed's so when he came to pick me up at the end of the day we were putting extra miles on the car.  Now that my new job is in a similar location to his that should bring the cost back down again, although we are doing a trip to Swindon next month so I do expect that it won't drop completely in March.

That's also where the cost for the day out has come from as we've booked an Airbnb for the one night we're in Swindon and there'll probably be some extra spending on things like food when we're there as well so that's something we should really be putting money aside for - something to think about when the craving for a takeaway comes along.  Our own personal spending hasn't really been great this month either.  Firstly we needed to restock the oils that we use to make my face moisturiser and Ed's beard oil.  It was over £70 but it should last us for the year at least.  I then got water damage on my phone and needed to get a new phone screen.  Thankfully as I have a Fairphone I was able to just buy that online and then change the screen myself, but it did still cost about £85.  However, even with those two large spends our personal spending in total didn't end up going over our budget by too much and, as we underspent last month, I'm not too worried about it.

The biggest plus for this month is how much we were able to put into our savings and sinking funds.  We did sell some things in January and that money went straight into our savings, but we were also able to put quite a bit from our wages into savings as well and I decided that we would just complete our sinking fund for Christmas so that our main focus for the rest of the year can be on our four months savings.  That has been a really big positive for us and a good incentive to keep us working towards our financial goals for this year.  

So, some ups and downs, but overall I feel like February has mostly been positive.  There are definitely places where we can improve and, if we want to keep doing as well as this, we need to improve as our income will be dropping a little bit from March.  However, I think we can do it and that means we could actually reach our savings goals a lot earlier than we have planned.  Now that would be very satisfying.

How FlyLady is Going

We've been doing our version of the FlyLady since we moved into our own place together in 2021 and we carried on doing it when we moved from a flat into a small house.  I've adapted what we clean in each zone to work for us and they really are 'zones' for us rather than rooms as our living space is all open plan, except for the bathroom.  I've also now written them out on index cards, rather than have them all digital so that both of us can easily see what needs to be cleaned that week.  Otherwise, this is how it's been going.

A big part of FlyLady is decluttering each zone as you clean and we have been doing that.  I do still feel that we have too much stuff in our little home, but we do use /enjoy/ have a purpose for everything that we have right now.  We just need to make sure we keep this up so that it doesn't become too cluttered in the future.  It doesn't help that there is a whole lot of stuff that came as part of our rented accommodation and which we've had to put into the storage areas we do have, which means that there are more things out than I would like.

Then there's the tidying, which I try to do daily whilst reminding myself that it's a lot quicker to just put it away straight away in the place that we've designated for it.  If there's anything that needs to go up or down stairs I leave it on the stairs and as I move between the levels I carry the items to where they belong.  It only takes a few seconds, but it really has helped keep our home a tidy-looking place to live in.

The rest is about cleaning, with the main areas being cleaned every week and the more in-depth zone cleaning done on rotation.  Though this means I'm not dusting or hoovering all the areas every single week I find that the floors always look clean (apart from right beside the front door) and there is little enough dust that I don't have to worry about it setting off my allergies.  The house as a whole always looks tidy and clean, and that means I can enjoy being at home without having to stress about what needs to be cleaned.

So the FlyLady has turned out to be quite a good find when it comes to keeping on top of the cleaning and tidying, without getting overwhelmed.  It also works really well with how my brain works as I don't have to concentrate on one thing for too long a time, which usually leads to me not doing it very well.  I will definitely be carrying on this system no matter where we live.  After all, who doesn't want to live in a tidy, clean home without having to put too much effort into it. 

Eating Healthy - results so far,

It's been around a month and a half now since we started mostly eating healthy.  We haven't been quite as good as I had originally planned, but I knew it would be unrealistic to expect us to be healthy all the time.  It probably didn't help that I got my period and got ill at the same time, whilst trying to arrange other things.  Then Ed got ill and so all thoughts of healthy eating basically went out the window.

The reasons behind us slightly changing our diet weren't just about eating healthier and hopefully losing some unhealthy fat, but also to help us save some money by not buying lots of unnecessary, usually sugary, food or as much takeaway, to waste less food, and to eat a little more sustainably mostly by eating more seasonal food with less packaging.  

So the plan we've been following is to have seasonal food Monday to Thursday, which we steam and have with a homemade sauce of some kind (based on a video I watched by ?on YouTube.  We've kept Friday night as our usual be an idiot and eat pretty unhealthy things, but really enjoy it.  Then Saturday and Sunday go back to seasonal food, but this time we follow one of the recipes that we like.  This is actually working out quite well and has meant that I've been able to batch-prepare our weekday dinners along with my healthy lunches on Sunday night.  It makes it a lot less stressful during the week when I have less time to cook and means that we are much more likely to actually eat the healthy food we have.

I've also been concentrating on reducing my sugar intake throughout the week.  In the past, I was definitely eating much more sugar than I should have done but now, instead of having something daily, I have it a couple of times a week.  I can still feel the sugar cravings, but I've been doing my best to ignore them and most of the time I've been winning.  I have also reduced the amount I've been eating to a much healthier portion size for someone my height, which has suited me just fine and has actually meant that I've felt less sluggish.  This has all led to me losing some weight, but not a lot which I was expecting as I have gotten back to my physical job again where I'm building back up my muscles.  However, you can visually see that I have lost some fat so I just need to carry this on.

At the moment we're not actually getting bored of this meal plan despite it being pretty similar each week.  Due to that, we're going to keep doing this for a few more months to help us continue changing the way we react to food.  When we do start to get bored of it we'll go back to the recipes that we made before, but just make them a whole lot healthier.  I have to say though, this has been a whole lot more convenient than what we were doing before so I would be very happy to keep this going for a while.  And that means this will keep me eating much less sugar and us spending much less money.

Walking: Brynmawr to Crickhowell

I've been wanting to do some walks that basically involved me walking straight from my front door.  I was having a look at my OS Map, OL13, and saw that I could basically walk from here straight to Crickhowell.  Then I could just get the bus back home.  Unfortunately, I was too busy to do it on the day I had originally planned, so instead I did the walk a week later together with my husband.  I'm not going to lie, this walk wasn't my finest hour when it came to navigating as I didn't really bother concentrating on keeping to the route I had originally planned.  I wasn't hugely bothered as it was a pretty clear day and we were just out to enjoy ourselves, but it's not something I should really make a habit of doing as it could lead me into a dangerous situation.  In the future, I'll concentrate on practicing navigating and actually bother to use my compass as well.  It's not something I want to go rusty.

We started by walking up onto the road that leads to a footbridge at Braemar that crosses the Heads of the Valley road and then east along the new road alignment (not on our version of the OS Map) until we came to the stile that led us onto farmland and back onto the original route.  This bit was a nice gentle start to the walk and got us onto the commons pretty quickly.  The path on this side of the commons is small but still quite obvious - although I did still manage to take us slightly off track which led to me getting my feet very wet.  

Even though the route was supposed to lead us just below the peak of Twr Pen-cyrn, we decided we actually wanted to have a look at the Hen Dy-aderyn cairn at the top and so headed up that way instead.  After having a little nosey around, we headed down the other side and carried on towards the disused Llangattock quarries.  It wasn't immediately obvious which of the paths was the right one and, as I was being lazy on the navigation front, we did take a little detour before getting to the base of the quarry.  However, it was a clear day and the detour did mean we got a really good view of the valley below as well as the Black Mountains and Central Beacons.  We were also enjoying the fact that we were the only people up there - just us, a pretty strong wind, and some horses. 

The path that we were meant to take after the quarry turned out to be difficult to find (although we were able to find the other side) and I'm not into walking right past people's homes if I can help it, so we followed a vehicle track down which connected to the original path that took us along just below the escarpment.  We then followed the path that headed straight down to the bottom of the valley.  This bit was very steep, which would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that it was also quite slippery due to all the mud.  I slipped over a couple of times.  In fact, I was so busy concentrating on not slipping over that I completely forgot to take any photos of that section.  

The last section was pretty much just a road and then pavements through Llangattock and over the river to Crickhowell.  It was a little boring and it's never pleasant on your feet and legs to end your walk on pavements, but it did lead us to a lovely pint.  A very British way of ending a walk.

Despite the detours, this was an enjoyable walk with some pretty amazing views.  The slightly bleak weather made them all the more beautiful and I actually prefer that to sunny, clear days.  We're thinking of going back to the top of Twr Pen-cyrn, via the proper route this time, to have more of an exploration and really get to see what's up there.  We're also going to take a proper look at the Llangattock quarry which is apparently an actual tourist attraction.  However, next time I'll make sure I actually use my compass to properly navigate around.