April 2022 Budget

Our April finances have gone just as I was excepting based on my partner only having a part-time job at the moment and us both having some days off for the wedding and honeymoon (and by some I mean over a week).  This has meant that April is a month where there's been not a lot of money coming in and quite a bit of money going out.  

One win is that we've still managed to keep our credit cards at zero and keep our personal emergency funds fully funded.  As before, the car and Christmas sinking funds are still completely paid up, though we might need to eat more into our savings at the start of May.  Unfortunately we did have to take even more money out of our four months emergency fund in April to pay for bills and we haven't been able to pay it back yet.  Hopefully that'll be something we can achieve in the next few months.

It does look like nothing has come out of our account for rent, electricity, etc, but because of how the months fall this money actually came out at the end of March and this still had an impact on April.

Our spending on takeaways and additional spending is quite high this month, but I guess that's to be expected as we were away on our honeymoon.  We probably should have been a little more careful whilst we were away, but we wanted to enjoy ourselves and the time we had together.  We also knew we were going to have to be stritch once we got home.  I also didn't put any money into my pension as we didn't have the funds available, so I'll need to spend the rest of the year catching up on that -gulp.

I will be doing my tax returns at the start of next month so hopefully that'll give us a little extra money to put back into our savings or at least help out with all the bills for May and get things back on track.

So, not a particularly successful month, but not a surprising one either as we weren't really expecting to do well.  It would have been nice to put some money into savings and my pension, but I accept that wasn't possible this month what with us enjoying ourselves perhaps a little too much.  All I can say is bring on next month and being able to concentrate on our goals now that the wedding is over.

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.

Wedding Outfit: the Outerskirt

So, this was the last sewing part of my wedding outfit to do.  I knew this one was going to be a bit of a head scratcher, but I had a very specific image I wanted to at least attempt to achieve. Originally I wanted to get secondhand curtains or table cloth, but after a lot of searching I couldn't find what I was looking for so I ended up buying from a local shop which stocks end of line products.  

As I wanted the scallops which run along the bottom of the curtains to run along the bottom as the skirt I needed to be accurate with the length.  This would also mean that, rather than just cutting the pieces out, I would need to put darts along the top of the pieces to get that shape.  I used the pattern pieces from the fantail skirt to help me get the same shape. 

First, I measured the length of the skirt (adding on the seam allowance) and transferred this onto the pattern pieces.  Then I pinned the scallop edge along the measured edge, pinned up along the sides, and then placed in darts at the top before cutting out the fabric.  I sewed up the darts to hold them into place, though these didn't hold particularly well due to the fabric.  

I sewed up the side seams, using a run and fell seam to give it some extra strength, and then used the same waistband pattern for the skirt I cut out a waistband piece.  Once I'd sewed the band on I realized that the darts on the front panel were going the wrong way, so I had to unpick this section and resew it with the darts the right way this time.  I hemmed the seam, with it running down into the skirt as I wanted to waistband to remain more clean looking.  The way these curtains are made the fabric doesn't actually need hemming as it doesn't fray.  However, as all the seams are visible from the outside I wanted them to be neat.  

Before I started making this I had thought that I'd leave the two skirts separate, but once it was on I realised that the two could easily separated whilst we are doing all our activities on the day..  So I sewed the two waistbands together with a top stitch.  Unfortunately, since doing this I noticed that the scallops at the front of the skirt are no longer flush with the bottom of the skirt.  I think it's due to the seam around the waist band which has could have lifted the fabric, so I'm going to iron it and hopefully that'll flatten this down.

And that's it, the last item I needed to sew for the big day.  The only thing left to make for the outfit was a shawl, which I've now knitted so it is complete.  Now all I need to do is work out hair and makeup, should be interesting.

Wedding Outfit: the Top

There was a very particular style that I was wanting for my wedding top and it has been so stuck in my head that I didn't want to produce anything else.  There was a lot of searching online for the right pattern, but, even though the style is quite simple, I just couldn't find one that looked quite right.  I did, however, find a blog that described how to make something similar to what I was looking for (Off-the-shoulder Ruffle Top by We All Sew) and decided I would use this as the starting point for the design I wanted.

This top was to be an off the shoulder top and part of the look that I was going for was to have lace along the top and around the shoulders.  However, I couldn't quite work out how I was going to make that work on a top that needed wasn't going to have any fastenings and which would hopefully be able to take some movement.  Then I realised that there is actually elastic lace out there, so I headed over to Minerva (which is fastly becoming my go to shop for everything sewing related).  When it arrived in the post it was actually much more beautiful than I thought it was going to be and it has the stretch it needs whilst still sitting really nicely along my skin.  The rest of the top was made up using the cotton bed sheets I had used to make the skirt with, but which I had put aside before dying.

My plan was to just draw the pattern straight onto the fabric and then cut it out from there, but I got a bit nervous about that so I decided to draw it out on paper first.  As I don't have any pattern paper but do have a lot of paperwork from when I did a mini declutter a little while ago I decided to just Sellotape those together and use that instead.  I double checked all of my measurements and then transferred this information onto the paper adding a 1.5cm seam allowance.  And yes, that is a bowl you see that I used to help me draw the circular sections underneath the arms.

The information on the website I edited this pattern from tells you to put out the front and back pieces exactly the same.  However, I have a small back and relatively large chest, so this would mean that the top wouldn't actually sit properly on my and would end up showing off my bra at the front of the arm holes.  To counter act this I increase the width of the front piece and reduced the width of the back piece, so I now have two pattern pieces which make up the main body of the top.

I started by sewing up the side seams of the body to check the fit and, once I was satisfied with this, did a run and fell seam along these sides and tidied up the edges of the arms.  It was then time to work out what size I wanted the lace section to be and where exactly on my shoulders I wanted it to sit.  I originally sewed up the lace based on measurements I took of my shoulders, but it was too lose so I tightened it a little.  

Next up was attaching the main body to the lace trim and, I'm not going to lie, this did take quite a while.  Firstly, the lace needed to sit a lot further down the top than I originally thought it would need to.  Even when I got this right and had sewn it all together it still didn't sit right and I had to unpick it and try and fit more of the cotton fabric into the lace.  As you have to stretch the lace to work the non-stretching cotton in I was worried that having to do this repeatedly would over- stretch elastic in the lace so that it no longer functioned properly.  Thankfully though, this wasn't the case and the top now fits exactly how I wanted it to.  

The last thing was to check the length of the top and then hem it with the basic fold over twice and sew method.

Now that it's all finished I am very happy with the results.  I am a little worried that I've now made the lace a little bit too tight, but we'll see how it goes.  I'll try it on again a little closer to the time and make any changes I need to then.  It feels good to have ticked off something else on the list of things I need to craft for the wedding.  Whilst I was making this top I was also making the matching masks we wanted to have just in case things changed with the pandemic again.  So now what's left it the lace overskirt, my partner's tie, and knitting my shawl.  I'm getting here, which is great and is making me feel a whole lot less stressed than I was before.

February 2022 Budget

Well February didn't exactly go to plan, and even that statement is probably an understatement.  The main issue has been that I got ill two weeks in a row, firstly with a sinus infection and then with an unknown illness where I just felt weak and tired (and which has actually been coming on for a few months now).  I've also had to take some time off work to get blood work, etc done to try and work out what has been happening (the conclusion being so far that we don't know) and the weather this month hasn't helped either.  To finish it all, my partner was made redundant at the end of February - always good.  So what did we actually managed to do in February.

I have managed to make payments into my credit card as I had hoped and some payments into my pension, though not the full amount planned.  Deciding to pay £50 a week instead of £200 a month into my pension has made a whole lot of difference though, probably because it seems a lot more manageable.  I'm going to try and up the amounts I pay each week in the future until I'm back on track with my totals (I seem to remember this happening last year 😂).  I've decided to pay off the last of the credit card with my savings as the interest I get on my savings is less than what I get charged for my credit card.  I'm going to keep it as  debt though and just pay back into my savings instead.

Not going to lie, it isn't just me earning less this month that's been the problem.  We've spent much more on takeaway then we should have done as the 'one takeaway /eating out a week' flew out the window.  We've also spent a little more than we should have on just things, though a couple of payments have been on some travelling we're needing to do in March, such as for job interviews.  One plus is that I've had to spend less on fuel this month as my work has been closer to home in February.  All other expenses have pretty much remained the same as usual.  We have had some more wedding spending to do, but thankfully we have savings to cover that.

The lack of income and higher outgoings than there should have been means that we haven't put any money into savings like we were supposed to do.  On the savings and sinking funds front, we've decided to move money from our four months emergency fund to fully pay our car repairs and Christmas sinking funds.  That way we know we don't have to worry about those anymore, especially as our car is very old now, in case work remains low for the next few months.  It also means we now only have one thing to focus on in the future.  

As for next month, money is going to be a little bit tight and we are going to have to be very careful with where our money is going.  It's pretty unlikely that we'll actually reach our financial goals this quarter, but that's fine - we'll manage.  I will try to find some extra hours at work to cover our outgoings and if we need to go on a diet of beans and rice for a bit I'm sure that won't be a problem.  I'm also pretty sure my partner will find a new job very soon, he's good at that.  My hope is that we don't need to eat into our savings any more than we have already and just work on building it up again once our earnings have gone up again.