September 2023 Budget

Despite my hope at the end of last month, September has basically been the same as August, with us still going completely mad when it comes to food.  It doesn't help that there have been a few things going on this month and I haven't been particularly well so haven't had the energy I needed to really concentrate on our spending.  We've also been trying some new recipes just to add a bit more interest to our eating and they always contain expensive ingredients (why do they do that), but if we like them I'll be adapting them for future use.

All our other spending and bills have pretty much been the same as always, with me still being able to keep my mobile bill down to about a third of what it was at the start of the year.  We have spent about a quarter more on our fuel as we've been needing to do a bit more travelling due to family, but that should reduce again over the next couple of months.

We have started to do a little bit of Christmas spending as I work out what type of crafting I want to do for our Christmas cards this year.  I'm actually starting a lot later than I normally do when it comes to making these, but I should still have enough time before they have to be sent out.   We have also managed to keep our personal spending down again.  In fact, we have underspent again this month which is really, really good and a good habit to have developed.

We've also managed to put some more money into our four-month savings.  Not as much as I would have liked and had originally planned for us to do, but as we have already managed to reach our goal for this year anything we put in now is a bonus that helps us reach our long-term goal a lot sooner. 

As seems to be a running trend with us, food spending is where we have a problem.  We did try to do the cash spending again to curb it, but it didn't really work this time.  Partly because we kept forgetting the purse which contained the money and ended up also spending on the card, but also because we just enjoy our food.  This is something we still need to work on for the rest of the year to try and break this habit, especially as we don't know what my earnings are going to be after October.  We are going away in October, but the plan is to really work on our spending in the three weeks that we are home to help build up some good habits and to allow us to put more money into our savings.

Walking: Failing at a local walk

I was a little ill a while ago and one of the things I like to do when I'm recovering is to go for a bit of a walk to help stretch my body out after being stuck indoors for a few days and to get some fresh air into my sinuses and lungs.  I had previously thought about taking a walk in the mountain, but then the sensible part of my brain realised that probably be a bit too much to start with and I decided to go on a local walk instead.

I did think that a local walk would be easy enough to plan and do, especially after having a good look at my OS map (and a quick check on the app to make sure it was up to date).  However, it didn't exactly go to plan.  In fact, it didn't go to plan at all.  Firstly, the path I had originally planned to take was closed, which I had kind of expected as there has been a lot of infrastructure done to the area due to the large road works taking place and they have been doing some work on changing the way the water drains off the hills onto the road (or not onto the road).  But then the second route I tried to take was also blocked by a lot of fencing and, I'm guessing, the same work that had shut off the first.  However, the weird thing about this path block is that there was a new footpath sign there pointing in the direction you can no longer, not just on one place but two.  This is a little bit confusing.

After skirting around the fencing I got onto a bike way, which I followed in the same direction I had originally planned on going in the hope it would get me to the path I had mapped out earlier.  There was a stile at this part so I thought that this path at least was still accessible.  However, this also turned out to not be the case.  The route was relatively easy to find, but there were a number of places were there had obviously been stiles at one point, but they weren't there anymore.  I did double check to make sure I was one one of the public footpaths as I never like walking on someone's private land when there is no established path there, but it all matched up and I also wasn't the only person walking that route that day as there was also a couple also trying following a map.  We got through the section but did, unfortunately, end up right outside someone's house.  This is never where you want to end up, but we were able to get back onto the road and out of their way pretty quickly.

I had planned on having a relatively long walk that day, but after the complications of the morning I decided to just call it for that day and try again at some other time.  When I got home I did double check the route again and do some searches to see if there was any information on the changes being made to the area, but couldn't find any.  It was a little bit frustrating, not due to the possible changes in route and access, but because the information about these possible changes were not readily available.  I'm not sure if it's worth contacting the local authority to find out what is happening as I don't want to make the same mistake again in the future and I'm obviously not the only one making this mistake.  Hopefully the next time I attempt to go for a local walk I'll have a bit of a better outcome.

August 2023 Budget

This month has been a bit of an interesting month financially as not only did we have a few things going on, but it was also a five weeks month which means there's a bit of an overlap with some of the bills.  So, how did it go?

Our standard bills have basically remained the same as always, though as our gas usage was pretty low this month which should hopefully mean that we won't need to put much, if any, money towards it in September.  I've also been able to reduce my mobile bill a bit more as well, using the We Are 8 app, so I'm now paying around £20 per month less than I was before - which actually works out at about £1000 a year so I'd say it was a little work well spent.

We also managed to do well on our eating out/ takeaway budget, keeping within the limits of what we'd given ourselves.  This is quite a satisfying outcome for us as it's one of the areas I wanted us to focus on this month.  I have to admit it has been particularly helped by the fact that we haven't had too many days off together this month, but we have also been a little more mindful of what we're spending and Ed has helped by doing the cooking on the days I really haven't had the will to, which is when we would have normally just gotten takeaway.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for our grocery spending, which has been over budget again and I know exactly who the culprit is - snacking.  Our weekly shops fit into the budget just fine, but it's the spending on additional food that we do on an almost daily basis that is taking us over budget.  So I need to decide whether I just bite the bullet and buy the snacking things with our general grocery shop, greatly bringing down the price as we'd be buying in bulk but with the possibility I'd eat most of it in one go, or we remove snacking almost completely.  The second option is obviously the more preferable and has the additional benefit of being good for our health, but is probably a bit unrealistic.  Fuel was also been a little higher this month as we took a trip to Devon to see family, but only by about £30 so it's not really anything to worry about.

On another positive, I did manage to put more money into my pension again this month (always good), and we managed to do well with our personal spending again.  There were two spends we haven't been able to prepare for.  One was me needing to get some antivirus software for my new laptop and the other was Ed needing to buy some more shoes as his others gave up the ghost.  I have noticed that I've become more mindful again when it comes to buying things and I've even written a list of the things I know I want to get in the future with how much I think the items will be.  I'll be spacing out buying these over the next few months and depending on what I've already spent that month.  We have done a bit of spending on the holiday we'll be taking in October, mostly on accommodation, but we like to get these things all booked in advanced so we don't need to worry about it when the time comes and it spreads the cost.  

We have also managed to put some more money into our savings account.  It's not as much as I was hoping, but still a good amount and, seeing as our spending hasn't been too bad this month, I'm not sure we could have actually been able to put anymore in.  We've already passed our goal this year of saving a third of the total amount any way, so anything extra that goes in is a bonus that goes a long way to helping us reach our overall goal sooner.

So it hasn't been too bad a month really.  We succeeded in most of the things we had planned to do we just need to work on our food spending a little bit more.  I am wondering if we need to go back to cash spending on the groceries again to help us curb this as that definitely worked well the last time we tried it.  If we do that over September it will hopefully reset us back into spending less and help get this little section back under budget, which means more into savings.  As when we get paid has now changed I'm thinking about changing how our weeks run so that instead of running Saturday to Friday we are now going to the usual Monday to Sunday, which for some reason feels a lot easier to work with - though I don't really know why.  This does mean that the first week in September will be nine days long instead of seven.  It also means that I'll be doing the budgets on a Sunday now instead of a Friday, which makes my end of the work week a little more relaxing.

Do I Project Pan Again?

I stopped doing project pans a couple of years ago as I had finally down sized my makeup bag to a size where I was using all the products I had quite happily and didn't really feel like I had any surplus that I needed to worry about.  However, I have noticed that recently that I haven't actually warn any makeup in the last few months.  Not that that's a problem at all, but it does make me wonder about whether or not I really need all the products that I now have left.  Having a quick nosy through my bag did make me realise that I probably now have too many products for the amount of makeup I actually wear.

So, I've decided to bring back the project pan for the rest of this year to see if there are any products that I either don't want anymore or that just need to be thrown out.  It is very unlikely that I will actually finish any products in the next four months, but it would be good to get through the liquid items at least before they go bad.  I then need to decide, if I carry on using makeup, what products I want to replace them with as they might not get used very often.

I don't actually have that many liquid products, but the ones that I do want to get through are my concealers, Barry M's All Night Long Full Coverage Concealer.  I had brought Oatmeal first and then realised that it is way too light for me, even in winter, and so I also got Almond.  I tend to mix the two for my under eyes and use Almond on it's own for other areas on my face.  In the future I want to have a powder form of concealer, just for the longevity of it, but I think it might be difficult to find one without mica in it.  Obviously I'll just be working my way through the mascara, but I never keep more than one of those anyway.

Then there are the lipsticks, of which I have three.  They are all different variations of red, which is pretty much the only lipstick colour I wear at the moment, and whilst there are perfectly good reasons as to why I have three it seems a little bit silly to continue having three.  One did unfortunately get ruined in the heat (my Memi Luxe Lipstick in Old Flame) and, though I have tried to carry on using it as I love the colour so much, it's probably time to just let it go as it's just too messy to use.  I think once these are all gone I'll look into just owning a red lip pencil instead as that'll be easier to keep in the long run.

As for the dry products, I'll definitely be keeping the one eyeshadow I own (Urban Decay Solstice) as I just love this colour and how it looks on.  I'll also keep the eyeliner as I only have one of those.  However, I do think that four Tarte blushes, even though I also use them as eyeshadows, is probably a little excessive, especially as I'm pretty certain I don't reach for all of them.  I'm definitely not going to be able to use any of them up in the next few months, but I can decide whether or not I like the colours and get rid of the ones I don't.  I can't see myself needing to replace these anytime soon.

The last items I wanted to make a decision on are the solid mascara and my highlighter.  I really wanted to love the Bain and Savon Vegan Cake Mascara, but I just haven't been able to keep it on my lashes.  I just seem to end up with panda eyes, probably because my eye lids are so oily.  I do want to see if I can use it as a form of liquid eye liner, but I think I'll just have the same panda eyes problem so this might be a product that just has to go.  I've had my the Balm Mary-Lou Manizer for quite a while now as well and this is a product that's had quite a beating.  I do also use this as an eyeshadow, but I'm not sure if using a highlighter is still something that I want to do.  As with the other products this is unlikely to be something I can use up by the end of the year, but I will be able to decide if it's something I want to keep.

And that's it, this isn't really going to be a use up project pan, more of a what do I really not want /likely to keep using anymore project.  I should hopefully end up with a very basic kit by the end of it which I don't have to worry about going off anytime soon.  That way it can be there for when I want to use it with the knowledge that I probably won't be reaching for it very often.  Once I've decided on how much that is I should probably look at my makeup brushes.  I am glad that makeup has never been something I've felt I've had to wear to feel good about myself, but I do enjoy using it when I want to.  I just don't want to own this much of it anymore. 

Being a Tourist 2023

Now that we are properly settled in here in Wales it's a good time to really start exploring what there is for us to see and do.  We've always felt that we didn't really explore Devon properly when we had the chance and we really don't want to make the same mistakes whilst we're here.  Especially as there is so much for us to see and explore around here.  Obviously, we are still trying to keep our spending low to help with our long-term goals, but we don't want this to be at the complete expense of enjoying ourselves now.  Thankfully, most of what we like doing is free /cheap and we have also been given a Cadw membership as a gift which has opened up even more things we can explore for free.

After doing a little bit of looking around we now have an initial list of places we want to see, walk, and swim around that are close to us, along with a couple of helpful books that will be useful as we're still getting to know the area.  This should make it easier for us to quickly make a decision about what we're going to do when we have time off.  Once we have more of a clue we can start working out our own walks to explore even more of the areas we've gotten to know.   One thing I definitely want to make sure that I do is explore the walks that are right outside our doorstep as it's all too easy to only think about walking in the Beacons, but then I'd be missing out.

As we've just started out we haven't crossed off too many things yet.  There is also the slight issue of our mismatching work shifts which means that we don't get as many days off together as we would like.  Though we would like to visit as many of these places together as we can, there have been some walks that we've done on our own just so we can still get out and see things.  We also want to fit these around learning to surf, but this just means that we have to be a little bit more organised to fit all these in.

Most of the places we've been about to cross off on our 'tourist board' I've already written about, but the most recent one was the Blaenavon Ironworks.  This turned out to be a very enjoyable day and also involved us having a little exploration around Blaenavon itself.  It's actually very close to where we live so I'm not entirely sure why we haven't visited it already.  It's very interesting to see how we use to make iron, but I personally really liked the workers' cottages that were on site and which they had decorated in the different styles of the decades that the cottages were lived in.  They seemed the perfect size for what we would like now, but maybe with a bathroom added on rather than just an outhouse down a lane.  There are a couple more industrial sites we would like to explore near us, especially as these played such an important role to those who lived here in southern Wales.

One thing we want to concentrate a little more on is wild swimming as we haven't done too much of that yet.  The warmer weather that is meant to be coming our way would make this the perfect time to really give this a go.  At least now we have all the equipment that we need to do this comfortably and we can just head out to a spot and enjoy it.  In fact, it would probably fit perfectly with surfing practice.

Walking: Carmarthen Fans and glacial cwms (the Black Mountain area)

I finally got to go on a nice long walk with Ed again, which we haven't really been able to do since moving to Wales.  We've been wanting to walk in the Black Mountain area for a while as we had heard that the views were pretty amazing and it's a less popular area than the central Beacons, meaning that we were much more likely to be able to enjoy a walk without too many other people.  The weather wasn't meant to be particularly great on the day we had planned to do this walk, but we'd worked out this walk would probably take us around 4.5 hours and that's an acceptable amount of time for us to be out in bad weather.

The inspiration for this walk came from the Cicerone book 'Walking in The Brecon Beacons' and we mostly followed the route recommended in it, apart from at the end when we decided to take a more direct route to the car park away from the work happening at Llyn y Fan Fach.  We started at the Llyn y Fan Fach car park and, as the stream was too high for us to cross at the recommended point, headed back along the road to connect with the more southern Beacons Way that leads up to the Bannau Sir Gaer ridge.

There were some steep bits as you head up, but for the most part, this was a very manageable section for us and we didn't feel the need to take a break at any point.  We knew the weather would mean we wouldn't always get a great view, but when we did first get to the ridge of Bannau Sir Gaer we could see down onto Llyn y Fan Fach.  This view was only marginally ruined by all the vans etc that needed to be there and the very dubious myth that's connected to it.

The cloud did come back down again after this and we ended up walking the rest of the ridge surrounded by white and getting quite wet.  However, the path was very obvious and we were pretty confident that we could safely navigate the rest of the ridge so we carried on.  We also quite like walking in these conditions as it's a completely different experience walking whilst being cocooned in the cloud.  You tend to come across a lot fewer people in these conditions as well. 

Despite the lack of views, we were still able to pick out navigational features like the cairn at Picws Du (which is probably a prehistoric funerary monument), and the trig point at Fan Brycheiniog which marked the highest point of this walk.  There are a few paths along this way that head down from the ridge back into the valley, but we stayed at the top until we reached Bwich Gledd and then headed down to Llyn y Fan Fawr.

We hadn't been able to see this lake from the top, but it was a very pretty site once we were there and it also looked like a very good body of water to swim in.  Something we've taken note of for a later trip.  The clouds did of course lift once we had gotten down and we got a much better view of this glacier valley from this point on.  We were both pretty wet by this point, but still nicely warm and just a little less worried about the puddles we were putting our feet into as we headed west following the northern Beacons Way back towards Llyn y Fan Fach.

It was just before reaching Llyn y Fan Fach that we stopped following the route recommended by the book after we had noticed the path that cut off and headed more directly towards the Llyn y Fan Trout and Salmon Hatchery.  Unfortunately, it's the wrong time of year to watch the trout jumping, but it was still a surprisingly pretty spot to look around nonetheless.  

When we had been at the top we had decided that it had been far too windy and wet to stop for a lunch break, and as neither of us was feeling particularly hungry we decided to just keep going until we felt like we needed to eat.  This actually ended up being when we had gotten back to the car and had changed into a set of nice dry clothes that we always keep in the back of our car.  I actually find it surprisingly easy to walk long distances without eating and I don't think I'm alone in that.  There must just be something about walking that shuts everything else off, but you definitely feel very hungry once you do finally stop.

This was a great walk and we enjoyed it despite the lack of views.  The weather didn't put us off, in fact, it meant we got to enjoy it with fewer people than probably would have been there had the weather been great.  It's definitely an area we'd like to explore more of as it feels a little different from the central Beacons where we spend most of our time.  Time to plan some more walks I think, but maybe looking at ones where we can come in from the east as that would be easier for us to get to.  We obviously have to walk straight up the Black Mountain as well at some point, but I feel like that would be a time when I wanted a good clear day.

Sustainable Food Shopping

Just a quick post this time, but I've been sitting staring at the avocados I always feel bad about buying and thinking about why it is so difficult to buy things that are sustainable and ethical.  It seems so easy to just fall back into the old habits of buying things that don't really align with how we are trying to live at the moment. 

Picture taken from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46459714

After re-researching about the emissions, water usage, and general sustainability of the food we eat I felt a lot better about the food choices we're making, especially as greatly reducing your consumption of meat is still the best way of reducing your emissions.  I also felt a lot less guilty about eating avocados (their emissions and water usage isn't great, but is still no where near that produced and used by meat, especially beef) and about eating a plant based diet that has gone a little bit of travelling.  However, whilst we have been picking the best options I would like us to build on that further.

The hardest one is going to be packaging.  I do try and reduce the amount of plastic that comes into our homes, but it seems to be getting harder to find vegetables that aren't all wrapped up.  Not only does that mean bringing home more plastic than I want to, but it also makes it harder to reduce your food waste as you can't just buy only what you need.  Even when I've gone to a greengrocers some of the vegetables are still pre-bagged, but it is definitely much less than in supermarkets which has reminded me that when it comes to buying vegetables it would be better for me to go to the grocers instead.  It's something that I've gotten out of the habit of doing, but could easily pick up again.  On the plus side, and despite not being able to choice the quantity of vegetables that we buy, we are pretty good when it comes to not having a lot of food waste.

Got these from this Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/askingfortrouble

There are also specific styles of food that we like to eat and the recipes we follow don't necessarily have vegetables that are seasonal for us here in the UK.  Whilst the latest research has shown that the distance the food travels isn't the main issue when it comes to carbon emissions, now that we've worked on the other impacts our food could have I'd like to work on the distance it travels as well.  We're pretty lucky in the UK in the fact that there is quite a lot of food that is grown here now and I have a list of what food is in season throughout the year.  Before I had decided I would work out what food was available that month and then work out what we were going to eat from that, but actually I kept finding that a little bit overwhelming.  Now I'm going to do it the other way around.  Once we've decided what meals we want to eat I'm going to look at what vegetables are available then and tweak the recipes to fit that instead.  That should work out a lot better.

So, just a couple of changes that I want to make to how we eat.  Once we've made those into habits than I'll start looking at the way in which we cook our food as that has an impact too, it's just a very small percentage and therefore not the biggest thing to worry about.  Hopefully these little changes are ones that I can make relatively easily.  It should also help us save money as well.