Travelling: Saint Brieuc

We finally got around to properly booking some time away and, because of the ease of getting there, we decided to go to Brittany.  Ed did some research on the area and, based on what we wanted to get out of this holiday which was mostly taking it easy, decided that Saint Brieuc would be a good place for us to stay.  It was somewhere where there were a few things to see but not too many that we would feel like we would need to rush around and see them all, and all of them were reachable either by walking or public transport as we weren't planning on taking the car with us.

As we went with Brittany Ferries we landed in Roscoff, then it was a pretty quick and easy bus and train trip to Saint Brieuc.  It was a Sunday so not too many places were actually open once we'd gotten there, but we still had a while before we could get into our Airbnb so we pottered around getting to know the centre a little bit.  We had decided not to take our rucksacks this time, but instead put everything in one big bag on wheels.  Whilst it prevented our backs from getting all sticky it was a bit of a pain to pull around and we definitely packed much more than we actually needed, so maybe we'll need to re-think that next time we go anywhere.  We did get a few groceries though and then got settled into the apartment we had rented.  The place had everything we needed, but the shower wasn't as good as I had been hoping.

The plan was to have Monday as a slow day where we didn't really do anything so it was probably just as well that that ended up being the day that I got my usual holiday sickness.  I'm not entirely sure what it is about travelling, but I always end up with a cold of some form for a least one day.  Maybe it's just all the new people and viruses that I come across, but I'm glad it happened that day as it normally happens nearer the end of the holiday.  It also meant that Ed had to go out and do all the sorting and food buying that I would normally have done.  In fact, this holiday he actually got to experience what our holidays look like from my side rather than his.

Tuesday was the one day where the weather was meant to be pretty good throughout, so that was the day that we decided to go visit the La Baie de Saint-Brieuc Nature Reserve.  We got a bus to Hillion and then walked the very short distance to where there was a hide.  We ended up being the only people there and the views of the bay and salt marshes were really good.  Unfortunately, we were a bit off with the tide which meant that the waders were too far away from us, even when using my binoculars.  There was still a good selection of waterfowl though and it was nice realising that I did still recognise most of them.  We also realised that we would be able to walk back to Saint Brieuc on a route that mostly stayed by the coast.  It ended up being three hours long and my legs and feet definitely felt it by the end, probably not helped by me still being a little bit ill, but it was still a really good way to get back home and it helped give my body an airing after being couped up whilst travelling and being ill indoors.

Wednesday was our city day where we had a look at the local market, looked around the museum (small but with quite a lot of information mostly on old local trades and crafts), a quick look in the tourist information centre, and then walked the city tour they have that shows you the significant historical buildings of the city.  The tour was actually my favourite bit, though we hadn't originally planned on doing it, and we got to see some amazing 17th-century and 18th-century buildings.  I'm not sure if they would have been originally painted in the colours they now are but it definitely made the interesting carvings stand out.  I haven't been to too many places in the UK where we have these types of buildings still standing, so it was interesting to see so many of them here.  We also found a very tasty, vegan restaurant (La Vegetalerie) to have lunch in and get in some much-needed vegetables.

We had already decided that Thursday was going to be the more relaxed day with some more walking and headed off to the port through La Vallee de Gouedic Park which runs right through the centre of Saint Brieuc.  It's within quite a steep valley with lots of trees and is actually a very nice and relatively quiet walk despite being right in the centre of the city.  The port wasn't all that exciting to see, though it did look like it had some nice cafes and bars, and we did our usual boat looking.  However, we did head back pretty quickly after arriving and used that time to start packing everything up ready for travelling back to the UK.

The next two days were basically travelling days with some time in Roscoff.  We headed to Roscoff on Friday morning and pottered around for a bit looking for some presents for family and friends, as well as some stuff for us we really didn't need but wanted until we could book into our hotel.  We were actually able to book in pretty early on in the day, which was just as well as I was feeling particularly tired that day and was more than happy to just get into bed as soon as we got into the room.

Before we caught the ferry on Saturday we did manage to visit the little church that we had seen from afar the last time we were there but didn't get to go to.  You can't actually get into the building and it would be much too small to hold services in, but its location meant that fishermen are able to see it when they're heading out to sea.  We had decided to get a cabin on the trip back, even though this one wasn't an overnight trip, and I'm glad we did as it meant we were able to get some extra sleep in especially during the stormiest sections.  The trip had already been delayed a little due to the stormy weather, but there is something quite nice about being rocked around whilst lying in bed.

So, this wasn't a packed trip but we did get what we were hoping for, which was to see more of Brittany without rushing around and to get the downtime we both needed.  Where we were did mean that I ended up eating much more gluten and dairy than I would normally, even with us cooking our own food at night, but it was worth it to have those lovely warm croissants every morning which Ed very kindly went out and got every time.  We also spent a lot more money than we should have done, especially on food and despite cooking for ourselves at night, but I did think that was probably going to happen based on how we are about food.  Brittany is definitely an area we would return to, but I think we'll try a different location with a little more to do next time. 

Crafting 2023 Update #3

It's been a pretty steady quarter when it comes to getting some crafting done.  I haven't exactly stuck to what I had planned to do this year, with a few extra projects creeping in, and I think a few projects will be moving over to next year, but as I'm crafting for fun I'm not too bothered about it.

Completion and Use-Up Projects.

There are still a couple of projects to do on this list, but they are ones that will take a little while to do, especially the top, and I need to find some time that I can just set aside for them.  However, I am still planning on getting these done by the end of 2023.

The Maggie and Coddy Jumpers.

I have now finished the Coddy jumper for my husband.  I'd never knitted with cotton yarn before and it feels very different on the needles and through the fingers.  I will have to see how the loose threads do as they don't bind in the same way that wool does, but I'll just keep an eye on those.  Otherwise, I am very happy with how this has turned out and will now start working on my own jumper, which happily means going back to good old wool.

More Socks.

Not exactly surprising as these don't take too long to make, but I've finished the socks that my friend requested and I think they turned out pretty well.  Apparently, they also fit quite well, which I'm surprised at as I didn't really have their measurements to work from.

Double Knit Shawl and Jumper (2793).

One of Ed's friends is having a baby and when we were in a craft shop I came across some wool and knitting patterns that were on sale.  So, it seemed like a match made in heaven and a good enough reason to go all granny and make them a baby shawl.  There was also the extra wool to make the world's tiniest jumper, which is taking almost no time at all to make.  So I've now decided that this is the only size of jumper I'm going to make in the future.  If anyone requests a jumper I'm just going to make this tiny version of it and send that to them instead.

Field of Fucks Cross-stitch.

By Fandom Cross Stitchery

I now have all the material I need to make this and I'm looking forward to getting back into cross-stitching.  I don't think it's going to take me too long to do either, so I should get this finished by the end of the year ready to start the New Year with the right type of sentiment.

Quilling.

This is a craft I did when I was much younger and I'm thinking I'm going to give it a go for our Christmas cards this year.  I'm hoping they don't take me too long to do as I am starting them quite late, but I'm just going to not put too much pressure on myself and enjoy revisiting this hobby, we can always buy the other cards if we need to.

I actually hadn't planned on doing as much crafting this year as last, but I seem to have done just as much.  I do really enjoy creating things, but it does mean that I'm not doing other things I enjoy, like reading.  It's unlikely that I'll get around to sewing the trousers and dress I had planned to do this year, but I don't exactly need them so they can wait until next year which is probably going to be a year of sewing in the way this year seems to have been the year of knitting.  Anything clothes-wise that I make now is just for me to enjoy rather than filling in my wardrobe.  If I do finish what I have planned for this year I will be very happy.

Goals 2023 Update#3

I had planned on being more focused on my goals this quarter to get a number of them ticked off, but then life happened and I didn't get as far forward as I had hoped.  It is a little frustrating, but I've still managed to plod along quite well and get a number of them done.  It just means that I will need to really concentrate on them for these last three months.

Financial.

•  Four months emergency fund - I'm happy to say we're still putting money into our savings and we've already reached our 2023 goal of saving a third of our long-term goal.  In fact, it's looking like we'll be able to save half of it by the end of this year so I'm very pleased with that.
• Sinking funds - these have all been reached and we are now getting to spend these on their intended purpose.  It does feel a little weird spending them as part of you just wants to hoard what you've saved, but it also takes the worry or guilt out of spending on these things.  
• Pension and personal spending - I am still putting 12.5% of my earnings into my pension and it looks like I'll be able to carry on doing that until the end of the year.  It is a very nice feeling knowing that my pension is finally growing properly.  We've also finally managed to curb our personal spending and keep to the budgets we've put in place.  In fact, we've been underspending recently which means we should be able to put even more into our savings or, at least, not reduce what we're putting in when we need to spend on other things.
• Changing my bank account - I've decided to wait until my current contract is over before swapping over to a new bank as there isn't much longer to go and it seems it would be less complicated.
• Secondary income - I still need to work on this, but right now I'm concentrating on finding another primary income.  The biggest issue I have here is that I'm just not sure what other skills I have to help with a secondary income, I really need to try and work that out.

Learning New Skills.

• Skateboarding - we have managed to fit in some skateboarding practice, but not nearly as much as we wanted to.  We've found a good spot and I do feel that it's starting to click, but we've just been really lazy about it.
• Surfing - we've had another surf lesson and have been told that we don't need to have any further lessons just yet.  It's been suggested that we practice surfing for a bit and then book another lesson when we want to progress to the next stage.  Now all we need to do is find times when we are both off so we can hire some boards and practice.
• Sailing - this is still on the back burner for now and will be something we look into in the future, hopefully not too far away.

So, it's not going too badly really but, obviously, I could have done better if I'd put a little bit more effort into it.  I am still quite happy with what we've done so far though, mainly as it's been helping us become more financially stable.  Just the last quarter of the year to go now and the plan is to change my bank account, get another primary job (and then make a decision on the secondary income), skateboard six more times, and get a few surfing practices in before the end of the year.  Some of this needs to fit around Ed's work schedule though, but hopefully, it'll be doable. 

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.