Low Spend July 2024

Having just returned from our holiday, and having behaved like a total spendthrift for the past few months, it seemed like a good time to embark on a Low Spend month. 

I don't know if I've done one of these before, at least not for a long time anyway. Since starting my current job, I've been enjoying having disposable income to do with as I wish, but I can't really go on doing that month after month, I need to take control of my finances again, start saving and building up some reserves, as you never know what is coming down the line.

There are a few things on the horizon too, that I will need some cash for. LB needs a bit more financial help during her last year of Uni, and I want to do what I can to help her. She also desperately needs some new (to her, we'll probably buy second hand) trainers, which I've offered to buy for her. She's hoping to get a summer job, but if she can't I may also need to help her with her overdraft, so putting a bit of money aside would be very useful at the moment.

I have been putting some money aside this year, in Premium bonds or savings, and I have been putting aside money for Xmas and birthday gifts, so I've built up a bit of cash for that and did not actually use it when OH's birthday came around, so it will mainly go towards Xmas and LB's next birthday in January 2025, and I'm going to continue to do that for the rest of the year, but I want to put aside extra cash for LB mainly.

July isn't the best month to do this, as we have a few visitors coming to stay this month, for which I will probably spend a bit more than I usually would, but as I've had a good few months spending way too much money on things that aren't strictly essential, I think I need to just get on and do it and try and get my spending back under control.

I don't intend to go cold turkey on discretionary spending, but I am going to give myself a very strict budget of £100 to spend on anything that is not groceries, entertaining guests or household spending, so this will include anything I buy for the house, the shed or myself. I don't actually need anything at the moment, so hopefully this won't be too much of a challenge. We'll just have to see how things go. I'll keep you posted.

A Much Needed Holiday in Santorini

On Sunday last, we flew out to Santorini in the Greek Islands for a week for our family summer holiday. The morning was spent finishing off our packing and doing a few last minute jobs before we set off for the airport. OH had been super busy in the weeks leading up to our departure, so it was nice when he had finally finished work and could switch into holiday mode.

I didn't really know much about Santorini, until LB told us that it was a popular place with 'influencers'. All we knew on booking the holiday was that there was a direct flight from Luton airport and that it was supposed to be a very pretty island. Several people had said to me in the lead up that they'd like to go there, but to be honest, it wasn't a place we'd planned on visiting, it was just a very lucky, randomly chosen holiday due to the convenience of the flights.

We'd booked a lovely villa with a pool, situated on a hillside on the eastern side of the island, but close to the two main towns that holidaymakers visit, Fira and Oia. A lot of cruise ships visit the island and they get up to 10,000 visitors per day/week, can't remember which, but it is a huge number for an island of 16,000 or so inhabitants.

Our villa was built in the style of the old windmills that you see around the island. Here's a couple of pictures:

It was a lovely villa, which accommodated our needs for the holiday. It was up a steep hill, so a car was a must. We spent a lot of time at the villa enjoying the pool and the outdoor and indoor space. It could be quite windy on the hillside, but this made the heat much more bearable. The wind did get a bit more extreme at times though, towards the end of our stay. 

The heat in the Greek Islands is my all time favourite kind of heat, dry but punctuated with sea breezes. Talking of the sea, as you can see from the photo, we had a fantastic view of the sea too. It was so relaxing to have breakfast outside in the morning and look out at that view. 

There was a lovely little beach bar and restaurant a couple of miles down the road which served very good food. We ate there twice and the service was very good. I didn't count calories all holiday, as I needed a complete break from it. I ate lots of meat dishes and just enjoyed eating a bit of everything.

The sunsets that Santorini is famous for occur on the western side of the island, but here we got great sunrises and I managed to catch one, one morning:

We did, of course, go to see the sunset too, but avoided the very crowded viewpoints in the two towns I've already mentioned, instead choosing to catch it from a hiking trail between the two:

We did visit the towns of Fira and Oia. Fira was the more commercial of the two with many tourist shops and crowded streets filled with visitors. We enjoyed walking around and there is a cable car to take you up from the port there, as the cliff is very steep. We didn't go down to the port though. 

We did visit the Museum of Pre-History here, which was very interesting and contained artefacts found in a very important archeological site on Thira (the main island of Santorini) at Akrotiri. This site is supposed to date from Minoan times (2000-3000BC) and was buried under volcanic ash following an eruption thousands of years ago.

Another day, after spending the afternoon on the Black Beach, a black volcanic sand beach not far from the archeological site, we visited Akrotiri, where you can see the buildings that have been unearthed. It was very interesting, especially after having previously visited Crete and Pompeii. The buildings were very sophisticated considering how old they are.

One day, we also visited Oia, which is a very beautiful town. We began our visit by entering into this church in the main square, which had very ornate decoration inside, which we were not able to photograph, but it was incredibly beautiful. 

From there we walked through the lovely cobbled streets and down the many steps to the harbour, where we caught this little ferry to the island of Thirasia. 

This is a much smaller island, with a very traditional and simple way of life. The ferry was so affordable at 1 euro each way. The crossing was a little rough going, but was fun.

Once there, we got a taxi to a little village where we had lunch in a restaurant and then returned to the ferry terminal where there was a little beach. We laid on sunbeds there, paddled in the water and watched the activity of incoming ferries and water taxis before catching the last ferry back to the main island. It was a lovely afternoon and we were so glad that we went. Here's a picture of Oia taken from the ferry: 

You can see how high above the port the main town is and how far we had to walk down to catch the ferry. We got a taxi back up to the car park, as there was no cable car here, just donkeys or your own feet to carry you. The town is very beautiful though with some lovely shops and restaurants, but gets very busy at sunset and through most of the day in high season. 

Between the towns of Fira and Oia is a hiking route. It is a very beautiful and scenic route with fantastic views. One day OH and I went along part of it, he running, me walking, as it was quite hilly in parts and uneven under foot. The views were amazing, and as you get into Fira some of the hotels and villas are so beautiful, if a little exposed to the path, which many people walk. I thoroughly enjoyed this walk and here's a few photos from it:

We also visited the traditional village of Megalohori, which had free underground caves you could visit underneath the houses. This village was apparently abandoned after the most recent volcanic eruption in 1956, but has in more recent years become re-populated. It is a very pretty village, but very steep in parts.

There was also a beautiful botanic garden and music and mythology centre here called the Symposium, where we stopped for a drink in the shade of beautiful mulberry trees. They do workshops here too.

We had a very special holiday on the island. The food was good and the people very hospitable. There was probably much more we could have done, but we did enjoy what we did see and also made sure to make plenty of time to just relax. It has definitely left me with the urge to visit many more of the Greek islands in the future.

Ups and Downs - W/E 22nd June 2024

This post is a bit late, but I forgot to post it before we went away on holiday for a week, but here goes.  The week started with a long shift at work on Sunday. It was the first time I'd worked from 10.30am on a Sunday. Quite a few staff were off due to the fact that it was the first day of Eid Mubarak, so I was required to work extra hours. It was a pity that I had to work on Father's Day, but OH had gone out cycling for the morning, so at least he was doing something he enjoys. I left some gifts on the kitchen table for him, one of which was this vintage picture of a dog that looks remarkably like ours, god rest her little soul.  He liked it thankfully.

Work was super busy, but at least I got a lunch break and then had to do some online training. I was super glad to go home at 6pm though, after what felt like a long shift. When I got home, OH had finished putting in the flooring in the shed, which looked great.  

On Monday, I was due at work again from 1pm until 5pm. This meant that I had to do the weekly shop locally, which was no bad thing, save that I found the staff in local stores to be rude. I had to skip my morning run, as I just didn't have enough time this Monday.

Once I'd done the shopping and put everything away, it was time to get ready and go to work. This was hopefully my last shift for a couple of days, so I was looking forward to the break, as it had been a busy weekend work wise. Work wasn't the best shift I've had. I think I'm really in need of a holiday. It's been a bit of a grind lately. I've also been eating a lot, possibly emotional eating, but luckily I've not put weight on. OH thinks I've probably not been eating enough over the last few months, which possibly might be true.  Anyway, I was in bed by 9pm on Monday night. I think work had caught up with me. Luckily, my back has resolved itself.  Thank you for the concern expressed.

On Tuesday I had a day off thankfully. I was booked into my class as usual. I had a bit of time before setting off, so I pottered in the garden and picked the few blackcurrants that were ripe. I'll make them into jam when I've got a few more other fruits to add to them. I may have to freeze them for now. We're down to our last couple of jars of jam that I've made from previous harvests and foraging, so hopefully we won't run out completely if I can get out and about harvesting brambles this summer. It will be strange going without the dog. She was always so patient when I stopped on walks to forage. I'm feeling a bit low this week. I think her loss is hitting me harder as time goes on. At least the weather seemed a bit better this week, which was welcome.

I also did a bit of online banking and getting my finances up to date before heading to my class. The class itself was good. Afterwards, I walked down into the town centre to do a few errands. In the afternoon, I made us a beef stew with dumplings for supper and after supper OH and I headed down to the allotment to water and harvest soft fruit. We met our new neighbours who have taken on the plot next door to us. They have made inroads to the weeds and brambles that had taken over since it was given up.

On Wednesday, I had another day off work, so I went out for a run in the morning. It was fairly slow. When I got back, OH was out, so I pottered a little, had some lunch and then I took myself back to the allotment to clear the paths around our plot. There's an inspection coming up very soon, so it was as good a time as any to get it done. Here's a couple of photos of the cleared paths:

It took a couple of hours of shuffling along on my bottom rooting out the weeds between pavers with my special tool, which is invaluable for this job. Hopefully, this will suffice as our contribution, as we're away on holiday when there's a group gathering to tidy up the site.

On Wednesday night, I decided to do a bit of re-organising in the sewing room. I had bought some boxes to store my fabric in, but hadn't yet put some of them into use, so I started with that. Once I'd done that, I realised that I had a whole spare shelf in the alcove, as the boxes condensed everything and took up less space.  

As a consequence, I decided to put my craft books back on the shelf. They'd been housed in a bookcase that used to be in LB's bedroom, but when she no longer needed it, I took it and put it in front of the fireplace in the sewing room. To be honest, it was taking up valuable space in this room, which is already small, so it felt good to move everything back onto the shelves and mantle piece. The book case I decided to donate to the next Zero Waste event which was taking place a few days later. 

I needed to do a bit of vacuuming of the fireplace, as it was very dusty and there were lots of cobwebs, but it was nice to uncover it again. Just doing these two small things did make more space in the room, which felt good.

On Thursday, I got up and did some weights first thing. I thought about going to the gym, but wasn't feeling it. Besides, I've got the weights, dumbells and kettlebells I need to work out at home now. 

After breakfast, OH and I decided to pick most of the cherries on our tree in the garden, so we got the ladders out and picked as many as we could. There was a nice bowlful, which is plenty for me, as I'm the only one who eats them.

I decided to supplement the weights this morning by going for a walk. I was out for about an hour and covered about 4km or 6,000 steps. I have to admit that it was difficult in that I was walking in places that I used to walk with our dog and I found it very upsetting. I might need to try to walk in different locations that aren't so familiar to avoid this in future. I'm sure I'll get less upset as time goes by, but at the moment, it's still very triggering. It was nice to get outside in the sunshine though.

I stopped off at my favourite mulberry tree in the park whilst out on the walk and I ate quite a few mulberries that were ripe. There was so much fruit on the tree, much more than on my mulberry tree at home, but many of them weren't yet ripe.

After lunch, I spent an hour or so pottering about upstairs, putting laundry away, etc., then it was time to get showered and ready for work.

On Friday, we had arranged to go and collect LB and her vast amount of stuff, from her Uni halls in South London. I always enjoy going to bring her home for the summer. It's lovely to have her home for a while. OH and I set off in the car at around 10 am, after the majority of commuting traffic had died down. It felt like a long journey to get there. 

Luckily, LB had packed up most of her stuff already, so OH could straight away put it all in the car. I helped to pack what was left and started cleaning the room, as she was due an inspection with regard to returning her deposit.  By the time we'd finished the room looked better than when she moved in.

LB's stuff had increased over the year, so OH had to drive home alone with the car full to the front seat, and LB and I caught public transport home across London. We got lucky with connections though and weren't far behind OH by the time we got home.

The evening was spent sorting out LB's stuff and getting it put away in her bedroom. We got quite a lot done, but there's still boxes and bags everywhere and a lot more sorting to do. It will all get done eventually.

On Saturday morning I was up early to go to my usual free session at the gym.  OH was doing a tip run with lots of rubbish from the garden and building the shed. It was good to get it all cleared away.

I went to my gym session which was good.  When I got home, I got LB up, as she was accompanying me to the latest Zero Waste event. I had quite a few bags of clothes and other items and a bookcase to take this time. We had a little look around whilst there but didn't see anything we wanted. 

On the way home we dropped into the charity shop to drop off another two bags there. This has now cleared the top landing which makes the house feel a lot less cluttered. I can now start collecting stuff together for the next Zero Waste event. 

The remainder of the day was spent getting packed for our summer holiday. We were flying to the Greek Islands the following day for a much needed break.