February 2025 Clothing Purchases

It's been a much better front on spending this month and consequently, there were only a few clothing purchases during February.

The first item I bought was this polka dot ruffle skirt from my favourite charity shop. It is originally from M&S, but cost me just £2. I like the polka dots and the burgundy colour of this skirt, but I am in two minds about the length. I did think I might shorten it to the length of the upper ruffle, which would make it longer at the back than the front, but when I tried it on again I decided not to rush into this, as maybe I like the original length.  The jury is still out on this one, but I like the skirt, it's cute and it was a steal for £2 and could easily be worn year round. I was thinking with chunky boots and a big sweater in winter and with a vest or t-shirt in the summer.

The second item I bought was this super cute handmade dress from a local charity shop. It was reduced to £3 on the sale rail and I just couldn't resist it. It is a little snug and possibly a little short, but I'm working on the former and tights will aide with the latter issue. I really liked the style of dress. The collar and rolled back sleeves are flattering as is the slight flare of the skirt and the print is adorable. I've provided a close up of this, as it's difficult to see in the full length photo. It had a lot of ends of cotton hanging from it, as if it's never quite been finished or worn, so I cut them all off and hopefully I'll actually wear it at some point as it deserves to be worn, it's very well made.

The final item that I bought from another local charity shop was this black vest sweater. It's a good long length and is quite loose and can be worn over dresses/jeans/skirts. It's very versatile, especially as we come into slightly warmer weather. It was a bit pilled, but I did some depilling when I got it home. It also had slits up the sides, which I didn't like, so I've sewn the slits closed as I find it more flattering worn that way. It cost £7, which is a bit more expensive, but if it becomes something I wear a lot it will be worth it.

One way that I have already worn it is over this dress, that I previously bought at a charity shop a few months ago. This dress was a maxi length and didn't look quite right on me so I've shortened it (possibly a little too much), but it is much more wearable now. The vest sweater covers the shirred top of the dress which I don't find too flattering and makes the dress more wearable.

The only other items of clothing I have bought this month were some gym socks. I've tended to wear trainer socks for the gym, but I'm much preferring a longer sock for both gym and running these days, so I'm slowly changing over to longer socks. I bought a pack of 3, two white, one black for £4.50 at Primark and I really like them.

Thankfully, a lot less clothing has come into the house this month, my wardrobe is probably grateful for it, although whilst decluttering a few weeks ago, I did bring some things out of storage to start wearing again. I'm hoping to continue in this vein this year and make good use of what I already have.

Monthly Financial Round Up - February 2025

This month has been much more successful in terms of it being low spend. I've taken care to not buy inessentials on the whole, although a few did slip by me. It has helped that it has been a short month, I can't deny this, but I did drastically reduce my expenditure by over £400 or one third compared to last month, so this has been a big win as far as I'm concerned.

In terms of the budget, I was just about on target for food, a little over, mainly due to meeting some friends for supper at the end of the month, but I'm not going to punish myself over this. I managed to keep well within budget for household and miscellaneous items,  but spent over budget on the house and garden due to buying some new bedding and a new toilet seat, plus a few bits for the garden/home. 

I also spent a little too much on myself, on account of my £25 thrifting budget, which I stuck to. (I haven't really felt the urge to visit the charity shop so often this month, I think because I already have so much stuff in my house that I don't want to bring any more in.) I did, however, succumb to buying a new silver ring I'd been watching on Etsy for a while and a couple of other small items. The main overspend this month, however, was gifting, as I had a 21st birthday gift of money that I gave. This did come out of money I'd already saved up throughout the last year though, which was good.

In terms of putting money aside in savings, I did my usual £100 for gifting, £50 toward a contingency fund for LB, in case her bills turned out to be more than she could afford (I've been doing this for the past 6 months and if it is not needed, I can either give it to her to spend/pay off her overdraft once she's finished Uni, continue to save it for her or use it for something else). In addition, I got the ball rolling this month on the car fund, putting aside £200 for this purpose, another £16 into another savings account to round up the figure in there and put aside £30 in cash for a rainy day.  I also won £100 on the Premium Bonds which got reinvested in more bonds, so altogether it's not been a bad month on the savings front.

I'm also trying to give more to charity on a monthly basis, where I can. I regularly give £18 per month to 3 different charities by direct debit and I've continued to contribute 7 items to the Food Bank every week. In a Some weeks it costs more than others, depending on what I donate, and sometimes I get freebies (or discounts on item) through my Lidl plus account, which I often donate if they're not something I buy regularly or would use. I do intend to continue with this, unless, of course, there is a change in my circumstances that means I can no longer afford do so, as I like to try to do something charitable in my everyday life, especially now I'm no longer volunteering or working in the Charity sector. 

Looking ahead to March, there aren't really many large expenses on the horizon, save that I still need a dental checkup and a haircut. I keep putting both off, but I do need to book appointments for these. Otherwise, I'm hoping to keep expenditure low again and save more towards the car fund. I'll keep you posted with progress.

How was February for you? Have you got any financial plans for March?

A Week Off and a Trip to Yorkshire - W/E 22nd February 2025

This week, I had a week off work to use up the remainder of my annual leave, as the year end where I work is the end of February. The week got off to a slow start. I had a quiet day on Sunday and made sure to make some time to do some sewing. I spent a bit of time in the sewing room choosing some fabrics for a few new projects that I want to attempt.

One of the projects was to make a slow stitched journal cover. It was fun to find things to sew onto it from my scraps and button jars. I made a fabric cover using some fabric I had bought to make a tailored jacket at a class I used to attend and which I never finished. Once I'd fashioned it into a basic cover, I then proceeded to place all the bits and pieces of fabric and haberdashery onto it ready to sew them into place.  I almost got the front finished. I just need to iron and then stitch the big bird onto the front and sew and eye onto it.

I took a photo of how I want the back to look, but I haven't yet sewn all the scraps, buttons and bits onto it yet.

It's pretty random, but it is colourful (mainly pinks and purples) and was fun to sew and I'm very happy to use up lots of little bits of fabric, buttons, patches, lace, etc. from my stash.

On Monday, I did a few jobs around the house in the morning before heading out of town to do the weekly shop. I needed to drop into Dunelm to get a new toilet seat for the bathroom. I kept the weekly shop to a minimum this week, as we were planning to go up to Yorkshire for a few days later in the week. I just got enough to tide us over. I did also need to buy some more pillow cases to use the fabric for my hexi star quilt, but couldn't get them, so had to buy a single fitted sheet instead. It will give me plenty of fabric to hopefully finish the project though and possibly bind it too and cost just £6.

By the time I got back, OH had finished fitting the new bath and then went on to fit the new toilet seat. We've got a bit more work to do on the bathroom yet as the flooring needs replacing, due to the tiles being badly cracked and we need a new bath panel too. It's looking a lot better though and no more plumbing noises in the middle of the night thankfully.

On Tuesday, I went back to my usual class at the gym. I was glad to get moving again, although I'm still not feeling 100%. I felt better for the class though.  When I got home, OH and I filled the car with the old bath and plumbing bits, plus lots of gardening waste from all the pruning we did last month and we took it all to the local tip. It felt good to get rid of it all and free up some space in both the house and garden.

In the evening, I made us a veggie chilli with tortilla chips for supper. OH was out cycling for the evening, so I had a shower in the new bath, re-painted my nails and got packed in preparation of heading out of London the following day.

On Wednesday morning, we set off to go up to Yorkshire and visit family. We'd booked into a hotel for a couple of nights, where we'd previously stayed that has a pool, gym, sauna and gym classes, which we were looking forward to utilising. We got a good deal on account of using some cash back on the booking platform, so it will make for a nice break on my week off work. OH's mum had the decorator in, which is why we decided to stay elsewhere on this particular visit.

We had a good journey up north, with few delays. We went straight to OH's mum's house to catch up for a couple of hours, before heading to the hotel. We spent the evening in the fitness suite. I did a Zumba class, which is something I haven't done for a few years now. I really enjoyed it. We then both went in the gym for a workout before getting changed and heading down to the bar for supper. It was a nice evening.

On Thursday, we got up and did a few errands. OH needed to get a new tyre put on our car as it had a slow puncture, turns out there was a nail in it. Meanwhile, I went to Boyes and then later we met my sister at a pub for lunch and a catch up. I'd not seen her since last November. Later, we went to OH's mum's house and took her out for supper at a local pub. We haven't done this for years in Yorkshire, so it made a nice change for all of us.

When we got back to the hotel, we went for a swim and used the sauna and hot tub, which was a lovely relaxing way to end our visit.

On Friday, we packed up and checked out, filled the car with petrol for our journey home, picked up a few parts from ScrewFix, so that OH could secure his mum's back door and then headed to her house, so he could do this job before we set off back to London. It was very windy on our journey back and the roads were very busy on account of it being a Friday and half term holidays from school, so it took a bit longer to get home, but we got back safely.

LB came home a little later for a couple of nights and to work at a local shop on Saturday, so it was lovely to see her and catch up with her news.

On Saturday, I went to the free session at the gym first thing, which I enjoyed. LB was working all day. I retired to bed on Saturday afternoon for a few hours. I'd not slept well whilst we'd been away, so I think I just needed to catch up on some sleep. I felt a lot better for it.

We spent the evening watching Yellowstone on Netflix and then I watched a new series called The Story of My Family, which was good. LB was out with friends and came home in the early hours. I always tend to stay awake until I hear her safely come home.

Taking a New Financial Approach in February

This week, having had some time off work, I had some time to really think about our finances and what steps we might need to take going forward, to keep living within our means as we head towards retirement in the next decade. 

In all honesty, I've been a bit of an ostrich over the years and I've never really known or asked how much it costs to run our house. I've tended to leave all that to OH, as he was the main breadwinner over the years, whilst I, being a stay at home mum or working part-time and earning significantly less, mainly concentrated on buying what we've needed on a monthly basis in terms of food/household expenses. 

This week though, I decided to put on my big girl pants at long last, and asked him what our monthly bills actually amount to. It was quite an eye opener. I did this with a view to seriously contemplating our retirement finances, which are now less than 10 years away and how we might manage on a reduced income. It will be the ideal time to reconsider our joint finances and re-distribute the financial burden of all of the household and other bills, as there will be less disparity in our income in retirement. 

There have been and still are things that I can do now to share the burden. LB has almost finished University and thankfully some savings I put aside for her have helped her to manage financially whilst studying. I'm not a great planner for big purchases such as cars, holidays, etc. but I have planned financially for LB's studying in the past and do plan for smaller expenses such as birthdays/Christmas. Putting money aside every month for these things does work quite well in spreading the cost and also reducing the stress of trying to find the money when needed. I realise that I now really need to get serious about planning for necessary bigger purchases for our family going forward. OH has plenty of other things to think about, so I feel it is easier for me to start the ball rolling so to speak.

Having had time to think about the amount of money I've been wasting lately, on things I don't really need or even use (i.e. Project Pan/charity shopping), it's made me realise that a lot of what I earn could definitely be better utilised by putting it aside to save up for a new car. So I've now decided to use my low buy year to this effect. Starting from this month, I'm going to start putting aside as much money as I can into a new car fund. This may be a couple of hundred pounds per month or less, it might even be more, but at least it will be something going towards this major future expense. I will also still be putting aside money in other savings too, where I can afford to, but my major focus will be the car.

We've had our current car, a hybrid Toyota Prius, since we bought it virtually new in 2012 and although it's still very reliable, we love it and don't intend to get rid of it anytime soon, we are starting to think that there will come a time when we will need a new car. OH is very keen to go fully electric and electric cars are very expensive. As a consequence, I think it's time to start seriously saving towards this.

It may possibly be the last car we buy, as we head towards retirement and it's going to be quite an outlay. I don't know that we'll buy one new, it will depend how much we manage to save, but such an expense does need planning and saving for, as I don't really want to go down the car financing or leasing route.

This February, I've been a lot more successful at curtailing spending on unnecessary things, and my expenditure has somewhat fallen off a cliff and reduced significantly. I've spent relatively little compared to some previous months and it feels a lot more sustainable financially. I think I've recovered from all the overconsumption of Xmas and settled back into living more frugally and simply and not wasting money. I'm hoping that it continues as we go through the year and I can make serious inroads into the car fund. It's good to have savings goals, as it keeps you accountable and gives you something to work towards and I'm looking forward to the challenge of saving as much as I can.

I'll keep you posted with my progress. Are you saving for any major purchases?

Taking Some Time Off - W/E 15th February 2025

This week started with an early shift at work on Sunday. I was due to work from 11 til 3pm. It was a miserable drizzly grey day. I didn't really want to leave the house, but needs must. Fortunately, work was pretty busy so passed quickly enough and before I knew it I was back home again. My cold was feeling quite a lot better than the day before. I think staying in bed all day on Saturday really helped.

In the evening, we watched the new series of Unforgotten. I've always liked this series and particularly like the atmospheric soundtrack. I then watched the second episode of the new Jane Austen series, which I'm really enjoying, before heading to bed.

On Monday, I went out of town to do the shopping again. It was another grey, drizzly day. It's very depressing. I used a £3.50 voucher off a new set of bedding at Tesco this week. It ended up costing me £24.50 for 100% cotton king sized bedding. I had contemplated spending over £100 on some Dorma bedding from Dunelm in the sale, but before I made a final decision to buy it, it went out of stock. This bedding is the same colour, i.e. plain dark green. It won't be as good quality, but it looks pretty good for the price.  I like to dress the bed with a plain duvet cover, so that I can put a colourful handmade quilt over the top of it.

I decided not to go into my favourite charity shop this week. I didn't need anything and I'm half way through my thrifting budget whilst only one third of the way through the month. I did go to Home Bargains though, as there were a few things I needed. Having had a cold last week, we were almost out of paracetamol, and we all prefer the capsule version that I buy from here. I bought a few gifts for OH for Valentine's Day too. I'm making up a small hamper of edible treats for him. Hopefully, he'll like it.

On Tuesday, I was booked into my usual class at the gym as always, and feeling like I'd almost recovered from my cold, but after having porridge for breakfast I felt quite unwell with stomach ache and nausea. I walked to the gym, hoping I'd feel better by the time I got there, but I didn't, so I didn't stay and do the class. I just came home and went back to bed. After a couple of hours in bed, I did feel a lot better, which is just as well as I was due at work later.

OH meanwhile, fitted a new shower. We've been having trouble with our plumbing lately. It's been very noisy, sometimes in the middle of the night, so he's been turning the water off every night to prevent it disturbing the neighbours. Anyway, he got the new one working in time for me to have a shower and get ready for work, which was good.

I had just the evening's shift left to work this week, before taking a week's annual leave. I was required to take next week off, as I was unable to carry over my remaining leave into the next leave year. I'm not complaining, as I'm happy to have a bit of a break and the way my shifts have fallen, if I don't get asked to work any extra hours, I should get two whole weeks off before I need to go back, which will be lovely. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the time, but I'll think of something. I may do some spring cleaning, as the house could really do with it, and I hope to get a bit of time for some sewing.

Anyway, my last shift was good. I ended up working in 3 or 4 areas of the store, which made the work very varied and the night passed super quickly.

On Wednesday, I had a lie in, as it was the first day of my two weeks off work. I thought about going running, but didn't. Instead, I decided to start a Project Pan challenge, so I collected together all my beauty products, laid them out, took photos and wrote a blog post. This was quite a big job, as you'll see if you read the post. I then pottered around at home for the rest of the day, tidying a shelf in the pantry cupboard and doing odd jobs about the house. It was a nice leisurely day to start off my leave and the best thing was I didn't spend a penny.

Thursday was another day spent at home. OH is currently renovating our bathroom and a new bath arrived today, which he will install in the next few days. I spent the morning paying some attention to our joint finances and finally taking an interest in how much our household expenses actually are. It's not something that I've paid much attention to in the past, as OH has mostly taken care of it, but it's time for me to take a more grown up approach to the household finances. I've created a separate post about this. Later, I did some laundry, put some laundry away, then did a bit of ironing and stitching on my hexi star quilt whilst binge watching Celebrity Bear Hunt on Netflix, which was mildly entertaining.

On Friday, I finally went out for a run and got some exercise after over a week of not doing any due to having a cold. It coincided with a sunny morning at last, so it felt great to get out and get some fresh air. Later, OH and I went out for lunch locally to celebrate Valentines Day, which was a nice treat. I would  have loved to go see the new Bridget Jones film at our local cinema, but I couldn't convince OH to join me, which didn't surprise me. 

On the way back from lunch, I dropped into our local charity shop. I'd not been in for a couple of months. I found one item to buy, which was long black sweater vest for £7. It needed a bit of a debobble when I got it home, but I liked it because it's so versatile. I can see me getting a lot of wear from it as we move into spring.

By the time I got home, I wasn't feeling well and once again had stomach ache and nausea. I had to return to bed until I felt better later in the evening, so it was a bit of a lost afternoon. I'm not sure what caused it or if I have some kind of gastritis or something.

On Saturday morning, I was still feeling a bit unwell, but managed to take myself off to the gym for the free 50+ gym session which I enjoyed, as I'd not been to the gym for a couple of weeks. Whilst there, I got a message from work asking me if I could work in the evening. I agreed to go in, as any extra money I can earn when only getting basic contracted hours is worth taking.

To make the most of the rest of the day before going to work, I retired to the sewing room and did a few alterations to a couple of items of clothing I'd bought previously from the charity shop. One item was a maxi dress that I shortened to midi, as at 5' 3" tall, maxi dresses look a bit ridiculous on me. I also cut a dress down to make a top and it worked out okay and it is now something that I can wear for work. In fact, I did wear it for work in the evening and it worked well for the purpose. 

Work was okay tonight. We got to finish a bit early which I was perfectly happy about. Hopefully, I won't be contacted now, for at least a week whilst I'm on annual leave.

Project Pan 2025

This year, after watching a Project Pan video on YouTube, I've decided to do my own Project Pan challenge in 2025. I haven't done this challenge for quite a few years, approximately 10 years to be exact, but I am currently in a place where I seem to have collected a lot of beauty products over the last few years, and it really is time to work my way through as many of them as possible this year.

With any Project Pan challenge, the first hurdle is collecting together all of your products. This is going to be a bit embarassing, especially in some areas such as dental care, as I have amassed a lot of these products in the last year and it will take me at least a few years to work my way through them. Some of them, mainly the toothpaste I use, I have to buy online, as they are not available in UK shops, so I have deliberately overstocked these in case they get prohibitively expensive in the future. 

Anyway, I collected together all of the makeup, beauty, personal hygiene, dental products I could lay my hands on.  They were mainly to be found either in the bathroom or bedroom. I have very few products in any other rooms in the house, save for maybe a couple in the kitchen.

Once I'd collected them all together, I laid them all out, according to category of product, like they do in in the TV programme Sort Your Life Out, which I often enjoy watching. This is always very illuminating, as you can see where your multiples are. 

As you can see, there are hundreds, 241 items to be precise. I have to admit that some of them I will never use, such as some of the face creams, that I've already tried and that break me out. I'm not willing to go back to using these, as I really don't enjoy breaking out in spots in my 50's. I will probably have to throw these away, unless LB or OH will use them, but I doubt that LB will, as she already has way too many of her own products to use up and OH doesn't really use moisturisers, but maybe I could convert him. I don't enjoy throwing anything away, but sometimes there isn't really any other option. 

Some other products, I might be able to enlist OH to help me use up. In particular, I'm thinking of any shower gels, as I don't tend to use use them, preferring a good old fashioned bar of soap. Also, I like to use a particular brand of soap, so any soaps of different brands, I may just grate up and use to make liquid hand soap at some point.

Skin care is one category where I have a lot of products and if I'm honest, I've not really been using many products in recent months, just a facial wash, toner and moisturiser. The above picture is mostly new unused products I have yet to use. Some are duplicates of things I use regularly, some are new to me products that I bought to try, but haven't. I think I definitely need to add other products into my routine in order to try to use up what I've got and to perhaps try to keep the years from showing quite so much.

With regard to makeup and nail varnishes, of which there is/are a lot, the nail varnishes and lipsticks are the items I have most of. I may donate some nail varnishes that I don't really like or wear, some, if they are a bit dried up, I may throw away and then divide the rest into everyday and holiday use and try to use them as often as I can. Historically, I've always had difficulty in growing my nails without them splitting badly, but recently, they have been growing well. I'm not sure whether some subtle dietary changes have had an effect or the fact that I've been using a nail strengthener more regularly has helped, but whatever it is it has worked and I've been able to wear nail varnish more often in recent months.

With makeup, I've got a few products that I know I won't use, as they are not a good colour match for my skin, so again, I may need to dispose of some of these. I do also have a ridiculous amount of lipsticks, 27 in total (not including lip balms), many of which I've had for years, but I will continue to use them as I do like to use them until they run out. I have my tried and tested everyday favourites, but I do need to make a concerted effort to use different colours sometimes, especially in the summer months, just to help use some of them up, otherwise they just don't get worn. I have to admit that many of my lipsticks are red and I've moved away from brighter reds in recent years, in favour of darker reds, so I don't know if I can comfortably go back to the bright ones, but I'll give it a try. 

What I do know, is that my main weakness is when I go to inexpensive shops such as Home Bargains, Boyes or Poundland and drop a couple of low cost products into my basket to try when I get home. Over time, these purchases have really added up to get me to where I am currently and I really need to stop this habit and reduce the products I buy to only essential ones that I use regularly. I also need to get ruthless and reduce the amount of products I have in my stash.

After collecting everything together, I did manage to donate 5 or 6 unused products that I no longer want, I threw a couple of used but unsuitable ones away and a couple of bars of soap were grated up to use in making liquid soap, which I will make once I've used up the bought liquid soap I've already got in my stash. So I'm already 9 down which is progress. Just 232 more to go. I'd ideally like to get this number down to 100 or less, but I'll keep you posted with my progress over the coming months.  Wish me luck.

A Quiet Week - W/E 8th February 2025

This week has been a quiet one. We didn't really have any plans at all this week and I've stayed home when not working or exercising. Sunday was a quiet day at home. I had some month end financial reckoning to do in the morning. It was a bright but very cold day and I just didn't feel like going outside all day, which was a bit of waste really. We started watching Yellowstone on Netflix on Sunday night, which is quite dramatic but watchable.

On Monday, I headed out of town to do the weekly shop as usual. I used my 10% off voucher at Lidl, which saved me £8 or so. A new Aldi has opened near to where I shop, so I went in there for a look around and bought a few bits we needed. I have to admit that I much prefer Lidl though, perhaps just because I have better knowledge of their products after decades of shopping with them. I did drop into my favourite charity shop, but only found one item I liked which cost £2. I will add it to a monthly clothing haul towards the end of the month.

Tuesday, I headed out to my usual gym class which was good. I found out this week that the sports centre I go to several times per week is closing for refurbishment in September for three years. This has come as a bit of a surprise, so I'm having to think about what I might do when the time comes and have been looking at other local gyms that I may decide to join. It is going to signify the end of an era and will be quite a wrench, but nothing stays the same does it.

I stayed home sewing for the rest of Tuesday, as going out anywhere usually involves spending money and I'm trying hard not to do that this month.

On Wednesday, I got up, had breakfast and then headed out for a run. I ordered the spotted dress I bought for £1 in a larger size from Vinted. It cost me £5. I got a notification that it was at a local inpost point, so on my way back from my run, I stopped off to collect it. I tried it on when I got home, once I'd had a shower. I was much happier with the fit and have subsequently donated the dress that I paid £1 for.

I was due at work for 1.30pm, which was an unusual shift for me, but I'm not complaining, as it meant that I didn't have to work until late and I also didn't get stuck in horrendous traffic at rush hour, which was a blessing.  I also managed to pick up an extra shift on Thursday, which I couldn't really turn down when we're being given only basic hours at the moment. Any extra money is welcome

OH had made supper when I got home which was nice and then later I watched the new Motherland offshoot series called Amandaland, which was funny.

Thursday, I had a lie, as I'd come down with a cold and wasn't feeling great. I needed to be at work for 1pm, so I had a leisurely breakfast, got ready and then had an early lunch before heading off. Work was good today, I was working on my favourite job, so it passed quickly. I couldn't wait to get to bed though later and just snuggle up under a heavy quilt and feel warm and snug. Having a cold is lousy. I've not had one since last summer, so I can't really complain, it's just that it's come at a time when I'm due to work quite a bit over the next few days, which isn't ideal.

I skipped my run on Friday morning. I figured my body had enough to contend with at the moment fighting off this cold and it was raining to boot. Instead, I decided to get all my out of season stuff out of storage and go through it again, to see if there was anything there I could declutter. I decided to part with quite a lot of items that just don't fit, aren't flattering or have had their time. This boosted items for donation to over 100 and I've mainly only tackled clothing so far.

I was due at work for 5pm, so I had a late lunch and then got ready to go. I have to allow more time to get there now, especially on Fridays, when the traffic is bad due to everyone finishing early for the weekend and due to changes in our local road systems, which are very annoying, but there's nothing I can do about it. I just have to suck it up.  Work was okay, but I was glad to get home and chill, knowing I had a day off the following day.

Saturday, I skipped the free gym session. I woke up feeling lousy and spent most of the day in bed. It's very rare I have a duvet day, but I felt I needed it to at the very least give my body a rest. It was a bit of a non-day, but such is life. I felt better for it and it seemed a suitable way to round off what has been a pretty quiet and uneventful week.

I hope you've had a good week, free of any ailments or illness.

Monthly Financial Update - January 2025

The first month of my supposed low spend year, has had mixed results. I can't really say that I've had a low spend month, for various reasons.

The first reason is because I went on holiday for a week, so my spending money of 300 euros was quite an outlay. It was mostly spent on groceries and eating out. I didn't really buy anything much for myself whilst away, I probably spent less than 10 euros on non-food items. We did eat out every day, whether it be lunch or supper. I also spent 50 euros on a gift for LB and I came home with 20 or 30 euros, so I don't think I did too bad.

The second reason that January was an expensive month, was that it was LB's birthday. I had bought her a few gifts before January, but I did give her some cash too, so that was another outlay.

Aside from the above expenditure, the main area of essential spending this month was the food budget, which I managed to keep low this month and still stocked up the pantry. I think I was able to do this due to us being away for a week and also having so much food left over from Xmas. 

Some things I spent money on this month were necessary, such as a new pair of trainers for the gym, as I was getting pains in my feet and calves wearing my old ones and I think it was time to invest in a new pair. I use them multiple times a week, so it's important that they give me the support I need. I spent £40 on a new pair and wore them for the first time at the gym on Saturday.

In terms of non-essential expenditure, there was a quite a lot this month. It didn't seem like it at the time, but it has all added up to quite a large amount. I spent £14 on an ASOS sample sale haul, in which I bought 4 items of clothing, plus paid for postage. I spent a total of £16 on two separate visits to my favourite charity shop. This was, however, less than the monthly amount I am allowing myself to thrift shop with. (i.e. £25) I also got tempted by a couple of very inexpensive items of clothing in the store where I work and spent £12.50 on these, which wasn't too bad, but I could do better by resisting temptation altogether.

Scarily, I also managed to spend around £200 on a variety of other items during the month. These items ranged from bulk buying household products (£50), bulk buying vitamins/supplements that I use daily (£27), Xmas wrapping items bought in the sales (£32), Valentines/birthday gifts/cards/postage (£14) and toiletries/beauty products (£45) which did include stocking up on some quite expensive dental products that I use for my current dental hygiene regime. The remaining £30 or so, was spent on various small items for the house/garden/craft/travel.

As a consequence, it's not really been the most successful first month of buying/spending less, but I am hoping to improve as the months go by and reduce my spending still further. I always do find that coming out of such a spendy period as Christmas, it is a big challenge to break the habits of the previous months. 

The good news is, that I did manage to put aside some money in savings. Not a huge amount, but anything is better than nothing. I did also set aside £100 for birthdays/Xmas 2025 this month and I'll continue to do this each month this year, so that the cost of Xmas is evenly spread throughout the year.

Next month, however, I will be getting paid a bit less, as I've worked quite a lot less hours, so that should prevent me from spending too much, as I just won't have the money. I will, however, need to book a dental check up and get my hair cut, which could prove expensive, especially if I need some treatment and I do have a 21st birthday this month, but I have already set aside some money to give as a gift. Other than these things, I don't have any planned spending in February, so I'll just have to see how it goes and try to do better.

Feeling More Motivated - W/E 1st February 2025

It's taken a couple of weeks since getting back from our holiday, but this week, I finally felt like I was getting back to normal. I've been suffering with a lack of motivation to do anything much, but I've kept on keeping on and gradually small things have been crossed off my to do list. There's still a good few things on it, but these are mainly dependent upon good weather and it was very wet at the beginning of this week.

On Sunday, I was due to work from 11.30 am until 6pm. I managed to keep myself busy all of the shift by having a thorough sort out of the section I was allotted to. It often gets neglected, but it kept me occupied for the shift and helped it to pass more quickly. We ended up leaving half an hour early too, as everyone had finished recovering the store early.

Monday, was the usual weekly shop day. I needed to head to Home Bargains today, to get a couple of toiletries and supplements I use regularly and ended up spending £45 there, which was a lot for me. It was mainly due to finding the face cream that I like to use, which I couldn't find last time I shopped there, as I think they've discontinued it or didn't have it in stock any longer. I could only find it in a solitary gift set on the shelf, so had to buy that, but it wasn't too expensive at £4.99. Maybe it is super popular and sells out, I don't know. Anyway, I also treated myself to another face cream, for when the first one runs out and I can't get hold of it anymore. This one was £3.99. I shouldn't need to buy any more for a long time now.Other than these items, most of what I spent was on food.

I then bought more food items from Tesco and some dental care items. I spent more than I intended to, which I regretted as soon as I left the store, because I remembered that I needed to spend £94 at Lidl this week to qualify for the 10% off my next shop. As a consequence, I kept adding things to my trolley to hit this figure and ended up spending more than this and really stocked up the pantry. I still came within the monthly food budget though, which was good.  This should mean that food spending in February should be lower, as we can eat from the pantry/freezer for a week or two and February is also a very short month.

It was quite stormy when I finished the shopping and I headed home. I avoided the charity shop this week. I really do not need any more clothes. My wardrobe is bursting at the seams. I need to start wearing more of the things in it, instead of constantly buying more.

On Tuesday, I was booked into my class in the gym in the morning. I'd made overnight oats, but had made way too much. I still ate it, however, and then it felt heavy in my stomach all through the class. I won't be doing that again, at least not making as much anyway. I pottered for most of the rest of the day, doing a bit of blogging and sorting through charity donations. I've now put aside 59 items for donation, as I'm hoping to declutter at least 500 things this year. I also made a few more hexies for my star quilt. I'm down to making the last two star blocks and then I'm almost finished. It will just be a case or backing and binding it. It's been a long project, but I've enjoyed it.

In the evening, OH went out to the cycle track, so I had the house to myself. I was feeling a bit of a mess, so I decided to get a shower and have a self care evening. I felt better for it and then watched an interesting Storyville on TV. I've not been sleeping well for a few nights now, waking every few hours to go to the toilet. I decided not to drink any alcohol or fizzy drinks and not to eat past 7pm and it did work. I had the best night's sleep that I've had in a while getting a full 6 hours at least and then a further couple of hours. I definitely need to be more mindful of what I consume in the evenings, as sleep is so important for feeling positive and having energy.

Wednesday morning, I got up feeling quite refreshed and whilst making breakfast, I decided to make a candle from all the dregs of candles that I've burned over the last year or so. I melted all the waste wax that I keep in a jar and added it to a clean candle jar with a new wick. It seemed to turn out okay and it's made a good sized candle, but it will probably be a strange mixture of scents, although that doesn't worry me. I'd just finished burning a candle the night before, so this will be the next one I burn. I only really burn candles in the winter months to create a bit of cosiness. I enjoy the ritual of lighting a candle when I sit down to watch TV or do some sewing.

A bit later, OH and I headed out for a run. He's recovering from and injury and just getting back into running, so decided to come out with me, bless him, as it was a slow one.

When we got back, I felt inspired to go out in the garden and get some work done. It was finally dry enough to do this, as it had been raining for 3 or 4 days. I managed to tidy the beds, plant out some ferns and hellebores that had been hanging around in pots for months, put some bulbs in, albeit very late, tidy up a few plants, sweep up and finally put the cherry tree prunings on the beds to try to prevent them being used as litter trays by the local cats. I don't know if it will work, and it doesn't look that pretty, but I'll try anything. Here's a couple of pictures:

It felt very satisfying to get these jobs done, and now all that's left is to do some pruning, which I need OH's help with and to take some garden waste to the tip.

After lunch, I rewarded myself by spending some time working on my hexi quilt until I got a call from work asking me to work in the evening, which I agreed to do. I quickly got ready and headed off only to find that the road system where I live has changed since I last went to work and I had to go a different way which took ages and was very busy with traffic. Work was okay when I got there though and the shift passed very quickly.

On Thursday, I had a lie in as I didn't get to sleep until the early hours. We had arranged to meet LB at the Barbican in London (again) to see a movie and then go out for something to eat.  The movie we went to see was The Brutalist, which was 3 hours long. It did have an interval though, thankfully. It was lovely to see LB again. I've missed her. The movie, however, was brutal. That's all I can say about it. We went for some supper afterwards and then for a drink before heading our separate ways home. She's coming home for a night or two in February, which will be nice.

On Friday morning, I had a lie in again, as once again I didn't get to sleep until the early hours. When I eventually got up, I had breakfast, went for a run, had lunch, did a few household chores and then went back to bed for an hour or so before getting ready to go to work in the evening. Work was good tonight, I enjoyed it.

On Saturday morning, it was nice to wake up in a new month. I was glad to see the back of January, as it was a bit of a struggle for me if I'm honest, save for the week when we were on holiday. Anyway, I got up and ready to go to the free gym session again, which I enjoyed. OH was out cycling, so I decided to take a walk onto our local high street. First stop was Greggs, to pick up a free vegan sausage roll that I had a voucher code for. I also dropped into Primark, as I needed some sports socks. 

On the way home, I visited an old favourite local charity shop, that I hadn't visited for a month or two. It was nice to have a leisurely browse. I ended up buying a handmade dress for £3 on the sale rail, which is really sweet and I couldn't resist, a brand new t-shirt for LB and a couple of very small bits and pieces. I spent £10.50 in total, which wasn't too bad.  I also picked up a free book on the way home from the Little Free Library. It sounded like an interesting read.

I wasn't scheduled to work all weekend for a change, which was nice. I didn't have any particular plans for the rest of the day. I just enjoyed chilling at home and doing some sewing. Later, OH used up some mince from the freezer and lots of veg from the fridge to make us a lovely shepherd's pie for supper. It was a nice way to end what has felt like a better week.