Savings

Although I do keep a budget spreadsheet, it essentially serves to make sure I'm not overspending and compared to many finance spreadsheets out there, it is pretty basic. One thing I've never incorporated is a good way to look back at totals at any given time. I can look back and see what my current account balance was at the end of a month but that's it. I just updated the page with the overview of accounts manually on a continuing basis. Perhaps something to work on in the future sometime. I really should do some Excel courses anyway, and it would give me something practical to practice on.

In the meantime, I've decided to just take a snapshot of my sidebars whenever I update them. It's the same story there - I just update them manually on a continuing basis.

I can tentatively say that things are kind of going alright with money at the moment. I do have a small balance on my credit card but will clear that as soon as an outstanding invoice is paid. I could use savings but it's a psychological thing and since it's not a lot of money, I'm going with it. I have been making a better effort to live within my normal salary though - need to stop getting used to having side-income to stop up the gaps. I will use some of my side income to fund a trip or two later this year and to finally do some of that house stuff I've been promising to get done for over a year. Otherwise, I will be using it to pad my various savings accounts and give myself a bit of a head start. And next year, the target will be as far as possible to save all of my side income.






This month, I got to the end of the month with just over €40 in my purse and €45.22 in my current account. So I am calling that the start of the float I have been wanting to have in my current account - well, I have adjusted the totals in my spreadsheet to show less €50 (the 45.22 plus rounding up from this month's salary lodgement). €50 seems to be a good number for me to work with so I'll be trying to add €50 to the float every month by not spending to zero, but rather to €50 and then adjusting my totals to subtract that fifty every month. We'll see how it goes.

Three days in a row

It is almost half-eight and I'm sitting on the balcony (sweltering!), waiting for my dinner to cook. There's chicken and a variety of vegetables in the oven with some lemon jiuce, ginger and cumin. And this after me telling an internet aquaintance today about how I don't really cook in the summer, especially in the oven. In the moment of deciding what to do, however, it seemed like bunging the whole lot in the oven would make me less warm than having to chop the chicken up into bits to fry it. It is still 28° out, after all.

Clouds doing their sunset thing

The important thing is that the dinner is in the oven. Bit of a weird combination of veg since I would have been happy with meat and potatoes but am trying to get back to properly balanced meals. So, I used what I had on hand, grateful to past me for having invested in a few jars of veg. Three fresh tomatoes, the two last mostly fresh onions and four cloves of farlic went in. And then were joined by the remains of a jar of pickled celeriac and remains of a jar of pickled carrots (both well-rinsed) as well as a small jar of asparagus. No theme, no matching flavours, just an attempt to get veg into me. I think it was just over 650g in the end. Along with 200g of leftover potatoes from yesterday. I reckon it's at least two meals and actually three big portions of chicken. Not entirely balanced but it is proper food, cooked by me at home after work.

For the third day in a row. It's a good start!

Less dust

It has been a good day. I didn't make it to the pool, something that's happening far too often. But unlike yesterday, I didn't need a three-hour nap in the afternoon. So that's something.

What I did manage to do is clean the bathroom good and proper. It has been several months, if not longer, since it has had more than the basics done. And I dusted and cleared off several surfaces that have just been gathering stuff and dust for a long time. I gathered all the recycling into one bag, rubbish from every bin in the place into another, and bottles that need to be returned into another. I collected all the dirty dishes into another bag and am going to bring that into work tomorrow and use the dishwasher there. You have to pick your battles. And then I hoovered.

It was about 32° today so all of that took me the best part of twelve hours to do. I'd manage thirty or forty minutes and then have to stop until I stopped sweating and cooled down a bit. So I probably only got half an hour of work done in any two hour period. There is still a lot to do but at least my place now has a substantially lower quantity of dust than it had yesterday. I'd feel ok with inviting someone over and only having to apologise for the mess, and not dirt, too.

I managed to hit the shower by nine o'clock and now I'm sitting outside a restaurant at the town square and waiting for my dinner. It has cooled down to 23°. When I get back home, I'll collect the stuff I put in the washing machine before I left and hanf it tio dry. And then I'll head to bed only a bit later than I should. It has been a good day