Croix de Where next?

Have exhausted research on potentially replacing my current roadbike and knowing what I'll be going for in two different budget ranges if pay and circs allow me to use my bike to work I've found myself at a loss for bike to stuff to fuss about.

Once the initial thrill of the new roadbike wears off I fear that I will be jonesing for another project and having suffered through last years Reservoir Dog and this years Wicklow 200 on my multitasking winter/offroad/touring (yet to happen) / Utility Croix De Fer 10
I've been pondering a wholly spurious and budget limited refresh of my trusty, beloved but pig on the hills, that I can chip away at for six months or a year until it feels like I've done something to reduce the feeling of drag-arsing up hills. .This mostly started with a desire to escape the fiddly mechanical discs but got me thinking about the rest including shaving off a bit of weight and further luxuriating with carbon forks and seatpost (maybe).

At present any money I could be splurging is being held back against a future road bike purchase around the end of the year so current offers aren't a factor.

Areas I'm looking at are:

1. Wheels ? (Already have a second set of Deore XT wheels which i guess fufil the lighter wheels checkbox on any bike upgrade noodle) €0
2. Forks - Looking at a carbon fork purely for the modest weight saving over the current steel paws, it seems like I might get a bit of change out of €200 on this (for E.g Bike24 have carbon CX forks for 160, Evans have replacement Pinnacle Arkrose forks for €185.). // It just occurred to me that I have a front tubus rack that'll need mounts...so I can probably forget about Carbon forks...fcek

3. Stem - PX superlight? From what I'm reading an Alloy stem seems like a fair option to carve of a bit of weight and as I'll be rolling on 32-35mm tyres with a steel frame under me and don't suffer
any problems with the stock alloy stem €25

4. Seatpost - Tifosi Carbon or PX Superlight Alloy, the seatpost feels like vibrations might be more of a thing, I already have and am happy with the Tifosi seatpost on my roadbike but the PX alloy is cheaper and probably lighter. €35


5. Brakes - TRP Hy/RD since a full upgrade to Hydraulic shifters would blow the boat out of the water, even these I'll probably upgrade one at a time €220

6. Groupset - as above - unless a complete miracle bomb drops into my lap I'll be sticking with Sora, if nothing else it'll keep the cost of replacing RDs down. €0


Total cost around €450-500, total entertainment value, priceless-ish.

Before anyone starts:
1. This bike is too pretty and too versatile to replace
2. I've put in enough miles and worked enough on bikes at this point to appreciate the benefits such as they are of these upgrades are primarily if not purely psychological. But I've enjoyed the process of upgrading and fiddling with the rest of my fleet, so why not Zoidberg.
3. The project to save weight off the engine block is going to be much cheaper but way riskier to approach via internet shopping!