vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Where are you and where are you going?
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Ydobon
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by Ydobon »

Nothing beats a Stornoway black pudding supper on a rainy day while looking out at Scottish mountains :)

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

Haha, I'll have to take a trip, so you went all the way to the Isle of Harris to try black pudding did you? We buy ours in ASDA :roll: . Must admit, I haven't been to Scotland yet... not sure why! :shock:

Perhaps I'll talk SO into taking a trip. I've been meaning to get to Edinburgh for the comedy festival but the hotel prices :oops: ....

Ydobon
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by Ydobon »

Stornoway is on Lewis :P

Scotland is well worth a visit if you like camping or walking, cities are a bit dear tho.

saving-10-years
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by saving-10-years »

@Ydobon Its been a long while since I was in Stornaway although I know several people who currently live there. This remark made me smile ...
Nothing beats a Stornoway black pudding supper on a rainy day while looking out at Scottish mountains
Was not that confident you would be able to _see_ the Scottish mountains through the rain. Maybe mild rain? I know the winds can be such that you need to hold onto the building you are walking next to. Hope to visit again some time.

Ydobon
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by Ydobon »

They sell Stornoway black pudding outside of Stornoway! I was in Tyndrum at the time... Anyway, doubt Lewis has any mountains...

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

Quick update before I review the month's spending.

I have now stored 5 x 25 litre jerry cans of emergency water in my basement, that's enough for two people for 1 month, silly me forgot to account for water for the dog though :lol:. That said, 125 litres is probably overkill for the UK as there's no shortage of rainfall here! At least I'm covered if there's frozen pipe lines, floods that render tap water undrinkable. The stored water is already treated so it should be safe to drink for 5-6 months. Turns out I'll be refilling the cans around Christmas day. An easy date to remember!

Also, I'm being much more thoughtful about my food stores now too. I have added ~5lb sack of salt and sugar, UHT milk and canned ghee (couldn't find canned butter anywhere?). I've also bought more canola and olive oil. Next week I'm going to get a costco membership and add large sacks of flour, legumes and pastas and some tinned fruit to the list. It will temporarily bump my food spending but probably sensible given the cost savings of bulk buys. All except the tinned fruit/milk and egg are on standard rotation so nothing much would spoil.

If I can make a success of my veg patch, I'm going to have to learn canning/food preservation skills very shortly! Annoyingly SO is keeping me busy on the weekends so I haven't had a chance to add a second or third veg patch, with autumn on the way I better get a move on! I'm tempted to take a day or two of annual leave to get this sorted with no distractions from SO. :)

Ydobon
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by Ydobon »

Canned butter (and cheeseburgers, if you want a larf) :lol:

http://shop.conserva.de/en/

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

It's not cheap, especially after p&p!

http://shop.conserva.de/en/canned-butte ... 00097.html

I'll take my chances with sourcing butter at the local farm shop when shtf ;)

Ydobon
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by Ydobon »

You English love a cozy catastrophe. Farm shop :roll:

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

There's a dairy farm 1 minute away from me that sells world class ice creams. Just what you need during armegeddon ;)

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

July Update:

Image

Image

My spending has been high again. Savings rate finalised at a paltry 30%, even worse than last month. Again, a few one off expenses have tipped the balance the wrong way :evil: . Still, for the most part, these were all essential purchases one way or another.

Miscellaneous expenses which were not planned have eaten up a whole £408.87. These include new boots, new clothes for work (in the space of a week I managed to burn a shirt and tear another. These needed replacements plus a new tie for a wedding I attended last weekend. SO's friends keeping me busy again. I really need to learn to say no to these 'obligations'.

Bicycle costs were high as my new rear light needed a new battery, turns out CR123A batteries are expensive so I opted for a rechargeable set plus charging station, should be more cost effective in the long run, only once they arrived I realised these I ordered the the wrong size (CR2s)! I'll have to sell these on gumtree, what a hassle. I ended up just buying some disposables in the end. I also kind of impulse purchased a pannier rack for my hybrid which should hopefully reduce transportation costs for getting shopping home from now on, haven't fitted it yet though. Turns out I got a good deal on the rack at £24.99. Disc brake compatible and carrying capacity of 25kg (for those that saw my thread on getting shopping home).

In order to maintain a stable internet connection at home I have also had to purchase a 4G cellular modem, hence the £39.99 cost under internet. It will be £16.02/month going forward so not too bad. I spent a lot on books this month but I am teaching myself web development (javascript/jquery/php/mysql etc) so I have aquired a few pricey reference books. Hopefully these will help me start a side gig in the future. I started a new project, SO and I are planning to send web invites for our wedding and I have built a pretty website with a fully functioning RSVP form and associated MySQL database. Pretty pleased with what I have achieved in a month!

Eating out cost me dearly this month, I suggested to SO that we eat out (twice) as I failed to plan meals properly on a couple of occasions. Only have myself to blame for that. It's SOs turn to buy food next time though! :)

All being well, August could be the month I finally nail the 75% savings rate. I'm going to make an extra effort to avoid speding on anything that isn't food. I haven't done better than 50% to date so I'm pretty motivated to make it happen. The only potential spanner in the works is a weekend break to Amsterdam to introduce SO to my grandparents. Transport/accommodation has been paid for, that leaves only spending money on food whilst out there. We're staying 3 nights, so will see how well we can do sticking to my £100 budget for entertainment in a major city. Even if I spend double, I'll still hit 65% savings which I'll be happy with.

I have also just decided to make August an alcohol free month to boost my chances. If I learnt anything this month, it is that booze and hangovers are my biggest budget killers.

cmonkey
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by cmonkey »

With an income of 1500-1600 per month, maybe you could boost it a bit or look for a higher paying job? With a low income like that, achieving 50%+ is quite remarkable unless you have lots of determination. Not having to pay rent helps but its still a lofty goal IMO.

We hit 63% savings rate in July which is right on target for the next year or so. We were sitting at 73% all month but decided we need to kick the remodel into gear. The goal is 62% savings/month for the next year and see where we stand. That 10% drop happened this past weekend when we got a bunch of supplies that will keep me busy for the next few weeks.

Also for the programming books, I would steer clear of those personally. They become outdated so fast these days that the resale value just plummets. You can find tons of free courses and information online. Udacity is a great starting point. You can access the learning materials for free, however, they also offer paid courses.

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

Yeah its tough! I'm actually in the middle of a few job applications. I hope to bump my salary by 10k in the next year or so, I didn't pick the most profitable career... hence web dev books/possible side gig.

I bought the books second hand, and will be selling them on once I've learnt as much as possible from them. I already realised all of the stuff in the HTML5/CSS3 book is easily found on W3Schools but I enjoy the physical experience of a textbook. I feel I learn better with them. I'll check out udacity, thanks.

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Egg
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by Egg »

1500-1600 after tax isn't so bad. That's got to be around the UK average, if not more. Certainly not "low-income" in my book. I'm kinda similar in a way. Public sector job and looking at side gigs. I've really enjoyed http://www.freecodecamp.com/.

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

£26,000 is the UK after tax household average. So I guess I earn slightly above average for a single income, SO earns more still. My earnings before tax are 27,000 GBP which is about 42,000 USD. Comparisons are harder than that though, because taxes in the UK are higher, but we don't have to worry about health insurance etc (for now!)

Thanks Egg, I'll check that out too. Turns out udacity is $200 a month... ouch! well I just started codeacademy.com and it's pretty good so far, but more importantly free. Not sure how the catalogue compares though, so far the HTML course has been fun (easy though, lol)

disparatum
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by disparatum »

Egg wrote:I've really enjoyed http://www.freecodecamp.com/.
What was your prior experience? What have you done with it so far or think you can do now that you are working through it? Any other similar resources you've come across? I did some C++ in high school about 12 years ago, am anticipating needing to learn some statistical analysis software packages (Stata, R, etc.) for a new job, and would like to have more skills in this area in general.

cmonkey
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by cmonkey »

Ah I didn't realize the comparison was lower than USD. That isn't so bad then. $26,000 is considered low (by plebeian standards) in the states and would be more difficult to gain FI given our COL.

Udacity is $200/month if you want the degrees, but the instructor videos and exercises are all free. All you are paying for are projects and an "I did it" badge. :P

Ydobon
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by Ydobon »

£1600 is fine in the UK, perfctly possible to live a comfortable middle class lifestyle with a nice house, money for some luxuries and safety and security for you and your family. I'll agree, however, that it's difficult to fund ERE on it. That said, I need to cut my costs more, not really something vexed can say (as he lives with parents)!

Our after tax wages including a small sum for child benefit and a wee bit of money from side jobs is about £34,000 a year, you wouldn't need to earn much more to pass that :)

Edit: Practial tip would be matched betting. Perfectly possible to make £5-10k in the first year before all the bookies ban you!

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

cmonkey wrote:Udacity is $200/month if you want the degrees, but the instructor videos and exercises are all free. All you are paying for are projects and an "I did it" badge. :P
Oh they did a good job of keeping that vague, presumably with the hope of up selling. I'll take a close look. Taa.

George the original one
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by George the original one »

Hey, vexed87, it's time to start digging your next veg plot or two! Work in compost and let it cook over the winter so you can plant in spring. After some fall rain, consider covering the bare ground with a tarp or scrapwood so that you'll have workable soil in the early spring instead of puddling mud. No need to dig it all in one session. Take an hour or so per day for awhile.

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