vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

[vexed87]

July spending was going rather well until my Dad's Doberman got hold of my cheapish walking boots. That’s what I get for not putting my shoes away I guess.

On the bright side, I now have some Hanwag Grunten's on the way! I must admit, having money in savings is making it a little harder to refrain from BIFL purchases. I found it all too easy to drop £160 yesterday.

It was easy to say no when I had a credit card balance to pay off, now that's gone, more discipline is required to meet my goal of 75% savings rate.

Still, if these boots last half as long as Jacob's pair, I'm still saving in the long run. The logic behind thinking longer term saving with shorter term increases in spending is clear as day, but I can't help feel uneasy with these big ticket purchases*. I already know the 75% savings rate is a bust again this month. Unlike in the past however, there is no sense of guilt over this purchase, as I know the boots are something I’ll use every day.

Maybe I need to rethink my goal to stop constant disappointment, that or find a way bring in more money. I might stand to save a little more on groceries if my veg patch is a success, but already the slugs are attacking my courgette plants but that’s a story for another day.

(*)Hah, if past self could hear me quibbling internally about the purchase of a pair of boots @ £160 when I would willing enter a mobile plan costing £890 without batting an eyelid.

[cmonkey]

Ha, I have been pondering those boots after seeing Jacob's autoblog post 2 days ago. I still get the posts by email everyday.

You'll have to update how you like them, particularly for outdoor use/comfort. I don't really have a good pair of outdoor footwear, particularly any that would last long.

Strangely I am not finding it difficult to not spend money even with it just sitting in my account waiting to be invested at the end of the month. I am sitting at 78% savings rate currently and will probably drop to 73-75% but the end of the month. I enjoy logging in each day and not seeing any activity. It's become a nice end-of-day closure for me.

[jacob]

I bought a second pair after the innards started coming apart in my first pair after some 15+ years of nearly constant use. The inside leather was simply worn through.

[cmonkey]

I bought a second pair after the innards started coming apart in my first pair after some 15+ years of nearly constant use. The inside leather was simply worn through.

Would you say the quality is the same/better on the second pair? Would they be comfortable for long periods working in the garden?

[vexed87]

Quick update for June spending.



Another expensive month, but this time I managed some savings. Here's the breakdown:



Food and Drink was £140 under budget, not surprising considering I spent half of the month in Greece. Most of the £224 accounted for in Misc was food and drink spending. Technically I went over budget here, probably not worth the headache of trying to track and convert data, so holiday spending is going down as a miscellaneous expense.

I'm pleased with entertainment spending, generally I aim keep this below £100.

This was the last bill for my expensive phone plan, looking forward to how much I can squeeze out of a £5 top up in the near future.

Pet food spending appears quite high on the face of it, however I make a bulk purchase every 2-3 months so this will even out when data is annualised.

I don't budget to giving because it's highly variable. Its a category that I try my hardest to keep spending down in but SO insists on gifting for all the usual consumer days, e.g. mother's day, father's day, gifts for christenings and weddings etc. Its a regular point of contention at home, but not worth the heartache so I just cough up. Spending is rarely this high though so looks like you caught me on a bad month

I've mentioned it before, but pet insurance is being cut loose as soon as I'm comfortable any bills won't hurt my stash. The policy just paid for itself though as our mutt just had a costly x ray/anesthetic, hence the vet bill. I took the highest voluntary excess but it does lower the monthly payment

I paid for half a tank of petrol for SO as a one off gesture, I don't drive though so it pained me greatly to be putting money in the hands of oil companies. To make myself feel better about that I treated myself to a new rear bike light bracket for my new 50 lumen rear light, sort of an essential purchase really as the stock mount was shockingly loose and the light wobbled all over the place, not very safe. I'm making a conscious effort to reduce spending on bike parts as I can get a bit carried away, it's my main hobby and has cost me dearly over the last year or so! Other items purchased were a new chain and new racing red bar tape as the last set was worn out.

Savings rate for June rests at a miserable 35%, largely down to the triple whammy of a deposit for our wedding photographer, the holiday and the vet bill. Better luck in July I guess. There have already been a few extra expenses but not quite as bad as last month.

[jacob]

@cmonkey - I would say the quality of the 1995(?) version is about 20% better than the 2014(?) version. Mostly in the hardware and the outer leather. The innards look/are exactly the same. Maybe the outer leather just came from a a different animal?

Garden work is really the path to destruction for any footwear and it would be better to have a pair of $20 muckboots or wooden clogs. I only use these because it's what I have and with the innards gone, they're not that great for walking more than a couple of miles. Well ... compared to the new ones I think buying a new pair and using them for gardening would be a crime against humanity, well, the boots anyway, and your wallet.

[vexed87]

...wooden clogs

They are impressively comfortable and make good safety shoes as you would have a hard time driving a fork into your foot. Sadly I grew out of my last pair many years ago. I happen to be travelling to Holland in August to visit some family. I'll be sure to see if I can pick up a reasonably priced pair... seriously!

[Ydobon]

Delayed reaction question asking, but where did you buy your walking boots?

I have picked up a pair of Loakes this year, which are pretty much the archetypal smart office shoe with a Goodyear welt. I didn't think I'd get away with just a single pair of boots for everyday wear, much as I'm impressed by the inimalists who do!

Now that it's mid-July, winter is officially coming in Scotland and I will be like an ice skater in the Loakes on the first day with ice (or even heavy rain)! In retrospect, a leather sole wasn't the best idea ever.

[vexed87]

I've bought mine from myhuntingshop.co.uk which is sneaky front for a German Outdoor Shop of a similar name. They haven't arrived yet as they are being shipped from Germany. I haven't found a UK retailer online at a competative price so that's fine by me really. If you are after a pair do a search in Google shopping.

Another german retailer that I noticed offered 10% off first purchase for registered user was berg-fest.com but I forgot about that at the time I placed my order with the other retailer, doh!

[cmonkey]

Savings rate for June rests at a miserable 35%

Look on the bright side, 35% is still much better than most of the population can muster. Probably a lot better than you've done your whole life actually.

We set some pretty high standards around here for savings rates and expenses so it good to keep it in perspective.

Regarding the giving category, I am with you on that one. The DW and I never engage consumerist holidays. Even valentines day and birthdays are kept to a nice cuddly evening and not much more. I usually go out and buy her a donut and put a candle on it for her birthday. She loves it. Its a wonderful fact of our relationship that we enjoy our company together as if everyday WAS a romantic holiday getaway. We have commented on it before to each other that we don't need those holidays to bring us closer because we are already close.

Same with Christmas and other things, we just don't engage it. Even with relatives. If our company with them isn't good enough than so be it. They've never said much about the lack of gifts, probably because they are 60+ years old and have everything they want. On the flip side, we are always inundated with consumerist products.....well over half of the items in our home have been gifted or inherited!

I'm not sure how I'd handle a SO which felt differently about it other than leading by example. Lecturing never gets anything accomplished. Demonstrate ways to gift in an ERE fashion. Home-printed cards are a great starting point.

How does your SO feel about ERE?

[Ydobon]

I was thinking the exact thing cmonkey wrote earlier on this morning. Even on a 'bad' month, our automatic payments to savings and investments are something like 2x the national average.

I flipping wish that I was shot of consumerist holidays, currently costing us £157/mth (big family). That said, I am coming to realise that I totally overspend vs. my siblings, slowly trying to shed myself of the baggage of 'big gift = big love' crap that has clouded my thinking for so long.

Not helped by the fact that my wife has a very spendy family who think nothing of 2 foreign holidays a year and a floor full of presents at Christmas, but worry about retirement.

[cmonkey]

Not helped by the fact that my wife has a very spendy family who think nothing of 2 foreign holidays a year and a floor full of presents at Christmas, but worry about retirement.

The current book club selection has a whole chapter dedicated to family traps and such and I think consumerist gifting based on expectations/guilt alone falls into that. If I felt a bit of guilt about not buying much for anyone (which I don't) that book would have absolved me of any.

[Ydobon]

Last OT question, but is that the same chap of the permanent portfolio?

[cmonkey]

@Ydobon, Yes.

[vexed87]

Yes I guess I was being pretty hard on myself. You are also right about it being my best effort yet. I guess the only way is up considering my biggest expenses were one offs!

SO is naturally frugal but doesn't yet believe ERE is a "practical" lifestyle. I think she, like most people who first hear about ERE worry about how they will amass enough capital, and then invest it safely and reliably to obtain actual returns. I don't think she appreciates how simple it would be to replace income from work with returns from captial. I've tried to show her spreadhsheets but she thinks I'm thinking too far ahead... in this respect I think the lead by example approach will help. Despite this, the most reassuring thing she tells me she doesn't intend to inflate her lifestyle when we earn more.

Also, my other challenge with her is she is a guardian type and believed people have a responsibility to work in a career in order to have purpose. This is a barrier that I have all but broken down recently as she has had a period of illness which has made her see her workplace/colleagues from another perspective. I was also able to appease this side of her by saying I wouldn't just stop working altogether when I was FI, but I would pursue work that was meaningful to me.

She's also got on board with my desire to go car free, start our own veg patch and bring down all our expenses as much as possible, but her motivation isn't ERE. Its security and a family home. It isn't always easy, and theres lots of compromise, but she's worth it!

I started reading Harry Brown's book, but haven't got past the first chapter due to many distractions! Thanks for the recommendation wrt gifting, I'll check it out!

[Ydobon]

In terms of a switch from returns from work to returns from capital, you are right, it is very easy. I wouldn't for a minute underestimate the effort required to get to the light switch in the first place

While it is a good thing that OH is on approximately the same page, the trappings of convention such as 'the family home' and 2.x children will make your journey harder.

Try to remember that what she wants is at least as important as what you want and that we do not all have the 'gimmick' of a very high salary, a super low COLA, or the ability to live in half a room on a tugboat while eating beans for every meal.

The adjustment to married life and her expectations will take time, do not assume that you will win every battle

We have got to a level where we manage something like a 50% savings ratio without her noticing, any improvement to that is likely to be down to my power to earn more or juggle our finances.

[vexed87]

While it is a good thing that OH is on approximately the same page, the trappings of convention such as 'the family home' and 2.x children will make your journey harder.

Agreed, this will be one of the greater challenges for sure, it makes cutting expenses look like child's play! We seem to be on the same page as far as sensible housing goes, the main qualifiers are close to a good state school (phew, no tuition fees!), close enough that I can still commute by bike and a garden for growing veggies. Still attempting to talk her into letting me hand craft our own furniture though. Not sure on the likelihood of that one happening... I'm a total novice woodworker

I'm also dropping subtle hints that one child is the way forward, but I would be willing to stay in work for a few extra years if one more made a big difference to my enjoyment of life, I can't really not imagine being a father. Regardless, once I'm FI, I can start to take risks by setting up shop/working from home on my own terms or just be a SAHD

[Ydobon]

I'm assuming that England works roughly the same as Scotland in that 'good' schools are surrounded by a bubble of housing with inflated costs?

Hint all you like, but your vision and sense of purpose are no match for her hormones! I am lucky in that my wife and I had agreed that neither of us wanted a football team. Now that we have one, we have even had the totally unexpected 'will one be enough?' conversation. Not from a negative position of thinking about a family purely in terms of money, but because it's hard to explain just how close you feel to that new person. Sometimes it's hard to imagine feeling that way again.

[vexed87]

I'm assuming that England works roughly the same as Scotland in that 'good' schools are surrounded by a bubble of housing with inflated costs?

Sadly, yes! I guess it's all relative and once there is no need to live within the area of the secondary school, we could cash in. From what I gather, primary schools don't tend to have the bubble effect so it might be a worry for another day. Actually, I got muddled up, SO wants our kids to go to a Catholic school which tend to have higher standards usually with less of the bubble effect (they only take little Catholics after all )

If the catholic plan falls through and a good state school is necessary, we're looking at outskirts of catchment areas though. Not too bothered about square footage of the house (less cleaning, woohoo!), we are prepared to make it work one way or another.

[vexed87]

Well the boots arrived on Friday, for the nerds who are curious, I'll upload a picture of them later. The leather is a lot darker than I expected, but that's good news as the tan polish I already have should go well with them. SO thinks they are ugly, but then again, she hates my [lack of] fashion sense. As long as I don't start wearing them to casual rendezvous, I'll escape her scowls

I'll still wear dress shoes to casual occasions and such, there's no way I could pass these off as casual wear without raising eyebrows among her peers. I don't want to embarrass her. Though, I'd wear them around my own friends. They would probably make a joke at first as I usually wear casual vans/converse type shoes, but I've changed so much this last year (ditched car, ride a bike, wear lycra, opt out of takeaways, avoid spendy occasions), I doubt they would be surprised!

The boots are very well constructed, I can see why they lasted Jacob 15 years. They feel much more solid than my man made materials/built in China boots. I'm having to wear them with thick wool socks as they need some heavy breaking in. I got a bit excited and immediately took them out on a 3 mile walk with the dog. Big mistake, ouch, blisters ! Hopefully they will be nice and comfortable in a weeks time.

I must admit, I still get that thrill/fuzzy feeling when opening parcels. These BIFL purchases are worthwhile and if they are things used every day and can be easily maintained and repaired, I suppose they are well worth the extra initial investment!

July savings rate is looking like it will end up near the 45% mark. I'm generally sticking to my budget quite well, except the stuff that comes outside the usual categories is holding me back. The boots cost me ~10%, I ended up buying 5 x 25L water containers for my emergency preps (another ~5%), and there has been a slight increase in discretionary spending due to my and SO's anniversary and future wedding (~15% combined).Still, better than last month but nowhere near 75% mark. I'm hoping I can make it to the end of the month without any more purchases (apart from fresh fruit/veg and a few beers with friends over next weekend). I can see the journey to 75% is going to be harder than I first thought as I haven't been as strict with my spending as I could. I'm setting myself the challenge to aim for 60% next month.