lilac's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
lilacorchid
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by lilacorchid »

Day 751 - I'm thinking the finish line is more of a "What can I do in 1000 days" instead of "FI in 1000 days".

Splitting up the money has settled out now. I find I have lots left over and will be having trouble finding ways of hiding it from the tax man by the end of the summer. What a terrible problem, no? :P

I'm making more progress with the fitness portion than the money portion. For all intents and purposes, I can now run a 5k when it's -30C out. Well done me! (And by run, I mean trot, but without stopping.) Doing a 5k has been on my to do list since I was 19. It look longer than the nine weeks that the training schedule promised, but here we are! :D My intent is to keep this up 3-4x a week in addition to the walking I do as transportation. My weight has stopped trending upward and has started trending downward as well.

Crockpot meals were a hands down success. Time to get my girlfriend together again and do a big shop and another huge batch. We keep refining the recipes so it gets better each time we make something.

Sewing is going very well. I have decided that I have enough brand new projects and patterns on the go for a while. I am also going to try my hand and thrift shopping, buying clothes that are too big, and altering them. It's much cheaper than buying all new stuff and screwing around with it. I'm also hoping that alterations will go faster than construction of a new garment.

Goal for the next 250 - Up 15K deposits, down 15 lbs. See if I can alter pants to fit me.

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jennypenny
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by jennypenny »

Congrats on hitting 5K!

Have you seen the Fix It and Forget It cookbooks? Lots of good crock pot recipes. Southern Living magazine has some good ones, too. I love cooking in the crock pot. It's really hard to screw things up in there. :P

lilacorchid
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by lilacorchid »

Day 745 - Finished the timed C25k program - ran 3.6k in 35 min or 6.2km/hr. This is a trot and I know I can probably walk faster when I'm in a rush, but it is what it is! 15 years in the making, I'll take it!!! And I'm going to buy myself some new running shoes as I bought the shoes I'm using when I started this 15 years ago, lol. Got my money's worth anyway. ;) I guess my next goal is to get a 5k run in under 30 minutes. Otherwise I'm out there too long and away from my family during prime family time. I don't know if this is hard, and I'm okay with that. Guess we shall see.

We squared up yesterday and I did a half-month networth calculation and noticed that the 20k we borrowed to front load the savings all the time ago was finally being paid down instead of maintaining. It would seem splitting our money has turned out to be a good thing even if I had to split my savings. Perhaps the husband is finally getting excited about spending less etc?

I bought the first discount item to try to modify. It's a nice brand new $60 dress marked down to $10 and a size too big. Even if I screw it up, the fabric is worth $10 and I can make a shirt out of it.

In other news, I was out with my friend last night and we were talking and I said that I feel like I'm finished all the content and quests and now I'm just grinding for tokens to get prettier gear. When I used to game, this is the point where my drive to play would fade off, and I would quit. Can't really do that with life. Guess I need to find some side quests to keep me busy while I'm grinding away on the main. This is proving harder than I thought.

@jennypenny - Thanks! Do you have one of those books? If so, which one? I tend to get my recipes off allrecipes.com and just go for the ones that have 600 ratings and 4.5 stars or something.

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jennypenny
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by jennypenny »

I have this book ....

Image

I bought it on the discount rack at Barnes and Noble. I like it. She's not a health nut ;) but you can adjust the recipes if you want. She has a blog if you want to try some recipes first. http://fix-itandforget-it.com/blog/

For slow cooker recipes, I use
Tasty Kitchen (Pioneer Woman's recipe site) Tasty Kitchen Slow Cooker recipes
About.com's site (lots of links to lots of recipes)
Betty Crocker recipes *If you can find old BC recipe books (thin, hardcover, the size of magazines) at garage sales or flea markets, grab them. Those old recipes are terrific and made from old-school ingredients.

lilacorchid
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by lilacorchid »

Thanks @jennypenny!

Today is Day 730. It was supposed to be 2 years until I am done, but now it is just some number I'm using to watch the time go by with a land among the stars mentality.

It's been four months since we split up all our money, and I'm done paying off my half of the debt we had taken out for investment purposes. And without trying, I'm spending at most 40% of my take home and able to save at least 60%. I could probably bring the expenses down, but not sure exactly why. I feel like I'm living a pretty good life on this amount of money. This could be the marathon amount vs the sprint amount.

I'm currently trying to figure out if it is worth my money to buy some of my pensionable time back. My 14 year anniversary at work is this fall. 11 more years until I'm eligible for a full pension after I'm 55 or 60, depending on the rules. I have a defined benefit pension, which I get is the most golden of all the golden handcuffs... Since I'm looking at another ten years or so of working to build up the amount of money I would feel comfortable having before I pulled the plug, it may be worth the 10K to lock in the one year of service that I lost by taking some time off. (I need 25 pensionable service years, not just time in.) For the next six years, I get about 40 days off a year (25 are mine to choose, the rest are days everyone gets off without pay) and after 20 years service, I get another five days off. So lots of time off and lots of money.

I think I need to change my mindset about work and start ERE light. I may see if I can use my vacation throughout the year to have mostly four day work weeks and then get started on all these things I keep putting off "until..."

K60
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by K60 »

Hi Lilac,

I also participated in a defined benefit pension plan. Though I was never in the position to "pay back" for lost service, those colleagues who could always found it to their advantage. They were only hampered by their lack of cash!

Good Luck!

lilacorchid
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by lilacorchid »

So my husband got laid off today. This is why I need to work for another ten years. No sense saving only half of the expenses, especially when there is a kid involved.

:(

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jennypenny
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by jennypenny »

I'm sorry lilac. Hang in there.

Who knows ... maybe this will encourage DH to try a little harder wrt ERE.

lilacorchid
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by lilacorchid »

I will try to be positive, but I'm pretty sure this may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I think we are headed to the big D. My dad is also in the midst of a heath scare (we don't know what's up until he sees the doctor). And my damn shoe has a hole in it to top it off. :P

I joke, but really, I'm burnt out. Again, I am so relieved I do not have money problems to add to this pile , but shit, I'm tired.

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jennypenny
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by jennypenny »

I'm really sorry lilac.

Black humor can be a great salve.

llorona
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by llorona »

Sorry things are rough right now. It's tough when highly stressful events coincide. I hope it all works out.

lilacorchid
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by lilacorchid »

Day 635 - ONE YEAR DOWN!

When I look back on last year, it was redic... the husband and I split up our money, he was very sick, and we seriously, seriously considered divorcing after he was laid off. Things are better now, and it actually worked out that we split up our money as I wasn't stressed over the cash flow when he was jobless. I sort of took it as if he wants to work less, that's his thing, but he still owes 50% of the bills.

On to the fun stuff!

So when we split up our savings, we also split up our debt. I was pretty pissed because most of it was my savings and his spending. Anyway, there was no better way to split things up, so it was what it was. I'm pleased to report that I destroyed my half of our debt and also managed to save a crap load, 65% of my salary to be exact!

I'm not expecting to have enough money to retire by the time I reach my countdown, but I should be about 1/3 of the way there. I'm marching in the right direction and it's getting closer! Feeling pretty good about my numbers. :)

lilacorchid
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Re: lilac's journal

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No numbers in this update, tho they are overdue. Just a general update:

1. Turned 35 this year. As a team, we decided that once we were 35, we were not going to try for more kids. As this has been a life goal (family and children) since I was very young, it's a big deal that I drew a line under it and said that's it!

2. Now that I have this extra energy to devote for something, I decided I'm going to start a private foundation. I have a charity picked out to donate to, the money is lined up, it's just a matter of doing the paper work to get my foundation set up. Any advice or suggestions (bonus points for a Canadian perspective if the advice is about details of set up or taxes) are very welcome. It's been a long time since I felt like I have a purpose to go to work for the money I earn there.

3. Due to both the previous, I have decided to work for another ten years. I am buying back my pension (thoughts are welcome here too), which will put me at 3/5 of the way to full funding by next summer. I am over the hill, just ten more years and I will have a full pension ready for me when I hit the retirement age. I will be able to fund the 15 years gap with the money I make from the next 10 years, plus I will be putting more money in my foundation and maybe taking a few extended vacations with my allotment from work.

I feel excited about my financial plan. It's been a while, probably since I read Jacob's book all those years ago!

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jennypenny
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by jennypenny »

I can't help with the foundation stuff, but I'm glad you're so excited about the direction you're headed. I hope everything else is going well. I know you hit a rough patch for a while.

lilacorchid
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by lilacorchid »

@jenny - So nice to see your reply! Yes, things got rough for a while, but it seems to be working out better. It's been a year since we split up the money, and truth be told, I have much less stress. Plus the kiddo started nursery and is becoming more independent and fun to talk to as well. My dad had some minor surgery and is now (in my opinion) pushing himself to the extreme. My mom is upset of course. I just told him to leave enough money so that I can get his body off the mountain or I will never hear the end of it from my mother. And the husband has (again, my opinion) pulled his head of his ass enough that some oxygen is getting to his brain.

Turning 35 opened up a whole new stage of my life, as dumb as that sounds. I don't feel like I have to conform to a 20 year old standard of beauty or manner of speaking. (Getting my undiagnosed and untreated anxiety issues medicated probably helped too.) I tossed all my old clothes (rags?) and bought some nice, quality stuff that should last me for the next 10-15 years. I have not felt this good mentally in YEARS.

And for the not so good days, I also moved some furniture around and opened up the tap a bit to refresh things and do some decorating so at least I'm in a nice looking place while being a grump.

Thank you so much for commenting. I've missed you.

lilacorchid
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by lilacorchid »

Achievement unlocked! We are now mid multi-hundred thousandaires. Not all of that is liquid, but it's box to check off. :D

lilacorchid
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by lilacorchid »

Sometime last month we crossed the line where our net worth is such that if we sold everything, we would never have to work again.

I am going to keep working longer because I would like more of a cushion (and I don't want to sell everything I own to live off it), but it's finally here. The escape button is there, we can push it anytime! :D

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jennypenny
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by jennypenny »

Congrats!

Are you tempted at all? I made an offhand comment this week that I was tempted to sell absolutely everything we own and start over, and was met with horrified looks from my family.

K60
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by K60 »

Hi Lilac, I am glad to hear that all is well with you!

lilacorchid
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Re: lilac's journal

Post by lilacorchid »

@jenny - Thanks! I can't believe we made it, even with all the BS we went through!!! And we are always tempted, but now with the kid being fully entrenched in this school, we will wait until later to ditch this area. Then I went and made friends with some of the parents in the area (who also like wine), and everything is so walkable... We have found ourselves living in a very MMM style of neighbourhood, just in a place where the climate is crap. So we will wait a while...

@K60 - Thanks! We are still plugging along. :D

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