vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

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

Post by jennypenny »

Did you like Prosper!? It's on my reading list. Did you see that Kunstler did a podcast recently with Martenson and Taggart?

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

Post by BananaMangoSmoothie »

I'm really enjoying your journal. Still haven't read all of it though. Keep up the good work!

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

Post by Ydobon »

Are your figures a month out of date, or have I missed that explanation?

I agree that your bread looks lovely and was also very impressed by your reduction in miles driven. As a new Dad living slightly further out from the city now, my mileage has shot up.

While I don't agree with your gloomy outlook, I'm also trying to reduce our dependence on others at present. We had solar panels fitted at the weekend and the feeling of knowing that the panels were generating more power than I was using as I sat with a coffee in hand watching TV and drying some clothes was pretty amazing. Would you consider some microgeneration when you end up buying somewhere?

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

Post by vexed87 »

Thanks all for the kind words and encouragement.

@ydobon, only savings vs expenses is a month behind, because I haven't got pivot tables working in sheets yet. With regards to energy self-sufficiency, that's definitely my plan long term, it's a bit of a dream of mine to build myself a DIY water or wind mill for home milling flour etc, energy prices are about to sky-rocket in the UK, we've had too little investment into energy industry and we will see the fall out soon as more of the plants start shutting down. Ideally, I'd like a house with backup wood burners in every room and use solar for things like the lights & electronics. Have you worked out how long until you see a return on your investment? Do you have a means for energy storage at the moment, or are you feeding all surplus back into the grid? Most of my preps are relatively small investments (particularly the food, it's stuff in regular rotation) but have the potential to make a big difference in those unexpected events.

@bms, thanks for dropping by and putting up with my rambling ;)

@JP, actually I got the audiobook free on audible, I did enjoy listening to it, Chris is a great speaker. On reflection most of the content was simply a rehash of what is freely available here, but I particularly enjoyed his chapter about building social capital etc, something I really need to work on personally: http://www.peakprosperity.com/page/what-should-i-do
Thanks for the heads up on the pod cast, I'll check it out.

@ffj, Thanks, it doesn't last long here. My family have put their orders in for Christmas day. I'm getting to the point where I could start to sell it/trade it. Pitty the masses prefer this awful stuff...
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@cmonkey, thanks, I have some oxygen absorbers on the way courtesy of ebay, haven't got any buckets yet, but loads of 1 gallon ziplock backs which hopefully work just as well as mylar bags. Sourcing free buckets is on my long list of stuff to do! I realised yesterday by pairing my food stash with with my FU money and ability to grow my own veggies, I could be comfortably out of work for over a year and half and I only started seriously pursuing ERE last March!

@quadalupe, as soon as I had a few weeks of food stored, the anxiety started to fade away. I still freak about losing my job from time to time, as I am still really dependant on money to put a reasonable roof over my head in the future, but secretly hope SHTF so I don't need to go to work any more (half kidding ;)) Alas, the government hasn't fallen and taxes are still due. :D

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

Post by Ydobon »

Have you worked out how long until you see a return on your investment? Do you have a means for energy storage at the moment, or are you feeding all surplus back into the grid?
It's a little too early to tell re. ROI. I think the official figures are something like 10 years, but there are quite a few variables to consider and the official figures tend to lowball. Positives: excellent orientation, no shading, good quality panels, installation cost was stoozed (so we're being paid to have them for the first couple of years). Negatives: Scotland doesn't get as much sunlight as down sarf!

We don't have any means of storage yet. Home battery technology isn't cost effective yet and we don't have an immersion tank to store excess energy because we have a super-efficient combi boiler instead. You pays your money...

We are reducing the amount of energy exported back to the grid by using our appliances during the day when the sun is at its brightest (laundry, slow cooker, charging appliances etc.)

We're coupling this with a concerted effort to slash our energy usage in general (by going for more efficient, not going without). I think this will bear fruit quite quickly. One example would be reducing the wattage of our kitchen lighting from 320W to 56W by changing the fittings etc. We inherited a full set of white goods, so hopefully our energy use profile will dip over time as these need to be replaced.

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

Post by heyhey »

Your pantry is inspiring! I built up a store of food about 18 months ago during the Ebola crisis, but I went a little extreme and planned for food that could be eaten without cooking, in case of no electricity. So I ended up with things I wouldn't normally buy, mostly in cans, and some quite expensive like packets of cooked rice, and some of them are approaching their dates now so I've got to eat all this stuff I don't particularly like. (Powdered egg! Ugh!) I still want to do it but I need to rethink it so I'm cycling through things I normally eat, more like yours.

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

Post by vexed87 »

Heyhey, have you considered giving the stuff you don't like away to food banks? Precooked foods tend to have nasty additives, but the bright side is that they can last longer than the best before date suggests.

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

Post by heyhey »

Yes, I did some of that. But other things I have opened. I will cut myself some slack on the dates though, thanks :)

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

Post by George the original one »

> Ideally, I'd like a house with backup wood burners in every room

I know the UK has smaller woodstoves than we do in North America, but I seriously doubt you need them in each room unless the house is poorly laid out for air circulation.

For example, as I'm typing this, our small downstairs woodstove (about the size of your large woodstoves) is keeping the 600 sq ft downstairs (one large room plus laundry & toilet) at a slightly warm 72F while it's 45F outside 2.5 hrs after sunset. The larger upstairs stove is not fired up and it is nearly 67F in the 1000 sq ft dining, kitchen, 3 bedrooms, & 2 bathrooms we have up there. We'll fire off that upstairs stove as we go to bed and let the downstairs stove die off. We'll wake up to 66F up there, even in our bedroom which is down a long hallway at the opposite end from the woodstove.

Last week, when it was very cold (26F), we needed both stoves going as long as possible and we'd wake up to a house at 63F. I'm not going to remove windows to help keep it warmer under those conditions, but I might add another layer of insulation in the attic.
***
And being on well, when the power fails, we keep 5-gallon buckets available for flushing the toilets. This time of year, they just fill with rainwater (4.5" yesterday and 1" today!), but in the summer we walk down to the glorified-creek-they-call-a-river to fill them.

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

Post by vexed87 »

GTOO, I suppose that makes sense, my parents have a medium sized wood burner and it heats a 1000 sq ft room easily. I suppose one on each floor of a modestly sized house would do!

Cycling Woes

Well today has been a real day from hell. I woke up late. Arrived at my bike to find a tyre had gone flat over the weekend. Next, my chain dropped 3 times on the way to the office, something was seriously wrong with my front derailleur and the chain kept sitting on the top of the chainring teeth and then falling of the chainring completely, I just about made it into the office in one piece! On the way home, my chain snapped 5 minutes away from the office literally just as the heavens opened up (heavy rain). As I pulled over to work out what the hell was going on, the chain rolled off the cassette and into a storm drain, what are the chances!? Of all the spare bits I carry around with me in case of mechanical failure, I never thought I would need an entire spare chain!

I then had to push the bike 1 mile as I had no drivetrain (plus another mile coasting downhill) to get to a nearby Halfords (a car and bike store). Luckily it was still open so I managed to buy a replacement chain and fit it out in the dark as they were closing up.

When I finally got home, I put the bike on my mechanic stand and while trying to force the post to raise the bike, the post was seized, I snapped two of the tripod legs, the stand is now totally FUBAR'd. On close inspection of the bike, it looks like my chainring is a bit on the worn side, but its not too bad, it could be front derailleur misalignment/misadjusted... that is causing the chain to drop as the chain is forced up on the teeth of the large chain ring, without a mechanic stand it's basically impossible to assess the cause because I can't get a good look at chainring while keeping the bike suspended and simultaneously shifting.

:lol: fingers crossed tomorrow goes more smoothly. Hopefully in sharing my pain I can give some of you a laugh... I really enjoy the troubleshooting aspect of bike repair and now have an excuse to get hold of a nice new park tools repair stand (I had a cheapo plastic constructed one, hence snapping of legs). Looks like I'm riding the junker tomorrow while a new stand and chain ring get shipped.

Exasperating! :roll:

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

Post by George the original one »

Reminds me of the "Rain God" in one of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books!

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

Post by vexed87 »

Luckily it doesn't quite rain on me wherever I go, but if you live in the UK, it can feel close to it some times :D

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

Post by George the original one »

We had nearly 3" of rain yesterday here in the Oregon coast range after more than a week of 0.5"-2" per day, so I know what you mean :-)

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

Post by skintstudent »

George the original one wrote:We had nearly 3" of rain yesterday here in the Oregon coast range after more than a week of 0.5"-2" per day, so I know what you mean :-)
It's only a couple of weeks since parts of the UK suffered well over a foot of rainfall in 24 hours. It can be truly miserable during winter. Thankfully, the days are getting longer again :)

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

Post by vexed87 »

December Update:

Finally >70% savings rate :D

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I could have done better too if I hadn't broken my bicycle mechanic stand. It was totally FUBAR, so I invested in a BIFL quality stand, I know I'll get a lifetime of use out of it - Park Tools!)

Other notable points in the expenditure, Food spending at an all time low. Pantry/Staple meals are doing wonders for the bottom line. Christmas lunch was courtesy of SOs family so I saved a fair chunk there. I like how steep my net worth slope has been getting recently, despite it being quite a spendy month. I purchased some new kitchen utensils to aid with my new baking habit, I promise not to buy anymore, I'm still going for minimalism! I also had to replace some new trainers and buy some new cycling bib tights and buy a new winter quilt that actually fits my bed.

I received some cash gifts for Christmas, so I decided finally to buy some carpentry equipment, most of it vintage and from ebay to keep costs down. I have been doing a lot of reading and it seems pre-1940s stuff is better quality than the modern stuff. I have sourced a carcass saw, a set of chisels, a no-5 plane and a panel rip saw to add to my already limited collection, the focus will be completing all jobs without power tools. It was quite an outlay, but hopefully it is the start of a new fulfilling hobby, and if I'm lucky, another side gig. My mother has already commissioned me for some work! :lol: My first project will be a workbench, then a bookshelf, a coffee table and eventually a wine rack for mother. SOs birthday is coming up in April and I think she'd appreciate a dressing table. Hopefully I'm not biting off more than I can chew!

Edit: Some more detailed analysis of spending coming soon, I've been collecting receipts all year (well, since march!) and hopefully I can add some interesting graphs on how spending has declined (hopefully) in key areas since subscribing to an ERE lifestyle.

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

Post by Ydobon »

Happy New Year to you and yours :)

That is a very healthy savings rate, you are making me pine for the good old days when I didn't have a mortgage to pay for!

The carpentry tools sound like a great investment, I am sure that you will enjoy many engaging projects over the next few years. Even if it's not for you, decent tools hold their value very well. A decent dressing table can be fairly expensive, so definitely a good one to aim for.

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

Post by cmonkey »

Great job hitting 70%. Now you know what it takes to get to that level and can make it habit.

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

Post by Dragline »

Yes, that's very impressive!

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

Post by vexed87 »

Oh yeah, happy new year everyone! I'm terrible at that seasonal stuff.

WRT 70% savings rate - it helped when I changed my bank account and forgot to take my new debit card out with me everywhere I went for a whole two weeks, not to mention not having it linked to any e-retailers :lol:

@Ydobon, do you think I could hand carve pine into this? With a bit of practice of course ;)
http://3.imimg.com/data3/BS/NJ/MY-16412 ... 00x500.jpg

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

Post by Ydobon »

Hahaha - necessary! :D

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