Hottentot's Journal

[Hottentot]

Hello everybody.

I'm a 26yo fellow brazilian and i'm here to learn and relearn.

After knowing ERE for some years i keep making mistakes because of my consumerist vein.

Last purchase was an 1x12 cabinet (R$370,00) and a 12" speaker for it (R$470,00).

My income: R$770,00 + R$190,00 (food card, stays with my parents), so only R$770,00 after taxes. Next month will get a 6.5% raise and by July a R$150 bonus every month.

I'm spending at least R$70,00 in weekends (almost R$300,00/month).

R$50,00 for the internet (only option here and one year of fidelity, this is the first month).

R$100~120 for gas (live far from work, but live with my parents)
So... the last month:
+ R$770 (income)

+ R$360 (savings)

- R$300 (weekends)

- R$50 (internet)

- R$100 (gas)

- R$840 (cabinet and speaker)

----------------------

- R$160
Now you know where i'm coming from. LOL

Right now i got R$160,00 in debt that will be paid off in May by my income (May 1st).
No more frivolous purchases, no more going out 3 days a week and drinking the hell out of myself.
For every thing i'm thinking of buying i'll post here for you guys to talk me out of it or if it's really a necessity, you'll help me find free or cheap alternatives.
My main hobbies are my guitar (as you can see), linux, reading and writing (writing in portuguese, of course).

But i can't make money from them right now.

I use linux for almost 8 years and i'm using gentoo for about 5. But i'm a home user, a power home user. I can do almost everything by command line (hell, every software i use are command line/ncurses applications), but i don't know things that can make me money.

Guitar... well, i'm learning. I'm making progress right now, but i can't teach anybody yet.

Reading and writing... you already know how this pays off.
So, this is it.

Thanks for the patience and pardon for my english.
PS: this is where my nickname come from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTuSq5E99KQ

[Hottentot]

Babysteps for now. I'm just trying to live a less expensive lifestyle (the going out part) and i succeed this weekend.

Only got out one day and spend R$30,00 total instead of >R$70,00.
My goal is that i don't have to suck it up for my boss and wake up every morning feeling like crap doing the same bullshit every day.

I don't mind to work part-time if early retirement is way off for me giving my income, but part-time jobs here are scarce, if not inexistent.

Since you're from Brazil too, the question is: it can be done with my income? It will be R$820,00 with the raise this month and after July will be R$970,00.
I would be happy if i can make my hobbies (especially guitar) give me some boost in my finances, but i'm far away from that and i'm not relying on it too. Maybe two years from now i can try.

[Hottentot]

They offered me a raise (in workload and salary).

I'm thinking about it, but i'm inclined to decline. (!)
Pros:

+R$500,00/month
Cons:

Accepting it means that the woman there (which is a wonderful woman) will lose the position. She has family to support and, like i said, it's a wonderful woman. Even if they find a replacement anyway, i'll not be a part of this.

The man that works there will be a major pain. He is a lot bitter because they never offered him anything and he works there for a long time.

Much more work, sometimes more hours and a lot more responsibility/headaches... oh and less (almost no) vacations because they don't have replacement for these kind of positions. When you go out on vacation you'll come back for accumulated work.

The position tends to have a duration. The next election they change everyone and i'll probably be back to where i am right now anyway. But i can be stuck there forever, since once you accept it, you need their permission to go back to where you came from. The only possibility in this case will be quitting. (They can't fire me, it's government)

[Hottentot]

Sorry, I had not seen your post asking me if it can be done.
If your gol is not having to be under orders of your boss, maybe you could think about switching jobs? Maybe starting your own business on the side? Off course if you can save for FI in the long run it's awesome.
Regarding the values, I must say that these values will reduce your options. If it can be done or not, it will depend on how little you are able to live on. If you are able to live on R$250,00 a month, you can save 70% of a R$900,00 wage. That way you could retire in less than 10 years with R$75.000 saved. That money well invested in theory should be able to more or less safely generate you R$250 a month.
Can you do that? I know that I can, but then I like to live in the countryside, grow my own food, I don't like big cities and so I'm able to have an affordable lifestyle. I've bought a cheap lot in a cheap place in a cheap city with a cheap house in it. 8x3 meters of house. It costed me R$10.000, but I don't see anything else so cheap around here. How do you plan on solving the housing problem? That's first and most important question. Are you willing to move to a cheaper place to have more affordable housing?
Second question is, are you willing to grow most of your own food?

Yes, i'm willing to live in cheap places and i plan to grow most of my own food in the future, i always loved nature and it's one of my dreams to live on a house with a nice garden.
Since i live with my parents, it'll be easy to save 70% or more.
I'm not thinking so deeply about the housing question right now. I'm just focusing on changing my lifestyle and spending less.

Here's some updates:

I had some of the worst hangovers of my life this wednesday. It's not because of the hangover itself, but i've been wanting to stop drinking for a long time and i managed to stay 17 days without a drink, but i came back to my old habits. I don't drink daily, but i drink A LOT and i know i am destroying myself slowly. This is a dangerous habit and an expensive one (one month i spent R$400,00 on going out and drinking!).
Some shit i did drunk was pretty scary.
I gave myself tinnitus for life, lost a really good and old friend, fell of a tree, had some dangerous sexual activity and the list goes on.
I'm a fucking mess. And the worst part is the tinnitus. Now that's here, there's nothing i can do about it.
Anyway, thursday i went to a blues concert with a friend and didn't order any drink. Yesterday i had a birthday, but didn't go with fear of relapsing since this friend and his family drinks like there's no tomorrow and they are annoying when they are drunk.
I'm in a point (and age) that i'm serious about this change and i think i can go out with my friends (90% of them drink a lot) and don't drink anything alcoholic, but in the first weeks i'll try to avoid this places just to be safe.

I already mentioned it, but here it goes again. I did something fun and didin't cost me anything.
I watched a really awesome blues concert with a friend. Just got there, watched the show and came back home.
@bigato, maybe you know SESC. They always bring free concerts and it's almost always good ones.

I'm getting back on my healthy habits for now. I'm being able of doing pull ups on bars and that was a thing that i couldn't do anyway.
I do a lot of pushups, squats, burpees and running/walking almost daily. I don't like gyms, i prefer to spend time outside doing these things.

I'm reading a lot too. Finished "Denial of Death" (Ernest Becker) these days, awesome book.

The things i want to focus now is:
- Practing guitar more, i'm procastinating a lot in this.
- Spend less time on the internet, this is my major time waster.
- Find new things to do or learn (this will help with the internet issue). I keep thinking about martial arts or something fitness-based (but not gym), but i don't know yet.
- Expand my social life to more healthy places and finding new friends to encourage these activities.

[anomie]

Hi Hottentot,

good luck with the drinking thing.

One thing that helps me is to keep track of every dollar that i spend on alcohol. And to make it a goal to keep that monthly amount under control each month. Just thinking of alcohol as dollars wasted helps me keep it down...

best wishes.
ps - really enjoyed the youtube link in your intro! thanks for posting.

[Hottentot]

I just came back from a pub with my friends and didn't drink anything at all. I am shocked how nice and easy was. I came back because i was hungry, but i could stay there much more. I'll stay on track and if everything goes smooth like this i'll ditch alcohol forever.

[Hottentot]

Little update:
Since i ditched alcohol my economies are boosting up! Sometimes i fall back in the old habits, but i'm keeping on track.

I'm living a new dilemma right now.
I love(d) playing guitar and i have a custom handmade guitar that cost me R$2900. It's a nice piece of art, marvelous playability, but it doesn't have too much resale value since it's not a mainstream brand. And two months back i contacted a luthier to start making another, but this time i got smarter and bought some parts myself. Until now i spent R$1000 and i'm thinking i'll spend at least more R$600 for the luthier work (drilling, painting, assembling everything and making the neck from scratch). So R$1600 total.
The thing is, i'm having a little crisis here.
I'm not so fond of guitar anymore. I don't know if it's a stage or not, but i don't feel like practing or playing it anymore. It's been more than a month since i really practiced, sometimes i just pick it up and play it unplugged for 20 minutes and it goes back on the hardcase.
I just play for myself (bedroom player), i don't have a band or anything and i spent so much money in this that is making me rethink everything.
Every two months i need to spend R$15 on a new set of strings (this for one guitar, in a couple of months i'll have another) and every four to six months it needs some maintenance and it costs me R$30.
The money isn't a major issue, but i think i'm holding to something that doesn't pay off in the end, it's not fun anymore and it's causing me suffering because when i see the guitar i beat myself up for not practing and not becoming a great guitarist (for what? for who?).

Right now i have this:

The handmade electric guitar: R$2900 (+R$300 for the hardcase)
The second guitar (still in progress): ~R$1700
The handmade tube amp (head): R$1100
The amp cabinet: R$700
Cables: R$200
Method books, etc: R$200
Total: ~R$7100

I'm trying to sell my main guitar + case for now (for R$2700), but it's been hard. With a little patience i think i can make it.
I'm thinking of selling it now so i can take some time of from playing and when my second guitar is done i'll pick it up again to see if the desire comes back. If not i'll sell everything and move on.

Do you guys experienced something like this? Something close to your heart that you simply stopped liking? What did you do?

[George the original one]

It's not so much that I stopped liking something, but that it no longer fits in with the time/money priorities. Of course that means I have too much "junk" in my life since I tend not to part with things unless I know they can be easily replaced.