@Jacob I've often wondered why those sort of places don't exist. Something like a workplace or school canteen where the scale can deliver better value than you can get at home.
This parallels the experience with a lot of other things. I recall AH's recent comment along the lines of spending 60-70k before but then speed-running the WLs so fast that spending that much now seems absurd in retrospect. I've never spent that much, so I couldn't imagine it in the first place.
Part of the reason I used a ranged budget for 2023, is our other spending drifts a similar direction. The past two years of inflation make it hard to see. Especially when coupled with all the retirement related life transitions. But resource consumption is down across the board. The reduction is organic, a response to more space in life.
In the past, I tried to force change. I did stints of not eating out. But that was all via will power. We never got over what tech people call "the hump of pain". This experience is different. It has its own momentum.
Does anyone know any examples (whatsoever) of the market catering to the middle of these extremes? The ballpark of 2000kcal for $3. I can do this at home, but I could do for less if I had the benefit of scale feeding 50-100 people per day.
Costco hotdog and soda (if you don't get diet) is pretty close to that Unfortunately I can't think of anything that serves HEALTHY whole grains/legumes/greens at that kcal/$ rate.
I'm actually not sure if it's cheaper at scale (although obviously would be easier. My Brother In Law is a brewer and pays the same for barley as I do. I buy a 25# bag and he buys 500#+ but it's the same or higher cost.
Beans and whole grains (other than wheat) are often $1 or so for 1000kCal, meaning you're at 2 bucks in materials for the kCal, plus the mixins like greens, fruit, other veggies, etc. Now all of a sudden you've got no profit! It would be a great idea for a nonprofit coop though.
Beans and whole grains (other than wheat) are often $1 or so for 1000kCal, meaning you're at 2 bucks in materials for the kCal, plus the mixins like greens, fruit, other veggies, etc. Now all of a sudden you've got no profit! It would be a great idea for a nonprofit coop though.
Now you’ve basically made it to the Sikh practice of Langar, which is about 550ish years old .
Does anyone know any examples (whatsoever) of the market catering to the middle of these extremes? The ballpark of 2000kcal for $3. I can do this at home, but I could do for less if I had the benefit of scale feeding 50-100 people per day.
Not quite that low but close. During my recent travels, I was shown by a friend a $5 all you can eat vegan buffet in southern Utah. It is run by an animal sanctuary and is open every day 11am-1pm.
During my recent travels, I was shown by a friend a $5 all you can eat vegan buffet in southern Utah.
This sounds like Best Friends. I ate there about 15 years ago. I think it was $5 then too. The food was great.
For all this talk about ERE2, that animal sanctuary is the closest example I can think of it in real life. The founders acquired the canyon and leased more land from the government. Over the course of several decades, they mobilized volunteers and donors to radically change the course of animal welfare. There's a book detailing the early years. It's an interesting read:
Far as I can tell, they even built a culture that has survived on to a second generation of caretakers. I believe several of the founders lived in the canyon through old age.
Did my first Roth conversion. The hardest part was confirming the year's income. The transaction itself is trivial.
More importantly, I managed to salvage December's neutral grip pull-up goal. I'd been working it at the gym, gradually building up with the assisted pull up machine. However, the past couple of weeks, I found myself opting for sessions in the basement. One arm pull downs. Negatives off a football bar in my power rack. I thought they might be working better.
Yesterday I added the missing link. These $20 handles, which let my joints rotate freely:
I got 3 singles. And no joint pain. Failure avoidance remains my best form of motivation.
@jacob, some religious establishment operate a donation model of serving food at meal times. I remember frequenting a Sikh temple in East Asia when I was working in a hostel there. The food was well balanced nutritionally and simple. People were friendly and there was the option to help with the dishes.
Also, in Eastern Europe there were (maybe still are) food outlets that have students as their target. The Eastern European model is that of a skint student rather than an indebted one. In result the food outlets would be very affordable. It would be typical Eastern European food though. This tends to be heavy and with few vegetarian options.
Per some advice I've offered here, I am reducing time online. The goal is to touch my phone once a day, and a web browser once per week. It's going to curtail my forum participation. Two weeks in, life is much better. I am doing more and more relaxed about it.
We did our December 2022 budget review, per the new model:
Total: $2,759
Car $268
Discretionary $207
Groceries $716
Dental $88
Medical $617
Home $318
Pets $232
Taxes $0
Utilities $314
The 2022 final spend was about $1k less than projected, landing at $43,284.
I never understood how this whole idea that going out saves time. It may have other benefits, but I'll race anyone in terms of feeding themselves wrt home cooking + cleanup vs going out. Learning to cook takes time, cooking does not.
It doesn't neccessarily save time (esp. if you batch cook, and the restaurants aren't close to home), but it saves energy, incl. mental energy. When eating out, you don't have to plan what to cook, make sure you have all the groceries, cook, and clean up later. All that is replaced by a pleasant mental break on the way to the restaurant and while waiting for a meal. And, if even those are too much, you can just order takeout. Then, the total time and energy cost is close to zero, you're only paying in money.
Dunno if I'll continue posting a monthly budget update here, but wanted to give a general update.
In short - towards the end of December, I realized an aspect of my life never left Plato's cave. Since retiring, I've spent substantial parts of every day online or using my phone. The primary difference between my working days - I can decide what is on the screen.
Turns out - screens are not required. Obvious.
So I ramped down my screen time, using a piece of paper to cache notes for my digital planner. The goal is phone once a day, internet once a week. I don't hit it perfectly. I also committed to a minimum weekly cadence of events:
1. Something for me. A new yoga class. Walking a mall. Book club at the library.
2. Something with my wife. Helping paint a room. Visiting a new forest preserve. An ice festival.
3. Something with my parents. A yoga class. Having them over for a meal. Working on a bike.
4. Some sort of volunteer work. The food bank. Helping at a race.
Along with that, I also stopped consuming streaming content. Netflix. Audiobooks and youtube, especially at 2x speed or faster. I'm also generally removed from the news, as well as sites providing infinite scroll. Again, not 100%, but a very consistent change. The end result is my life has improved a lot. Some highlights:
1. I've made it to yoga class with my mom every week it's been offered in 2023
2. I had my parents over to make pizzas
3. I volunteered to do packet pickup for a local bike rice, and got a free hat
4. I'm helping replace the food pantry ERP system, acting as an analyst and tester. Peering with director / mba level folks.
5. My wife and I explored a new forest preserve today.
6. I helped my wife paint a room, for the first time ever.
7. We went to explore the old local mall, confirming its drawn out death
8. Next week, I'm interviewing for a part time PM job at a local non-profit whose services I regularly enjoy
9. I am regularly using my library, for paper books - which either aren't available on audio, or I didn't want to afford
10. I resumed dreaming, or at least, remembering my dreams. It's been decades since that happened.
11. Not new - but I continue training for my trail run. This week was 5h of cardio, plus lifting 4 times.
The money is kind of taking care of itself. My activities aren't expensive. By committing to indexing as my investment strategy, I also made a very low information diet possible. Now I am taking advantage. Life is good.
Finances remain on track, following last year's portfolio damage. The new budgeting process works great. Despite constrained resources, my wife and I have minimal disagreements over money.
Reducing my screen time was a mixed effort, with some regression on the ERE front.
1. It's undeniable that I don't like to DIY. My wife painted several rooms in our house, which was a tremendous effort for her. I only did what she physically could not. Other than her happiness, I took nothing from the work or end result. I had the time and energy. I just don't like to do it.
2. The food pantry software was delivered on schedule. Their definition of done, as well as the path to get there, was nothing like a corporate environment. Controlled chaos, at best. Even so, I was much happier with that effort than DIY around the house. Unfortunately, being responsive pulled the thread to unravel my screen time limits.
3. Again I was forced to humble myself and accept I don't like to DIY. We hired out maintenance and tuning of three bikes bought last Summer. For $500, a guy with decades of experience picked up the bikes, made them as good as possible and dropped them back off. In less than three days, the bike problems I was chasing all Summer were gone.
4. Despite budgeting for a housekeeper this year, we've yet to follow through. It's hard to accept the opportunity cost of that money. $150 every 6 weeks is significant, especially when it's easy to ignore the dirt. It does mean scrambling when the house needs to be clean.
5. I developed a hernia and had surgery. Turn around time from diagnosis to surgery was three weeks. I never saw this coming. Fortunately, I have the best available insurance, in anticipation of my jaw surgery. I didn't see any warning signs, until I had significant medical need. This challenges my longer term plan of catastrophic only health insurance coverage. I'm less flexible than I thought.
6. I ventured into a little credit card churning, due to a trip with a friend. Total value of the effort will be about $1000. I've picked off most of the easy cards now. But it was an effective means to my end.
7. Applying to the non profit did not work. I'm not practiced at interviewing. I'm also not convinced they were looking for an external candidate.
8. In further adventures of ignoring DIY as long as possible, I finally had to replace the fill valve and flapper on my toilet. I ordered the parts in fall of 2021. The entire time, I regretted not hiring it out. Especially when the first replacement flapper wouldn't seal. Again, no enjoyment of the process, no pride in the end result.
9. I haven't had much luck chasing "long term games with long term people". Inevitably, the events I go to are populated by women in their 50's, 60's and 70's. They are fine people, but we don't connect. It doesn't help that I'm unsure what my long term games are.
10. We discovered eye exams and glasses had not been properly budgeted for. That's an extra $500 every year or two. And I'm old enough for readers now. What the heck. They seem to help with some double vision I was getting on the computer.
11. The hernia has forced me to reevaluate the role of physical activity in my life. Namely, forced inactivity leaves a huge hole. Most of my hobbies these days are moving - lifting, yoga, running, biking, etc. Not very well diversified. Often those are solitary pursuits as well, failing to feed into the long term games with long term people ideals.
12. I'm lightly considering renewal of my professional certification. There are some problems I'd like to throw money at. This could be boredom of inactivity settling in, but it's on the radar. I still wonder if some paying work could fit my other priorities.
I haven't had much luck chasing "long term games with long term people". Inevitably, the events I go to are populated by women in their 50's, 60's and 70's. They are fine people, but we don't connect. It doesn't help that I'm unsure what my long term games are.
One of my friends works at a consultancy where they build websites for non-profits. I’m wondering whether doing something like that (or the IT/setting up internal tools equivalent) in your area as a solo operator might fulfill a few of the needs you’ve voiced: get to make some money through project based work, be useful to the world, network with good people, etc. You could probably ask the management at the food bank if they know of other organizations they are affiliated with that might use your skills.
I'm with you on news/internet addiction. I switched from a smart phone to an old flip phone about four months ago and have been loving the change. However, I'm not ready to abandon all screen use--for me, just abandoning to habitual and instinctive phoning was (hopefully) enough for now.
Unfortunately I can't think of anything that serves HEALTHY whole grains/legumes/greens at that kcal/$ rate.
