Finances:
I haven't uploaded any charts in a while because tracking expenses in excel sucks on my Macbook Air, I was regularly experiencing severe stuttering and the programme was constantly crashing, I think Microsoft have neglected their software for on OS X I wonder why
However I have discovered Google Sheets operates without stuttering and doesn't crash at all, so here's an overdue update on my financials:
Edit: Thought it might be worth mentioning that SO and I don't combine finances yet, and SO is far better at saving than I am with a higher income too, so bear in mind this is only part of our household financial picture. The food budget below however is for both of us.
Here's my latest monthly budget, this is a best case scenario with my after tax/student loan deducted income of £1616.16, it doesn't account for none budget items, which means I will never reach 81% savings rate, if I hit 60% I'm happy.
Net worth dropped slightly last month due to wedding expenses plus stocking up on more emergency supplies/deep pantry goods, more on that below. Note my sole gold bullion coin is currently about 15% of liquid assets! The more I read about the economy, the more I feel like making that at least 25%
I haven't had a chance to implement my pivot tables in Google Sheets to update my Expenses vs. Savings charts, so here's what I have to date. I hope my savings rate increases significantly this month as there should be no more major expenses for a few months. Honeymoon purchase is on the horizon, that won't be cheap... but maybe my last Holiday abroad for a long time. On the bright side, I'm heading to the USA!
On resiliency:
I have been reflecting a lot books I've read recently, The Crash Course, Prosper!, Overshoot, Survival+ to name a few. I realise I experienced a lot of anxiety after reading The Crash Course, or rather, I realised my present situation was actually particularly precarious. Since then, I've got the finances sorted, all my debt is gone, I have a stable income, high savings rates etc, but all the money is worthless in time of crisis. I've taken the deliberate act of investing in highly useful/tangible assets that might not be available at any price in crisis.
Here's my deep pantry as of this weekend:
In the two lower pictures you can see:
125 Litres of drinking water
40kg Rice
30kg Flour
5 x 12 tins Chopped Tomatoes
Canned meats, assorted pastas, jarred veggies.
This may look extreme to some, but actually, SO and I get through this quantity of food every 3-4 months, and without a car it means shopping for perishables is much more feasibile on bike. I'm considering upping my storage to a years worth of goods to compliment my vegetable growing next spring. The UK don't experience natural disasters that you see in the US, but I don't think we are a special case, we are just as likely to see disruption to energy markets/just in time delivery mechanisms which I think is high likely within the next 3-5 years.
This is how SO and I get through 15kg sacks of flour, we don't buy bread products any more, its all baked freshly at home, including wraps, speciality loafs, pita, naan etc, its surprising how little time and effort it actually takes, and obviously tastes loads better, nothing better than a house smelling of freshly baked breads.
:
Aside from the occasional trip to Costco to stock up on food, my mileage in cars has dropped from 6,000 to <50 miles/year thanks to my favourite possession, that's a huge reduction in dependence on oil. I've put in a request to Santa to bring me a winter bike with panniers/full fenders so I can do even more shopping by bike. I now do my 6,000 commuting miles by bicycle. Commuting expenses have dropped from 20% of annual income to <1%:
I have taken other measures to reduce my reliance on consumer electronics, while they may be token gestures, I take great pleasure in simplifying. For instance, I retired my old electric grinder in favour for this high quality manual ceramic burr grinder, I find it even results in a better brew as I am now able to control the size of coffee grinds and reduce bitterness caused by the imprecision of the blender blades. Yes I have about 3kg off coffee in the pantry, just in case SHTF
. I can't imagine a world without coffee, without cheap oil for quick/cheap transportation, I know it will be a very expensive commodity and access will be restricted, a world like that would make me truly sad, so precautions had to be taken. As a plus, if the lights go out, I can still grind coffee!
My net worth hasn't grown as quickly as I had hoped in recent months due to spending to increase resilience, in recent weeks I have bought a wood splitting axe for chopping firewood, first aid kit - just in case, a knife sharpening stone very useful in the kitchen! Plus other gimmicky purchases like a hand crank radio, a large supply of batteries (all acquired sensibly of course, used, quality, in bulk/steep discount etc). I can sense some doom scenario approaching, while I'm trying avoid the social stigma of 'prepping', I think these preps are all ERE compatible and make life somewhat simpler. I haven't spent any more than £30 on the gimmicky stuff, I can honestly say a lot of anxiety about economic uncertainty faded quickly after establishing the deep pantry.
Plans for increasing resilience in future months include, constructing a DIY water filter, something like below, this will require learning how to producing my own charcoal and ceramic. My initiali reaction was to think, lets go to the local hardware store and buy some, but then I remembered,
IN-SOURCING IS AWESOME.
I'll also be building a
cob oven, increasing my farming skills and I'm also really keen to develop more woodworking skills, something I have been putting off as I don't have the tools, now I have a few months FU money, I'm happy to try buy some. The renaissance lifestyle is finally coming together, can't wait to see what 2016 brings