themodernchap's Journal. (UK, Hard Mode, neg NW)

[Ydobon]

Non-job for an IT company doing reports, basic data analysis etc. Total crap, but pays £30k and I get away with murder, 60% of my day is browsing the internet, which has become pretty horrible in its own way

[themodernchap]

JANUARY 2016

Vexed kindly furnished me with his google sheet, which I have butchered and edited to make one I can use.

Currently projecting a savings rate of 68%+ for January, although those "savings" are going into debt repayment. Paid my rent today which hurt a fair bit. I usually get the bus home (2.5 miles) but this week despite the terrible weather I rode public hire bikes and only got 2 busses saving £6.00 might not sound like much but I'm pleased because I can't see anywhere else to cut my budget and it would save a total of £40/m. Tomorrow I am helping my girlfriend's dad lay out 100 square feet of vegetable plots on his land. Will keep you posted on this.

Goals for the month are as follows:
[*]70% savings rate. I am going to do this by cutting the bus out and cycling the awful, heavy public hire bikes. (Didn't achieve this. 64%, did mostly cycle though)
[*]Get out of my overdraft. This will save 50p a day in overdraft charges. (lol nope, but next month should do it)
[*]Teach DW to shoot the .22 She refuses to learn the 12bore. For now. (Done 16/01/16, see below for pics)
[*]Sell some stuff I have some bike parts (Campagnolo parts if anyone is interested) Also some computer parts and a fancy gold watch I never wear. I'm going to try to get rid of more stuff and sell anything I can.
[*]Get a side hustle I need another income stream, however small. Already have some ideas but none of them will be big earners. In progress.


Talk about beginners luck. Literally her first shot with a .22

[themodernchap]

Reviewing my goals for January I have mixed feelings. I haven't got my final figures sorted yet but I'm pretty sure I didn't hit 70%. I think I will have landed somewhere in the 60s though. I have cycled the horrible public hire bikes almost every day except for the few days when the weather was properly terrible, (we keep catching the storms coming from the East coast of the USA.

I did succeed in teaching DW to shoot the .22, she think's she's some kind of marksman now... She can reliably hit smallish targets from 30m, which isn't bad for a beginner.

Sold a few things bringing in a total of £70 but I have not taken the time to go though my bike parts boxes and work out what to list. I think this will be a more longterm prospect.

I am going to rebuild my bike and document the process on here. It's a lovely old lugged steel frame. That mean's some expenditure but I hope to offset this though selling parts I am not using. Rest assured that these expenses will be meticulously tracked.

Side hussle is underway, but not finished and thus not profitable.

Inspired by Vexed I have also got back into the habit of baking regularly, which I hadn't done for about 2 years until this month. Making a sourdough loaf every weekend at the moment. Anyone want to trade starters? (Pic attached)



Full details to follow once I have done my sums for the month!

[themodernchap]

I saved more this month than I ever have before, but it is a bit depressing watching those savings disappear into debt repayment. That's the price I pay for my foolishness I suppose! I'll try to hold on to that feeling for the next time I consider doing something financially stupid.


At least the line is trending in the correct direction!

Savings rate 64%.

[*]I have fairly granular data on my modified Vexed spreadsheet, which I have weirdly enjoyed logging

[*]I have cleared a total of £627.63 in debt. I am still ending the month with a current account balance in the negative but I feel progress this month has been good.

[*]I cycled home from work a bunch of times reducing my transport cost from £40 to £24. I am hoping to reduce this further by laying down some money to get my beloved bike back on the road.

I am trying to come up with a hassle free way of tracking expenditure for my spreadsheet, at the minute I am writing down what I spend each day (cash expenses) and then collating that with my bank statement (debit transactions and withdrawals) there must be an easier way than this. Should I just not count withdrawals toward expenditure since these expenses are already accounted for in the cash based accounting?

[Ydobon]

This forum is obsessed with baking bread!

Why not add your savings rate on a secondary axis to the second table? Would save you typing it.

[themodernchap]

Why not add your savings rate on a secondary axis to the second table?

Implemented on your advice. Getting good practice at Google Sheets with all this tinkering.
I'll have to figure out how to accurately track investments shortly.

I only bake Sourdough really, must try to diversify!

[cjm]

Welcome, modernchap. Best of luck from another UK ERE wannabe!

[skintstudent]

I'll have to figure out how to accurately track investments shortly.

It's easy to track stock prices on Google sheets. Look up the "googlefinance" function. Am tempted to move my spreadsheet to Google sheets myself for this reason.

[vexed87]

That sour dough looks great... I still haven't tried a SD recipe myself, both times I tried to get a starter going they were contaminated with some nasty bug which made the mix smell like vomit despite some serious patience and feeding. Not pleasant!

I think it might be because I was using non-organic fruit, perhaps the pesticides killed off the naturally occurring yeasts. What are you using to make your starter dough aside from flour and water, if anything?

As others have said, great to see more UK members!

[themodernchap]

@Vexed87

I've been making sourdough for about 4 years now. I've had 3 starters in total. People make it harder than it needs to be. For starters I use normal strong white bread flour and lukewarm tap water. Roughly a 50/50 mix will give you a batter like consistancy. Put this in a mixing bowl or a jar and loosely cover with clingfilm. Leave it on top of your fridge for a week.

It probably matures faster if you feed it and stuff during that week but I dont bother. After a week it will be fermenting and a layer of hooch will form on top, I pour this off others mix it in.

I have in the past used grape skins in starter to introduce yeasts but l've had greater success with just plain flour and water. I bake once a week at the minute so I feed the starter flour and water on a friday, friday night I mix starter and fresh flour and water and leave in bowl overnight to create a "sponge" then the next day add more flour to make a dough, knead on an oiled surface or in an oiled bowl, proove, knock back, prove again, bake at gas mark 10 for 10-15 mins with water in bottom of oven to make steam then down to gas mark 6 for about 20 mins.

[themodernchap]

@Vexed87

I've been making sourdough for about 4 years now. I've had 3 starters in total. People make it harder than it needs to be. For starters I use normal strong white bread flour and lukewarm tap water. Roughly a 50/50 mix will give you a batter like consistancy. Put this in a mixing bowl or a jar and loosely cover with clingfilm. Leave it on top of your fridge for a week.

It probably matures faster if you feed it and stuff during that week but I dont bother. After a week it will be fermenting and a layer of hooch will form on top, I pour this off others mix it in.

I have in the past used grape skins in starter to introduce yeasts but l've had greater success with just plain flour and water. I bake once a week at the minute so I feed the starter flour and water on a friday, friday night I mix starter and fresh flour and water and leave in bowl overnight to create a "sponge" then the next day add more flour to make a dough, knead on an oiled surface or in an oiled bowl, proove, knock back, prove again, bake at gas mark 10 for 10-15 mins with water in bottom of oven to make steam then down to gas mark 6 for about 20 mins.

Edit: first proving can be anything from 4 to 10 hours depending on room temperature, second will be 1-3. The best advice is not to focus on times but rather to develop a feel for what the dough is doing.

[Ydobon]

I went through a spell of making sourdough, but didn't have much luck with it (think our flat was too cold, never managed much rise out of my bread). I started my culture from an existing healthy one - maybe we need an ERE culture bank?

Googlefinance function sounds awesome, getting very tempted by the idea of moving some things into the cloud and plugging a Chromebit into my old flat screen TV in the spare room.

[themodernchap]

maybe we need an ERE culture bank?.

More than willing to ship dried starter upon request. It's very strong and active. I'm going to write up a guide with pictures (this week's bread is proving right now) and put it in DIY skills. Proving time is all about temperature, the hotter the room the quicker the proving. You can cheat by putting the dough near a heat source, woodburner is ideal. Another thing is that the less refined the flour the more life it will have in it. I would suggest if you are getting nowhere with plain white flour to put a handful of wholewheat flour in too.

I rigged up the googlefinance thing as suggested. Works for single tickers which is great but doesn't work for funds so for those I will have to manage the data manually I think. I only hold a few though so it shouldn't be a hassle. Very bored in work this week as I have realised I am not really learning anything there, no new skills or anything. Spent a few hours polishing up my CV and I've sent a few applications tonight.

I evesdropped (I know I shouldn't) on a co-worker this week who was explaining to another colleague the reasons that he will have to work where I work until he is 68. He is in a well paid position. Maybe I am more tuned into that kind of thing since starting my ERE'ing. Also went to a shopping centre (US: Mall) today for the first time in a long time. It was horrible. I can't fathom why anyone would willingly spend their weekend shopping for sport. I doubt very many of them were there for some specific item, I think it was more that they were there to see what they could buy.

[jacob]

We, that is, DW usually recreates starter cultures from "whatever is floating in the air". It seems to work. Maybe we're just eating inferior sour dough though?!

[Ydobon]

I managed to get the Google thing to work fine for funds, although it took a little trial and error. Example syntax for Vanguard Life Strategy 100 is =GOOGLEFINANCE("MUTF_GB:VANG_LIFE_100_J10ZSC","price")