Early Retirement Extreme Forums

“Move as much as possible, exercise just enough.” —Jade Teta

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” —Pablo Picasso

I made some masks to send to family in Asia a little more than a month ago (when there were still materials available locally, and people were still scoffing at using masks at all). After some experimentation I found diymask.site for a Hong Kong pattern. The site has now been overloaded or offline f...

I carried a wallet like that once when I was young, to take office petty cash to the post office when mailing out a huge shipment. The only ID was a single business card, so when I stopped to pick up family on my way home from the post office and dropped the wallet I desperately hoped someone would ...

Fabric from broken umbrellas into bicycle seat covers, hood or poncho for people or pets, backpack cover, foldable grocery bag, loose sleeve for long wet umbrella so you don't drip when you go into a store or business. Empty tissue boxes as mini recycle bins at work. Clearly labelled as 'dead pen/m...

I mostly learned like @sclass on free clothes discarded by others or cheaply procured by the pound. Practicing alterations and small projects with essentially free material can lead to some surprisingly wearable and usable results. In the early days some things didn't turn out, but it was all part o...

Thanks for the 'two bags' strategy post - I like how you expanded on using dry pantry foods in one easy to carry bag and perishable/wet 'fridge' foods in another. I will be borrowing that idea

Changed the door swing on our fridge to be right handed instead of left handed. It was placed in the kitchen in such a position that the door opened to the hallway, and not towards the counters and food prep area. Makes a huge difference in our food prep flow now that it is corrected. The only probl...

Somehow forgot to include the all-purpose cleaner recipes from Shia Su's book above all purpose cleaning with white vinegar 5 tbsp white vinegar (1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp) 1.25 cups water 3-5 drops essential oil (optional) mix vinegar & water, transfer to spray bottle, THEN add essential oil. Shake b...

Going natural in our home with cleaners & body care as well, but having a hard time getting rid of the old chemicals. Some of them were 1/2 bottles gifted to us years ago when family moved overseas. I don't like to use the chemicals for daily/weekly cleaning, but did have ALL of them available f...

Great job on the no spend year, and looking forward to reading more of your journal. Wanting to be more mindful or minimalistic is the first step (getting rid of stuff and having it slowly creep back in could be considered steps 2 & 3) I've definitely been there.

@prognastats strategy is like a modern version of wearing an apron or coveralls. People did not have many outfits, so you wore 'Sunday best', daily wear, and when at home or doing dirty tasks you added a top layer to make your dailies last longer. I have similar strategy where clothes are in task-re...

Great suggestions here (and thanks for the reminder to book overnight travel tickets instead of accommodation - on that now). Wanted to chime in and suggest www.rome2rio.com for help looking at different cost options between locations. I found it more specific than google since it says not only the ...