vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Where are you and where are you going?
vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

Where did the summer go? Sheesh. Sorry about the long ramble that follows...

First the bad news;

I have got into a bad habit of buying lunch at work, not every day, but way more often that I'd like. £50 of our food budget has been spent on mediocre meal-deal sandwiches with a 500ml serving of diet cola, urgh. I may need a MMM facepunch. I should get more organised and prepare a pack-up the evening before rather than leave it until the last minute in the morning. I've set myself a goal for September to do 100% pack-ups, because this is an inexcusable waste of money, I should know better.

There's not much to add on the investing front, the PP is still doing it's job and my money is still safe despite all the brexit turmoil. As ever, I'm enjoying watching the dividends role in. Sadly, I have saved nothing since our move in May. I sort of feel like I don't belong on the ERE forum right now. Not sure what I have to show for the lack of saving, except...

My 2014 model road bike got an expensive upgrade, it's now running the latest and greatest shimano 105 11 speed groupset, £290 down the drain.
£60 to replace worn out bib shorts, plus a new rear wheel also for the road bike as I trashed my last one on a pot hole, another £70 down the drain.
My 2010 desktop PC's GPU died, so I got a modern equivalent, £280 down the drain.
A 2TB hard drive died, luckily I had a spare, back up your stuff people, lots of data, mostly priceless pictures, down the drain, luckily I'm not sentimental about these things.
I bought a bunch of books, and quite unlike me 3 new video games, £100 down the drain.
I had a couple of ridiculous close calls whilst riding the bike so I decided to get an action cam and associated bicycle mounting paraphernalia, next time I'll have footage to show the police, but... another £100 down the drain.
>£6,000 spent on furnishing and decorating the new place since May, technically not down the drain, because DW and I both really really wanted this stuff to make our home comfortable and bring it up to date.

Total spend >£6900, savings rate -50% :cry:

Most of this stuff was wants, but hasn't made me any happier, or safer, not sure why I got suckered into buying it all. Feeling rather stupid now I'm totalling it all up. Regarding the GPU, I haven't been into gaming since 2012. Not sure why I didn't just call it quits and strip the PC for saleable parts, for the most part I'm content with the Mac Air I bought in 2015. I don't need the extra muscle for anything but gaming. For some reason, I got an urge to play video games again, yet I can't manage an hour or so before I get bored. Reason kicks in and points out it's a pointless waste of time which could be spent more productively. I may just end up putting my PC for sale/auction and recoup what I can, but depreciation is a killer when it comes to 2010 CPUs and Mobos, the sunk cost fallacy bites quite hard. That said, I have quite enjoyed playing Player Unknown's Battlegrounds with VOIP with my old college buddies, the jury is still out here, we will see. I suppose we have to have some fun some of the time.

As for spending on cycling, here we go again, I admit it, I have a problem. Whilst my groupset was really worn and causing me untold grief, it could have been fixed for a lot less if I had stuck with the old 10 speed setup and replaced a few individual components. That said, once I got out on the bike, I forgot all about how much I had spent, I really liked the new 5800 model groupset, shifting is just so much smoother and the improved braking was also impressive. Still, when I think about it, it sure wasn't worth shelling out £290 for. :oops:

I really need to learn to curb my wants better right now, particularly as we have a bathroom to renovate still, and likely various shit to buy for other rooms in the house. I really let DW down by spending this much on my personal wants, whilst she's scrimping to pay for our furnishings, I have been buying bike parts and action cams. The guilt is killing me, I confessed my spending to her, she was ok about it, but can't help but feel like I was selfish. I need to do much better this month and resume my saving for our retirement. This is an ERE forum after all.

And the good news, luckily there is some:

My best man from my wedding day, and life long friend has moved to my village, just two streets over. I haven't lived in close proximity to a real friend since early childhood, even through university. It's doing my social life wonders as I now have someone other than DW for casual hangouts. It's cool to have someone to go to the local pub with (DW isn't a fan of ale!) While it can be pricey pastime, it's nice to have someone to have a couple of real ales with and just chat about guy stuff.

DW and I haven't eaten out in what feels like forever. We've only had 3 take out's since we moved in May, despite finding arguably the world's best pizza place down the road. I may have to concede, their pizza is better than my own DIY effort, not quite as cheap though. :twisted:

Energy consumption at home is still very modest. I bought one of the those wattage meters that records kWh and calculates the running cost of appliances. I've had fun comparing energy usage for items around the house. I found it has made me more conscious about leaving stuff in standby mode, when I go to bed now the only things drawing juice from the mains are the house fire alarm system, fridge, wifi router, and the timer for the hot water system. Our bills were so low, despite already being on a low user tariff, my provider called me to suggest I made an error when providing the meter readings. It makes you wonder how people waste so much energy. :D

Jason

Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by Jason »

I have to say that watching someone else piss their money down the drain is much easier to see than one's own pissing their money down the drain. But at least you are acknowledging your issues.

I still battle the lunch out issue. What I realize is that the food tastes different so I think there is an addiction element to it. So its both a food and drug thing.

wolf
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by wolf »

vexed87 wrote:
Fri Sep 01, 2017 8:45 am
Energy consumption at home is still very modest. I bought one of the those wattage meters that records kWh and calculates the running cost of appliances. I've had fun comparing energy usage for items around the house. I found it has made me more conscious about leaving stuff in standby mode, when I go to bed now the only things drawing juice from the mains are the house fire alarm system, fridge, wifi router, and the timer for the hot water system. Our bills were so low, despite already being on a low user tariff, my provider called me to suggest I made an error when providing the meter readings. It makes you wonder how people waste so much energy. :D
Hi vexed87. Some years ago, I have also used a wattage meters to record the energy consumption of appliances. It was surprising. In the end I shut down my fridge. :) I have understood, that it only was 25% full and it costs me only money. Since then, I buy my groceries fresh and more often during the week. Well, I guees, I could have only done that because I lived as a single and alone in my appartement.
Would be interesting to read in some of your next journals about your findings regarding the wattage meters. Maybe you would like to share that. I'm sure you will have some findings and hints. BTW: my energy consumption of the last year was 203kwh. Well, the wattage meters has done a good job. :)

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

@jason, it can be tempting to withhold our indiscretions to minimise feelings of shame, but I can't because otherwise I might find it too easy to brush these behaviours under the carpet. Being honest about it here has really helped put my focus back in check by re-aligning spending with my values (saving more). Over the the last 7 days I haven't bought anything but perishable foods. Looks like I'm back on the horse ;)

@MDFIRE, I'll consider logging some data in a spreadsheet and see what I can do to analyse it. I was already half tempted to do it because for a short while I was thinking about the practicalities of installing a small DIY solar array for internal lighting and basic appliances, similar to this arrangement: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2016/05/ ... tment.html

We don't have an tiny apartment though, we have a 3 detached house so I'm thinking about offsetting my lighting, and computing only. Your total usage is mighty impressive, I don't think we will come close to that. Is that electricity only, do you use natural gas too? How are you heating or cooling your home?

wolf
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by wolf »

vexed87 wrote:
Mon Sep 04, 2017 4:14 am
Your total usage is mighty impressive, I don't think we will come close to that. Is that electricity only, do you use natural gas too? How are you heating or cooling your home?
I should have been more precise. It is only electricity without any heating or cooling.

Jason

Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by Jason »

I appreciate your transparency.

I'm not a gamer so I can't speak on that. But one of my best stock picks was ATVI which is up like 40%. People love that shit and now its actually considered a sport and they have leagues. The way things are going its eventually going to be an Olympic event which is ok with me because I don't watch the Olympics as I find them disturbing. Most olympians don't look athletic to me. They just looking fucking weird. Especially the gymnasts who look like they're some type of alternate people group that are bred in some David Koresh type compound with totalitarian looking people monitoring the mating process. Being transparent myself here, if you are chick dancing around in a leotard and the thought of having sex with you repulses me, there is something serious wrong because upon recently being asked to compile a list of women I wouldn't have sex with I ran out of names after Barbra Bush (the ex First Lady not the granddaughter, obviously), Grandma Moses and any chick who has, is considering or is slated to appear on The View.

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

MDFIRE2024 wrote:
Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:50 am
I should have been more precise. It is only electricity without any heating or cooling.
Even so, that's remarkably low.

cmonkey
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by cmonkey »

For things I "want" I usually give it 6+ months and if I still want it I will go ahead and purchase it. When I do this I don't have any regrets usually. So for example I just ordered a nice pair of over ear headphones after "wanting" it for about 3 years now. If you go with this system, it generally means it's something that is actually going to be useful to you since its been on your radar for so long. Anything that drops off the 6 month radar isn't that useful after all.

For things like video games, I stay behind the curve and only buy used after the "next best thing" has come out. Never take the depreciation hit, although with Nintendo you might never get much of a discount because they hold their value a long time. This is good though because you can always sell it again, possibly for more.

It's the impulse purchases that make me feel sick and regretful and thankfully I haven't had any for a long time.

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

@cmonkey, thanks, that makes me feel a bit better ;)

Most of these things have been on my wish list for a good amount of time, except the GPU, but my desktop wouldn't function without it, and it just bothered me sitting there out of action. At least with otherwise ERE level spending I could buy the card outright, and not have to sweat it.

I think I sometimes perceive gaming to be a bit of a negative behavior, not because it is fundamentally evil, but because I could get addicted to it at times, often playing to excess. It really dominated my spare time back when I was at Uni, I let it get out of hand and flunked a few exams and had to do resits. My recent encounters have been much more restrained, maybe that's because I'm older I just seem to have that in check, or maybe DW helps in by being there to nag at me to get off the PC when chores need to get done. :lol:

I hear you regarding the depreciation, seen as though I have been out of the 'game' so long, I have a back catalogue to catch up on, I've decided rather than going crazy buying all the new stuff, I'll put a few good titles on my wish list and see what comes up in the sales first, steam is pretty good for this. Sadly with PC titles, there's little option for resale, as the CD-Keys are usually one time uses. I don't have a modern console, because, well they cost more than a new GPU :P

If you mean, playing classics on the SNES/64 etc, I'm shit out of luck because DW often hogs the TV, our living room is a no go zone for gaming. haha

cmonkey
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by cmonkey »

To that extent, yea, gaming is negative but its like anything taken to an extreme. I play fairly sparingly, mostly on holiday time or over winter, but never more than an hour or two at a time. For some reason I can't go that long.

The only time to buy anything on Steam is over their 'holiday sale' time. My rule for buying is that it must be 75+% off and under $10 at the same time. Otherwise, no! I've built up a fair library so far, but I haven't played in a while because DW hogs our desktop. So I know your pain. ;)

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

Big news, DW is expecting, she is due in the Summer. We're botj thrilled, if not a bit surprised she conceived so soon after starting to try for a baby. Whilst great news, in all likelihood this means that retirement might get knocked back another 6-12 months! :twisted: We now have a sense of urgency to get all the DIY jobs done around the house, as I imagine there will be a lot less time for big projects next year.

To do before baby arrives:
- Save a tonne of money. Even though DW earns more than I do, luckily low expenses means we won't sweat DW going on maternity leave for 12 months. Savings rate will take a huge hit though for the last few months when her take home drops precipitously. I might finally need to seriously devote time into increasing my income/changing career.
- DW needs a new car before her lease runs up, I think we'll be buying a used car this time. If it were up to me, we wouldn't have one at all, but a good compromise is no more leases, ever. Don't worry, I'll continue riding my bike though, still hate driving ;)
- Repair boxing in/dry-wall in en-suite and terrible tiling repairs made by previous homeowner, fix the broken shower (I suspect a broken thermostatic valve). Restore tiles by re-grouting and paint with tile paint, or re-tile room entirely. Haven't yet decided on that course of action.

Boxing ripped out to fix a leaking pipe prior to our purchase, we used this damage to negotiate a better deal on the house rather than pay more and have them do a half-arsed repair before sale.
Image

- Decorate and repair shoddy wall plastering, there were some large holes in walls that were hidden behind furniture when we bought the house, in both the soon to be nursey room and guest room.
- Construct foldaway workbench in garage (for DIY projects/bike repairs).
- Discard/sell accumulated junk in guest room. Build shelving to accommodate my growing book collection.

ducknalddon
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by ducknalddon »

vexed87 wrote:
Fri Nov 24, 2017 5:33 am
Big news, DW is expecting, she is due in the Summer.
Congratulations.

cmonkey
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by cmonkey »

Awesome congrats on having a baby on the way! Looking forward to updates. :)

What happened to the pink toilet?!

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jennypenny
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by jennypenny »

Congratulations Vexed!

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

Thanks guys :D
cmonkey wrote:
Fri Nov 24, 2017 9:01 am
What happened to the pink toilet?!
We painted the walls a lovely (modern looking) light grey with the left over paint from our foyer/hallway. Haven't yet gotten around to spray painting that damned toilet seat though. :lol:

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

Quick update, DW is 26 weeks on now (or thereabouts, I forget!). She's really showing now so gets a seat given up on the bus/train, plus attention from all and sundry. She's doing remarkably well given her existing health condition. We are both excited and nervous in equal amounts... :lol:

We have been busy nesting, for DW that means furniture and baby clothes shopping with her mum, for me it means hard labour, painting and flat pack assembly. We have been very fortunate, our baby is already being spoiled by friends and family, we are being gifted lots of new and used clothing and associated baby paraphernalia. We haven't yet spent a penny. Decorating has been on the slow burn, but it's getting done, both the baby's room and our guest room has been painted and furnished, that leaves the bathrooms to do. The ensuite bathroom hasn't been renovated yet as we had planned. We had a couple of plumbers over for quotes but decided we would rather have a bit more cash stashed away for when the baby arrives and DW isn't earning.

We are back down to being a one car family, which is good news because I have put on a little weight over the winter, which I attribute to not commuting as much by bike as I would like. We had a couple of bad snow storms which has compounded the problem. I also recently injured my back/neck which kept me out of the saddle for an extra 3 weeks whilst I healed up, I'm much better now thankfully. I'm dying to get back out on the bike and increase my mileage now spring is here, I just need some time to set aside! I recently committed to a 170 mile two day cycle trip with a few friends from work. We're cycling coast to coast from Morecambe to Bridlington (click for details) in May, a couple of months before the baby is due. I need to start some additional endurance training, I'm confident I'll be fit enough from my commuting alone, but it would be nice to be comfortable on the trip, rather than battling through adversity.
Image

Savings have taken a hit lately, I'm not sure why I have been spending so much, or what I have to show for it. Our oven exploded and needed to be replaced. I sold my old and bought a new bike frame a couple of months ago, I think having a frame ever so slightly too small for me contributed to the injury I mentioned. As a result, I spent a few hundred pounds kitting out a new steel frame with components, namely a much lighter tubeless wheelset and a front rack for the upcoming mini-tour. It's a one off, I shall not be buying any more bike related purchases for some time now, hopefully several years! :twisted: ;)

chenda
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by chenda »

Good luck!! Looks fun :))

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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by jacob »

Literally exploded?

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

Thanks Chenda. Back on the bike today and it feels good having the wind in my face again :D.

@Jacob, well, no fire and wreckage, but lots of smoke and a loud bang was reported by DW, followed by lots of confusion about where it had come from and what had blown the circuit breaker. DW had left the oven on by mistake after cooking. Juding by the smoke, I think the heating element burnt out and took down the PCB too. Considering the state the previous residents had left the oven in, it wasn't economical nor desirable to repair, there was no telling how old it was + years of accumulated grime convinced us we needed an oven where you could actually see through the glass screen (no amount of elbow grease and baking soda would do the job) :lol:.

vexed87
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Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

Post by vexed87 »

I have some happy news, our baby girl was born a few weeks ago. She is 8 weeks early which is termed medically as being very premature. Fortunately she had a good birth weight, 4lbs 5oz is on the larger side of a 32 week gestation. Other than being ridiculously tiny, she is in great health, two weeks on she has developed a strong suckle reflex, she breathes unaided and regulates her own temperature. She is now also able to feed naturally without a nasogastric tube (<34 week preterm babies lack the suckle-breath reflex). At the start, the pediatricians prepared us to expect a lengthy hospital stay and possibly some dark/difficult days as often early babies have complications and set backs. The rule of thumb is premature babies can be expected to stay in hospital as long as and right up to their due date, although DD has thrived and appears to have escaped the worst complications of being premature, but it's too soon to tell about long term health impacts. She might possibly come home in a matter of days, smashing our expectations and leaving within 3 weeks of birth. That's not to say it hasn't been a hard few weeks, very emotional for both DW and I, which is hard for a rational type to admit! :ugeek:

Fortunately, we mostly had the nursery ready, I've just got the cot to assemble now, although babies tend to stay with their mother in the early days anyway, so no rush with that. I'm back at work after using up statutory paternity leave, but I'll take another couple of weeks of holiday pay to ease DW and DD into their new lives. The law recently changed in the UK, and now father's are able to share maternity leave entitlement with their partners, as DW earns a bigger wage, she will return to work after 8-10 months, and I will take the remainder of the year on statutory paternity pay. Savings will be slammed in the meantime, but money troubles melt away when you realise how basic a baby human's needs are, short of the modest material requirements to furnish a baby's room and clothe them, they just need you. I know a lot here have made the choice not to reproduce, but I can honestly say, there's no pleasure quite like holding your own baby in your arms. I wouldn't have believed it myself, having been nonplussed by babies belonging to relatives and others acquaintances. No doubt this is the result of an evolutionary adaptation leading to the release of oxytocin and similar neurotransmitters when cradling our offspring results in our fuzzy feelings leading us to love, protect and provide for our offspring. In any case, after or wild ride we are likely sticking with the single child family, I can just about cope with a sub-replacement level of reproduction on a planet reaching ecological limits to growth without experiencing too much cognitive dissonance. :lol:

In other news, in between nappy changes and tube feeds I have been immersing myself in the far reaching philosophy of neo-primitivism & anarchist societies. I mention it here because of the overlapping sentiments of simple living, freedom loving, and limits to growth crowd we have here on the ERE forum. I find myself being intrigued and to a certain extent, having my own biases confirmed by John Zerzan's arguments and critiques of tech and modern civilisation. It's a complex arena of thought, and highly controversial ideology for the most part, but to me it makes perfect sense and slots nicely into my existing mental models of society remarkably well. Whilst making an excellent case for the root causes of mass society's ills by looking all the way back to the origins of civilisation, there's little in the way of concrete actions and plans in his writing on how make things better. Yet there are insinuations that in order to avert these ills, we need to move away from domination and subjugation of people and nature. Domestication of nature ultimately manifests itself as a class-based society, plagued with alienation, injustice and rampant greed and self-interest. Any society that manages to deconstruct those social arrangements are doomed to have them resurface down the road if they don't look back to their origins, and instead choose to regulate them away. If it's the extreme division of labour which leads us to a technologically advanced but ignorant society with the technological ability to wipe out our own species, not to mention vast swathes of other innocent animals, fauna and their diverse ecologies, then even after a die-off, we might revert to our bad habits once [if] those ecological systems recover so long as we continue our patterns of domination and domestication.

Of course, it doesn't surprise me there are no proposed solutions outside of the ideal of reversion to hunter-gathering tribes. Zerzan, like us is totally dependent on this supposedly civilised yet destructive industrial system. In any case, there's a good argument that anarchists shouldn't demand authoritative plans of action anyway, if the direct opposite to the tyranny of globalism and mass society is a collection of diverse decentralised societies, then there should be no rule book on how to establish those responses to a failed system, rather they would develop organically in response to their local needs and challenges. I'm quite happy with the loose tenants and a sort of mission of implementing a new localism, it makes sense then that no distant thought-leaders should become our messiahs in this context.

At the root of it all is man's anthropocentrism, our supposed separation with nature, an obsession with domesticating and dominating nature for our material well being, when in actual fact, the unintended consequences of these behaviours has brought about our own undoing. Neoprimitivism, and it's aim of uncivilisation suggests that we should reconnect with a new spirituality and oneness with nature. This leaves me wondering how to weave this and the philosophy into my own life and values considering the ultimate ideal of returning to hunter-gatherer way of life is impossible for 7.5 billion, we might have to settle for horticulturism in the short/medium term, at least until the die-off has run its course. I have accepted it's essentially impossible to escape modern industrial culture and the technologies that have it on life-support so long as I choose to live in a city, I will never escape it's grip until the capitalist-free market collapses, and my family will remain vulnerable to the fallout of collapse, but I must mitigate it the best I can by continuing the project of uncivilisation. Not much can be achieved in a single day, as Zersan suggests, it's a life long project, and hopefully I can pass a meaningful legacy and world view on to my new baby girl that will better equip her to the face the failing society that she will have to endure.

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