Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Hobbes wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 23, 2018 3:36 pm

You earlier mentioned you were having issues with controlling food costs: have you considered going to ethnic markets? There's an Indian store nearish me, and I've found that their prices for spices, rice, dried beans, and whatnot is just stupidly low in comparison to more mainstream stores.
Because of this I've more or less adopted an Indian diet , but it's reduced my personal food expenditures significantly.

We go to a Philippine store sometimes but have actually found that the food there is more expensive. I think this is due to them passing off the importing cost to the customer...my wife is Filipina so the food that is bought is more for nostalgic reasons than strategic reasons.

Just today, for instance, we had to take care of some errands in the morning. We strapped our kid, hit our errands, and then we saw this Chinese place that just opened up. Not even thinking about it we went to go check it out. $25.34 some later.

Most of my issues especially are impulsive. Also energy drinks...Bad! Need to get back on coffee. Just got some bad habits I guess. The good news is I have no energy drinks in my fridge so going forward its going to be home-brewed coffee only. I also bought some whey protein which is pretty economical as I am trying to increase protein intake (on a cutting diet at the moment...down to 177lb from 182lbs but have been eating much lately due to job stress).

I will look into indian based foods. I do like beans which I've not eaten in quite a while. I also used to make an indian style cabbage that was pretty good. In any case, if someone asked me how much I spend on food I really could not give a straight answer. I just know its "too much." By too much...by ERE standards for sure. By average american family standards, we're probably spending slightly less than average.

Recent Purchases

- Gold Standard Whey Protein

- ANCEL AD310 Classic Enhanced Universal OBD II Scanner Car Engine Fault Code Reader CAN Diagnostic Scan Tool - Black

Would rather just buy a $35.00 tool and diagnose my own car engine codes than pay a mechanic a $99 fee to check it for me...

Sold my Civic today for $1k. Cancelled the insurance. Finished all paperwork required for Prius.

Back to normal budgeting very soon after I get myself a spare tire for the Prius.

Spent the entire week on "bench with pay."

It pays to be a consultant. I got a taste of retirement all week. It was nice...I got a lot done. Things I've wanted to do for a long time. On the flip side, I also found myself bored a few times.

Bench with Pay is over. My company now has me burning through my PTO. 7 days of PTO starts today. I take it if I am not given a contract after these 7 days, I will probably be let go. If I am let go, than its unemployment insurance + job hunting for me.

Good news - I was not let go. I started back work yesterday and my golden handcuffs are secure.
Bad news - I was not let go. I started back work yesterday and my golden handcuffs are secure.

Very conflicting views haha. New management let go all of the contractors from the previous contract (about 20) except me and one other guy and brought in all their own people....not sure if I was kept because my labor is cheap or if we're just needed for transition related purposes to which we will be eventually let go. In any case, a 2 week break was nice and I certainly needed that time to reflect.

Augustus wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 15, 2018 4:55 pm

Myprotein.com has good deals on high quality protein. I buy 22lbs at a time for $120, lasts me a year at 30g per day. They score high on independent lab tests.

Oh wow that really is a good deal. I'll remember this reference when I run out of my current 5lb bucket of whey. Thanks!

I've tried a ton of different protein powders over the past couple decades, and I always go back to Optimum Nutrition. It mixes by stirring really well, tastes good, and is priced ok.

Kriegsspiel wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:50 pm

I've tried a ton of different protein powders over the past couple decades, and I always go back to Optimum Nutrition. It mixes by stirring really well, tastes good, and is priced ok.

This is what I have as well. I've surely adapted to the taste over the years; tastes like I'm drinking water.

My employer finally approved me to work at our secondary client site. This reduces my commute from 2 hours each way to 30 minutes each way. I am saving 3 hours every day from Monday-Friday and 15 hours total. My god this feels like a promotion. Not to mention I will no longer have to take the metro, buses, etc...Man I'm almost certain once I start this new routine I would never want to go back to working in the city.

Sweet, 3 hours back in your day is nothing to sneeze at on top of the lowered commuting costs.

prognastat wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:05 pm

Sweet, 3 hours back in your day is nothing to sneeze at on top of the lowered commuting costs.

Yep. Just completed my first week of work. It was the first time in a long-term where I didn't feel like I needed to be caffeine loaded.

I also harvested the last of my watermelon today. My garden is empty. I'm making preparations for next spring planting; however, I did just learn that you can plant Garlic in the fall so I think I'm going to do that.

Continuing on a whole-foods diet...not the 70% plant based I've been reading about but I am looking slimmer but not checking my weight just yet because I don't want to get too neurotic about it.

Do you find you're missing out not being at the main office? I commute between cities for my job (a flight required) most weeks for an over - nighter, the rest of the time at the satellite office in my city. Sometimes I think I could dial that back, other times I feel I'd regret that a little, being out of the hubbub.

light_bulb_moment wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 03, 2018 3:03 am

Do you find you're missing out not being at the main office? I commute between cities for my job (a flight required) most weeks for an over - nighter, the rest of the time at the satellite office in my city. Sometimes I think I could dial that back, other times I feel I'd regret that a little, being out of the hubbub.

A little bit but I wanted to get away from that anyway. Being away from the politics is nice...in the satellite site I work at I am very rarely tasked with anything to do. A lot of my work is pretty autonomous.

My garlic sprouted and pumpkin sprouted but the pumpkins were not intentional.

I learned last night browsing through Youtube that people from many different countries actually eat banana skins. A bit more research shows that these contain a ton of nutrients and resistant starch (good for gut microbiome). I blended two banana skins this morning and drank it....Also got another cheap meal I developed (discovered): Half a cabbage, one potato, cover with a cup of chicken broth + salt + pepper + tumeric (optional) + 1tbsp of cooking oil. Let steam for 35 minutes.

Lemur wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 12, 2018 10:52 am

I learned last night browsing through Youtube that people from many different countries actually eat banana skins. A bit more research shows that these contain a ton of nutrients and resistant starch (good for gut microbiome). I blended two banana skins this morning and drank it....

How did it taste?

It kind of amuses me that your avatar and username are lemur and you are talking about eating banana peels. Can't imagine it tasted great simply blended.

wolf wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:10 am

How did it taste?

prognastat wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:13 am

It kind of amuses me that your avatar and username are lemur and you are talking about eating banana peels. Can't imagine it tasted great simply blended.

Taste was bland / slightly grassy. I will not eat these by themselves anymore but normally I make a banana/strawberry/kale shake and throw out the peel. Will just include the peel this time. The peel would make for a great filler.

Haha, if you ever start a blog, I'd advise not mentioning eating banana peels. It's gotta be a greater scandal than this.