vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!

[vexed87]

@GTOO, you read my mind. I'm double digging another patch for the remainder of the growing season tomorrow as I've run out of plot space to keep planting successive crops. I'm heading to the local garden center tomorrow morning to pick up some seeds for some hardy autumn salad, onions and maybe try some new types of veg (swiss chard, arctic lettuce etc) so I plan on adding at least one more bed for autumn, I'll maybe dig up some more plots over the remainder of the month unfortunately my compost heap is looking pretty measly at the moment.

I have harvested several bowls of salad leaves but not much else so far. My carrots, spring onions and spinach are coming on great though, maybe I'll have some baby spinach tonight, I'm doing a stir fry...

Quick update Re: Spending this month,

I had a couple of direct debits go out this month which I had forgotten to account for, so to compensate and keep spending as low as possible I haven't been to the supermarket for a shop so far in August. We're just living off whats left from last month's frozen meals, veg from garden/dried legumes, tinned/frozen veg, pasta etc.

SO would normally be complaining that the fridge looks empty at this point, but I've realised as long as there is a bottle of wine, a spare bar of chocolate and some fruit in the fridge she doesn't get grumpy about the lack of food . She's not as creative with the meal plan when working from the pantry. She's a stickler for buying everything fresh, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I'm also heading to Costco tomorrow to consider a membership, I wonder if they will let me in to check the prices prior to signing up. I'm taking my price book along to see if I can do my shopping for even less than the likes of Aldi or ASDA (the UKs equivalent of Wal-Mart). I hear that not everything works out cheaper at Costco, I noticed that bread flour advertised as on sale online in a 15KG sacks was more expensive per kilo than an individual 1.5kg bag at ASDA. Damn.

[cmonkey]

We shop at Aldi too, you can find some killer deals there. We tend to purchase all of our meat there (German origin) due to better flavor and price and a much stricter set of rules regarding what goes into the product than here in the states.

I have come to enjoy having a slightly empty fridge at times. Forces us to clean it out and eat what we have instead of what we want.

Good luck with the rest of the month!

[Ydobon]

There's nothing to stop you going into Costco for a wander, you'd only need to sign up if you are actually buying anything. I believe that they have some restrictions on who can join up - public sector people etc. IIRC?

Lidl fan here, are they in the US as well as Aldi?

[Egg]

I've really enjoyed http://www.freecodecamp.com/.

What was your prior experience? What have you done with it so far or think you can do now that you are working through it? Any other similar resources you've come across? I did some C++ in high school about 12 years ago, am anticipating needing to learn some statistical analysis software packages (Stata, R, etc.) for a new job, and would like to have more skills in this area in general.

Prior experience was some html.

I can now use CSS and bootstrap fairly effectively and have been introduced to jQuery and javascript (albeit still too basic to be super-useful)

It's quite thorough, though. 800 hours of learning followed by 800 hours of non-profit work-experience. I do think it could get you into a position to use the skills at entry-level professionally if you worked all the way through.

[Egg]

£26,000 is the UK after tax household average.

Could be. Source? I used http://www.ifs.org.uk/wheredoyoufitin/ to crunch mine and at ~£2300/m, so not much more than you, it put me top 20%.

For our American friends, that is $42.5k per year for a top-20%er, which I fancy doesn't sound so impressive. Just be grateful you live in ERE heaven.

[vexed87]

@Egg, wikipedia said it was the median household after tax income. Data take from the ONS 2010 (a bit dated by now, but don't think things changed much). I think cost of living is quite a bit higher in the UK, not much, but we certainly pay higher taxes so it's not truly comparble to 42k USD. However you are right, ERE is certainly achievable here.

In other news, as promised I took a trip to Costco today... Man I love that place. I remember going with my parents as a kid and walking down the confectionary isles. Had to go and take a quick look and picked myself a couple of treats while mum and dad were not there to spoil the fun . The whole place is one big consumer trap. So many nice shiny things... I managed to resist for the most part and went straight to the produce/meat section which was surprisingly good value.

There was a fantastic offer on chicken, I'm annoyed I didn't pick more up but didn't realise until I saw the receipt...

I've just spent an hour entering my receipt into my spreadsheets, here's the summary. Someone please remind me never to take a job in data analysis. It was tedious stuff! I have compared my prices to my usual supermarket. I usually avoid branded products and pick up the generic alternatives, in costco I didn't always have that choice so I was surprised to come out with as big a saving as I did.



As you can see, I saved myself a tidy 23% overall. There were some slip ups. I couldn't help myself from buying the 16kg sack of flour, I've really got into baking my own bread and I was getting annoyed with constantly buying it in small packages. I won't run out for a while.

As long as I can utilize everything before it spoils, I'll definitely be coming back to costco again. My membership paid for itself in one trip. NICE!

[Ydobon]

Don't you have access to a Lidl or Aldi?

The prices for the meat, fish and beans made me wince

If that's you saving 23%, you could smash that using a discounter.

[vexed87]

Yes, I shop at Aldi from time to time but not for meat. I buy stuff like generic porridge oats, tinned tomatoes and occasional veg/fruit produce there. I don't go as often as I like as it's a bit out of the way and the type of stuff I'm buying requires a car to haul it home. It's also a pain when you need speciality items so requires a separate trip to another supermarket. They do great budget cycling kit a few weeks of the year too so usually make a special journey just for for that reason too.

The prices of meat at Aldi are not comparable for a few reasons:

1. The Aldi salmon is farmed. Farmed fish has massive ecological impact on wild stocks unless done on land but that's very rare as it ramps up costs. Farms in the sea spread pathogens and diseases which adversely impacts the wild fish stocks. I only eat line caught salmon as the farmed stuff does more harm than good. There was a good thread on the impact of farmed salmon on here not too long ago. The cost of line caught (more expensive by nature) at costco and farmed at Aldi are basically the same, so win win!

2. The minced beef at Aldi has high fat content >20%, so I avoid that. SO prefers leaner mince. >20% fat mince is of questionable quality (cheapest cuts of meat marked up considerably).

3. The chicken breasts at Costco were in fact much cheaper than Aldi.

While we are on the topic of meat, SO and I have been discussing shifting our meat buying to local farms. It may cost more but will be more sustainable in the long term. We also know that the meat is high welfare and has a reduced carbon footprint which is a boon. Ideally we wouldn't eat meat at all, but SO isn't willing to consider that yet. We eat a lot less of it lately regardless so even a slight increase in cost will have a negligible effect on our food budget overall. We eat it about 3 times a week. Where a recipe used to call for 500g of mince, I'm using only 200 and bulking it out with more beans or replacing the meat entirely.

[Ydobon]

I'm a Lidl shopper (can't figure out the Aldi layout for some reason).

Fair point re. salmon. I'd question the impact of one consumer's choices, but I have my own choices of a similar nature that I won't abandon, like free range chicken and eggs, fair trade coffee etc. (now there's a debate!)

Lidl do a range of different mince types, including a lean steak mince that is brilliant value if you stock up during one of their weekend promotions. In fact, we pretty much eat whatever their loss leaders are for the weekend as long as it is actual pieces of meat/fish (not their weird pre-prepared meals).

Re. chicken breasts, wouldn't it be cheaper to buy whole chickens? I think we pay £3.33/kg for free range chickens, which works out cheaper. Then again, I find white meat to be bland compared to the darker meat from legs and thighs.

Buying local strikes me as a great option if it works for you, it's good to live somewhere where a local farm is less than 40 miles away

[vexed87]

We do use roast whole chickens occasionally, but once roasted you can't freeze it without impacting the quality/taste, so the only choice is and re-use it in cooking through the week which encourages eating more of it than we would otherwise, as you say white meats can get quite boring!

I've never thought about butchering a whole fresh chicken though. Not sure it would be worth the hassle. I'm already baking bread and cooking everything else from scratch. If I didn't have a day job and so much on my plate already, I'd consider it.

I'm probably just being lazy but I don't think we eat enough of it justify learning to butcher one just yet.

[bristoldude]

Edit: Practial tip would be matched betting. Perfectly possible to make £5-10k in the first year before all the bookies ban you!

Hi Ydobon,

I've had a look around on the net since I read this the other day, and wondered how recent your experience with matched betting was?
I'm reading that this may have been possible a few years ago, but the bookies have tightened up rules and dropped the free bet amounts so it's more like hundreds than thousands a year now.

(sorry to quote you from a year ago!)

[cmonkey]

I've never thought about butchering a whole fresh chicken though. Not sure it would be worth the hassle. I'm already baking bread and cooking everything else from scratch. If I didn't have a day job and so much on my plate already, I'd consider it.

I'm probably just being lazy but I don't think we eat enough of it justify learning to butcher one just yet.

If you are talking about butchering a live chicken, I can tell you its pretty easy if you are not emotionally attached to the bird. I could offer some tips if you decide to do it.

[George the original one]

I'm definitely spoiled with fresh salmon here in the Pacific NW (especially since I can catch my own). The price you're paying for salmon is SHOCKINGLY high to me!

[Ydobon]

Edit: Practial tip would be matched betting. Perfectly possible to make £5-10k in the first year before all the bookies ban you!

Hi Ydobon,

I've had a look around on the net since I read this the other day, and wondered how recent your experience with matched betting was?
I'm reading that this may have been possible a few years ago, but the bookies have tightened up rules and dropped the free bet amounts so it's more like hundreds than thousands a year now.

(sorry to quote you from a year ago!)

Think I have probably made about £10k since I started 16 months ago (maybe a little optimistic, pessimistic view would be £7k). Have been banned by many bookmakers now, but still making £10-50/week + the occasional £££ jackpot from free casino type offers.

Argh! Thought this was my thread, sorry vexed!

[vexed87]

@Cmonkey, we don't have any live ones here, so only option would be those that have already been dispatched and sold in the stores... thankfully. If I ever come across an annoying rooster, I'll be in touch though

@GTOO, yes looking at the price per kilo, it is a bit ridiculous, we eat it twice a month at most but there isn't much alternative 100 miles inland. I noticed Costco sell whole salmon for about £15, which after filleting would net way more meat per £. Slightly more tempting than butchering chickens, but I don't know how much waste there would be with a whole salmon. I'll research this at lunch

@ydobon, no worries, I was intrigued by the amount you made doing this. How much time does it take you doing the research for this, i.e. how much time goes into reading T&Cs? Any nasty experiences losing money? Does it require knowledge of sports at all, or do you just bet a team to win and lose simultaneously with different bookmakers?

[Ydobon]

I would far rather butcher a chicken than a whole salmon. Chickens can be bought sans head/feet/feathers/guts, whereas all these treats remain in a whole salmon (well, maybe not feet or feathers)

A chicken can quickly and easily be prepped into two breasts, wings, thighs and drumsticks and a carcass. Skin can be taken off if you're healthy and discarded, or frozen along with the bones and used for stock. HM stock will be great in your fancy pressure cooker vexed. Even the rubbery bits of chicken left after the stock making will be gratefully received by your pooch (although be careful to remove the bones as they splinter easily).

This can be done with a sharp cook's knife. In my experience, preparing fish is much easier with a fish filleting knife, which is an extra expense for something that you will use infrequently.

How much time does it take you doing the research for this, i.e. how much time goes into reading T&Cs? Any nasty experiences losing money? Does it require knowledge of sports at all, or do you just bet a team to win and lose simultaneously with different bookmakers?

1) Research is fairly easy (basically trawl through the MSE forum + read all the spam bookies send me to pick out the good offers). Maybe 30 mins a day, double that at the weekend? I was putting in substantially more effort for the first 6 months, but I probably good greedy and killed off some of my golden geese (bookies)!
2) Yes, I have lost ££££ on a single occasion and it took me 2 months to earn it back
3) No knowledge of sports required. In fact, it's probably better that way, as you avoid the risk of gambling on a 'sure thing'

Basically speaking, matched betting sees you placing 'back' bets at a bookie and 'laying' the same result at a betting exchange (sites like Betfair where you can bet for or against an outcome).

4) My three main sources of cash are: Free bets (i.e. bet £5 get £5 free bet, place first bet for small loss, extract as much of free bet value as possible); Arbs (situations where a bookie is offering better odds for an outcome than the exchange, leading to guaranteed profit regardless of what happens) and casino offers (for example, £10 risk free on x slot, where you either turn a profit or get your cash back).

[George the original one]

@GTOO, yes looking at the price per kilo, it is a bit ridiculous, we eat it twice a month at most but there isn't much alternative 100 miles inland. I noticed Costco sell whole salmon for about £15, which after filleting would net way more meat per £. Slightly more tempting than butchering chickens, but I don't know how much waste there would be with a whole salmon. I'll research this at lunch

The head of a salmon & skeleton is approximately 1/3 the weight of a whole gutted fish (if fish is truly whole, then guts & head & skeleton are about half the weight of whole fish). If you were in a coastal town, the fish head would then be used as crab bait. The remaining skeleton that you trim away while filleting is pretty light weight. If you're sloppy with the filleting, then you'll leave a lot of meat attached to the skeleton... when I fillet, I come back to the skeleton and collect the meat to quick-fry "fish fingers", so a poor fillet job still doesn't leave much waste. Some people dig out the "cheeks" from the head.

[vexed87]

September Update:
Looks like I forgot to update you guys on August. To summarise, I spent a lot of money, what with the trip to Amsterdam, and finally getting around to stocking up on some much needed households essentials and pantry goods. I ended August with a mere 28% saving rate, which on the face of it was abysmal compared with my 75% target, however I made several key purchases. I effectively stockpiled several months worth of food and supplies. So while there was a lot less cash in the bank than I planned, I have enough food to see me through several months without income which gives me a nice fuzzy feeling.



As for September, savings wise, it was a better month 56% overall, but not quite there with the 75% rate again! There was still some stockpiling of food going on in the first week as well as slight overspends in other areas, here's the breakdown:



I spent too much on books again, whoops! Hopefully I have enough reading material to see me through to the new year now. Other notable extra expenses were £55 spent on a new LCD screen for my phone, I repaired it myself because the old iphone I borrowed from a family member failed. I'm not ready to take the plunge and go dumb phone just yet, so repairing my old handset was the only option without buying new. Hopefully I won't smash it again a third time!

I'm off work today with a virus so I'm not feeling like extending this write up too much, but I will say my veg garden is just about wrapped up for the season. I've just harvested my last courgette which means that I got 20 in total from my patch. Not bad for a newbie. Nothing else was quite that successful, however I did get a few carrots, spring onions, and salad leaves for a while too. I definitely have a taste for home grown veg now and I'm ramping up the number of plots and effort in the spring for sure. Most of the books I bought last month were about square foot gardening techniques, food preservation etc so hopefully I can learn a lot before the next growing season starts. I feel much more confident for having tried to and succeeded in growing my own food, I even had a few 100% home grown vegetarian meals!

[Ydobon]

Square foot gardening sounds really interesting, a square foot is about the size of our new garden!

When I was reading some Amazon reviews for one of the books I'm thinking that you probably bought, someone mentioned 'Link a Bord' raised bed kits: http://www.linkabord.co.uk/

Can you take a look and let me know how the kits compared in terms of cost to your DIY efforts?

I like the idea of a few veggies, but realistically I can only spare something like 16 square foot.

[vexed87]

When I started my veg beds I had a budget of £0 so didn't use any planks at all, raised beds are still raised beds even if you just add compost as a pile on top of the topsoil, so it almost seemed that my patch just sat there on top of the lawn. Old school style!

As for the DIY wooden raised bed method, it seems to come out way cheaper if you only consider the initial outlay, compare the dimensions of those plastic containers with a 10 pack of softwood planks from B&Q:
http://www.diy.com/departments/softwood ... 389_BQ.prd
You'll need some corner posts, and a stain to treat the timber too, but I'd say that it's cheaper, particularly if you're building more beds over time. If you can get hold of old scrap wood, it need not cost a lot at all. I'm sure timber at your local builders merchants will tend to be cheaper than B&Q/Wickes stores too.

However, even when treating your wooden planks with stain, the wood would start to decompose after 5+ years and need rebuilding, so while those plastic boards are more expensive they would probably last 100+ years (not necessarily a good thing IMO!)

What I like about the wood planks is that they are sustainable, you can use them after they have outlived their useful life as fuel for a wood burner, or even use the hugelkultur method to keep your plants fed and watered with minimal effort. It's a more holistic and natural approach.