Early Retirement Extreme Forums

delay wrote: ↑

Sun May 04, 2025 7:26 am

Thanks for journalling! A human mind is the captain of a ship called Body. We can steer it, but we don't control the currents. And there are strong currents against permaculture, financial independence and a healthy weight.

It reads like you are steering towards a faraway goal. Perhaps it would help to aim for something closer by. Say, a no sugar week, instead of a healthy weight.

Good point. I tend to make huge plans and jump at them while skipping important steps along the way. So naturally, it doesn't work out, and I become wary of trying again. Instead I need to remember the little story in which someone is asked, "How do you eat an elephant?" and answered, "One bite at a time."

And I'd need to keep the steps super-small. Like, instead of a no-sugar week, it would be a no-sugar day, or even one no-sugar hour at a time.

Even so, I want to keep the end-goal in mind. Cutting out sugar will lead to an image I have in my head as a healthier and more energetic future me that also is a little richer for not having to get expensive dental work every year.

It’s a new month with lots of changes.

Budget:

Since I had gotten so far behind on things, my new budget is called

MAYDAY! MAYDAY!
Rescuing myself from the sinking ship that is my life

• As I’ve already announced, my car loan is paid off (and I’ve received the title)! That’s a load off my mind. I’ve absorbed that money into the non-monthly expenses fund for Car Repairs and Expenses, increased the goal amount to $10,000, and pushed the goal date to five years from now. That makes the monthly amount to fund it about half of what the car payment was. And I can take from it anytime for maintenance, repairs, insurance, and registration fees.

• I went ahead and paid off my medical debt. It was down to $518.50, and I had the money and was sick of looking at it every month. I was paying $152.38 per month on a payment plan that would have been paid off in August. One less thing. I used a credit card which will get paid off in weekly increments by the end of the month. The only reason I did that was because that was the payment method that was set up on this website, and I didn’t feel like changing it for one last payment.

• I’ll get $5215.75 from a CD that matures on the 17th. I want to play catch-up with funding the savings account that I use to pay for my nonmonthly expenses, but I’ll probably put most of it into another CD. I need to shop around for rates.

• Unexpected expense: A speeding ticket at $200.50. I admit that I was very naughty and had gotten complacent because I had gotten away with it for so long. In an ironic twist, if I had been driving at the speed limit, I would have made it to work in plenty of time, but being stopped by the cops made me late. Guess who will by setting the cruise control to 30 mph from now on? *points at self* This will be coming out of my car fund, of course.

Other things:

• I’m making a lateral shift at work to a job that has more customer service involved and is in the afternoons/evenings. This will make it a lot easier to get to work on time and less reliant on caffeine to wake me up. I should also be able to have more time and energy to prepare food at home so I won’t find myself rushing out the door, having forgot to fill my lunchbox on time. I’ll have to try to get my big meal prepared for noon so I can eat before I go to work, and some of that can go into my lunchbox. And no more midnight shifts. I’ll be working the same hours every workday. This will make it easier to get my days flowing with a regular routine. To help, I got an app called RoutineFlow, which has been working great so far. It’s on a subscription plan, but I’m hoping that it helps me build up enough discipline that I won’t need it after a year. But we’ll see.

• With so many of my budget items being non-monthly expenses that come out of one account, I can imagine a time in which I won’t need to budget so closely anymore. I’d like to set up my accounts so that money flows automatically without too much oversight on my part. I already have direct deposit and autopay where I can, but I have to keep an eye on my balances because I overspend sometimes (often). I need to go back to the frugal mindset that I had many years ago and not buy something whenever the fancy strikes. I’d like to be able to check my accounts once a month, nod approvingly, and then go on to do something more interesting. There are other things in life that I’ve been neglecting.

June Update:

I made a new budget at the beginning of the month, even though it then took me a couple of weeks to post on here. I named it

June Budget (in the sand), June Budget (in my hand)

Inspired by the song by The Presidents of the United States. That’s just how my mind works.

First of all, how did May go?

• I paid the speeding ticket on time but forgot to transfer money from my savings to my checking in order to cover the check, so that was a $5 fee. D’oh.

• My CD had matured, but rates for any current CDs I could find didn’t seem worth it. So I deposited it into my high yield savings account that I rarely touch at a rate of 4.4%.

• I’m working toward spending less at corporate-owned stores (like my employer) and more from locally owned places for my groceries and household supplies. In April, I spent 81% at supermarkets, and 19% mostly on my CSA shares and had spent pretty close to my $400 budget. I did better in May, with 61% supermarkets and 39% local, and about $75 less than my budget. This was the first time I remember spending below my budget on groceries ever.

• My spending for snacks and drinks was still high at $86. That was below the budgeted amount of $100, but still.

• Cold Turkey software, which I bought for $36 to stop myself from playing games on the computer for too long, worked well for awhile, but has one problem. I was the one who set it up, and therefore, I was able to disable it. Gotta work on the old self-control.

• I finished the month $159 ahead, and that’s not counting the extra money available from the CD going into my savings account or the money going directly into my retirement accounts from my paycheck. I think I’m starting to get better at this.
June, so far, promises lots of changes in the future.

• Not much to say about my budget. It’s going well, except that I’ve already reached my limit for groceries. But that’s only because I pretty much have all the food I’m going to need for the month. I just need to cook it up.

• I splurged once on fast food, when I had an appointment on the side of town near work and then had a couple of hours to kill. Big regrets. I’m not used to eating like that anymore, and I felt like blech for half of my shift. Lesson learned.

• At the beginning of the month, I vowed that I would no longer buy food during my shift, and that has cut way back on my spending in the “snacks and drinks” category. I’m now going to stop shopping after work except for once a week, and that’s only if absolutely necessary. As I mentioned, I’ve reached my budget amount for the month, but also, I’m more prone to overspend when tired. And last night, I had trouble working the self-checkout because I couldn’t concentrate. I felt like a complete nincompoop.

• Work has gone to shit. My new role is with a supervisor who has a harsh and unyielding attitude. There is poor morale overall because we all are treated like idiots, and it’s especially hard on me, whose previous experience has been in self-directed and somewhat complicated work. Now I’ve gone backward to very simplistic work and every minute is micromanaged. I actually cried in my car after work the last two nights. I really need to leave this job.

• Luckily, most of the time, I’m working in the garden center, which I love. Not just because I’m surrounded by flowers, but because the supervisor rarely checks in. I have a checklist to complete, and it’s hard work but pleasant. Unfortunately, it closes down by the end of August, so I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

On that note, I’m working with a career counselor to figure out a good career change for me. Unfortunately, I just couldn't wrap my head around accounting for whatever reason, so I need to put some thought into this before I pay for any more classes. (By the way, I failed my two classes because I was suffering from major burnout, and therefore did not receive reimbursement for them.) I want to spend my days working with my strengths and interests, which have changed since I was younger. I also want to have a nice mix of sitting and moving around, to reduce fatigue. And it’s important to feel like I’m making a positive impact in the world. Of course, higher pay is important in order to afford a modest condo or small house and also to push my retirement up a few more years.

I’ve been flirting with the idea of working part-time for awhile, since I want to avoid burnout again. I’ve gotten within a hair’s breadth of losing my job due to getting to work late, even after moving to an afternoon shift. There’s the added stress of trying to do everything perfectly at work because I feel like I’m being judged. My body hurts all day, even after one day of work, and I just want to zone out on the couch on my days off.

I may go down to four, or even three days a week in the fall to see what happens. It just might give me enough stamina to look for another job. Of course, I won’t say that. I’ll tell them that it’s because I’m taking classes.

Basically, what I’m saying is that I need to start making real progress toward the simple and stable life I’ve always wanted. I’m getting older and more worn out by the day.