Re: vexed's ERE journey from the very beginning!
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 8:45 am
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%
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.
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.
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.
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%
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.
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.
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.