Tales of thrift and self-reliance on a journey to early retirement.
Sorry, I didn't come back before Christmas as I was flat out on work deadlines up to the last minute and then cooking for two days. I finally feel a bit more human today so came back to blog. I gave in on the whole journal planner thing...I'm sure you knew I would...and ...
For years I always thought the 12 days of Christmas started on 21st December and ended on 1st January. It seemed quite a natural time period for it to happen, 20/21st being the Solstice and the official start of Winter and 31st/1st January being the end of the year and the start ...
So, a big thing is happening in January. Huge. We're going on holiday. Yes, I know. Doesn't sound big really does it? But for us a holiday is always a big thing as it has happened so rarely and this one is huge. Australia. Yep, we're going to Australia in January for three ...
So, work is nuts and I've been scarce around here. This time of year my firm does 25-30% of its business so that works out at about three times my usual workload. And I can guarantee one thing that will simultaneously happen at this time of year; I will go mad for planners and ...
Well, another thought experiment has landed courtesy of Saving Ninja. What would you do if you knew with absolute certainty that you would die in exactly 10 years time. It doesn’t matter how you know this or what you will die of; in 3652 days you will drop dead. Hmmm...what I would immediately do is eerily similar to what I would do if I won £1 million. I would tell no-one...husband...hotel...scream…swear ...
As a bit of a treat, Martin and I went on Saturday morning to a nearby local town and had a good snuffle through the charity shops. We do this every now and then. It's a nice morning out, gives us a bit of exercise and we mooch around somewhere we haven't been before. I'd sorted ...
As the light has faded and the temperature dipped over the last couple of weeks, I've found myself preparing to nest. Autumn is always a complex time for me, as I get Seasonal Affective Disorder and it starts to kick in around the clocks changing. I've found myself yawning and craving naps during the day, dragging myself to bed earlier, and sleeping much later in the mornings. I've been craving caffeine and sugar (and ...
I haven't done a post about snuffles lately, but over the last 2-3 months I've found some lovely bargains. I check out the charity shops in my local town (approximately 10) every 1-2 weeks. Once a week I also work from a hotel in a market town about 30 minutes away. It ...
That's the thought question posed by SavingNinja in the first of a series of Thought Experiments. A few other bloggers have taken part so far, including: Ms ZiYou theFIREstarter Quietly Saving in-deed-a-bly EarlyRetirement Dr Fire "What would you do if right at this very instant you got given 1 million great British pounds? This could be from a lottery win, an IPO, a scratch card, you name it. No ...
There’s been a lot of kerfuffle in the press lately about FIRE (Financial Independence and Retire Early). It seems that some FIRE advocates have either been writing about or been sourced for comment about it and it's caused a big fuss. The newspapers, typically, have published articles based on the far extreme of FIRE and suggested that it is possible for us all to retire at 30/40 financially independent and never ...
With so many things we want to do over the next four months I've realised I really have to knuckle down and focus on raising extra funds. Even though we have savings, I hate dipping into them. They're our security. I've been doing some thinking lately. There's a lot of stuff I'm hanging on to hoping to one day have the time to do something with them. The sad reality is that even if I did have the time my life has moved ...
I got a slightly anguished text from DH earlier: "Nuts! It's wet out here!" It has been howling a gale today but, as ever, the mail must be delivered and DH delivers it come rain or shine. My offer of setting up a 'soup station' upon his return was met by an enthusiastic reply: "SOUP! ...
Well, if I thought the previous week was busy I was in for a shock last week. I edited the same amount of reports in five days as I did in the previous three weeks collectively. I limped over the finish line last Friday evening, absolutely shattered. Holidays are over, kids ...
It's been a beautiful quiet weekend so far. So far there's been pancakes for breakfast, homemade soup for lunch and dinner, and lots of lots of reading and dvd watching. I'm really starting to enjoy the weekends far more than I ever used to. Just a few months ago, ...
Cleaning up the fleeces from the two Whitefaced Woodland sheep has been an interesting experience. Who knew those two were so filthy!! Even though I soaked both fleeces overnight in cold water both of them were heavily stained with sweat and minerals from the dirt. Still, ...
