Early-retirement wannabe

Marine_life · 10 October 2014 at 1:31PM

green_man wrote: »

I enjoy your posts and please don't take this as a criticism

Of course not :-)

green_man wrote: »

In your case I think the combination of this mentality and your salary/assets is somewhat unusual

For sure it is and that's the key thing about lifestyle inflation, it starts with the frothy coffees!

I would actually characterize my attitude to spending in two ways (which I think is consistent):

1. In respect of certain things where there's no difference in the actual underlying quality, I would always buy the cheapest possible (think water, butter, milk - those sort of things). My wife is partially the opposite (e.g. she will buy Evian and other branded products rather where the perception of quality is higher).

2. I will spend relatively big chunks of money on stuff quite willingly - but I'll maybe buy last years model to get it at a significant discount or I will buy winter clothes in the summer and vice versa. e.g. I bought some new ski boots this year in July at €110 rather than €250.

3. If points one and two fail then I will make sure i get the best deal i can e.g. for my wife car I got a quote from an online broker (which i then took to a dealer to get a price match).

Finally - I am unlike most people - I love to haggle!

So I think you can be frugal and still enjoy spending money - the relativity may be different but the spirit is the same.

Marine_life · 10 October 2014 at 1:37PM

itm2 wrote: »

Planning meals for the week ahead and doing grocery shopping for what we'll need (rather than "stocking up", as we did before).

This is a really good point and one we persnally need to get our arms around.

Our "problem" is that now we are empty nesters (and therefore now no longer need full cupboards 24/7), However, our cooking and eating is taking a while to adapt which means we either cook far too much (and dont eat the leftovers) or we have too much stuff which we then need to throw away. Unless you are using entirely inidividual bought items pre-packaged good comes in sizes which encourage over consumption.

So we definitely need to adapt and i think sitting down on a sunday to play what we will eat for the week is what we will need to do. While i am still working that's quite difficult as we are not always sure where I will be but as our target for retirement is €100 a week we need to do it.

itm2 · 10 October 2014 at 2:00PM

Marine_life wrote: »

However, our cooking and eating is taking a while to adapt which means we either cook far too much (and dont eat the leftovers) or we have too much stuff which we then need to throw away.

One of the other changes that we've made is that I've taken over all of the culinary duties. What I do is cook 4 servings of everything, and we reheat the 2 spare servings the following evening. That's particularly handy when there's footie on the telly and I don't fancy cooking.

If we don't fancy the same meal twice on the trot then we stick the extra servings in the freezer, ready for the next footie night ;0)

mgdavid · 10 October 2014 at 2:38PM

itm2 wrote: »

One of the other changes that we've made is that I've taken over all of the culinary duties. What I do is cook 4 servings of everything, and we reheat the 2 spare servings the following evening. That's particularly handy when there's footie on the telly and I don't fancy cooking.

If we don't fancy the same meal twice on the trot then we stick the extra servings in the freezer, ready for the next footie night ;0)

er, I'd rather you hadn't written that bit; can you imagine the damage if SWMBOs see it? :eek:

Marine_life · 10 October 2014 at 3:38PM

itm2 wrote: »

If we don't fancy the same meal twice on the trot ...

For me that applies to almost every meal ;-)

I guess we will just need a big freezer.

Marine_life · 10 October 2014 at 3:42PM

I had to add one tip which I forgot.

Getting a discount on holidays is now quite easy in the internet age. Most international travel companies have a number of sites serving different geographies. Depending on how exchange rates are doing the holiday price can be significantly cheaper.

One example was last year when we went on holiday to Asia and it was much cheaper to book on the tour companies website in australia, than in Germany. So i did. when i got the invoice through I saw they had diverted my booking to the local site at the local price. I went berserk at which point they reinstated the original booking.

kidmugsy · 10 October 2014 at 4:09PM

itm2 wrote: »

Clearing out the loft and putting alot of unused stuff on eBay - this brought in over £1k for us last year.

We give unused stuff to a deserving local charity. For us this is a big deal because we've become so cynical about almost all big, national charities that we've cancelled our standing orders, and expect to shun them all in future (except perhaps the RNLI and the Salvation Army). With a local charity you can see directly, and indirectly by local gossip, whether it is pursuing its proper purpose. Or at least you can if you have the time, which Persons of Independent Means ought to have, eh?

atush · 10 October 2014 at 5:07PM

ManofLeisure wrote: »

I feel the same way . Can't understand why this thread would be 'tweeted'. However, perhaps that's not surprising as I can't fathom out why anyone would want to tweet anyway . Perhaps someone can 'enlighten' me

Not a huge fan of being Tweeted at all. If I wanted to Tweet i'd be on twitter!

Plus we have to behave ourselves. Which TBF we always try to do but it can be very hard sometimes.

atush · 10 October 2014 at 5:19PM

green_man wrote: »

I enjoy your posts and please don't take this as a criticism:

Your thought process above is exactly right, but it's the sort of thinking that needs to be applied to those on average/low salaries in particular. In your case I think the combination of this mentality and your salary/assets is somewhat unusual, and I do wonder how much difference bottled water costs make when compared against running a Porsche or Q5 or a holiday home. I think for your own particular scenario you are perhaps being over cautious in some areas. - Still great advise though :-). I guess its the epitome of counting the pennies and letting the pounds rack up.

there are a lot of people on equiv salaries who behave in such a way- my OH has been taking his lunch to work (made by me usually) for decades- basically since we married. We also have not been bottled water users in the main- because it is expensive and very bad for the planet. I always have bottled water on my for trips, but these tend to be old bottles refilled daily. the only new ones I get are airside in APs as you aren't allowed to bring them in.

We drive 10+ year old cars. The Audi A4 is 14 years now.

but we do have holiday homes, one of which cost 5K back in the day lol. So yes, having holiday homes is a splurge, but I know people who paid more than that for a timeshare or a second hand car and we've got an asset that is now worth 60K or so.

So you can be frugal and on a larger salary if you aren't a spendthrift.

BucksLady · 10 October 2014 at 7:17PM

Catie_the_Investor wrote: »

My husband is a clinical psychologist and muttered something about Egos'. For once I think I actually agreed lol

Sounds familiar lol

Early-retirement wannabe

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