My "Out of the Rat Race" adventure.

There_Is_a_Light · 3 April 2016 at 9:56AM

skint_spice wrote: »

Good luck on your new adventure, I would love to do the same myself - maybe not 50 for me as that's getting awfully close

Hi Skinty :j thanks for popping in.

in_need_of_direction · 3 April 2016 at 10:11AM

Hey, you were quick off the mark with the new diary. Hope you don't mind me following you over.

There_Is_a_Light · 3 April 2016 at 10:15AM

One of the key components to me becoming FI is to find entertainment that maximizes my happiness levels with minimum spending of my money pot. I am ashamed to state how much we spent last month on entertainment which included a trip to see a band in Manchester with hotel stopover and all the 'trimmings' (wine and beer) a visit to SIL with lunch (on us) and several visits to bars/restaurants etc. And when I say several, I mean at least twice a week:o Ashamed I might be but in order to avoid such ridiculousness again here is the figure............£356.96. :eek:

This month the budget is £100 which brings me back to my original point. Having fun on a limited budget.

Friday night we caught up with our neighbours who are the most wonderful people and also a total hoot. The original plan was to get a takeaway, but I suggested that we got together after eating at home and I would put some nibbles out. At 8.00pm they arrived with wine and beer in hands and we had several hours of chatting and laughing. Total spend £5.23 which included a bottle of Merlot from @ldi for £3.06 (on offer) a packet of nuts and some crisps.

Saturday night we made a trip into town to see some local bands (our son is in one) the entrance fee was £4 each but the venue does not have a license to sell alcohol so it is a BYOB policy. As I was driving I just enjoyed the music. We took along a family friend who we haven't seen in ages. Great night filled with music and friendship and I got to see my boy play

total spend £10 for entrance and 4 x beers from M0zzas for £2 for Mr Light

So that is Friday and Saturday night entertainment for £15.23. We still have £9.77 of this weeks budget:T

There_Is_a_Light · 3 April 2016 at 10:18AM

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Hey, you were quick off the mark with the new diary. Hope you don't mind me following you over.

Great to see you INOD, pop by anytime

brizzledfw · 3 April 2016 at 3:05PM

Great to see the diary..have subscribed.

Very intrigued by the idea of FI...read a book by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin about it many moons ago and a huge amount of it makes total sense

Best of luck on your journey

newgirly · 3 April 2016 at 7:24PM

Hi and welcome there is light, I love the way you describe having staff to wait on you

We also spend quite a bit some months on food and drink bought out and about. I am going to almost follow your lead and stop for a while except for birthdays! Best of luck with the new diary and congratulations on being debt free :T

There_Is_a_Light · 4 April 2016 at 2:58PM

newgirly wrote: »

Hi and welcome there is light, I love the way you describe having staff to wait on you We also spend quite a bit some months on food and drink bought out and about. I am going to almost follow your lead and stop for a while except for birthdays! Best of luck with the new diary and congratulations on being debt free :T

Thank you for posting newgirly. Good idea to limit to Birthdays, thankfully we don't have any until July.......not sure I can make it till then but we will see:cool:

There_Is_a_Light · 4 April 2016 at 3:10PM

Sneaky holiday for me today and the highlight so far is that I popped an old and broken vacuum cleaner belonging to my late MIL on Gumtr££ and got a £10 for it. Well chuffed with that result. I have also listed an unwanted Netbook for £60, have been offered £35 but turned it down. It has only been listed for 1 day.

I cannot describe how much of a kick I get for getting money for old stuff. I get much more satisfaction from that than from earning it at work. My biggest high is the one I get from getting money for FREE (or for very little effort). Having joined several survey sites and selling the odd thing I have earned £174.10 towards my NO SPEND CHRISTMAS.

This is made up of the following:
£uidco (need to do more of this as I have noticed a £25 for a CC signup)
Prolific @cademic (by far the most frequent payer and you get pre-screened out automatically)
!-say - (slow as a snail and annoying as you can spend 10 mins and then get screened out so will be ditching as soon as I hit £20)
Selling stuff (sold a bike, a vacuum cleaner, some books and DVD's on Z1ffit)

I am sure that there are lots more opportunities but for April, I am pleased with this. There is also a huge pile to do a car boot sale once the weather improves.

Making extra money is a key part in my FI journey and it will always be earmarked to work for me in one way or another. My goal is £400 for Christmas which will be for all the presents and the additional food bill.

I have also applied to do some flexible home working but that will not start until September if I am accepted.

I would love to hear what others do to increase their income.

themadvix · 4 April 2016 at 4:15PM

Hi There is Light, your journey sounds like an interesting one.

I love the idea of not having staff - I'm a sucker for meals out too (fortunately I work from home, so don't tend to spend for lunches, unless I go out!), but fortunately we get vouchers from shop&scan which we use towards the occasional meal out - it's nothing fancy but it satisfies the urge to not cook! We can't claim the vouchers as cash or supermarket vouchers so it works for us. Have you registered with volunteer4panels (I think?)? That's how you get onto the S&S panel. All you have to do is scan your shopping when you get home.

There_Is_a_Light · 4 April 2016 at 4:27PM

themadvix wrote: »

Hi There is Light, your journey sounds like an interesting one.

I love the idea of not having staff - I'm a sucker for meals out too (fortunately I work from home, so don't tend to spend for lunches, unless I go out!), but fortunately we get vouchers from shop&scan which we use towards the occasional meal out - it's nothing fancy but it satisfies the urge to not cook! We can't claim the vouchers as cash or supermarket vouchers so it works for us. Have you registered with volunteer4panels (I think?)? That's how you get onto the S&S panel. All you have to do is scan your shopping when you get home.

Cheers for that :beer: I will look at that site and let you know how I get on. The thought of free meals out is definitely appetizing.......I will get my coat :cool:

My "Out of the Rat Race" adventure.

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