This REALLY is the end of the World.....

wageslave

lostinrates wrote: »

I think in any ways we are uber tight. we don't use heating at all and my groceries weektime cost ....well, at the moment a single figure number: there are after all apples on the trees atm.l

I am seriously impressed. How on earth are you managing to spend so little?

lostinrates

wageslave wrote: »

I am seriously impressed. How on earth are you managing to spend so little?

Thats a MOn to Friday shop only, and only me eating it Its only possible for me at this time of year: everything on the trees is ripe ATM and enough of it rots as it is:) I'm really lucky that I love apples- they are infact my favourite food. The rest of the year its a bit more expensive, but still not loads, but mon to fri is pretty much the same food all the time. I have reasons more pressing than the normal vanity to count calories etc religiously, eating a less varied diet than is desirable is help ful. I supplement the bought stuff with grown stuff and foraged stuff and I keep chickens, so, really,this time of year I could stop shopping altogether, perhaps its not tight my shop, perhps its inulgent!. If I were being seriously prudent I'd only really buy milk.

bluey890

lostinrates wrote: »

Why so keen to pigeon hole? i would like to believe I am a one off, a centaur maybe? although I recognise that is unlikely and we are all complex creatures, very few pure bull or bear.

I think in any ways we are uber tight. we don't use heating at all and my groceries weektime cost ....well, at the moment a single figure number: there are after all apples on the trees atm.:o but then we also indulge in a way many people would consider extreme too. I'm fairly sure PN doesn't approve of my chmpagne and (admittedly cheapo) caviar supper at the weekend.:D

I do not like buying ''stuff'' with debt and I do not like not having money. I have always liked, not money exactly, nor the lifestyle of being monied, but the freedom of knowing i have choice. I think thats what drove me very hard to earn and work while studying. I hate watsefulness, not generosity which is glorius, but unthinking consumerism to own, not to appreciate or with the plan to replace.

I like to do without and end up with what I want than buy for ''in the mean time'' with an eye to replace. I think its a lot of this ''unthinking'' spending, whether cash paid for or debt fuelled, is counter productive and costs the person doing it more in fulfillment and happiness than it buys them. (although I recognise the short term boost it has given industry). Dh and I - we aspire to a lot, quite a greedy amount really, but we also have done, me less so of recent years, a lot to get to the point where we can dream quite big, and are prepared to continue sacrifices, like not being together week days. so far in life this has panned out well for us, we are happy, we are not impoverished and we have many options. we feel that though we have made many mistakes, and often made judgements which have not always been financially best those mistakes are easier for us than other options to us at the time. I think our starting point was also incredibly beneficial to us.

I still don't know really what I am: its not right to say I'm middle ground, because thats not representative of the life or financial options we take nor the views I hold.

ETA: and now I press send and you are gone, rofl

Had to go drop a friend of at the airport this morning. Living 10 miles from Gatwick means my home turns into long term parking and a taxi service come the holidays.

I didn't think I was pigeon holing - apologies if it came across this way. I was looking to categorise peoples views on the economy, is that the same as pigeon holing? The reason why? mewbs, cleaver and I were all having a chat on which category each of us was in earlier.

I think you're a moderate bear (please don't see it as pigeon holing), I expect you take a number of foriegn holidays, eat and drink well and suspect you aren't stockpiling gold bars in you chicken hutch.

edit: perhaps I shouldn't mention holidays, the last time that happened, Dopester did his spanish inquisition act on Cleaver. it was hilarious.

lostinrates

bluey890 wrote: »

I think you're a moderate bear (please don't see it as pigeon holing), I expect you have a number of foriegn holidays, eat and drink well and aren't stingy with your money.

edit: perhaps I shouldn't mention holidays, the last time that happened, Dopester did his spanish inquisition act on Cleaver, it was hilarious.

Holidays. Hmm. we go away: but the last actual holiday for holidaying we had, outside the country we were living in, was...........before I was ill....six years ago? When we live in Italy we spent weekends visiting other places, sure. Also, DH's family do not live in UK. We have a certain amount of travel for family responsibilities in the same way some one else might have a two hour train journey for theirs. DH travels a lot for work.

I love to travel but I hate to leave: I have my animal responsibilities, and I'm not very good at delagating them. I'm happy enough to have help, but if I'm not here who'll rub the cats' ears in their favourite places,or know which hen laid which egg or.... I could go on lots of DH's non client related ''jollies'' and often I want too, but I'm not happy to leave my brood until perhaps we are settled, when hopefully, things will work out so that I'm not leaving the animals with someone they and I don't know well and trust.

yes, we do eat and drink well. Because I am frugal through the week we can afford little luxuries at weekends: to eat like that all the time would be wasteful and indulgant and no longer so pleasurable. We drink well too, but I abstain fully from alcohol from New year for three months.

I have in the past taken some pretty big financial risks and been pretty bullish, and as I say, I feel the debt we are prepared to put behind our plans is not inconsiderable: dopester and mewbie would do their best to get me sectioned I guess. I thin the thing is I'm prepared to take calculated risks. As a horserider, for example, one could argue I risk my life often. I used to work a lot with youngstock and starting horses: and my own rides are often not for the meek: but its a risk I balance with insurances: I wear some safety equipement, and not other ''industry standard kit'' based on personal risk evaluation . The risks I can take are different from those my less capable rider of a DH could, but it also means the rewards for me are more obviously great. OTOH I'd take fewer risks in the future than I did at 17/18 because my position and responsibilities have changed.

I don't believe there is one static approach to risk/bullishness: our circumstances, markets, knowledge and understanding of those markets,crucially the proportional costs of getting it wrong are not static: there are times when the same decision is more or less risky than at other times. Betting a hundred on a 20-1 is less risky if you have a million in the bank than if it is your last hundred.

I think of it as extreme moderation the result is an average ''mean'' moderation style, but not a modal or median one

ETA: when we had a IFA we filled in a questionnaireto assess ur approach. DH came out much more even and moderate as a slightly above average risk taker. I had answered positively to a lot of high risk investments: but based on certain circumstances. I can't just say yes I'd take that risk/no Iwouldn't: it depends on everything else not posed in that question: life is a 3d rubix cube, not a 2d sudoku

Another edit: re things like travelling: its too complex to draw conclutions from what I've said, it doesn't really give an accurate picture of the starting point. e.g. both dh and I are not pure british stock, we have had different from average travel experiences our entire lives. Iwas all done and had enough travelling for a while in my late teens just as everyone else was thinking about spreading their wings. Its the same with work and saving, and taking risks etc: one can't really be wholly frank or give a complete picture to how that impacts on where we are now: its too...open...for a forum.

How about you bluey: how have you formed your cuurent perspective: whats the (partial) back ground ?:)

JonnyBravo

lostinrates wrote: »

......and I keep chickens, so, really,this time of year I could stop shopping altogether, perhaps its not tight my shop, perhps its inulgent!. If I were being seriously prudent I'd only really buy milk.

Chicken milk????

tomterm8

Pah, just buy a goat. Milk, and when the poor dear pegs it, meat.

lostinrates wrote: »

. I'm fairly sure PN doesn't approve of my chmpagne and (admittedly cheapo) caviar supper at the weekend.:D

Neither would I, champagne is fairly hideous, and I can't get past the fact caviar tastes very much like fish eggs. Give me a bottle of really good scotch and a packet of crisps, and I'm much more impressed.

lostinrates

tomterm8 wrote: »

Pah, just buy a goat. Milk, and when the poor dear pegs it, meat.

when we move we'll be getting milk providers. I like goats too much to eat them, I think, though I like the taste of goat too . but they are hard not to fall in love with: quite doggy.

I don't really like sheep milk but I'm also less fnd of sheep, so they are easier to make the freeer decision with :o. we've chosen what breed we'll be going with of them. But we'll almost certainly keep few dual purpose cows really. Not an easy decision, cows are also lovely lovely people. The decision for milk/meat providers is actually secondary..I need them for something else really, milk/meat are by products

lostinrates

JonnyBravo wrote: »

Chicken milk????

rofl: I relaly meant I could, if frugality previled, go without milk, but I really love a glass of skimmed milk (and its arelative known calorie content per ml,so an easy meal:o) home milke,is inevitably,more variable.

SingleSue

bluey890 wrote: »

You are a bear. I probably should have guessed, most posters looking to buy their own home are.

Personally I find many of the bears post ideas, and when challenged, cry fail or feign ignorance (not you).
It happens time and time again on these forums.

You should perhaps revisit who you go for a night out with, many bears are uber tight, and wouldn't pay for a round.

I'm bearish....and no I don't buy rounds but then I also don't accept drinks when being bought in a round. I always found the buying of rounds (even when not a bear and when working), and ineffective way of spending money, especially when you get others who quite happily take the drinks being bought in the round and then disappear before it's their turn!

Mind you, I am also one who doesn't like wasting money so have never really had all the latest gadgets...and hence no loans or credit cards either.

Oh and I don't want to buy a house/home.

lostinrates

tomterm8 wrote: »

Neither would I, champagne is fairly hideous, and I can't get past the fact caviar tastes very much like fish eggs. Give me a bottle of really good scotch and a packet of crisps, and I'm much more impressed.

Champagne is never hideous (apart frm the sweet stuff thatwas originally just for the american market) and fish eggs are salty and sensual and yummy. Scotch though, I could go for. DH is not a scotch drinker, but I like it. Crisps though, you can keep.