Onwards to freedom!

Karmacat

edinburgher said:

While I think @SuperSecretSquirrel is right to limit screentime if it is having a negative impact on his mental health or worry levels, I feel different about the war in Ukraine than I did/do about Covid. Covid was always global and impersonal and I felt more able to tune it out because of this. As the war in Ukraine is local and feels "personal" (Scots always support the underdog), I feel almost obligated to bear witness.

Absolutely.  Let's face it, I'm a scouser, underdogness is built in to me too.  But watching the news the way I was watching it - I felt terrible, and paralysed with it.  That's not bearing witness, that's - not wallowing, but neither healthy nor useful.  Very pleased at how high a single day's contributions have taken DEC, and I've written to more supposed "decision makers" today.  

edinburgher

Your decision sounds spot on then @SuperSecretSquirrel. Made my DEC donation today as I didn't have time to pick up supplies for one of the many drop offs arranged in Glasgow. Just as well, apparently they are overrun! The reaction to events has been heartwarming, in spite of the cost of living crisis, Covid and everything else.

Still, I do take on board the observations from the further to the left media that this sort of thing happens in non-European parts of the world pretty much all the time and the reaction is far more muted.

SuperSecretSquirrel

I haven't been using a stopwatch, but it's fair to say I've been spending at least 3 hours per day (sometimes a lot more) reading and watching news and analysis over the past fortnight. That's a big chunk of each day, and it's not really achieving anything.

KC, your letter writing is a far more practical use of your time than the doomscrolling I've been doing 🙂

I'd like to aim for a 30 minute daily digest like SC, but it's not easy to stick to a rule like that when things are so fast moving. Not so long ago I guess the norm was a newspaper in the morning, and then maybe the six o clock news or news at ten later in the day - no doubt healthier than the modern world of 24 hour news. Maybe I'll aim for 30 minutes in the morning, then another 30 minutes once the children have gone to bed.

savingholmes

You can set wellbeing timers on your phone to help control that.

Karmacat

Thanks Squirrel: it was the writing that stopped me doomscrolling, which is *such* a descriptive word. 

Aiming for news at two specific times of day sounds like a good idea.  I make a point of continuing to look at the good things too.  My little great niece has her photos and videos published on a secure app, that only about a dozen relatives can see.  It's good to see those photos, hear her starting to use sounds.

SuperSecretSquirrel

Hi all, it's monthly/quarterly update time...

At the end of March I had overspent the "monthly boring stuff" allowance by £4.64, had £44.12 left of the "monthly fun stuff" allowance, and during the month £78.02 was spent from the "annual lumpy spends" sinking fund.

So far this year that's a total of £201.80 "boring stuff" underspend, £120.01 "fun stuff" underspend, and £337.04 "lumpy spends" taken from the sinking fund (£600 paid in).

Unfortunately no win on PBs this month.

My quarterly peek at S&S and pension balances wasn't too painful in the end - S&S up by 700ish (or down 2.3k if you count the 3k of new money invested in that time), and my pension was down by 2k (2.5k if you count the 500ish of new money invested in that time). We haven't got visibility of OHs new pension yet, so I've assumed no change there (very much lowballing here as the transfer terms were generous). Overall our total net worth (as far as what's visible) is pretty much exactly what it was 3 months ago, that's much better than expected so I'll gladly take it as a win!

Non-financials - I've eased off on my news consumption a fair bit (as intended), and not really achieved much on the home improvement front (not as intended). News between 1 and 2 hours a day now, healthier than it was, but still higher than I want it to be.

We were lucky enough to maximise the two blisteringly hot March weekends in true MSE style - they landed during the national trust open week, so we had some good days out for very little outlay. Also nice to see the children being invited to birthday parties again post pandemic restrictions 🙂 Between all that, and making good use of our annual family pass to some local attractions it has been pretty non-stop these last few weekends!

We've received the anticipated update from our electricity provider - no surprises that we're going to be at the cap, par for the course really. Based on the past 12 months usage we're looking at an increase of about £40pm, more if our consumption increases again (we reduced consumption quite a lot this past year, thanks mainly to a milder winter). No word on the LPG yet. We have been favouring electric heat in just the main living spaces recently, rather than LPG central heating throughout the whole house (other than an occasional boost every now and then), and that has reduced our LPG consumption massively compared to a few years ago. I might have to do some sums in light of increased electricity costs, but I'm sure LPG will be up again soon enough too, and no doubt electricity will be up again too in the autumn. I think I'll just ignore it all in the short term, not worth switching, not worth fixing, and no point comparing electric vs LPG until the heating is needed again. We're in credit as our DD has been intentionally high for a while, and we're heading into the warmer months now too, so I don't think the budget needs adjusting in a hurry. I'll try to leave it untouched until October.

We're lucky that the rising energy costs aren't really hurting us too badly. We have enough slack in our finances that we can roll with the punches, and will probably just need to reduce our savings rate a little. If wider inflation is locked in (and it sure looks that way) our FI progress will take a serious nose dive, but these "problems" are firmly in the first world category when compared with the serious difficulties some people will be facing. I empathise very much but am entirely helpless in terms of being able to actually do anything about it. I try not to think too much about stuff that's outside my sphere of control, no good can come of it really. I can only hope for the best, and hope there's enough safety net out there for those who need it.

Ok, let's try to sign off on a bit of positivity… We are all happy and healthy. The clocks have sprung forward, the sun has made some welcome appearances, energy levels are up, and the lethargy of winter is being left behind. I'm spending less of my evening leisure time on film and tv and more on reading and *gasp* outdoor activities. Both OH and I are happy that work life is going great, and the children are thriving at school. We have a nice long easter break to look forward to covering pretty much half of the month (no matter how good it is at work, not being at work is better!). There's a fun money budget burning a hole in my pocket, we have places to visit and ice creams to eat! April should be a nice month, inflation be damned 😄

savingholmes

Lovely to read such a positive update. Well done for staying on track and learning to play more

Karmacat

Yep, thats good and rounded, SSS.  Pay attention to the finances, get the news in as balanced a way as you can and don't obsess, don't go overboard on things you can't change, get some outdoor activities in.  Good for you!

My only query - that's a *lot* of unspent fun money - are you having enough fun?  Or is it all free stuff, like being outside?

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thank you both for posting 🙂

As for the fun money budget KC, I'm very much failing to spend it at the moment ☺ I expected spending to be lowest in winter, middling in spring/autumn, and highest in summer. It will probably even out a bit over time.

It's not for want of doing stuff though… This past weekend is the first in five weeks where we've treated ourselves to a rainy "do nothing" day where we stayed at home, played games, watched a family film, etc. The children have attended four birthday parties recently, they tend to swallow up most of the day, total cost those days is about £15-20 for a gift and card. We were given a family pass to a group of local attractions that the children love visiting as a Christmas present this year, the break even point is three to four visits over the course of a year, three months in and we've used it five times already, no indication that they're getting sick of it yet 😄 The recent national trust visits should have cost us £120 or so, we spent £4 on lottery tickets for free entry and about £20 on ice creams and drinks. It has been a busy time (part of my excuse for not really progressing on the DIY stuff), but also quite cheap.

Maybe a bit of a cheat, but we've also treated ourselves to a nice day out to celebrate a birthday and that came from the birthday pot not the day to day fun stuff pot. Similarly we have a uk holiday on the horizon, lots of fun will be had, but it's not coming out of the day to day fun stuff pot 😀 When I write this down it makes it feel a bit silly really, but it makes sense to me, the intention is to have a monthly slush fund available to fritter on fun/nice things. Including the bigger spends like holidays in that would be near impossible, so I have a line in my head as to what counts and what doesn't…

There's also the fact that much of what we like to do is incredibly MSE aligned. We like reasonably active outdoorsy things (along the lines of hiking, football/frisbee on the beach, wild swimming, forest walks, etc), often a whole day out can be enjoyed for the price of a picnic and some fuel in the car, maybe some ice cream money. The children are at ages where adventure playgrounds and skate parks are still as exciting as anything... We find it quite easy to have cheap fun.

What I'm realising is we don't really do anything much just for ourselves (by which I mean OH and I). We don't really socialise with our friends all that much (at least not without us all bringing our families along - I guess maybe that will come with time, as the children get older and want to spend more time with their friends and less time with us), and it's quite rare that we ditch the children to go out for a date night. Not saying I particularly want to change this, it's just something I've noticed. Neither of us drinks much (OH not a drop, me very little), we're both reasonably good cooks, and we have a huge backlog of films to watch at home. The idea of heading out for the night rather than curling up on the sofa after enjoying a home cooked meal or takeaway is quite unappealing most nights 😂

Wow, that was a very long winded way of saying we're quite easily pleased, and pretty much content with what we have 😄

Karmacat

SuperSecretSquirrel said:

Wow, that was a very long winded way of saying we're quite easily pleased, and pretty much content with what we have 😄

I liked the detail!  And I love your summary, good for you, that's so nice to hear.  Carry On Enjoying