My "Out of the Rat Race" adventure.

There_Is_a_Light

Moneyfordreams wrote: »

Get well soon
your diary is a great read. looking forward to gaining tips from you... I too am waiting for the warmer weather before car booting it. I've have a little foray into eb@y but have stalled a bit. Good look with FI, I have 9 years to make me free

Welcome moneyfordreams (love your username). I quite like a bit of car booting and DS2 is a proper little Del Boy.

There_Is_a_Light

Feeling much better today but am keeping warm and rested. Have packed Mr Light off for a spot of shopping with a list. Didn't go as far as putting money in his mittens though :rotfl:

Big MSE lesson learned last night as I came home from work early, thanks to an extremely kind colleague who could clearly see that I was struggling and offered to look after my class for me.

Ordered a Chinese takeaway and it was utterly vile!! I don't think that the recipe or cook had changed but we haven't had one in ages and thought that it would be a bit of a treat. Yuk, yuk, spew! We managed half and the rest went in the bin. £12.90 damage.

From now on I will stick with my 49p dried egg noodles with soy/chilli sauce and stir fry veg. Works out about £1 a portion and much nicer.

Been thinking about work lots, especially today as my DS2 has just found out that he has had a successful audition. Can't really say much more but I am so proud of both of my boys who I have always encouraged to follow their dreams without limitations. This role will take him traveling all over the world.

Can I last another 5 years in a job that I like (some days) but have lost my passion for.

Off to think some more.

There_Is_a_Light

Feeling much better today. Mr Light won £40 on a free bingo offer, he seems quite happy to let the free bingo run in the background and keeps and eye on it. Seems to bring a better return than the surveys do. I feel like we are a real team effort at the moment.

£3.80 in surveys this morning.

Off food shopping soon and I will cook us a nice dinner followed by a really gripping film. Next weekend is full on with social events so I am going to enjoy the quietness of these few days.

There_Is_a_Light

Shopping came to £39 for the week including beer and some nice treats for tonight. Feeling really tired now which is probably due to me not being 100% yet. Having a nice cuppa and an afternoon with Mr Money Moustash and chums

beanielou

Take care.

crazy_cat_lady

Isn't it funny how our tastes change? I used to love a Chinese takeaway - but can't remember the last time I had one. Wonder if I'd feel the same now...
Hope you're feeling better soon Light.

There_Is_a_Light

I am feeling much better today thanks

The sun in shining, the birds are singing and life is good.

Yesterday I had a massive realisation after reading more MMM and other FI sites including some amazing diaries on here that if I stick to my plan and can get an additional £200 (ish) a month on average on top of our earnings then I can actually retire in...................4 Years!!

This will mean that the house jobs that we were wanting to do will be on hold and to be fair we do not need anything major doing and I am not friends with anyone with Jones for a surname. Some more sacrifices will have to be made but in such a short timescale I can cope with anything. We will just have to be more imaginative.

Mr Light scraped another £20 from a bingo site last night and £0.80p survey for me this morning:rotfl: He would like to take me out for the day though as I haven't been anywhere apart from @ldi this weekend. I might make a picnic and see if we can find a nice forest walk. Apparently pine cones make good firelighters?

Every scrap of our budget will be scrutinized moving forward. Time to get into extreme early retirement mode:cool:

This year is quite a pricey one as we have committed to a week's holiday for around £1000 and it is also DS2's 21 and we have promised him a laptop of the apple variety. Other than that our cars are OK (touch wood) and will definitely last us another 4 years after which we will go down to 1 car.

I am excited:j

crazy_cat_lady

Wow - four years is definitely a close enough scale to work towards. Best of luck with it all.

There_Is_a_Light

Thanks Cat. I am buzzing about it. I have calculated that in 4 years we should have enough saved to have a full year off without any income at all. Of course I will do something to earn a little money but it will be on my terms. To make sure that we are totally fine to plug the time gap until our pensions kick in we should ideally earn £5000 a year, between us. I have lots of ideas for this including:

Seasonal work in retail
Maths tuition
Exam marking
Exams invigilator
Temping
Events cover
Working as a waitress in a cocktail bar

Mr Light and I are also very interested in perhaps doing a season in France being on site maintenance/bookings coordinators. Several of our holidays have been manned by married couples of a certain age who enjoy working on site over the summer months to top up their pension pots.

Feel free to add to the list for me

beanielou

Wow is all
The countdown begins :j :j