Learning to walk before I run

edinburgher

@Suffolk_lass - lunch for 20?! Je suis impressed!

@Watty1 - I could just about envisage making some beer money as a side hustle if I had any particular wisdom to impart but there's not a whole lot to my plootering:

1. Diversified portfolio of income generating shares

2. Try and beat best cash return on an ISA by 50%

3. Don't lose money over the medium term

My activity is largely limited to nicking John Kingham's best ideas, replicating bits of UK "dividend aristocrats" ETFs that were a bit too spicy for Mr Kingham but warrant consideration, and responding to my T212 notifications when something dips. It's working fairly well so far, am going to revisit the approach at the end of the financial year.

Anyway, it's now worth c. 4-5 months of work overtime, which is a nice short term way to think about it.

£3.88 OPed.

Unplanned £15 spend because I broke my blimmin' keyboard cleaning it

South_coast

edinburgher said:

Unplanned £15 spend because I broke my blimmin' keyboard cleaning it

That'll teach you not to clean the new one 🤣

edinburgher

South_coast said:

edinburgher said:

Unplanned £15 spend because I broke my blimmin' keyboard cleaning it

That'll teach you not to clean the new one 🤣

Aye, lesson learned! 

Did 3 1/4 hours of gardening today (cut all the grass at the back, cut back a horrible spiky bush by 50%, cut down most of a self-seeded tree that I had to kill as it could not be left to grow to 30' where it was, flamethrowered a bunch of weeds).

I hate gardening but figure my efforts today saved £100 Vs getting a gardener in. We're up to about £750 in our home maintenance pot and I'm keen to keep it for things that we absolutely need a professional for (like a new bathroom). Still think we'd get a gardener in for a few things (planting hedges etc) but I'm trying to do what I can. Spend £30 on a new sprayer and weedkiller for the overgrown beds. 

We are battling fruit flies again, there are millions of the wee sods. 4 vinegar traps in the kitchen, 2 in the bathroom, boiling water and bleach down drains. Will clean the kitchen again tomorrow

£10 paid into 5 underweight shares in my S&S dividend pie.

Suffolk_lass

Fruit flies here are when we leave certain house plants on the windowsill, in close proximity to the veg-peelings pot that is covered but not sealed.

Back to sharing your financial insights, I think you underestimate how valuable sharing your little side hustles would be to others - who often know sweet FA (and I don't mean financial adviser). You should not write yourself off. I tried to persuade our son to do a "cooking wisdom for students" series with me - cheap, nutritious, designed not to result in a lifelong weight fight (he put on 7 or 8 stone when he left home - he lost it on a salary controlled diet afterwards) - you could pod-cast or insta, or Tik or YouT...

themadvix

Whether you have the inclination to do it might be another matter, but I think SL is spot on. I think it probably applies to a lot of us who have been here for a while - the spending and waste that I see ‘out in the world’ is horrendous and I just wonder what their reliance on credit is like. We have so different a mindset here that I don’t think we appreciate how far from the norm our thinking is sometimes. I think you’d be listened to as well Ed, because you have two children - everything I suggest would be dismissed as ‘but we have children/we don’t have time, unlike you’. You can speak from that place and still be financially thriving!

Greying_Pilgrim

I agree with everything tmv has written. 

There is a different 'mindset' on here - and although our circumstances differ - cost of living in different areas, different household incomes, different family shapes, sizes, responsibilities etc etc, the 'core' is a different mindset. 

I just made a comment on my thread, about the parallel cost of a hotel room for one night (for a nice, but not 'must see' event), and a year's membership for a heritage organisation.  I'm surrounded by folks in RL  who would think nothing of putting both costs on their credit cards..........  And then moan they have no money, or could never retire.  Living well - and within your means OR increasing those means is a key skill, and one which has room for a wide variety of 'teachers' that we can identify with.  

Greying X

edinburgher

I am most definitely not a model for thrift, although I most definitely try to grow our wealth in a way that should allow us to maintain our quality of life in future when significant costs like children and mortgage disappear from the equation

£6.80 OPed, £2 paid into my ISA.

I took the girls swimming in an attempt to give Mrs E a bit of a rest. We only managed 90 minutes in the end, but she got back to bed They're now downstairs making brownies and I will be making roast chicken with roasties, brocolli and HM gravy for dinner. A picture of domestic bliss, even if the volume is at 11

beanielou

Pops over for dinner. Sounds good. 

edinburgher

An absolutely grim week, I am glad it is over. Workload higher than ever, I am on edge, with a clenched jaw most of the time. At least the mouth ulcers healed Have gently chased up my potential alternative prospect but finance has delayed play, as is so often the case. Living in hope.

• £9.63 OPed
• £6.64 Withdrawn from Prolific
• S&S ISA remembered that it is allowed to go up, nice to have a day where I don't need to top it up
  
  

Evening plan is to do an hour of overtime and then try to relax.

KajiKita

Sympathies …

When does your weekend start?

KK