Burning Desire For FIRE

Financially Independent, Retired Early(ish) at 57.

Page 48 of 76

Wednesday W’s #5.

February 9, 2022 / / 1 Comment
Fairy bread.

What’s top of my mind: Should I take a tutoring job?

Argh!!! I was so prepared to do tutoring last year but then all of those lockdowns happened so nothing eventuated. Now I’m all fat and happy at home, a friend from a different school has asked if I’d be interested in some work.

Anyone who’s read my About page would know that it’s so difficult for me to knock back money. For many years since I left the boys’ father, I’ve been chasing it just to keep our heads above water. It’s difficult to get away from that mindset.

Plus, I could put that money towards Antarctica. Or Easter Island. It might be nice to spend some time with some kids and not have to mark 28 essays all on the same novel.

But then again… my glorious freeeeedom! And I don’t particularly enjoy tutoring. Though maybe I might like it better when I’m not doing it on top of a full teaching load.

It’d help some kids who really need it.

I’ve asked her to send me some information. I’m genuinely in 2 minds about it. I’ll keep you posted.

Where I’ve been: in the veggie garden.

I said to Ryan27 this morning as I came in from the backyard, “I’m glad we only have two people living here. If I was trying to feed five of us on what this garden’s producing this year, I wouldn’t be happy.”

We have millions of green beans and lots of silverbeet. We can produce enough squash/zucchini to make a zucchini slice each week. Capsicums are starting to form and we have heaps of cucumbers.

But the crops I REALLY want to have heaps of are tomatoes and pumpkins. They’re not doing at all well this year. Damn.

Where I’m going: Dromana, to buy lots of champagne.

Why? See below.

What I’m watching: Ru Paul’s Drag Race.

I’ve decided that I’m going to pull out all the stops and, when Australian Survivor isn’t on, I’m going to watch the rest of the Ru Paul series. I’m up to season 12 so I only have number 13 to go and then I’ll be up to date and can go back to watching just 1 episode a week of the new season as a normal person does.

What I’m reading: The Psychology of Money.

I know I’m coming late to the party here, but I finally picked up this book. I’m really enjoying it. So many books about investing are written about HOW to do it – this one is about WHY people make the decisions that they do. It has nice short chapters full of anecdotes, which is a smart thing to do because everyone loves a story. It educates in a gentle, easy-to-digest way. Morgan Hausel is an author that I’ll keep an eye out for. I wish I’d read The Psychology of Money earlier so that I could’ve given it to my sons and nieces. Maybe I’ll compromise and just add it to the list of books I’ve given them.

What I’m listening to: Ryan27 talk about his job.

When Ryan18 left school, he enrolled in 3 uni courses one, after the other. None were a good fit. Then, with a little nudge from me, he decided to try Remedial Massage at RMIT. I thought he might like it because he’s the most chill person I know. Turns out that, as a gamer, he loves the problem-solving aspect of it. When someone comes in feeling pain, he has to work out what’s the root cause of it before he can treat it.

After he finished that course, he decided to stick around for another year and learn about myotherapy, (dry needling.) Now that he’s finally out in the workforce and earning a wage, he’s so happy. He’s already got return clients and the numbers of bookings he’s getting each day are steadily increasing.

It’s lovely to see someone who seemed to be spinning their wheels for years finally getting traction in their career. He’s loving the work and I’m loving hearing about it.

What I’m eating: Mashed potato.

Do you know how good mashed potato tastes when the potatoes are grown in your own garden?

They taste even better when they’re potatoes that have sprung up from a crop I first planted 4 years ago. Free food – my favourite flavour.

Who needs a good slap: Ryan27.

The dishwasher is empty. EMPTY. I emptied it first thing today before I fed the dogs. So why are there dirty dishes in the sink?

What I’m planning: an engagement party.

Finally, 6 months after David28 popped the question, he and Izzy are holding their engagement party. I was on the phone last Sunday with Izzy’s Mum. The party will be at her place and their family is huge. My Mum was an only child so our family gatherings are a lot smaller, so this one will be a huge Italian party with a few Skips wandering around. LOL.

As a joke, I said I’d cater for the Skips by bringing fairy bread. I shouldn’t have opened my big mouth. Izzy’s Mum and brother got so excited that I now, as well as providing a dozen bottles of bubbly and a Costco tray of wraps, I also have to go and buy that awful white bread and hundreds and thousands, just to bring a plate.

(For those wild and crazy Americans who apparently don’t know what fairy bread is – look at the picture at the top of this post.)

The trouble is, I haven’t had fairy bread for a decade, at least. I know that once I start making it, I won’t be able to resist that sweet, delicious crunch.

What has made me smile: Yoga.

I completed the free 30-day program called ‘Move’ that Yoga With Adrienne offered at the start of the year. Didn’t miss a day.

I’ve continued on with last year’s program, called ‘Breathe’, which is located on her website. It would’ve been pretty easy to let it slide, but I’m liking the routine I established during January. It’s nice to think that by the time I have breakfast each morning, I’ve already completed a yoga class.

Dad joke of the day:

I wasn’t sure how comfortable the new couch would be. But sofa, so good.

Frugal Friday: Frugality is a lens through which to view your choices.

February 4, 2022 / / 6 Comments

Frugal. Such a funny word. It seems to have a slightly different connotation to everyone. To me, it’s primarily a disinclination to waste things that I’ve put my hard-earned time, energy and money into. Frugality, to me, isn’t just a money thing. It’s also a refusal to squander my time and focus on things that won’t bring me pleasure and satisfaction.

As I was taking this shot, it occurred to me that this photo is full of frugal elements.

First off: look at those plump Bellotti beans! Whoever grew and harvested them certainly knew what she was doing! But why grow them at all? I’ll go into that in a minute.

Then there’s the red bowl. I bought around six of them when the boys were small, from Ikea. I’ve lost a couple of them along the way, but the rest of them are still going strong. They’d be well over 20 years old by now. There are plenty of shiny new bowls in the world, both in Ikea and elsewhere, but why ditch them when they still do the job? Plus they’re a small part of the history of our family.

The library book. Yes, I’m still reading this novel, though I’ll finish it by the end of the day. When I heard that it was being released I was so excited and I could’ve easily just bought a copy and downloaded it to my iPad via the (free) Kindle app, but instead I waited in line for it from the library. Delayed gratification makes you stronger.

The table with the Queen Anne legs in the background used to belong to my dear friend Scott. When he and his partner moved to England over a decade ago, we took a few things off their hands for a bargain-basement price. (Thanks Scott and Mark!) I have absolutely no plans to upgrade – I love that table and so why would I get rid of it?

But getting back to the question of why I’d choose to devote time, energy and space in the garden to grow a few handfuls of dried beans…

See this garden? It has 5 wicking beds in it, metres upon metres of brick paving and a massive verandah roof on the lower half. If I grew veggies covering every square inch of this space from now until I was 87, I wouldn’t make back the money I’ve spent on this space.

Now this wasn’t a surprise. I knew that this would be the case going in. So why did I – the woman called a tightarse by her co-workers (and, to be fair, herself) – choose to do this?

Because to me, frugality isn’t simply being cheap and niggardly with money.

Frugality to me is a choice to recognise the fact that money is a finite resource; so it’s smart for us to utilise that resource in the most effective ways we can to enhance our lives.

With regard to the garden, this meant that I front-loaded the expenses so that for the next 30 years I can reap enjoyment and fulfilment from it. To my mind, that’s a helluva deal.

Because yes – I LOVE getting something for nothing. Those beans? They’re harvested from beans that I grew last year. Free food – my favourite flavour. I get a kick out of growing things from seed, then saving seeds or cuttings from next year’s crops. There’s a sense of continuity that I really enjoy.

Am I saving money by doing this? The short answer is yes, of course. But not very much. The next time you’re in the supermarket, have a look at what a pack of dried beans cost. Less than a dollar.

But there’s something so darned satisfying when you have a bowlful of beans that you’ve sowed, watered, let dry and then harvested. The sound they make as they fall back into the bowl and the feel of them as they run through your fingers. I have more of them still growing, but once they’re all dried I’ll probably cook them up in the slow cooker and freeze them into 250g lots. That’s how many cooked beans are actually in a 400g tin.

Every time I reach into the freezer to grab a bag of these babies, I’ll be smiling. It makes me happy to grow some of our food. It makes me happy not to have to race off to the supermarket if I need a tin of beans. It also makes me happy to utilise some of the land on my block for growing food.

Frugality is gaining joy from the tiniest things in life, such as a handful of beans. Or a pile of spuds.

This sinkful of spuds came from potatoes I planted over 3 or 4 years ago. Every year they keep producing food for us. I didn’t intend for this to happen – I just happened to be in Aldi, saw some seed potatoes and threw them at the bottom of one of the new wicking beds.

Yet here they are – the gift that keeps on giving. In the beginning, I visualised that we’d get a few meals’ worth of spuds from those seed potatoes, but there have been many more than that. Free food. Bargain. I can put the money that I would’ve used to buy a bag of potatoes towards something else.

Like Antarctica. Fingers crossed, I’ll be going in December. Definitely not a frugal destination… but wow. Icebergs. Penguins. That’s definitely adding value to my life!

Frugality is also probably why I like quilting.

Quilting can be a frugal(ish) way to pass the time, or it can be hellishly expensive. When you shop for fabric at a ‘proper’ quilting shop, the prices START at $20+ a metre for cotton. Batting (the warm stuff in the middle) isn’t exactly cheap either. If a quilter chooses to buy new fabric for every quilt they make, the costs mount up considerably.

I know – one of the last quilts I finished was made from designer fabrics. It was queen-sized and it was just a tad exxy. But aside from the fact that my son Ryan27 designed it and then I made it – HUGE satisfaction, creativity and engagement right there! – I have lots of green, yellow and mustard scraps that I’ll be using in quilts for years to come.

How do I know this? Because at heart, I’m a scrap quilter. No hardly any scrap is too small for me to throw away.

I’m currently working on a quilt for a friend of mine who recently lost her Mum. Now, this quilt is the ultimate in frugality! It’s a ‘quilt as you go’, which means that instead of using a huge piece of batting, I’m using remnants left over from previous quilts. You sew directly onto the remnants, then join them all together to make the quilt. Zero waste. This makes me happy. Some of the batting I’m using is from quilts I made over a decade ago.

The money that Past Frogdancer spent is not being wasted. That’s important to me. For many years, Past Frogdancer had very little money to throw around. To be able to respect that and to use what she bought is pleasing to me.

And look at the fabric that will be in the centre of each square. It’s golfball fabric that I bought nearly 15 years ago to make Tom30’s first quilt. I also included it in the quilt I made for Mum and Dad this year – another scrappy quilt. Fabric doesn’t go off if it sits there for a while. The trick is to remember to keep using the material I’ve got, instead of buying All The Colours whenever I go shopping.

It’s funny, but when I’ve been using fabric for a long time, I get a kick out of using it again. I remember the quilt/s I’ve used it in before and it’s like seeing an old friend. It takes many, many hours to make a quilt. When I make a quilt from scraps, I’m getting extremely low-cost entertainment, while extending my creativity and productivity as well. This makes the frugal part of my brain almost purr with satisfaction.

With quilting, like the back garden, I front-loaded the costs and now, at my leisure, I can kick back and savour the things I’ve put in place.

Sounds a bit like someone working towards FI/RE, doesn’t it? Frugality and FI/RE have a lot in common, which is why so many naturally frugal people seem to quickly see the possibilities of the FI/RE concept. 

Working steadily with an over-arching goal in mind, such as the goal of financial freedom, requires frugality with both money and focus, as well as a big dollop of delayed gratification.

Frugality is a keen weapon when used intelligently. When we bring it together with other tactics such as harnessing the power of compounding; making the most from our jobs; maybe working a part-time job on the side; educating ourselves about finances and things like geoarbitrage… then we are unstoppable.

Use frugality as a lens through which to view your choices. Pour yourself into the things that will propel you further and add value and joy to your life. After all, we only have so much time, energy and money to give.

Save the bulk of your resources for the good stuff!

Dad joke of the day:

1S2A3F4E5T6Y7

Safety in numbers.  

Wednesday W’s #4.

February 2, 2022 / / 8 Comments

What’s top of my mind: How natural the retired lifestyle seems.

Teachers went back to work last Friday and now all of the kids are back. Of course, I can’t help imagining what my days would look like if I was still working, but do I miss the job?

Noooooo.

Usually, when in previous years I’d be parking my car in Hall st and walking into work, I’m unfolding my yoga mat and lifting the Little Woofs into my bed to keep them out of the way. Whereas last year it felt a bit illicit and naughty to be lounging around in my pjs when the 8:50 AM period 1 bell would be ringing, now in my second year it feels natural to be in a whole new routine.

I can – and do – picture what the days would be like, because I know the rhythms of the school day so well. But my current routines and rhythms are so carefree and relaxed; there’s no way I’d want to go back.

Where I’ve been: Morning tea at my sister’s.

Well, I also sneaked in January’s Little Adventure on the last day, but yesterday my sister asked if I’d like to drive down and see Mum and Dad at hers. It’s been a routine for them that every Tuesday they drive down to the peninsula to have some time with Kate. The time of day varies, depending on what suits them all.

Kate says that instead of ‘Tuesdays with Morrie‘, it’s Tuesdays with Mummy.

I haven’t had much of a taste of this aspect of retired life, as most of last year we were in lockdown after lockdown. It was nice to drive down, listening to a podcast, and then spend a couple of easy hours with the family.

Where I’m going: Evan25 and Jenna’s new digs.

My baby and his beloved have taken the next step – moving out into a place ON THEIR OWN. No longer part of a larger household group; now they are the household. They’ve found a flat above a pizza shop, sadly in the west, which is miles away. Ryan27 and I are going over there on Friday to help them move.

What I’m watching: Australian Survivor.

I’ve been watching ‘Survivor’ since the very first episode of the very first season. I’ve watched Jeff Probst, the host, get older over the years and along the way we named our Jeffrey after him. In a nice surprise, Australian Survivor makes the US show look like they’re a bunch of babies. It’s far longer in duration and the conditions are harder. Jonathan LaPaglia does a really good job of hosting, so I’m happily settling into a new season. I’m watching it with a friend from work, so Alice and I text our thoughts while we’re watching. It’s fun.

What I’m reading: Go Tell The bees that I am Gone.

I wrote about this a few days ago. This is a long book with small font – I’ve been reading it for 5 days and I’m still only 628 pages in. I’m loving it though – I’ll be sad when I finish.

What I’m listening to: Shandee’s Story.

This podcast is from the same team that brought us ‘Teacher’s Pet‘ a couple of years ago. ‘Teacher’s Pet’ resulted in the re-opening of a cold case and the arrest of the missing woman’s husband for murder. Obviously, they’re hoping for a similar outcome with this cold case investigation. It’s interesting, though poor Shandee’s murder was pretty gruesome. I hope someone who knows something comes forward.

By the way, if anyone is struggling with how awful Apple’s podcast site is now, a few months ago I switched my podcast listening to Overcast. It’s free and it works beautifully. Hope this helps someone else. 🙂

What I’m eating: Pasta with home-grown ingredients.

Ryan27 is having a friend over for lunch so I decided to make a simple vegetarian pasta. It’s so deeply satisfying to have so many ingredients from the garden available to include – even frozen zucchini from last year! The only thing not pictured in the photo at the start of this post was a healthy few leaves of silverbeet. We’ll be able to feel this dish doing us good when we eat it – most of the ingredients were alive less than an hour ago, after all.

It’s cooking now and it smells so good.

Who needs a good slap: No one.

Apart from anti-vaxxers and incompetent pollies, of course!

What I’m planning: A new quilt. For me, this time.

I’ve made over 40 quilts in my time and I’ve kept only 5 of them. When I look at quilting blogs, I’m amazed by how many quilts people have made and then stuffed into cupboards, rarely to see the light of day. Seems like a waste to me.

If I put umpteen hours of my time and energy into making something, I want it to be used. Plus, I really enjoy the process of making a quilt for someone else. As I’m sewing, I think about them a lot and it becomes a deeply personal gift.

Let’s just say that I’ll never make a quilt for someone I don’t like!

At the moment I’m in the middle of making a quilt for a friend who lost her Mum, but when that’s over I’ll be learning how to build a design wall and then putting it to use with a quilt for my lounge room. I’ve seen a design and it’s amazing, so I’m looking forward to tackling it. It’ll seem strange to make something that’ll stay with me. The last time I did that was in March 2011 with The Reading Quilt.

What has made me smile: Talking to Evan25 and Jenna.

They picked up the keys last night and moved into their new space. So far they have a mattress on the floor and are surrounded by boxes. They gave me a ring around 5 PM and we talked for ages. They’re just so very happy, so much in love and are very excited to be starting this new chapter.

When you have kids, you’re aware that they’ll be moving out into the world without you and they have to make their own path. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see Evan25, (and David28, for that matter), so very happy.

It’s a beautiful thing.

Dad joke of the day:

I just swallowed a tin of paint.

The doctor says I’m okay, but I feel like I’ve dyed a little inside. 

Little Adventures #10: Miss Marple’s Tearoom. January 2022.

January 31, 2022 / / 3 Comments
Cute café.

I know I said in my last post that I’d be devoting my days to reading the latest Outlander novel, Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone, but I knew that I was rapidly running out of month. I decided to wait until the kids went back to school on the last day of January and take myself off to Miss Marple’s Tearoom in Sassafrass.

If you’ve never been there, it’s worth clicking on the link and watching the video. It gives a really good feel for the place.

Quaint interior.

I know that the Little Adventures are meant to be places that I haven’t been to before, but Miss Marple’s almost qualifies. I’ve only been here once and that was when I was in my twenties.

I never forgot the scones, though.

Monster scones.

Look at the insane height of these things! I put the teaspoon in there for perspective. I remembered how filling they were, even from decades ago, so after I finished yoga this morning I didn’t eat breakfast. I thought I’d better treat this Devonshire tea as a brunch.

Devonshire tea. But with coffee.

I was starving by the time I sat down – at a table by the window; how delightful! – but I still couldn’t finish them.

So yummy though.

Page 469. Halfway there!

Even though I only needed one seat, I wasn’t there alone. I brought Claire and Jamie Fraser with me. I’m halfway through and I’m loving it.

But ohhh… I’m so very glad that I was born in an age that has discovered electricity. ‘Women’s work’ back then was hard work.

Red lillies in a vase.

The tearoom itself is full of pleasing little details, such as fresh flowers on every table.

Row of teapots above a doorway.

There’s also a row of fat teapots running around the room over the top of the doorways. The music playing was utterly in keeping with the whole vibe of the place, being old WWII songs.

The whole place was charming.

I thought of it as January’s Little Adventure because 2 people on Facebook went there. Both are completely unrelated – one was an ex-student and the other was an old school friend. It was a SIGN!

Outdoor art gallery.

After I’d finished my brunch and waddled out, I took a brief walk up the main drag, visiting a nursery and a couple of art galleries/gift shops. I would’ve liked to walk a little further afield, but I had in the back of my mind that this was Ryan27’s first day at his first job as a myotherapist, so I wanted to be back in time to wish him good luck and see him off.

It was a beautiful day for a drive into the Dandenongs. It was even more beautiful to think that if I hadn’t have found the FI/RE concept, instead of being out in the fresh air and sunshine, I’d be stuffed into a classroom with 28 kids, an air purifier and we’d all be wearing masks.

You know, I’m quite liking this retirement thing.

Dad joke of the day:

Joke.

Strictly speaking, not really a dad joke, but gee it made me laugh!

Frugal Friday: See you later!

January 28, 2022 / / 14 Comments

This book just came up on my library holds. When I reserved it, I was number 39 in the queue. I didn’t know if I could stop myself from buying it. After all, I have the previous 8 books in my kindle app. But here we are – frugality for the win. But I had to wait 4 months to dive into it.

Anyone who hasn’t read the “Outlander‘ novels, (or at the very least, seen the series), is missing out big time.

It’s 900 pages – with very small font – of Claire and Jamie magnificence. So much to read!! I’m so happy.

See you on the other side!

Wednesday W’s #3.

January 26, 2022 / / 4 Comments


What’s top of my mind: Looking at the stock market dipping.

It’s interesting. This is the first time I’ve been a retiree watching my portfolio values dip. All other times I’ve been in the accumulation phase of investing, where a sharemarket dive is a cue to buy more shares on sale, if you had some money set aside to take advantage of it.

Now I’m at the stage of pulling money from my investments to live from, it’s more a rolling of the eyes and a “Really? Another down day? Where’s the fun in that?” I’m still too young to draw from my superannuation – and I don’t intend to do that until I’m 60 when it’ll be tax-free anyway – so I’m very glad that if the dip we’re seeing now continues, I have a few years’ worth of expenses stashed away for just this eventuality.

I worked too hard to earn the money for those shares – I’d hate to simply give them away for a low, bargain price! I’ll push them to one side and let them burble away, doing their thing in the market, and be all’ Che será, será ‘ about it all.

Where I’ve been: Officeworks.

I haven’t been to Officeworks for years, but Ryan27 needed to pick up a few things before he starts work in a week or so. I’ve often said that teachers don’t choose our profession because we like the kids… oh dear me no! We get into it for the stationery.

All of those pure, pristine, empty notebooks full of possibilities.

The pens, just waiting to fill those pages with words.

The sticky note packages. The uniball pens, so crisp and clean.

This is a shop that can cause major damage to my credit card if I don’t watch out. Seventeen dollars later, I left. Considering all that was in there, waiting to be bought, I escaped pretty lightly!

Where I’m going: A Wedding Venue.

Later today I’ll be driving to Burwood to meet up with Izzy, Izzy’s Mum and David28 to have a look at the venue they’re pretty sure they’ll book for their wedding next year. A few weeks ago I asked Izzy if I could be included in some of the girly wedding plans, because I’m never going to get to do this with a daughter of my own! I’m glad she thought to ask if I wanted to come.

What I’m watching: Station Eleven.

A couple of years ago a friend from work gave me a novel called Station Eleven, about what happens after a virus kills off 99% of the world’s population. Yeah, crazy… who could ever believe that something like that could happen, ammiright???

It was the author’s debut novel, and it was so well written that it has kept a place on my bookshelves. So far I’m only a couple of episodes into the tv series, but they seem to be doing a great job in re-telling the story.

What I’m reading: Warlight

This was also given to me by my friend. It’s been sitting by my bed for t least 2 years. I’m really enjoying it. The writing is excellent – great attention to detail. For example, a name dropped in casual conversation at the beginning of the novel turns out to be a person of great significance later on. When this person came onto the scene, I thought, ‘Hang on. I’m sure someone said this name a while ago.’ I had to go searching back to find it, if only to prove to myself that I wasn’t imagining it! I’m up to the last section now – today I go to the library to pick up a couple of books on hold that I’ve been waiting for.

What I’m listening to: Nothing.

That’s right. Absolutely nothing.

After 17 years of working at a school with 200+ teachers and nearly 2,500 students, I’m basking in silence. Sometimes I’ll put on music or listen to an audiobook or podcast, but usually I’m living to the sounds of birdsong, dogs’ claws clicking on the hardwood floors and the distant sound of traffic.

Schools are very noisy places. I had no idea that, a year later, I’d still be enjoying the subtle sounds of peace and quiet.

What I’m eating: Carrot Cake.

We had quite a few carrots that were starting to look sad, so to use them up I made my very first carrot cake. OMG, so very good! What have I been waiting for all those years? I just googled ‘Thermomix carrot cake’ and I picked the one with walnuts because that sounded good.

Ryan27 will be taking lots of slices of this when he starts work next week. 🙂

Who needs a good slap:

My next-door neighbour. He plays JJJ Radio very loudly most days. That in itself isn’t too bad – it’s not thrash metal, after all. But he started forgetting that it was on outside and I’d go to bed and hear it playing.

I cracked it a couple of nights ago and sent a text to him at 10 PM… “Hey Dave, you’ve left the radio on outside. :)”

A couple of minutes later my phone bleeps ; “Thanks.” Music was turned off. Hopefully that’ll be an end to it. Otherwise there’ll be more slappery ahead!

What I’m planning: My Little Adventure for January.

I’m rapidly running out of month! (Hmmm,,, would the wedding venue count??? Guess not. Pity though; I like killing two birds with one stone.)

What has made me smile: the neighbourhood chook.

Some mornings, like today, as I’m sitting here on the couch with the little woofs asleep beside me, I can hear a chook a block or two away, protesting about laying an egg. It always makes me smile and remember when we had chooks, back in the old house. There was always one or two that would complain about having to lay those darned eggs!

Dad joke of the day:

I got into a fight with 1,3,5,7 and 9.

The odds were against me.

Frugal Friday: Devise your own healthcare tests at home.

January 21, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Ryan27 gave me these tea tins for Christmas but I needed new labels for my label maker.
A trip to Officeworks today— all they had was clear labels so without a thought I grabbed them.
Um… clear labels with black writing on black tins are going to be a FANTASTIC eyesight test for us all going forward…

Dad joke of the day:

Why don’t dolphins make mistakes?

Because they do things on porpoise.

Wednesday W’s #2.

January 19, 2022 / / 8 Comments

What’s top of my mind: The disappearance of this blog.

I’ve had the most stressful day since my retirement. A few weeks ago I migrated this blog across to what I was told was a far cheaper hosting company than the one I’ve been using. All well and good, though no one mentioned shifting the domain name as well. This morning I opened the laptop to write this post and my blog was gone. Vanished.

omg

There was an email from my old hosting company (Siteground) saying I had a week to pay them or the blog would be permanently deleted.

Lots of you are bloggers. Can you imagine the trauma? I’ve been blogging at the Frogblog since 2007, so even though this blog is only a baby by comparison, to think of all of this work vanishing in the aether was horrifying.

Fortunately, the good folk at Panthur were able to show me how to retrieve something called an EPP and I was able to transfer the domain name across to them. In the process, I saved myself $330 A YEAR.

omg

I’ll send a huge Thank You to Captain FI, Michelle and Sarah and Laura who told me about Panthur when we had a blog meet in Adelaide last year.

Where I’ve been: At the sewing machine.

I’m making a quilt for my cousin. She lost her Mum a while ago and I had the perfect idea for a quilt to celebrate my aunt, who was an artist, a keen golfer and she loved colour. Unfortunately, I had all of those Christmas present quilts I was making, so I had to put it on the back burner. I’ll blog about it soon, though. It’s a fantastic frugal project and I’m loving it.

Where I’m going: To get a wine.

Honestly, today with the blog disappearing was incredibly stressful. I think I need a cheeky shiraz to show myself that all’s right with the world.

What I’m watching: My lilies explode.

Just before Christmas Ryan27 and I drove over to his friend’s house and we dug up some calla lilies. You know, the ones you see at funerals all the time. I chopped off all of the leaves and planted the bulbs in the ground in the lower part of the backyard, under the roof. I think the outdoor room will look lovely with lilies running along the side.

Well, they seem to like it here! I’m not kidding when I say that every morning they’ve grown at least 2 cms. You can almost SEE them getting bigger.

Ryan27 told his friend and she laughed and said, “Welcome to the weeds!”

What I’m reading: Murderous Robots and ex-husbands.

Helen from the comments a couple of weeks ago mentioned the Murderbot series, so I grabbed the first one from the library. It’s called ‘All Systems Red‘ and it’s a rollicking good sci-fi read. It’s a novella, so it was a quick read as well. I have the next 3 to get through – just waiting on someone to finish reading #2 before I get to #3 and #4.

In contrast, I also finished ‘Oh William!” by Elizabeth Strout. She’s such a beautiful writer – she’s the woman who wrote ‘Olive Kitteridge’. Her novels never disappoint.

What I’m listening to: The Other Half podcast.

There’s a podcaster I really enjoy. His name is James Boulton and he specialises in history podcasts about women. His first series was The Queens of England, which I absolutely ADORED. He started from before the Norman invasion n 1066 and then kept going. Then, once he ran out of queens, he began a podcast called “The Other Half.’

“Women make up half of the world’s population, and yet history books often consign them to the sidelines. They are dismissed as merely the wives of powerful men; babymakers and nothing more. Yet women have been the driving force behind history for millennia, from female Pharoahs, warrior princesses and pirates, to the revolutionaries who sought to topple the male-dominated political systems of their day. From the host of the popular ‘Queens of England Podcast’, The Other Half tells the forgotten and ignored stories of the most powerful and influential women in history.”

It’s fabulous. And he’s just lovely. If you’re interested in history, then I highly recommend.

What I’m eating: Homemade pizza.

I told Ryan27 that he’s cooking tonight, so we’re having homemade pizza. It’s his go-to when he’s told to put the chef’s hat on. We have a rule in this house that you always have to have green leaves from the garden on our pizzas, as well as the pesto that I made last year and froze in icecube trays. Soon, with a bit of luck, there’ll be homegrown capsicums as well.

And yes, sometimes we put pineapple on it. Who wouldn’t?

Who needs a good slap: Novak Djokavic.

What an absolute tool. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

What I’m planning: When I can get everyone together for when Tom29 turns into Tom 30.

Tomorrow is the day when I become the mother of a 30-year-old. Yikes! (I must have been a mere child when I had him… I’m too youthful and dewy to have a child that old, surely???)

We were going to have the family over on Sunday for lunch, but covid is really ripping through Victoria at the moment. When the state’s hospitals get put into a ‘Code Brown’, it’s clear that now is not the time to be gathering people together. Hopefully, in a couple of months things will settle down a bit and we can celebrate then.

David27 and Izzy have their engagement party planned for next month. Who knows if it’ll go ahead? (The party, I mean, not the engagement!)

What has made me smile: Evan25 when he realised he ghosted me for days.

Last week he was earning himself a slap – this week it’s a smile. It took him 5 days to get back to me last week. I decided I was going to wait the full week and then call Jenna to complain, but he beat me to it – thank goodness. It seems like he’s learned his lesson – I just got a text that says: ‘Can calllll tonight.’

He and Jenna have been looking for a place to rent on their own. Fingers crossed they’ve found something.

Dad joke of the day:

When I found my toaster wasn’t waterproof, I was shocked.

Great success is always the sum of many small decisions.

January 16, 2022 / / 23 Comments

The quilt I made for my parents for Christmas is the perfect metaphor for the journey to financial independence. Quilting, like becoming financially free, has basic, simple steps but it certainly isn’t easy.

It’s not quick, either. But each seemingly insignificant decision that we make along the way contributes to the whole, beautiful product at the end.

The broad brush strokes of this quilt are the same as every other quilt in the world – it has a top of smaller pieces of fabric sewed together; a middle piece of warm batting and a backing fabric, sewing through all 3 layers to hold it all together and with a binding fabric sewn around the edges to stop it from fraying and falling apart. All quilts are the same basic construction.

Financial Independence s the same. The basic construction is that a financially independent person has gathered together the resources, usually over a time-period of decades, to support themselves financially without having to turn up to a job or business for money. Every financially independent person falls into this broad brush stroke category.

But as with the quilt, once you zoom in, the details can vary tremendously.

Take another look at this quilt.

This is a quilt made from scraps. There is no other quilt the same as this in the whole world. When I decided to make it, the broad brush stroke decisions were already decided. I knew how this quilt would be put together. But then some further decisions had to be made.

  • Each square would be made from scraps of one colour.
  • I would not buy any more fabric – I would make this quilt from what I already had. (It was in the middle of lockdowns, after all!)
  • Each square would measure 12.5″ square.
  • Most squares would be rainbow hues, but a couple would be brown, black-and-white and pink, just to tone it down a bit.
  • The quilt would be double-bed sized, as that’s the size bed my parents have.

Very similar to how we start along the path to financial independence. When I found out about FI/RE and decided to see if I could swing it, there were a few decisions to be made as to how I was going to go about it.

  • I had already paid off my house, so I decided I’d concentrate on putting together a share portfolio. House prices, even back then, were prohibitive for a sole parent on one teaching wage. Buying rentals was out of the question.
  • I decided to drop back a day a week at work and become a Thermomix Group Leader, running a team of consultants in my area. In other words, I chose to augment my wage by running a side hustle.
  • I was still supporting my four teenage boys. Reducing my expenses by installing solar panels, creating a food forest with fruit trees, veggie gardens and chooks, and cooking from scratch would cost more in the short-term, but over the long haul would make my journey towards financial independence much easier.

So far so good. But just deciding these things will not produce either a finished quilt or a financially secure retirement. You have to go smaller. Which specific actions are you going to take to get these things done?

Zoom in on the quilt. Every single piece of fabric here is the result of a deliberate decision and a deliberate action. See the black and white square? If you zoom in on that, you’ll see pieces of fabric that are less than a quarter of an inch wide. (Yes, I’m crazy.)

Some of the pieces in these squares are much larger and therefore contribute more towards the overall finished quilt. But the quilt would not be finished without every single one of these pieces, no matter how small. Every single decision and action in putting these fabrics together has mattered.

You could make the argument that the smallest pieces of fabric in the quilt almost matter the most, as they show that the commitment was there to finish the overall quilt top, by using every single piece of fabric at my disposal – no matter how small. I knew that even though a 1/4″ stripe of colour wouldn’t contribute a huge amount; IT STILL HELPED. After all, all I needed was enough pieces of coloured fabric to cover the top of a double bed. Keep at it long enough, keep putting fabric pieces together no matter how small and I knew I’d eventually get there.

It’s the same with financial independence.

All you need to do is cover 25X your annual expenses and you’re golden. The broadest brush stroke of all, I know! But how we all choose to get there is incredibly varied. Each one of us has a FI/RE journey that is exactly like this quilt – – a one of a kind. I can’t speak for anyone else, but like the strips and squares of colour in the quilt top, here are some of the things I chose to do each day to push myself along the path to FI/RE:

The most day-to-day decisions were all about frugality. I upped my income through the Thermomix side-hustle but I also deliberately chose to make the pool of money I had last a long time. I stretched my dollars any way I could. Some, like the quarter-inch strips, barely moved the needle. Others, like the big red and white polka-dot squares, covered much more ground. But they all contributed to the mindset of paying attention to the dollars:

  • When Tom13 started secondary school, he had to choose between learning French and German. The other boys didn’t have a choice. They all used the same textbooks – each book was used four times. Bargain!
  • Same with school uniforms. Everything was handed down from boy to boy and, wherever possible, bought at the school’s second-hand uniform shop. Boys are tough on their clothes, so why pay full price?
  • I bought grocery specials in bulk. If we ate it and it was on special, I bought up big. The aim was to eat as much as we could at half-price. Over time, that makes a difference.
  • If a cut of meat cost over $10/KG, I didn’t buy it. Even now, with only 2 of us in the house, I still look at the unit cost of everything.
  • The boys were all given swimming lessons. That’s a non-negotiable for Australian kids. But after that, each boy was only allowed to take ONE extra-curricular activity at a time. None of this running each kid around to forty-seven different gym classes, dance classes and sport clinics every week! At first they tried sport, but then over time, they all gravitated to music lessons. Instead of being ‘Jacks of all trades, masters of none’, they’re all very proficient in their instruments of choice. David27 has made a career out of it!
  • Once I found out about FI/RE, I read everything I could lay my hands on about investing. The share market was a big mystery to me and, being deathly afraid of numerals and maths, I had a lot of mental blocks to slowly overcome. It was hard, I won’t lie, but I knew that if I kept at it, blog post by blog post, book by book, things would slowly become clearer.
  • I kept food costs low by growing as much of our food as we could. I kept chooks, not just for the eggs but also for the free fertiliser they provided. If I grew it – we ate it.
  • I also grew the food that I needed to take to Thermomix demos as much as possible. After all, I was there to MAKE money; not spend it! My customers all had the herb and garlic dip instead of the hommus, (I grew the garlic, parsley and spring onions) , and they always had the rissotto (I grew the spinach.)
  • We were given free bread from a bakery every Tuesday night. We picked up everything they hadn’t sold that day for YEARS – all of their breads, pies, cakes and doughnuts. I stuffed my boys full of that free food – and I gave it away to friends and took the excess cakes and pastries into work every Wednesday. the chooks would also have a day of leftover bakery food each week. I made that free food COUNT!
  • I prioritised my goals. My first, most immediate goal was security for myself and the boys. Leaving a marriage with only $60 cash and 4 boys under 5 will do that to you! My over-arching goal was financial freedom, but I also had a life-long dream of going to England and Europe. In the end, I slotted that trip in between paying off the house and retirement. It cost around 30K and I thought it’d significantly delay my retirement… but I have never regretted going on that trip. It was truly a dream come true. And I never dropped my gaze from the FI/RE goal.
  • I took advantage when opportunity knocked. Obvously, making the decision to geoarbitrage and sell my original house was a HUGE clincher for my early(ish) retirement, but I also did smaller things, such as forming a close friendship with the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel breeder who bred my first bitch. For two decades, we had dogs from her kennels living with us. They were either older dogs who were past their breeding and showing days, or they were bitches I got for free on breeding terms. Poppy is the last of the line for this- I got her for free on condition Jenny could breed from her. (She ended up having only one litter. ) It was a bit of a shock to the system to have to pay for Scout!!

Every day there were tiny little decisions that on the face of it meant absolutely nothing and were noticed by no-one but me, yet collectively those tiny decisions swept me along the path to being financially free.

Many of you are in the boring middle part of the FI/RE journey. You’ve made all of the big and middle-tier decisions and put them into gear. It’s easy to lose heart and think that it’s all just too slow. But remember, just like piecing together a quilt, all of the little decisions and actions continuously help move the needle – and I’m here to say that a life without having to turn up to a job every weekday is a mighty fine life indeed.

Keep your eyes on what YOUR finished product will look like! Decide what YOUR little decisions and actions will be and then keep on doing them. Future You will thank you.

Dad joke of the day:

Frugal Friday: Off to the fruit shop!

January 14, 2022 / / 11 Comments

Last week on the Frogblog I talked about stewing and freezing blocks of plums to use in my breakfast for the rest of the year. It makes sense to buy up big while the fruit is in season and preserve it to last through the rest of the year. Today – it’s apricot time!

As soon as I press ‘publish’, I’ll be jumping in the car and hunting down a box of apricots.

I already grow my own rhubarb – a $7 baby plant for Aldi 2 years ago has been an excellent investment! – so in a little while I’ll be buying a box of apples to make cubes of apple and rhubarb. My breakfasts will be healthy, full of variety and wonderfully easy. Oats, water, 3 cubes of fruit and into the microwave for 2.5 minutes. Couldn’t be simpler!

A couple of days ago I went to Costco while Ryan27 was at a job interview. (Spoiler: he got the job as a myotherapist.) While I was there I saw bags of garlic, so I grabbed a couple. Probably tomorrow, I’ll pop a podcast on the iPad and spend a tedious couple of hours peeling each clove. Then, I’ll freeze them.

I saw a friend of mine pull out ready-to-use cloves of garlic from her freezer and it Changed. My. Life. Sometimes the most obvious hacks are the most brilliant. I love to use fresh garlic but it’s a pain when it starts to sprout. This way – there’s no waste and I always have it on hand.

Along with fresh ginger. I just buy a pack from Costco every 6 months or so, slice it into coins and freeze. Works brilliantly.

Preparing the garlic this way is a perfect representation of delayed gratification and long-term thinking over short-term. Peeling the garlic is a nasty job. It’s boring and smelly and I’d rather be doing almost anything else. But the short-term pain is by FAR outweighed by the long-term pleasure of always having such a staple ingredient on hand whenever I want it. No rushed trips to the supermarket to get some more garlic for this little black duck!

Summer is the time when crops ripen and cooks all over the world start to frantically preserve the abundance for the leaner times. Usually by this time, I’m being overrun by tomatoes, but for the second year in a row, it looks like tomatoes are going to be a failure. Damn this El Ninâ weather pattern!

So, if I can’t save money on growing my own tomatoes, I’ll make use of whatever I can to fill the space in the freezers. It’s really a no-brainer. I save money, I save time and it gives me peace of mind. Why wouldn’t I do it?

Dad joke of the day:

Welcome to the plastic surgery addiction group. I see a lot of new faces here.

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