and the next project...

To meet my goal of retiring by 40 has many different facets.  It seems as though I've been concentrating on the "saving money" and "growing my own vege" parts, but I have to remember all my other ducks I need to get in a row.  There's a list to the left ----------------->    of some things that weigh on my mind.

The most exciting thing that has happened THIS YEAR is that the funder approved my contract with the group I'm currently working for.  This means I have a steady stream of income up to 30 June 2012.  Oh yes.  What's more, I can work anywhere in the country for them (as long as I'm close to an airport). 

This means...I could get my Nelson house sooner, rather than later, now that I know I have income.  This has most excellently tied in with my trip to Nelson this weekend with Mrs Possum.  I have found some open homes that I'd like to drag her around to this weekend:

• this one has a garden
• this one has potential
• this one is fenced for the dogs, is close to the beach and has a lovely garden

So, if I want to move to Nelson soon, I have to get my Wellington house ready to rent toute de suite!  The bathroom is... nearly there.  The plasterer has finished, now just waiting for the builder to return to finish the cornices, skirtings and the electrical stuff.

The backyard is coming along nicely, all I need to do is rake over the dirt in the back, cover it with bark etc, and give the paths a good waterblast.  I can do that in a weekend.

There are two big projects outstanding - the exterior paintwork needs some touchups and a decent clean.  This will be time consuming, but I'll do it in patches.  I need to paint the exterior lounge windows, that's number 1.  They're stripped and ready.  I'll break the rest of the house down into segments and tackle one (or two) a week.  If I write it down here, then I have to do it.  Ha.

The other big project is the second / spare bedroom.  Currently, this functions as my toolshed, gym, office and room where I put things I have nowhere else for.  I could never have a guest stay in there, it's too embarrassing.  Case in point:

You can see the floor.  Give me some credit. I'm tackling this room with gusto. 

That's it from me, I'm off to Nelson!

productive day = happy monkey

I feel quite proud today. I have two work projects which have been niggling at me to complete.  They're not hard, I just couldn't start them.  Today, I committed and got one finished.  I was really pleased as I did it in such a way as to make it a template for future use, and also designed a system so that I could keep on top of the ongoing monthly maintenance required for the project.

I might start the other one tomorrow, depending on whether the plumber turns up and / or the weather is good.  I figure that doing one "backburner" project a week is fair enough.

To celebrate I made my favourite dinner - cheese toasted sandwiches with hot tabasco sauce! Nom.  I am a simple monkey.  Sadly, I'd spent the day glued to the laptop so hadn't made any bread... so I wandered down to the dairy and spent the grand total of $2.50 on a loaf!  Treat.

But... the most exciting news is that my home made ginger beer is ready!  However, I have had a learning experience about making ginger beer.  When the recipe says yeast, you need to use yeast, not bread improver.  Yes, it seems obvious now.  Anyway, I strained it through muslin, it'll do, it's drinkable, but it's not great.  Note to self - get yeast.  Yeah.

My herbs are coming along nicely - I planted some italian parsley seeds today, hopefully they'll come in.
The coriander seeds Mum gave me from one of her plants germinated like a charm:

They're even starting to get little coriander shaped leaves!  I'm so happy.  Mum gives me seeds when I go to visit her, for years I've just been using them as they are, ground up in curries etc.  All this time I've had coriander plants just raring to go.

The sage has also started to sprout:

This is especially exciting as they came from a free packet, an were supposed to be best before 2006!  Of the 8 seeds I planted, 7 have germinated.  Even with fresh seeds that's a good hit rate.

And the marjoram is looking good:

11 have come through out of the 20 I planted.  These are also from the free 2006 packets, so bonus! 

I've created a space for them all on the ugliest pot stand in the world that lives outside my front door and has all my herbs in it.

Also got some more potting mix, so tomorrow I'm hoping to plant a whole lot of basil - many many basil plants so I can have it year round.  Basil's my favourite.  I have my eye on a pinenut bush - imagine if I could have COMPLETELY homemade pesto whenever I wanted!  Frugal nirvana.

Happy Monkey.

working from home is offcially awesome

After much moaning about how much my work was sucking my will to live, I quit last October and started on my own as a consultant.  I landed a lovely little contract that pays me well enough to live on (even though it's less than what I used to earn) and lets me work from home.  LETS ME WORK FROM HOME.

I love working from home.

I'll say it again in case you missed it.

I love working from home.

Some people have told me that they couldn't do it - they'd be too distracted or wouldn't be disciplined enough.  I have none of those worries.  Having worked in offices for many years, I can truly appreciate just how brilliant this is, and therefore I am not stuffing it up by losing focus or taking it for granted.  I do have some discipline - I must have logged on to the email by 8.30am, and need to be out of my pajamas by 10am.  I thought if I set myself easy goals, then I'd achieve them... and I've yet to break either of them, so good on me.

The benefits from working from home are two-fold - I save money (which I'll catalogue later) but best of all, I have at least three more hours in the day to work on my house, or do other things. 

For example, I can be at home whilst the builders / plumbers are here all day and I don't need to use up my annual leave to do so (I need to be here or the dogs go mental.  Not because they want to attack the people in the house, they just want to play).   Because I don't have to get ready in the morning, then walk 40 minutes to work, I get an extra hour or so in the morning to do things like have breakfast, wash the dishes and walk the girls - things I never had time to do before work previously.  It also means that on breaks I can weed the garden, bake bread or cakes or put something on to slow cook for dinner.  In December, I painted my doors and window frames during my breaks - it was perfect because it allowed for drying time.   I can visit the bank / dump shop / garden centre / supermarket / op shop at lunchtime, rather than when everyone else is there.  At 5pm (or whenever I finish for the day) - that's it, I'm finished.  I don't have to walk home or get the bus and be grumpy and shitty about that... I just switch off the laptop (or put on Ellen) and I'm done.  I'm not tired or grumpy and home at 6pm and hating everything.  At 5pm I can go back into the garden or do some decluttering or WHATEVER.

I was worried when I left regular income that I'd be pressed for money, but you know what?  I reckon the amount I save by working from home makes up for it (and I'm not even counting the tax deductible stuff like office space rent / power / phone either, just purely things that I no longer spend money on.  I was thinking about it today (as I drove out to Mitre 10 Mega in Petone at lunch to pick up a towel rail)... I no longer spend money on:

• Breakfasts at work.  I wasn't usually big on breakfast, but I reckon I averaged 2 coffee and muffin combos at $5 per week.  Each week = $10
• Lunches at work.  I probably bought lunch 3-4 times a week.  Seriously.  I'm a little embarrassed by that now.  Each lunch would probably average around $10.  Each week = $35
• Snacks at work.  I would probably noms a chocolate bar or strawberry milk or coke or coffee (or get something for someone else) maybe twice a week.  Each week = $5
• Drinks out after work.  I tried to avoid this, but sometimes it's impossible.  Who knows?  Let's say each week = $10
• Fast Food because I couldn't be arsed cooking in the evenings after work.  Each week = $10
• Two loads of laundry each weekend.  I just realised as I hung out my washing today, that it had been a week since I'd last done any, and it was only one load.  So, that's not two drier loads and one whole less wash.  Each week = $5
• Stockings.  I bought the thick ones from the supermarket, the cheapest brand, but still $12 each.  I don't need to buy them now, the ones I have will last for the meetings I go to for ages.  Perhaps this saves me each week = $2
• Showering!  Don't hate me but now I don't need to shower each morning.  Maybe this saves me 50cents each time?  Each week = $1.
• I used to have two phones - a personal one and a work one.  I needed to charge the work phone at home all the time.  Each week = 50cents.
• Buying random crap.  Because I was working and hated everything, I would literally buy random crap to make me feel better.  It never did.  I'd buy wii games, stuff I didn't need from one day sale websites, shoes I'd see on sale, whatever.  It's hard to put a price on this per week, but I'll be conservative and say maybe each week = $20

So, that's about $98 a week I no longer spend by not physically going into work. 

But, I know I have to factor in other "at home costs" too, so that I can get a more accurate picture.  So...being generous:

• I have plunger coffee each morning, which I never did when I as heading out to the office.  A bag costs $6, I reckon it lasts me about a month.  So, let's be generous and add in powdered milk ($10 for a kg) and energy costs.  Each week = $2
• Breakfasts and lunches at home.  It's weird, now I usually just have one meal sort of at 11ish.  It's leftovers or homemade bread or toast, or soup or pasta or something cheap or out the freezer.  Each week = $4
• Electricity - computer, TV, oven... who knows?  Let's say each week = $5

So, that's $98 - $11.  I reckon by working from home, I'm saving $87 per week. I'll be adding in that amount each week to my running total, that's for sure!  I wish I could put a dollar value on my mental sanity, the total would be a heck of  lot more. 

day in auckland = $61

Well, I managed to get an earlier flight, which was great.  hooray!  Ate up large at the Auckland lounge so didn't need any lunch ($10 there I reckon.  Is this getting stupid?) I also secreted some more sprite ($3) and other bits and bobs.  Excitingly, on my way home I became the proud owner of another large plastic plant pot and a huge roll of gutter guard for free ($10).  I'm planning on using the gutter guard as either trellis for Mrs Possum's peas and beans.  Perhaps I may even use it as gutter guard.  Stranger things have happened.

So, final total for today = $38 + $23 = $61 indirectly saved by my stealth frugality.

In other news, the plumber is coming at 8am tomorrow.  8am!  Two early mornings in a row, I'm such a moaner.  This does mean that bathroom things are all happening, and happening really quickly.  Yay!  That is good, as Mrs Possum is not into the no-shower action.

She's talking a day off work on Monday to help clear stuff from the backyard (while the skip is here) and turn it into a veggie garden.  I'm really excited, but still a little unsure about how the dogs will cope.  At the moment it's their loo.  Hmmmn.

I should do a post on the dogs soon.  They're a big part of my life :-)

live from auckland

As the title of this post suggests, I'm blogging live from Auckland.  It's a beautiful sunny day, I'm outside right down by the quay killing time before my 11am meeting.  There was a time when I would've gone into a cafe, bought a coffee and read the paper to pass the time away.  Not now.  My awesome new frugality has meant that I'm drinking the free Sprite Zero I nabbed from the Wellington Koru lounge and enjoying the outdoors.  Auckland is definitely sunnier and less windy than Wellington.  On days like this it makes it hard for me to remember why I don't like Auckland.

This is the view from the board room where I had my meeting today.  You can see Rangitoto in the background.  Sigh.  I live in a beautiful country.

So, my free haul today consists of breakfast in the lounge, a can of drink, the Dom Post, the ODT, the healthy food magazine, some napkins I can use instead of handy towels back home and my in flight muffin, which I've secreted in my handbag for later (or probably freezing, who am I kidding?),  So, my total savings so far are:  breakfast ($2), free sprite not cafe coffee ($4) and the $32 worth of airpoints for this trip that work pays for, which I'll put to travel to Nelson at Xmas.  I'm not counting the papers and magazines, cos I would'nt normally buy them. 

Look at this - by leaving my home office for the day I've actually saved $38.   My return flight is at 5pm, maybe I'll score dinner out of the Auckland lounge as well!

Am I crazy?  Maybe obsessed?  I dunno.  I keep reading in all the other frugal blogs online that the little bits all add up.  I hope so.