September Review: a practice month for our new life

Today’s sunlight in the trees

Here we are on the last day of this month which we’ve been using to practice changing our spending and other habits to get ready for Brian leaving his job (in two days’ time)!

Sitting together now and looking at our results, it’s feeling even more real and exciting than we thought it would be.

We’ve amended our home finance system so that our financial months match up with calendar months, making things much easier to track.

Financial results
This month had two goals: to start reducing the amount we spend on things which we buy all year round such as food and toiletries, and to stock up in bulk or sort out/pay for other things which we can then forget about for the rest of the year!

Food and drink was our biggest challenge and we returned to the £10 per day goal which we used last year to pay off our loan. Because we were both still working this month and not yet able to change our cooking and shopping habits to the maximum, we didn’t get it quite down to £10 a day, but at £11.80 per day it gave us a total spend around £150 less than we have been spending on an average month over the last year! That’s something we’re very impressed with.

Our spend on toiletries, health items and domestic supplies was also well below our recent spend, and below the monthly budget we set for the future. We were also under budget on petrol and that will be reduced more soon with workday car commuting removed from our lives.

We did a bulk buy of coal to purchase a year’s supply upfront with free delivery. This could see us saving £50 compared to previous years when we have bought it 2-3 bags at a time from the supplier (plus of course the cost of us going to pick it up every time.) We also had most of our annual car costs this month with the MOT and tax, and Lucy bought a park and ride bus ticket (10 trips for rainy non-cycling days) and had her eyes tested and didn’t need new glasses – so no more eye care costs are likely now for 1-2 years.

Enjoyment results!
Challenging ourselves to reduce our regular costs was fun as always. We’ve been more creative with cooking and enjoyed plenty of soups, stews, baked potatoes and vegetable mixtures. The only meal we didn’t enjoy was the only expensive one we had – fish and chips bought on the way home from work! Lucy also learned how to make brownies and Brian invented a way to make pancake mixture taste like doughnuts, so now we have no reason to ever buy puddings again…

First attempt at brownies

After having been back in the bad habit of spending money instead of time, Lucy also enjoyed making a birthday card for her Dad. It wouldn’t win any art prizes but the simple act of looking for pictures to cut from magazines, glueing and decorating is so enjoyable and fulfilling.

With a feeling of more time and space in our lives, we’ve been able to enjoy some really special experiences. From things as simple as appreciating the autumn sunrises, lighting our first evening fires, and playing card games, to making the effort to get up at 3.45am for the lunar eclipse at the weekend, we already feel much more able to enjoy the present moment. Brian has been doing more laundry, vacuuming and cleaning on his days off, but with plenty of time for pleasure too, such as fungus spotting:

Fungi in the woods

Finally, we have also been doing quite a lot of sleeping! After the decision was made to take ourselves into this new stage of our lives, we were hit by a sudden wall of sleep which needed catching up on, and remembered what a pleasure it is to go to sleep at 8.30 if that’s what your bodies need!

Thank you everyone who has been so supportive and positive about what we are doing and about this blog, it is always a lovely surprise to find that our plans and our journey are of interest to other people. The next time we check in here we will be a one-homemaker and one-earner couple, and we can’t wait to write about that!

Two Exciting Weeks: taking things to the next level

We haven’t blogged for a little while, but it’s not because we haven’t been doing anything relevant to the theme of our blog – quite the opposite. We’ve been going through a big decision making process that has taken our lives to the next level.

On 3rd September Brian handed in his notice at work. We’re going to be living the super-simple life we’ve thought about for years and read about on so many other blogs and channels. With one of us doing paid employment and the other doing cost-reduction by being more self sufficient, we will be living a much more balanced life and both have so much more time for the things we love.

It’s been a scary process too, but we’ve been noticing simple, abundant things all around us, giving us confidence and excitement about taking things to the next level. Life already feels more real, vibrant, necessary and rich.

Here are some of the things we’ll be doing and blogging about:

Reducing our food costs by cooking more resourcefully and growing more food
We looked back at what we’ve been buying over recent months, and had to admit that a lot of it was unnecessary, bought because of being tired or stressed. We’re already shopping and cooking very differently, having ‘no spend days’ often, yet still having plenty of food to eat. We’ve also had some of our best ever dinners, because we’ve been more creative and resourceful.

Brian’s amazing leftovers bake

In the future we’ll grow more of our own food too, but as a lovely surprise this autumn we noticed that one of last year’s runner beans had overwintered (as they are perennials) and is providing us with bonus beans!

Bonus beans!

Providing more of our own services
With two of us at work, the idea of there being the time or, especially, energy to tackle any significant home/vehicle maintenance, garden development and making our own gifts or products was not realistic. Some people might be able to do all this, but not us. Now, we can look forward to seeing just how creative we can be, while taking our time, doing things in the right season or weather conditions, and actually enjoying it.

Finding a mindful way
By working as a team, we can reduce both our levels of stress, getting away from endless ‘to-do’ lists going round our heads, and instead slowing down, sharing things out and creating a clear space for both of us to be mindful in what we do. At this time of year, how often we’ve failed to notice the wonderful quality of light, or the chill on a sunny day that means autumn. These things matter more than earning more money to spend beyond what we actually need.

Being healthier in every way
Everything we’re planning has a bonus health benefit, whether physical, mental or both. Brian will be cycling to the shops, the food we make will be healthier, engaging with real physical things like the garden soil and the firewood also has a positive impact. We won’t feel the need to rush through everything with tension in our bodies.

Reducing our impact and only taking our fair share
We’re excited about a life which moves even further away from excess and waste. Things which have never meant much to us – clothes, gadgets, etc – feel increasingly irrelevant. When we do need to buy something, we’ll know it is purely a matter of meeting our needs and not being consumers.

Thank you to everyone who reads and comments on our blog. Knowing we are not on our own with our thoughts and plans is such an amazing thing, and we’re looking forward to writing about the changes to come.