two years down the track + june goals report

Jul14
by TFS on July 14, 2015 at 7:14 pm
Posted In: TFS Updates

year down tracks ii

Well, I missed my blogiversary again this year, only by a few days a week and a few days though, rather than the few weeks I missed it by last year 🙂

Yes theFIREstarter blog is now 2 years old!

What has changed and have I learnt in year two? Quite a lot it turns out!

In my update last year I talked a lot about learning and growing as a person, which I feel I’ve continued to do. My goal next year is to read a few more books. Blogging is great but you can’t beat a good book to crystallise some of the best ideas into personal learning and change your philosophy on life and perspective on things. I’d do well to just follow a lot of Free to Pursue’s recommendations!

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , ,
8 Comments

june income/expenses, net worth and savings rate report

Jul06
by TFS on July 6, 2015 at 8:59 pm
Posted In: Budgets, TFS Updates

June update 2

 

Hope you’ve all been enjoyed the hot sweltering inferno like weather this past week or so. I certainly have! 8)

We’ve been busy as usual in June – I can’t remember the last time I said we had a quiet month – but the summer months for me are all about getting out there and enjoying the weather as much as you can, so it’s all good as far as I’m concerned!

 

Let’s have a look at how the spending and saving went down…

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

9 Comments

early mortgage pay off vs extra investment strategies

Jul03
by TFS on July 3, 2015 at 8:58 am
Posted In: Investing, Personal Finance, Property
Pay off Mortgage vs Investing - Value Averaging strategy

Some prime real estate I will never be able to afford 🙂

 

Well that’s a sobering title on a Friday morning isn’t it folks!? Yes I’m actually writing a post about boring old personal finance for once rather than cooking or my garden. 🙂

Hopefully we can spice things up a little and make it a bit interesting though, or at least introduce you to some new(ish) ideas you may not have heard of before.

 

paying off your mortgage or investing more money…?

… is an age old question that is hotly debated in PF circles. The basic arguments for each case are as follows.

Pay Off Mortgage Man might say:

  • Getting rid of all debt makes me happier than any potential increase in monetary terms
  • Stock markets are volatile, I like the guaranteed pay off of my mortgage interest rate
  • Interest rates may (will) rise at some point in the future so pay off now while the going is good

For more arguments on this line of thinking see In Source Life’s excellent post on why he aggressively paid down his mortgage (which nudged me into writing this post as well. Cheers ISL!)

I *heart* Investing Individual may retort:

  • Long term stock market gains blow away current mortgage rates. I’m playing the long game!
  • Inflation is eating away at my principle owed – over 25-30 years this counts for a lot
  • Investing is more exciting 🙂
  • If you are in the US you can lock down the same low interest rate for 30 years (WTF!!! That’s so not fair! 🙁 )

For more thoughts on this see The Accumulator’s post on Why I’m not paying off my mortgage early

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: ,
22 Comments

introducing the george’s marvellous medicine method of cooking

Jul01
by TFS on July 1, 2015 at 7:36 am
Posted In: Frugal Food

georges marvellous medicine main

 

This post kinda follows on from my last one about changing your eating habits in that it was inspired by the same Frugalwoods recipe.

The thing is I don’t really like following recipes, I find that working out what works well for you via personal experimentation ends up (barring the odd mishap) with an end result far more interesting and unique compared to normal cooking. This could also apply to many other areas of life as well of course but it is perhaps easiest (and less dangerous) to apply in the kitchen! 🙂

 

GMM cooking

You’ll be glad to hear I’m not talking about genetically modified food here! No, I’m talking about the brilliant children’s book, George’s Marvellous Medicine* 1, written by Roald Dhal and quirkily illustrated by Quentin Blake

If you haven’t read it as a child or to you child then let me explain the key part of the storyline is the main protagonist George decides to replace his mean old Granny’s medicine with a concoction he makes himself. This concoction contains an esoteric mix of ingredients he finds laying around the house, deodorant, cleaning products, old engine oil, you name it, it goes in there. The rest of the story is then dedicated to describing the hilarity that ensues once Grandma drinks the medicine.

I remember my Mum reading this to me as wee laddie and it was one of my favourite stories, and it has obviously stuck with me to this day.

Clearly I’m not advocating everyone go out and try their own chemistry experiments with what they have laying around, but the general gist of chucking everything into a pot and seeing what comes out the other side is, in my opinion, an excellent method for cooking up exciting “new” dishes for yourself.

So I often find myself cooking using this method rather than following a recipe.

If you haven’t tried it yet you should give it a go, it’s really fun and you do end up feeling a bit like a mad scientist throwing all sorts of herbs, spices and other ingredients into the pot and watching it bubble away! And don’t forget to follow the Badass Cookery Class general tips in the kitchen at all times 😉

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

Notes:

  1. This page contains affiliate link(s) to amazon, each one is brought to your attention with the ‘*’ denotation. What is an affiliate link you ask?! OK well it’s fairly basic… If you click through and then subsequently buy anything (not just the originally linked product) on amazon I may receive a small fee, which will help to support theFIREstarter blog. The key thing is that it will not cost you anything extra to use these links, although don’t go clicking on them willy nilly just because it may help me! If you think you will find the product/service useful and do click through, then a sincere “thank you” for your support. ↩
└ Tags: , , , , ,
4 Comments

can you really change your eating habits this easily?

Jun29
by TFS on June 29, 2015 at 6:57 pm
Posted In: Frugal Food, Psychology
Shrrrrooooommmmsss!!!!

‘Shroom haters nightmare turned ‘shroom lovers heaven!

 

I swung by the frugalwoods the other day and saw their $0.39 per serving rice and beans recipe. It looks and sounds mouth wateringly tasty and so naturally it got me thinking about food, but not just as in putting some food into my belly right that second (as if I ever needed much help on that one!), but my my thoughts went off on a few random tangents.

 

force feeding

Have you ever tried to force yourself to like a certain food you have previously disliked for a long time, or am I the only weirdo out there who engages in this practice?

The Frugalwoods’ recipe included mushrooms you see, which I have previously hated since about the age of 5, so it got me thinking they maybe it’s time I harden the fuck up 1 and get back to liking them again.

Why miss out on eating this natural and healthy ingredient just because of some arbitrary change in my tiny irrational mind made me decide to dislike the taste and/or texture of those wonderful ‘shrooms one day?!

So I decided to give my previously tried and trusted 3 step method of overcoming a dislike of foodstuffs:

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

Notes:

  1. Thanks to Mr Zombie who put me onto that one on his letter post. Hilarious! It’s almost like a parody of MMM on steroids! ↩
└ Tags: , , ,
19 Comments
%d bloggers like this: