Life Update
Howdy folks! Hope all is well and life is kicking on?
This post is unfortunately a little late on my end! I’ve been on holiday down to the south of Spain on a cruise for 2 weeks. Visited lots of lovely places such as Catagena, Malaga, Cadiz, Seville and even over to Gibraltar (Mini England essentially!).
All very well received and glad to escape the computer screen. During the time away I’ve soon realised that I need to stop pushing myself so hard at work and to take a step back / relax a little to ensure that I don’t keep burning out. It was only until about the 6th day into my holiday I realised work hadn’t even crossed my mind, it only just dawned on me that ultimately ‘things’ can wait and everyone needs that escape.
Continued Life Updates
March as per all of the other months just zoomed on by – I have had numerous windows updated and changed in the house to help out with retaining more heat than usual. We currently have timber based windows, though even though they look great and give off a real traditional vibe, our ones are completely useless and retaining heat. So we had a whole bunch of windows changed in the Living Room, Lounge, Kitchen and Dining Room and wow! What a difference it makes! We’ve got for a slightly ‘off white’ colour (light cream) and double glazed. Here’s a quick shot of out bay window in the lounge (the difference is just incredible, no draft at all).
COVID – Yikes!
On the last day of the holiday driving back I noticed that dreaded scratchy feeling in the back of my throat. Unfortunately, it was the big C as confirmed by a lateral flow test the moment I got back. Have not had COVID for the last 2.5 years and finally it managed to get me. Fortunately I didn’t suffer too badly from it – a pretty bad headache and a few fevers at night, but certainly nothing serious – almost like a cold / flu – In-fact I’ve had hangovers much worse than lasted for 4 days! I’m quite fortunate and feel lucky to have managed to get through it unscathed, and praise the vaccines and the science gone in behind it all to protect us.
Financial Update | March 2022
So how have those financials been looking for the month?
Income | £8,076
Income has continued to relatively stable and averaging around £8,000 per month.
Expenses | £3,081
Still a little higher than what I’m used to, but this is now including a few additional costs that we’ve seen price rises in. For example, the heating / energy bills we have definitely noticed an increase in – I would say around £100 per month more now for us on average. This means that I’m going to have to save even more now to ensure that my FI number gives us a sufficient buffer to continue to go along with these price hikes and increases. Furthermore, the windows and the ends of a tax bill also contributed to this as well.
Savings | £5,275
Equalling a savings rate of 65% not too shabby! In fact it’s the first time in 2022 that I’ve actually managed to achieve a 60%+ savings rate! I wonder if just the general pressure, inflation is ultimately having a bit of a squeeze now on the consumer? It certainly feels like it! Shopping in particularly we’ve noticed an increase of costs of around £20 per week (though admittedly we do buy organic which is generally a little more expensive).
Investment Growth | £12,229
Lovely jubly! That almost makes up for the -£12,000 and -£6,000 that we saw in January and February 2022, but still ‘down’ overall for the year. Of course there is a lot going on in the world and I imagine there’s still yet dread and bad news to come.
Investment Graph
Ending
In other news we are definitely going ahead with the garden office – I’ve got some ground works happening in the garden over the next few weeks in April and ultimately we’re looking to have the garden office begin to be installed in July / August – anticipated build time will be 3-4 weeks as we’re told and we are currently awaiting final drawings of this!
Onwards and upwards folks – hope all is well, saving hard, continuing to carry on as per usual!
