Thoughts and reflections form the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.
Progress on my goals
Boat plan
I write this having just bypassed the offending parts of the fresh water system and cut out the perished expansion water tanks.
We’re now back aboard!
While we appreciated the central heating and easily accessible shower situation, returning temporarily to the basement room reminded us that yes, we really do like living aboard.
So we’ll progress with living on the boat and trying to get the dog to join us.
Taking my own lunches to work
Two days. That’s all I achieved last week.
The problem with living in someone else’s house – especially when they’re a pensioner, and therefore have no grasp of scheduled time anymore – is that they tend to eat your convenient sandwich fillings midweek and think it’s not a big deal.
Which, to be fair, it wouldn’t be. Not really. At least, not if I was told about it when I had time to run to the shop.
This isn’t a mainland problem in the era of 24-hour Tesco, but in the Channel Islands you’re doing well to find a shop that’s open after 1900hrs on a weekday.
Now that we’ve sorted the water and returned to the floating home, things have gotten a lot easier.
Distractions and detours
Starlink
We splashed out on Starlink, and it should arrive by the weekend. Well, maybe. Channel Islands permitting.
While it’s a pricey £450 for the dish and £85 per month (we’re on a roaming plan), we tried tethering off of 4G and found that Channel Islands telecoms companies cut you off from 4G really early on.
“Unlimited 4G” here is a lie.
So, we’re going with Starlink for the boat’s internet, and I’m probably going to switch my mobile to pay-as-you-go.
Non-FIRE goals
My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)
We’re doing The Fool On The Hill by The Beatles this week, with fingerpicking.
Actually, that’s not quite true. That’s the homework, but I think I’m just throwing knuckles at strings and praying.
Finger picking is OK, but I haven’t done much of it. I’m also not familiar with the song/have never listened to the song before, so I don’t really know what I’m hoping to achieve.
Eh, not all training is fun. Gotta do the exercises.
Fitness
Last week without a real commute wasn’t great for fitness.
However, I ran to work on Monday and now I have an upgrade:
We sorted out bike covers and I have my bike at the boat to commute on.
Actually, I can’t take credit. Lady SierraWhiskyMike sorted the covers out. It’s still a cool upgrade though!
Running in was pretty cool, but I like the freedom of being able to cycle out and back. I’m not fit enough anymore to be running each way five times per week and getting the bus home wasn’t ideal for maximising my time.
So the plan is to get a good 40+ miles of cycling each week.
It isn’t God Tier fitness, but it should stave off the threatened waistline expansion. It’s a pretty good base level to build on.
Final thoughts
Back on track and back in the game.
Sorting out a faster but still low-cost mode of transport is a big win. Long-time readers will remember that I’ve had the bike since my Uber Eats side hustle back in the first year of the FI Campaign.
It’s not like cycling is a new thing for me, but coming back to old habits feels like making the most of the skills I learned in the early days when I didn’t earn much of a surplus and had to get creative.
This got me thinking: what else have I learned from the start of the FI Campaign that I could pick back up and repurpose for my current phase?
I’ll consider it some more and see what I can come up with.
My financial independence campaign continues!
