Comment on Anon saves up
tux7350@lemmy.world 5 days agoI’d love to but all the logistics are overwhelming for me. What made your sabbatical so good? Was it easy to finance?
Comment on Anon saves up
tux7350@lemmy.world 5 days agoI’d love to but all the logistics are overwhelming for me. What made your sabbatical so good? Was it easy to finance?
Skullgrid@lemmy.world 5 days ago
I mean… yes and no? I earned about £35k+ per annum between between 2013 ish and 2017 ish, and didn’t spend much money on hobbies and such and being frugal. So I was saving money without trying that hard, and figured that about £16k was enough to take a year out to try to learn spanish and slightly change careers, if I spent about £1k a month.
The complete freedom, living on my own, being able to work on daily and long term goals. I lived in a town that was near london, so it was (kinda) cheaper, walkable, 1 h away from london so I could visit from time to time, and had a climbing center nearby.
I took the time to get regular exercise, work on my mental health, learn spanish and just live at my own pace. I even travelled a little (I had a holiday I booked in 2017 for 2018 that I was going on anyway to visit LATAM, and Behold The Arctopus was playing live gigs again for the first time in 5 years, and obviously they were not coming to europe, so I went to NY for like 5ish days (3 days + 1 night + 1 morning).
What logicistics caused you issues? I stayed in the same place I was in while I was working, and all I had to do was quit my job. There’s not much to do… oh. You must be from the US? Healthcare? Good luck with that shit.
BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I have questions. How were you able to live for a year on 16K? Even if we disregard healthcare, that wouldn’t even cover my mortgage. Let alone food, or especially travel and fun. You Were able to afford a phone? Utilities? Did you have any extras, like streaming services? I’m guessing you have the luxury of public transportation, so I can understand no car payments or gas and maintenance costs.
Granted, I do live in the US. But I can’t imagine everything is that much more expensive here. £16K is like, $20K right now, I’d live for maybe 2 months on that.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Let’s see…
16k is about 1,300 a month. I paid about 700 for rent, and 2018 was before the current inflation wave, so 1,698.95 in today’s pound sterling, leaving me with about 600 a month
I was on calorie restrictions as part of my “get/stay in shape” , and usually ate pasta, rice, eggs and protein powder, with vegetables whenever , small amounts of cheese and condiments/hot sauce. My usual goal for food budget was £10 a day.
Other expenditures were internet, electric, water and climbing gym membership. That’s it. I think I was buying CBD vapes at the time for my anxiety as well, but that was a more occasional expense. I can’t remember how much those things were, maybe 40 for internet? I can’t remember my mobile phone plan.
No car, no subscriptions, or other recurring costs. NHS for healthcare.
You spend 10k a month?? I currently earn somewhere between 4-5K dollars , what do you spend that money on?
BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I was thinking wrong. I was going off my salary rather than my take home. After taxes, health insurance, and retirement, it’s about $6k.
$1360 for my mortgage, which is really quite good as it’s only 3.25%. Im pretty stuck in my house with current interest rates. $516 for one of my cars. $343 for one of my watches. About $300-400 for electricity in the summer, $80 for natural gas. $368 for car insurance. $168 for phones. $87 for internet. And $309 on a loan for some renovations. $30 planned parenthood donation. Typically about $40/week for gas.
Amazon prime, Disney+, Spotify, Netflix, Paramount+. Idk what else. I guess the rest is just groceries, eating out, and hobbies.
That’s just the stuff I pay from my income, my wife and I never got joint bank accounts. She takes home about 3k, and she pays for our other car, which is $327, her student loan, which is $300, and childcare which is $295/week. Plus she puts money in the savings account.
This discussion is making me think about the number of subscriptions I have, and the amount of expendable income I waste.