Comment on Anon saves up
tux7350@lemmy.world 10 months 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 10 months 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 10 months 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 10 months 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 10 months 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 10 months 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.