Two weeks ago I did an antibodies test. I was selected at random from the list of my GP’s patients and in a couple of days I had the test kit home.
I was so happy, dreaming how that drop of blood would confirm that I had the virus, just not the symptoms – because why not – and that I would be able to resume a life more close to what it was 3 months ago. You know, like meeting more friends and going on the holiday we had booked for August.
Guess what, the test was negative. 10 minutes and a drop of blood that brought me right back down to the normality of a pandemic.
That result really threw me – after the easing of lockdown a few weeks ago life hasn’t felt much different, a slight variation of a bad situation. Work is what it is at present, the 10% pay rise I was promised for this month turned into a 20% pay cut that was confirmed to last ‘sometime’, everyone is irritable, and generally not being in full control of our own lives… sucks.
Savings
Initially I looked at ways of saving more and earning more through side income to balance the salary decrease.
To my surprise my spending hasn’t changed massively since lockdown because I already optimised it so well in the last few years that only the small ticket items are left, which don’t move the needle too much. No nursery for two months and 6 months of mortgage holiday are offset but both our 20% cuts, so the small stuff remained. Two things are noticeable:
- I moved to giffgaff and now I pay only £8 / month instead of approx. £18. The reason It doesn’t seem like much is that it’s only £8 each month, but even that translates into nearly £100 a year. To borrow Tesco’s catch phrase: every little helps.
Not only that, I have now entered the giffgaff fan club. Switching was as easy as eating a gelato, and after a month they even emailed me to say that, based on my data usage, I can downgrade my plan and pay them £2 less! Who does that?? (Answer: giffgaff.) So if you fancy joining the club too, you can use this link and get another £5 on top courtesy of Money for the Modern Girl 😉
Why I didn’t do it before I have no idea, but I am becoming better at making peace with the past, as Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robins taught us.
- As we were spending more time at home, in our garden and in parks in our vicinity, and given all coffee places were closed, we actually ended up spending less at weekends. Crazy, right? I am actually at the point where now I am genuinely annoyed to spend money on coffees and cakes and what not that we were too lazy to pack before leaving… As if now for the first time I actually see the price tag of these small things. And my husband is also paying attention 😉
Side income
On the side gig front I gave myself permission to experiment:
- A good friend of mine suggested I try out playing casino online via Team Casino. I tried it, it’s pretty foolproof as they give you clear instructions so you make money, but I didn’t fall in love with it. With work, a kiddo and a pandemic all around me, I didn’t feel I had the bandwidth to continue it seriously. So now I only play the free daily and monthly games – a few minutes of non-brainy relaxation a day for a good few pounds a month. That does it for me, and maybe one day I’ll write some more about it. My husband is not convinced, it’s addictive he says. Well, if I put in my hard earned money, I will not squander it because I know that if I do I’ll have X more hours / days to work just to recoup it.
- Zipzero is still my favourite – you can upload a picture of your shopping receipts and they give you some cash back toward a utility bill. It’s not a lot but frankly it’s free money for not changing my lifestyle at all. Earnings have gone down since lockdown 1) because they reduced the cash back from 1% to 0.5%, and 2) because I don’t have any more expenses from mine and my husband’s work that I can upload 🙁
- I tried a few survey sites and settled with my favourite one: Prolific. They run academic research surveys that are actually interesting! With a good range of topics, my brain is always engaged. I get a fair amount in German, but English one are also frequent and in the end they pick you based on your profile. The trick is to leave the tab open when I am working (especially now that I am remote) so I can see the (1) pop up in the tab when a new survey is available. Easy peasy.
- Last but frankly the most interesting – I have started on a new project with a friend of mine. I can’t tell you much about it yet, but it has the potential of becoming a pretty cool startup. It’s a new field to me, which is interesting, and the two of us make a good team. We are starting to build this thing out and I am genuinely excited – yet I hesitate to write about it as there is one hurdle that is kinda out of our control… In summary, maybe it’ll be huge, maybe it won’t. But it will be an interesting project for sure.
Learning
I’ve been attending a few FIRE meetups, even one that is normally held in Manchester – hurray for Zoom! They are even more fabulous during lockdown, an easy way to keep in touch with the community and engage in conversations most others would not be interested in.
I learnt that buying garages to rent them out is a thing, I discussed financial independence books, and I got to talk to so many interesting and genuinely nice people. Can’t wait for the next one next week, organised by my friends Caroline and Anders!
I’ve also been reading more (not a hard feat for a bookworm like). My latest two reads were The Millionaire Teacher (recommended during the Manchester meetup) and Design Your Life (recommended by Caroline). Both excellent books. In line are two more books I borrowed from my scientist FIRE friend.
And through another friend again I got free access for a year to Masterclass – let’s see what I will learn from the likes of Serena Williams and Sara Blakely, the Spanx founder.
What would you recommend I read or learn next?
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