Epson Recycling stuff arrived in the post

Finally back to writing the blog, after what feels like a lifetime of sneezing and moaning and groaning. Things got so bad yesterday with the fever & temperature that I found myself in hospital (well the walk in centre) for an emergency appointment to find out what was kicking my ass. Apparently, after a pee test and various temperature measurements, it was decided that I’m suffering from a viral infection which cannot be treated directly. The order of the day is to stop myself overheating by keeping the layers of clothing off, and to take piles of paracetamol and ibuprofen to try and control the fever and aches. I must admit I feel a lot better than I did 24 hours ago.

In year without spending news, I must admit that I’ve been spending money on Medicines. These where excluded from the experiment for obvious reasons, however it has cost us a fortune in over the counter medicines. Between tissues, lemsip, painkillers, decongestants and various other drugs I’ve spent around £30 in a week. I can’t believe how much this has cost, but alas it is a vital expense.

The fact that I’ve been ill does mean that I’ve not had the opportunity to spend. I’ve realised a few potential problems with this experiment, such as how to relocate in July from St Helens to Dundee then ultimately down to Cornwall. I’m sure it can be done without consumer spending, and it will be fun finding out how I can cut corners and get things done.

Finally our epson cartridge recycling envelopes arrived in the post. We filled in the form online and Epson sent us out 4 self addressed postage paid recycle bags which will allow us to send our used cartridges back to epson for free recycling. This service was very quick, and its great to know that epson are taking this seriously and will, at cost to them, recycle our cartridges.

Well hopefully as I get better, I’ll have some more year without spending stories to write about. Keep checking back for daily updates. I might even run a tech-wtf twitter feed to keep people updated. Sound like a good idea?

Finally, congratulations to Barack Obama and the USA on the inauguration of President Obama yesterday. It really felt like we where watching history being made, and I watched the liver coverage of the whole event from early in the morning, right through to 6pm. What a momentous occasion.

Home Entertainment - The Key to saving money

Day 9 of they year without spending and the questions are coming in quick and fast. One of my friends Rachel, who is really interested in this whole project has asked tons of questions, and I’m glad she has because it is raising thoughts and concerns that I’ve yet to even consider.

For example Rachel raised the important question of Home Entertainment, more importantly my unquenchable thirst for movies. In my student days, and even whilst I was working, I was a pretty hardcore downloader. I got greedy with the whole thing to the extent that I would download anything and everything I could get my hands on. I estimate I spent weeks burning various CD’s and DVD’s, but when you can’t afford anything, free is a good price. Now I can’t say I’m proud of what I used to do, in fact looking back it was obscene, however what is done is done and we move forward. Nowadays I may download the odd TV programme because it airs in the USA before the UK, but thats more like watching an advance showing than stealing as technically it will be shown on my TV in the days following the download, so its more cheeky than wrong.

This brings us onto the subject of movies. The problem is, the year without spending includes digital media (cd-r’s, dvd-r’s etc). If I can’t burn it, then there is little point copying or downloading stuff to watch. This leaves me a few options however. Film4 and the various other channels on Freeview in the UK show tons of good movies. All I have to do on the 7 day programme guide is select the movies I want, and hit the record button on the PVR. This means I always have a ton of movies stored on the PVR which is ideal. I also found a 320GB IDE hard drive in Vicki’s old PC doing nothing, so I’m going to upgrade the 160GB drive already in the PVR to double the storage capacity, will post with the progress, I digress…

If not watching pre recorded Digital quality stuff on the PVR, I can choose to view old movies out of my substantial DVD collection, or indeed trade movies with friends to keep things fresh. We are also holding a Movie night every Thursday to which people bring the popcorn and drinks, and we supply the hospitality, warmth and of course a big ass TV. Depending on the numbers of people who turn up, this saves a fortune. What’s more we can pause the movie half way through to make tea and go to the toilet, now that beats any cinema. We aim to do this every thursday so over the course of the year, if you assume with snacks and a ticket the cinema costs £12 a head, we are saving around £2k a year on cinema visits between us all. Movie night is a nice calm social event and fun is had by all.

Now onto various other things besides TV. I’m also an avid Xbox 360 user. Regular readers of this blog will remember I cancelled the Xbox live subscription which was costing me around £60 a year, and was never used. With regards to games, i have an abundance of games. I’m one of these people who needed to buy the latest games on their release date (past tense). As such the current title I was playing was shelved in my Man Cupboard in favour of racking up achievement points in the latest title to hit the shelves. This means that my cupboard is chock full of half completed games (honestly around 70 titles, I know thats disgusting and I’m sorry in advance, the Xbox is my Achilles heal!). So the task for this year is to ignore the latest games (of course until a friend completes said latest release and sends it my way on loan) and concentrate on completing the library of titles already in my possession.

Finally books. I never used to be a book person. During my degree, I would always read a journal, or a website, or even a newspaper article (and even, heaven forbid, cite wikipedia, shameful!) but would only use a book as a last resort. Doing a Computing degree meant that as soon as the book hit the shelf on any given computing topic, it was out of date. This out of date material may have been suitable for some lecturers but not me.

I only really got back into reading in the summer after finishing my bachelors degree. For a time I was unemployed, and would spend hours in the park in Manchester, reading in the sun and waiting for Vicki to finish work. Those days feel like a long time ago, it feels like forever since it was warm enough to wear only a t shirt and read in the sun. Sorry I’m getting all gooey and romantic, perhaps a little too Jane Austen!

Anyway, this period really got me back into reading. At the time I loved the books by Jeremy Clarkson & James May. I’m not really one for novels, i like journalistic writing, real life stuff and text books.

During this next year I’m determined not to buy books. I’m heading down to St. Helens library this week to re-activate my youth Library membership, in the hope that I can find stuff in there which is relevant and not out of date. We also have an abundance of books on our bookshelves as Vicki is a hard core readist (I would say reader, but she is a little more hardcore than a reader, so a new word has been coined to describe her). I’m going to raid the bookshelves for inspiration. I already have my eye on the copy of George Orwell’s 1984, and may even give some of the Penguins Banned Books selection a go.

So there we have it. How to entertain yourself for a year without spending on new stuff. i think we all forget how privileged we are. I’m lay in bed typing this, with Vicki by my side enjoying a good book. I’m typing away on my iBook over my wireless network in a nice warm bed. This experiment in the few days I have been doing it has already made me feel slightly more humble, and very motivated. It’s almost as if now it would be harder to spend on stuff than to not spend. I’m in that zone of proving it can be done and proving I can do it, and the last time I got into that zone I got into £4k more debt and ended up with a Masters degree. Time to clear some debt and live a little more honestly.

Thanks for reading this entry, it has been quite an epic. Please feel free to comment at the bottom, your comments mean a lot.

One of my big worries for this year was running out of shoes. Seeing as though I’m a 25 year old guy, and I tend not to wear the type of shoes that can be easily repaied (I wear skate shoes as they are tough as old boots, but still look modern and young), so keeping my feet in shoes for the year was going to be a real headache. Repairing old shoes is out of the question, and sourcing cast offs from family and friends would be almost impossible as nobody I know is a size 10.

To quash this fear I decided to search the house for old pairs of trainers and similar footwear, and I’m ebarrased to say the problem is solved. I found no fewer than 6 extra pairs of trainers I’ve been hanging onto in various states of distress, from scuffed uppers to slightly worn soles. I reckon from the 6 pairs alone I could easily get a years worth of wear.

Amongst the footwear found was a brand new pair of Chuck Taylor Converse boots, an almost new pair of Walking boots, a few pairs of Osiris and DC’s and a really old pair of Osiris (too badly battered to wear or pass on so they have been trashed).

Now finding all these shoes has come as quite a relief, I really want to keep this year a spending free year, and shoes are kind of a necessity so I was dreading trying to source new footwear. Whilst I’m glad that I was able to source so many pairs of alternative footwear by simply  scouring the cupboards, I also feel quite embarrassed.

Now before everyone jumps on the hate wagon for my excess, I need to point out that this cache of shoes has been building up for many years. I, like most consumers, buy shoes when they are on sale, or when my old ones show the first signs of aging (or are too tatty to be socially acceptable!). This is the cornerstone of consumerism, by making it socially unacceptable to have worn out clothes, and older mobile phones, and slower computers, the corporations are able to pedal the same crap to us over and over again. The shoes are a prime example.

Take the Chuck Taylor boots. I bought these in New York years ago. They where very cheap and I’d wanted a pair in a size 10 for a long time. This was before they where a major fashion statement in the UK. I’d tried to get a pair in Manchester, London, Liverpool & Leeds without success. I got back to the UK and realised that I couldn’t wear them with my baggy jeans as the denim dragged on the ground, and since then they have been cast aside in a dark corner of the wardrobe. What a pathetic excuse!

So I now have a pile of shoes for 2009. I’ve cleaned up most of them to the extent they could be worn out to parties or nights out, and I bet I can get at least 2009 out of my current selection, if not right through to the end of 2010.

The lesson learned from this little escapade is that we all have a lot of stuff which is replaced, often without any reason. We all have a habit of clinging onto stuff that has been replaced because the original item was too good to throw away. How about we use the original item until it is no longer functional before ringing in a replacement? Or if we must replace an existing item which is still perfectly fine, we find a new owner for the old item instead of hoarding it away!

This project has taught me a hell of a lot so far, and I hope to learn more as I go on. I have received a lot of positive feedback from readers of this blog about my project, but have also come in for a lot of criticism. People saying things like ‘How can you do a project like this when you sell a product yourself?’.

Incase you didn’t know, My wife Vicki & I have a small craft business selling hand made badges. We make a modest living from doing this, which in no way matches what we earned when living and working in Manchester. Granted we sell a product, which in itself relies on Consuming, however, we sell a small hand made product in very small quantities which keeps a roof over our heads and food on our plates. We have NO hobbies which require money (with the exception of our internet connection) and we live a very simple life. Our business is very low key with only ourselves to support, and as such is no different than say basket weaving or knitting. We carefully produce our own products by hand and sell them on the internet. We have a very low impact, don’t commute to work, and are not employed by one of the many huge corporations which are taking over the planet.

Another criticism faced so far is why am I doing this whole year without spending thing. Is it because I want to take the moral high ground? Is it that I want to preach to those nasty consumers about the error of their ways? – The fact of the matter is, when I started this project the only thing that motivated me was saving money and stopping the frivolous spending. I didn’t mean to influence anybody nor did I mean to make consumerism out to be the bad guy. Our economy is based on Consumerism, and if we where all to stop spending it would be catastrophic for the economy. This experiment is a personal thing and is a way of testing myself to see if I can go without spending for a year.

The fact that so many people have emailed me to say I have inspired them to look at what they spend and cut back is brilliant. If I can inspire even one person to try this, and feel the personal benefits of such an experiment that would be excellent. Also if people want to read the blog without carrying out the experiment or implementing anything I say that is also great, remember this is an experiment I am carrying out and one in which you are all welcome to join in or choose not to be a part of.

Right I think that is enough of a rant for today. I just had to get it of my chest as for every 10 nice emails and comments I get, I always get one sarcastic, malicious or pessimistic email.

If you are joining in, in a small way or in full, please feel free to leave comments on these entries.

My box of Recycled Packaging

Well it’s day 5 of my ‘year without spending’ and I’m already surprised how liberated I feel. I received a newsletter from Aria this morning, with whom I have spent many thousands with in the past. In said newsletter was all the indispensable kit that I surely needed, a spanking new 24″ monitor along with a 500GB External Drive, a 16GB flash drive for pennies and all the other shiny gadgets which I drool over every time the newsletter lands in my Inbox.

But today for the first time, instead of drooling and sweating and wondering how I could afford all the shiny things on the screen, I looked at the email and thought ‘all nice but I’m not spending’, and promptly deleted the email. This felt very liberating and freed up a lot of time this morning for getting stuff done. I paid my taxes, paid my credit card bills (one of the major drivers for this experiment), and carried out various other house keeping tasks instead of pondering what to buy, how to fund it and how to tell Vicki that I absolutely NEED it.

We also had a fairly big order to send out today. This thing about Consumerism has been floating around in my head for a while, and the fact that I tend to buy what I need online instead of in the city, means I made a concious decision months ago to save packaging that goods arrived in (most notably bubble wrap and jiffy bags). This means that instead of going and paying 60p-£1 on a jiffy bag to post an order, I can simply stick a label over the old address and reuse the jiffy bag. I now have a collection of recycled jiffy’s for this very purpose and I recommend everyone do the same. Not only do you save money on buying new jiffy bags, but you always have a selection of various size bags to hand when required, Priceless! And our big order went out in a nice USED Jiffy bag.

The Jiffy bags are also coming in handy for eBay. As anyone who knows me will be the first to tell you, I’m a gadget & Technology geek. If my monitor is 17″ I NEED a 19″, then a 24″. If I have a terrabyte of storage, I NEED two or three terrabytes. This obsession over the years has managed to fill my man cupboard (that place where you keep your wires and batteries and other useless crap instead of giving it away/selling it/throwing it away) to the brink of bursting, and as such a clear out was in order. This has led to an obsession for selling old stuff rather than hoarding new stuff, and it feels great. So far I have sold off various PCI cards of indeterminate usage, a dehumidifier, a lawnmower, various wires and even a box full of old (and I mean really old, Pentium and Pentium 2 processors, old hard drives, ISA cards etc) computer components. Not only does this free up vital space in the man cupboard, but it allows me to know exactly what I have and where I store it, and the extra money is going towards paying off my credit cards. Everyone’s a winner!

So to distract myself from not buying, I am selling and sorting, and saving Jiffy Bags – Gosh do I sound like the saddest 25 year old on the planet? Saving Jiffy Bags!

But seriously, the experiment is going well, I’m enjoying not having to worry about how and when I will buy a new iMac or pay for that flickr pro account. Living honestly and simply again, it feels very liberating and I advise you all give it a go.

I know I have a mini tripod somewhere (perhaps in the attic). I will dig it out and start uploading video entries shortly.

Ebay - Sell your crap and pay off some debt!

Sorry Richard, I Like Virgin but needs must, and I must not SPEND

Well I’m into day 4 of my ‘year without spending’ and I’m yet to feel even the slightest pinch (well OK I admit I was tempted by a 2GB Flash Drive for 99p from Aria, and a 500GB External HD from Tesco, but I managed to resist). So today two major challenges, one was to downgrade my Virgin Media cable package, and the other one was to go grocery shopping without spending any more money than necessary.

Firstly, the Virgin Media issue. Since moving into our new house (and back into a cable area, as we have lived in a nature conservation area of Manchester for 6 years with no cable, and no gas for that matter) we have been enjoying the complete Cable package from Virgin. This includes the XXL TV Package with Movies and sport, plus 20meg broadband and unlimited telephone calls for a fixed fee. The bill was coming in at around £95 a month after I haggled some discount off Virgin when we moved in back in July. Now with the discount, the TV package was great, with the exception that we have taken to sitting in front of the V-Box all night. This isn’t healthy and it got to the stage where we looked for crap to watch on the TV.

For years we have been Freeview users, being early adopters and even having a great PVR box, however it was all ditched for the shiny V-box and subscription. So after months of vegging in front of the TV, and paying a lot for the privilege, I have finally cancelled the subscription. That’s right, I called virgin and cancelled our TV. No more Sky Sports, no more Sky Movies, no more on demand choice content and music videos, and it feels great. I have dug out our freeview PVR box and ditched the V-box. We can now watch a range of good TV, and if there is nothing on we can switch it off, or watch a pre recorded programme we actually have an interest in. Instead of sitting through night after night of Dog the bounty hunter and Cribs, we can watch decent TV or none at all.

I also considered downgrading the Broadband and Telephone package, but we really do benefit from the free call allowance, and I do hammer thr broadband daily so after haggling a good discount (£30 a month for XL 20meg broadband and XL telephone with free calls) I am now £65 a month better off, and what’s more we both have more free time in an evening!

The selection of Freeview channels and content in the UK is pretty damn good, and the fact that I can pause and rewind programmes (yes like Sky+ and V+) without paying any subscription fees.

Secondly, Asda. Thanks to the great advice by Rebecca Ash in her book The Spend Less Handbook, we armed ourselves with a list and refused to deviate from said list, only buying what was planned before we left the house. Surprisingly shopping this way saved us a lot of time and stress in the supermarket. We seemed to be in and out in no time, with everything we needed, and actually ended up spending in moderation for a change. That would be my top tip for saving on Groceries and ensuring you don’t splurge on the BOGOF offers and other clever marketing scams, write a list!

A tough year without spending? Lets see!

Well I feel inspired. After reading a few books & articles on the subject, not to mention podcasts, I have decided to spend 2009 without spending. I know it will be a tough year, but the groundwork is already in place. 

Coming from an academic background of first completing my degree and then my Masters, I have become familiar with frugal living. My salary for 18 months in between made me a lot of money which I wasn’t used to, but alas we live to our means and spend it anyway. I can’t figure out what the money went on whilst I was working full time, but it all went and I didn’t pay off much student debt!

Now we work from home and earn enough from that, it seems like the perfect time to try this experiment. I’m not tied to paying for commuting, parking, lunch, work nights out and all the other trappings associated with the 9-5 (9-6) city job. 

Over the past few months since Vicki left work and I finished the Masters, we have been living pretty modestly. At the moment our entertainment consists of watching movies at home and making our own popcorn, attending the local pub quiz once a fortnight and generally taking life a lot more slowly.

So what is included in the year without spending, and what is excluded? Well obviously food & drink is excluded, as is accommodation. Basic utilities such as gas, electricity and water as well as council tax will have to be excluded, and debt repayments (just can’t stop paying those). Also business costs such as jiffy bags, hosting and materials, along with the business mobile have to stay (although the business mobile is a PAYG iPhone, so requires little upkeep).

Things that I will cut back on are landline and “extra” utilities such as Cable TV. Also spending on stuff such as clothes, gadgets & gizmos, and general crap that we all buy will have to go. Books will have to be traded on Read it Swap It, or borrowed from friends & relatives. Xbox 360 games will have to be begged, borrowed and stolen (not literally stolen), and that Xbox Live subscription I never use will have to go. Also I’m purging a lot of clutter from around the house & office on eBay, so check them out in my right hand sidebar –>

I will try and post a daily update to my anti consumerism year on this blog, so keep checking back for all the gossip on my Year without spending.