5 frugal things about my trip to Budapest

Posted on July 13, 2017 by luxuriouslythrifty Standard 3

I’ve been buzzing this week about my 8 day long holiday – the longest time off I’ve had since last November – which I started in Budapest last weekend. I have no idea what I was expecting of Budapest but I didn’t expect it to be quite so ~~modern~~, ~~western European~~, I don’t know. It seemed rather London-y. Maybe all of Europe is similar. It’s a city that’s been on my must-see list for years but I never quite got round to it until now and boy, was it worth the wait?!

Stunning Vajdahunyad castle within the City park

Frugal half year review | Need to step on the gas

Posted on July 11, 2017 by luxuriouslythrifty Standard 5

I know I only just reviewed June but while I was at it, I remembered that reviewing June meant that I was halfway through 2017. At the start of the year, I wrote down several goals (2017: The year of the saver) that can be summarised within 4 categories

Financial – including things like maxing out my baby emergency fund, supporting family and being able to invest properly in the stock markets by the end of the year
Health – Change lifestyle gradually and permanently so that I never have to make another weight-related New Year’s resolution. Sleep more.
Professional – make money using 9-5 skills, learn new skill, become go-to person at work for something.
De-clutter – Intentional ownership. Sell, donate, or throw away stuff that doesn’t provide joy

June spending update | 50%+ savings rate with a caveat!

Posted on July 9, 2017 by luxuriouslythrifty Standard Reply

I know, I know. We’re nearly a third of the way through July and I’ve only just got round to figuring out how much I spent in June. This should have been a half-year review too but I’m doing this at an airport because I was too cheap to pay for a night at an Airbnb following a post-midnight arrival. I don’t know how terrible this decision will prove to be but although sleeping on airport benches is proving not to be my thing, it turns out that early morning calculation isn’t either!

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Moving for the somewhat frugal

Posted on June 20, 2017 by luxuriouslythrifty Standard Reply

Moving used to be a super stressful event for me financially. Scraping together a month’s rent in advance as well as a 6 week deposit has always been challenging. This time round, I’ve not only got my rent and 6 week deposit ready, I have also got enough cash lying around to cover (one of) my housemate’s deposit which will then be returned to me via the tenancy deposit scheme where we’ve got the deposit for our current place. That’s a total of nearly £3 000 and I haven’t touched any of my proper savings accounts.

I’m going to miss a private garden but I’m not going to miss maintaining it

Frugal fails: 2015 housing edition

Posted on June 12, 2017 by luxuriouslythrifty Standard Reply

This spell of my life isn’t the first time that I’ve tried to cut back on my spending. I’ve been in tons of debt since 2010 and made various attempts at sorting out my lavish spending from 2011 till 2016. Since I didn’t know that my day-to-day spending was my biggest issue, I tried to do the sensible thing and made an effort at reducing my fixed spending – rent and transport.

In 2012, I moved out of my £1200* room in a 2-bed Canary Wharf house that I lived in mostly alone, to share a 4-bed house with some mates near Turnpike lane. This saved me £500 a month in rent and bills.
In 2013, I let my girlfriend move in with me. She paid me £250 a month for her share of the rent and bills. She was also a keen cyclist so I started cycling about 80% of the time, saving a total of around £300 a month on rent, bills and transport for a few months.
In 2015, I made some radical (at the time) changes. I moved out of London into the cheapest place I could find for £400 a month including bills. It was also 3 miles / a 15 minute bus ride / an hour’s walk to work. I was certain this would be the move that allowed me to kill debt fast. IT ALL WENT SO WRONG!

5 things I did to keep my Paris trip frugal

Posted on June 6, 2017 by luxuriouslythrifty Standard 6

One of the highlights of my year is my trip to Paris with my football team. We take part in a weekend-long tournament that usually involves a lot of singing, dancing, drinking, playing football and generally having a blast. I suppose this weekend could rightly be compared to Spring break, a hen/stag do, or other such lads/ladies on tour situation. Last year, my Paris trip was the straw before the straw that broke the camel’s back. I somehow managed to spend three or four hundred pounds more than I planned to and it had the most disastrous impact on my financial situation.

View from Hotel de Ville

Early views for my 5.40am train

The fanciest registration venue ever for a football tournament

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May spending update | Pretty ‘spendy’ with a dash of frugal

Posted on June 1, 2017 by luxuriouslythrifty Standard Reply

I was super late for and had a pretty large suitcase that meant that walking in the 20 minutes it would take to wait for the bus was not an option. I thus decided to take an Uber. This will be the third Uber entry in my June spending tracker (since my months run from payslip to payslip). May was rather spendy – relative to my aspirational spending plan although it’s a lot better than it was a year ago. Therein lies the problem. I’m still being kind to myself because compared to the hot mess that I was a year ago, my spending looks good.

The frugal habits of my happy friends

Posted on May 22, 2017 by luxuriouslythrifty Standard 1

fullsizerender-11 I have a diverse set of friends. Earlier in my career as a consultant software engineer, I mostly hung out with fellow “professionals”. My friends were doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, bankers or consultants too. These friends visited the latest restaurants, travelled on British Airways, took first class trains, and stayed at the Marriott or Hilton. I joined in and adopted this lifestyle even though I had no business living that way. We went to paid exhibitions at galleries and museums, cooked Ottolenghi recipes with exotic and expensive ingredients, bought designer clothes, worked out at expensive gyms and didn’t think much about spending £12.50 on a cocktail on a night out.

I’m not doing as badly as I think

Posted on May 17, 2017 by luxuriouslythrifty Standard Reply

I set a few goals at the start of the year and felt like I’ve not been on track for most of them. I’m a lot chubbier than is healthy or optimum, since I like to take part in a lot of sport where heft is cumbersome. I’m not eating as well as I’d like. I neither bring my own lunches in everyday nor make choices that include a high percentage of fruits, vegetables and proteins like I think I should. I’m not reading very much. I’m not spending enough time on the things that I think that I should – creating a professional brand and presence on the interwebs, learning new skills or improving the ones I want to and networking are my top goals in this aspect of my life. Continue reading

Luxuriously thrifty work

Posted on May 6, 2017 by luxuriouslythrifty Standard Reply

I like a good time. I like lush surroundings. Jet-setting. I like the flexibility of being able to change my train or plane tickets. Personal space. Comfort. Cool sheets. Temperature-controlled environments. I like fresh food. In-season produce. Fair-trade and organic food. I like durable clothes. Expensive shoes. The latest gadgets. Wonderful experiences. Unforgettable memories. Instagram-worthy photos. I love all of this but the thing is, I can’t afford it all. Continue reading

Diary of a reforming spendthrift

A spendthrift's journey to becoming thrifty

Author Archives: luxuriouslythrifty