6 months before and after.

A before and after.  It's me aged 38. Diet was normal . All workouts done In the house or in the back garden. Totally free of charge.

I'm happy with the results. Now for the elusive six pack. Step up with the diet.

Personal growth and saving money through experience

Having an experience in Norway, May 2017 Total cost £300. Reward-Bonding, stories, experiences.

Buying shit wont make you happy. What a revelation. I bet your glad you came now. I have realized over the years that experiences far out weigh stuff in terms of perceived reward. The best times of your life are very often free or very cheap!

I am into the outdoors in a big way and have met many friends through this pastime. One of my best memories of time in the mountains was when I was 18 and spent a few nights camping in the Mournes area of Ireland. My kit on this occasion was completely borrowed down to the boots. I think the only thing I actually owned was my pants and socks but in truth these may have been my older brothers pants and socks. So technically without the good will of friends and family I would have had to hike naked there by terrifying local sheep. What a great experience. I still talk about it today over 20 years later and even bore my kids with my tales of woe.

Since then I have fallen afoul of the shiny kit trap many times and spent a small fortune on the latest must have tent, waterproof jacket or boots. Now i have gone full circle and keep things very simple.

Having the latest kit is nice but what I have noticed is that a set of perfect gear stops a lot of good/ memorable experiences happening. Safety is one thing but a bit of improvisation never hurt anyone.

Kit insulates you from experience. Its a fact.

As a person who loves traditional skills like shelter building, hunting, foraging I notice that different environment throw up difference challenges. Well this is only the case if you leave stuff behind and pack light. A trip to the mountains, moors or coast can be a vastly different thing. But if you have a tent , sleeping bag and lots of protective gear then all of these places become just pictures. no adaption is required. You rob yourself of valuable experiences.

I once met a team of 4 guys at the top of Ben Nevis in February. These 4 guys were working their way through all of the Munros in Scotland (over 1000m in height) of which  there are 250+. I was amazed at their achievement, young age and lack of top of the range gear. In fact they had a collection of borrowed, old and cheap equipment which snobs would say is not good enough for the type of mountaineering they were doing. Any yet they were doing it and were having a whale of a time! I still admire thoses guys to this day and often think of them when my shiny gear brain kicks in trying to convince my sensible brain we need new boots or waterproof hats.

The same goes for DIY projects. Paying somebody is easy to do, though expensive. There are many jobs which can be done easily by somebody with no skill but a little time.

Enrich your life and save money by simply trying stuff and not always taking the easy/ commercial way.

Saving money with DIY Car maintenance

Treeboy here.

My wife has bought a new car, well new to her, its a 2012 Seat Ibiza ecomotive. Does 80 miles per gallon of diesel and is £0 road tax. Unfortunately she choose to buy now and not save by getting the car on fiance. The price of the finance is offset a bit by the fuel and tax savings but it is still an extra bill. Due to our location she requires a car to get to work and ferry our brood around to various children's parties, which destroy the soul, etc.

The old car has to now go. However there is a slight problem. The oil light on the dash board goes on at random times. Now the oil level has been checked and the problem has been identified as a faulty oil pressure sensor at the front of the engine. Probably cost about £80 to fix at the mechanic.

I decided after some google research to do the job myself. The oil pressure sensor is located at the front of the engine in her car and it took about 55 seconds to replace!!! What a saving.

I also set about replacing a blown bulb in here dashboard as you could not read the odometer and mileage, making the car hard to sell.

Who will buy a car where the oil light flicks on and off and you cant see the mileage? Maybe somebody might but they will give you bugger all for it.

Then when i got the bulb out I went to get a replacement and nobody in any of the car part shops had ever seen one! I had to go to the dealer and pay £3 for the bulb which was a special LED apparently.

Rebuilt the dash and of course had 2 screws left over. I cannot figure out where they belong but everything seems secure so to hell with them.

I reckon  I have saved about £100 in parts and labor doing it myself.

Trees are teaching me Finance....

I spend a lot of time among the trees. It can be quite meditative.

Finally gave up after 100 years of trying!

Quietly thinking about money in a local park.  All around me stood tall trees of various species. I started to see a lesson right before me . Something about the trees called to my inner nature child.

1. Trees have multiple roots, leaves and branches. Conventional wisdom says that to have one source of income is a weakness. What happens if that single source of income is lost and you have lots of bills to pay? Bedlam, that is  what.
Imagine if trees had one big leaf to catch light and make energy. What happens if the leaf is removed, no more sugar. Instead they have thousands, all adding a little bit passively. 

Lesson? Have multiple income streams makes you harder to kill.

2. Trees keeping going even when things look bleak. They set seed and attempt to grow on cliff faces, and often succeed. 

Lesson?  Work with what you have and make the most of it. Be a force of nature that is difficult to stop. Make small increments of growth forward and outward .

3. Trees grow quickly at the start and then slow down.

 Lesson? Invest for high gains when young and then once established make slow and steady growth just like the rings of a tree.

4. Trees form symbiotic relationships with fungi increasing their range and nutrient gathering capabilities.

Lesson? Don't be a loner. Learn and gather what resources you can from people who have access to stiff you don't.  Give and you shall receive.

5. Trees takes chances in life. The perfect shape for a tree from a strength point of view is a cone of solid wood covered in leaves. It would be hard to blow over. However small and stable misses out on lots of light opportunities. 

Lesson? Take chances now and again. Being safe all the time is boring.

6. Trees don't heal they seal. When a tree is wounded it closes off the wound and seals it.

Lesson? Seal off problems and move on. Don't put to much effort into worrying about wounds in your finances.  Seal the leaks and move on to making more income leaves.