#16: How to live on less and still thrive after an income reduction

There have been two, self-imposed, periods in my working life in the past decade when our household income has dropped by about 50% overnight. Both have been associated with significant life choices and change of work direction, moving from secure jobs to starting something new. The first period was when we founded Dementia Adventure back in 2009 and the second was relocating to North East Scotland last year. The first time was when our kids were tiny, this time, not so much.

Maybe you have chosen to start up a social enterprise or have become self-employed in the last year? Maybe you have seen your wages reduced or even wiped out due to the current virus-crisis? The following tips are all things I have tried following a significant drop in income and are aimed at supporting you to live on less, still thrive and stay well.

1. Back-up: Identify who or what is your back-up? Knowing that someone or something is your back-up is often enough to get through your difficult times. Read my previous blog post on Back-Up and identify someone in your life and ask them - will you be my back-up?
2. No food: Well not completely of course, but there is some great evidence associated with intermittent fasting, longevity and physical inflammation reduction. It also helps with food cost reduction - if you’re fasting 2 days a week, it can mean a significant saving (small print - do check medical advice before embarking on any fasting programme).
3. Grow food: We have grown our own food for fifteen years now starting with basil on a window sill, tomato plants in pots and garlic in the small patch of ground in the yard behind our tiny terraced house. You can grow potatoes from seed to plate in about 10 weeks (lettuce in much less) and only need a bucket or container and the seed potatoes. Try cutting the ‘eyes’ out of your existing potatoes and planting these if you can't source seed potatoes at the moment. Growing and eating your own food can provide you with great taste, great nutrition whilst also giving you a green workout, saving you money and can be highly effective at alleviating low mood.
4. Slow food: Fast food deliveries are the fastest way to run out of money and often contribute to physical and mental ill-health, further worsening our peak stress situations. Growing to love oats for breakfast, baked potatoes for lunch and rice and beans or lentils for dinner are cheap staples that have sustained thousands of people for generations. Take your time to eat it too, savour each mouthful, putting your cutlery down - making your smaller meal last longer is another trick for eating less and costing you less.
5. Save to buy: my granddad would say, “put away the money for it each week for six months, and if you still want it after six months, then you can buy it” - often, of course, the thing I had thought I wanted, I no longer wanted by that point. Deferring buying those ‘must-haves’ is another cost reducer.
6. Monthly direct debits: Take a close look at all the regular monthly payments going out of your account and ruthlessly cancel everything except those critical to sustaining your situation. If you are locked in on a contract or have some other tie-in then speak to the provider about a payment holiday and temporarily suspend the payments. If you want or need to be more drastic cancel TV subscriptions and sell the TV and go back to the radio and books, sounds harsh but you might find you have more productive free time. 
7. Moments in nature: Nature is on our doorstep, is free, is ever-changing from one day to the next and can teach us a great deal about frugality, change and happiness. Find some food scraps for the birds, take a seat under a tree and listen to the sounds. Find some moments in nature every day and see how this can bring joy into your situation. Try keeping a nature diary or nature notes.
8. Keep a gratitude journal: Write down three things each day that you are thankful for. Such a simple thing to help you identify the positives relative to your situation.
9. Be ready to grab opportunities: Make time to update your CV, make a phone call to someone in your industry or in the work sector you would like to work in, or to someone you know and admire. Take a free online course, get yourself ready to grab the new work or income opportunity when it comes along. And it will!
10. Start an investment habit: One of the problems this crisis has really brought to light is the fact that so few people have any savings. It sounds counter-intuitive when you are struggling for money but try starting with saving pennies or pounds in a jar or rounding up payments online but cultivate a habit of saving and investing for when you do have more income again. Then when the next crisis happens, you’ll be better prepared. Premium bonds are a safe way of gambling without losing your money and there are many investment products on the market now which are accessible and accept very low entry points for new investors starting as little as £1. Compound interest is your friend so do try and leave the amount untouched until you have to access it. 

The list can go on and if you have lost a significant proportion of income recently making the change to living on less whilst still thriving can be very challenging but you can and will find a way that works for you. Engage with the finances, engage with the support offers available and pay attention to the things which bring you joy - and are free!  My joy yesterday came from this butterfly...

Nairn beach butterfly

#15: My Top Ten Tips for working from home

I first started working from home back in 2006 and can remember one early episode which sharply brought into focus the reality of the challenges that can present. My son Charlie was about a year and a half old at the time and couldn’t understand why his daddy was shutting himself away behind a door. I was on a phone call to the office with my new boss when the screaming started. “Is everything ok?” says my boss. “Yes fine, please ignore the screaming” I replied. “But he does sound very upset.” I had to abandon the call as the concerns, and the screaming, grew. My son was ok after a mummy cuddle, who was also working from home. So, if you now find yourself working from home and trying to cope with the children being kept off school and home from nursery, here are my top ten tips for home working.

1. Dress food feel good - Whilst it is tempting to have endless pyjama days in front of the pc, do try to avoid doing so. I remember my granddad who used to dress in a shirt and tie only to sit in his lounge with only family for visitors. Make a point of dressing well, so you can think well.
2. Get outside for 5 minutes - There is great evidence that just 5 minutes outdoors is enough to lift our mood. Start the day with a 5-minute dose of nature. Step onto your balcony or garden or get out into a green or blue space. Ask yourself “What do I notice?”. Become fascinated and immersed in nature for a few minutes. Repeat after lunch, gentle exercise after eating aiding digestion and at the end of the day, to help create a division between work and home time.
3. 45-minute work chunks - Set yourself a recurring alarm on your phone for 45 minutes. Attention dwindles significantly after this period and staring at a bright computer screen for prolonged periods is detrimental for your eyes too. When the alarm goes off just stop, don't ignore it. Get up and walk around, check your posture, do a few yoga stretches, trust that whatever you are working on will still be there when you sit back down again.
4. Do one thing - Set yourself one thing to do for the morning and one thing to do for the afternoon. For the multitaskers amongst us that might feel too easy but it is important, in the absence of an immediate physical team or boss, that you focus on the really important tasks which need doing. By doing that thing first in the morning you will feel better and form effective work habits.
5. Put things out of reach - It is all too easy to stay seated for extended periods of time, the negative health consequences of which are dire. I leave my stapler and hole puncher upstairs so that I have to go upstairs to go and get them. Getting some much-needed steps and stair exercise each time.
6. Develop a list of mantras - positive self- talk can be helpful to tackle the demon thoughts which might emerge when you are working alone at home. Develop your own mantras, short affirmations you can draw upon “I am great at this”...I can do this...the only way out is through...if you are going through hell, keep going.” 
7. Visualise a good day - when you sit down to start work visualise yourself at the end of the day with key productive tasks completed with satisfaction and ease. Imagining a positive outcome is the first step to that becoming a reality.
8. Spend time with the children or with the dog - there will be times when the children or your pet is demanding attention. Give them the attention, give them a hug, stroke the cat, give them your full attention for five minutes. Tell them you love them. It will make you both feel good.
9. Set up virtual coffee mornings - actively ask colleagues to join you for a video call for no other purpose but to catch up over coffee. Book these in your calendar so that you have regular social contact that would otherwise happen naturally in an office/team space. Actively invest time for social networking support.
10. Turn off the news - Whilst the news is a helpful source of updates during these challenging times, there is a good argument for limiting your access to the news whilst you are working. If you need to find something out about the latest developments you can do this at lunchtime or at the end of the day. Try phoning your parents and get their take on the news. Rationing and limiting your consumption of news will help focus, reduce distractions and help keep things in perspective. If you need some helpful background noise then instead of listening to the radio try peaceful music which is repetitive and calming such as Max Richter’s Sleep album, the RSPB’s Let Nature Sing put on repeat or Gregorian chanting for example. 

And finally, practice gratitude. Be thankful for being able to work from home, for having functioning IT to enable you to communicate easily with others from the safety of your living room, and be thankful for the health of your family. An attitude of gratitude will keep you open to the possibility of the positive - write down three things you are thankful for today.

Stay well and work well.

#14: Thinking of moving to a remote corner of Scotland?

When Lucy and I told our friends in Essex that we were relocating to North East Scotland the overwhelming response, aside from the initial positive pleasantries, was ‘You know it gets cold and dark up there in the winter don’t you?’ Since moving we have met many like-minded folk from England who have also made the best move of their lives. Now it appears that we may have just moved ‘ahead of the rush’ as more people start thinking about living a quieter, less frenetic life, characterised by community and outdoor activity and not filled by jobs and commuting. An outdoor life with family and others first. If you are thinking of moving to Scotland, I would say do it! But if you are needing a bit of guidance I thought it might be helpful to share our personal search criteria list for a family relocation to Scotland.

This time last year we made the trip from Essex to Aviemore and beyond to look at houses in the North East of Scotland. Our goal whilst on our house hunting holiday was to find a new family location and home which could house the four of us (Lucy and I, along with our two children, now 13 and 10) as well as my parents, as we looked to sell two houses in the south-east and buy a larger family home together in Scotland. The six of us sat down and drew up the following collective criteria for our new home:

1. Waterside, view of water from the property
2. Close to a park or green space
3. 5+ bedrooms (for our extended family: 4 adults and two children)
4. Downstairs bathroom and/or bedroom (if my parents might need it in the future)
5. Upstairs bathroom (and/or ensuites)
6. Two lounges downstairs
7. Large kitchen diner
8. Potential for two desk office space (for working from home if needed)
9. Garden with side/back access big enough to grow our own fruit and veg
10. Shed or wood store
11. Off-street parking for 2 cars
12. Sunroom/garden room
13. Solar panels or eco/energy-saving features
14. Conservatory
15. South or West facing orientation
16. Independent kitchen/space for Mum and Dad
17. Storage space/loft
18. Local clubs for swimming, cycling, running, sailing
19. Local pub (never really had a local pub, within walking distance before)
20. Local shops and amenities
21. Less than three miles to good schools
22. Local hospital, medical and social care if we need it (Mum and Dad have both had health scares)
23. Broadband and good mobile phone reception
24. Access to outdoor adventures
25. Access to a train station and bus station (so we are not reliant on the car)
26. Access to Inverness airport (for holidays and work trips in the UK).

The more we spoke about what we were looking for the longer the list grew until we had over 25 items on our list. In that week-long house hunting trip it quickly became obvious that Nairn ticked nearly all of our boxes. But it was the magnificent beaches that ultimately sold us on Nairn. 

The house we chose, in the end, didn’t have eco features, nor a downstairs bedroom and there wasn’t an independent kitchen for Mum and Dad but these could be added at a later stage if we wanted and needed them. But amazingly we found very much what we were looking for. There is a wonderful Scottish phrase we have often heard since ‘Whit’s fur ye’ll no go by ye!’ There may well have been a healthy dose of destiny in the mix too. 

If you are thinking, maybe because of Brexit or because of the recent global challenges, it is time to think about and plan a move to Scotland, rest assured there are many rural communities, like Nairn, who will welcome and support you and your family. Six months into our new location and with a new job starting tomorrow we have very much settled into life in our remote corner of Scotland. So make some time, sit down with your loved ones and draw up your criteria list - where would you love to live, how would you like to live, what would you like to be doing? Make your list and start looking at places on-line, book a house hunting trip and you might just surprise yourself at what you can find. Rural Scotland might just be the answer to your problems.

Lucky #13: New Charity Venture with Green Hive

Superstition is a rather strange thing but thirteens certainly do have an uncanny way of aligning with positive events in my life. This post brings the 4HQ blogroll to thirteen and I certainly hope this thirteenth post is auspicious because I am pleased to introduce you to my new charity venture as Manager with Green Hive.

The River Nairn to the hills and source beyond

About six months ago I wrote my Future Framework to check against in deciding what matters to me and in assessing the various work opportunities as they presented themselves in Scotland. The advert for Green Hive Manager post came out on Christmas eve in the local paper. As it turned out this could not have been a better gift. It neatly addressed my interests and passions for the environment, innovation and in social sector leadership. After the various application stages I am extremely pleased to have started with this amazing environmental charity based in Nairn. We have the vision to be a local exemplar taking action to address global environmental challenges. We are an inclusive, collaborative organisation which engages the local community in sustainable solutions to bring about a better life for the people and place of Nairn. The breadth of our Green Hive activities ranges from beach and river cleans to repurposing fabrics into bespoke bags and a brand new plastics upcycling workshop. We are just getting started with re-purposing what would otherwise be wasted into beautiful and functional items. Globally, there is a need to move beyond the evidence into action to help the environment thrive. The scale of the challenges can be daunting, but by focusing on what we can do in our local communities we can start to re-imagine a more positive future for all of us.

Do you have your Future Framework in place? Are you ready to seize the next opportunity which comes your way? What would your core interest be? What matters most to you in your next job? For me there is a joy in working locally, for the first time in years, and yet thinking globally. There is an element of time sovereignty in walking to work and not facing a train or car commute. Family and others first is another value which can be upheld in working locally to benefit the community which has so warmly welcomed my family and I. Jobs, now more than ever, can be re-designed flexibly to be home based but I think we will also see more jobs being locally based as we all rise to the environmental challenges in front of us.

The River Nairn out to sea

Since relocating to North East Scotland I have been developing a number of work related projects, call it a ‘portfolio’ or a ‘cocktail career’ - there is a precedent in these parts for people having more than one job and the wearing of many hats is commonplace. Delivering multiple projects requires an appetite for variety and efficient working practices to cope with all the juggling. I like juggling, but what I have learnt is that all these organisational/projects which are work related are all rubber balls - if you drop one in all likelihood they will bounce back. But your health and your family juggling balls are both ‘glass balls’ in that if you drop one of those, they can break. So making decisions about future opportunities has to keep these two balls in the air at all times, and ever be our focus. In the studies of people on their deathbeds, no-one says they wished they had worked more, many wished they had found more time for family and health giving activities. In getting started with Green Hive I am keeping this at the forefront of my mind.