COVID Lockdown 2022

Well. Really didn’t think we would be back here now. But here we are.

On the bright side…

Lockdowns make it harder to spend money out. Not that this has ever been a big problem for us. That said, We have managed to spend some money on home comforts.

Nothing too crazy. Hubs and I bought each other “matching” neck massagers for Christmas (by accident, neither of us knew that the other was doing it. Apparently we now share the same brain). I finally bought a propane fire bowl that I’ve been talking about for a year. The idea was to make winter more appealing by having a warm fire to sit by outside and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate with a roasted marshmallow. We also bought some Christmas lights on sale post-holiday for the deck to cheer up the space a little. Imagine comfy chairs and fake furs. Hygge all over the place! I’m pretty excited to try it out.

However, temperatures in eastern Canada have been frigid as of late and we have yet to do the test. By frigid, I mean -30 with wind chill at night. Yes, really frigid! (I know you Nunavutians* are laughing but most of the world isn’t). The bowl I bought is fairly small and simple and was under $200 at Canadian Tire. I thought it was a good investment for something we can use year-round. I will post a review and maybe some pics once we get it up and running.

*Footnote: Upon researching, one should use the term Nunavummiut (Noo-na-vu-mee-ukh) to refer to people from Nunavut. However it may also be acceptable to use the term Nunavutian for one who is unfamiliar with the area/pronunciation of Inuit words, such as myself. If there are any Nunavummiut in the house, please feel free to correct/enlighten me in the comments, politely. 

About Lockdown

Lockdown lasts a minimum of another week here. Basically it means everyone staying in their single household bubble. No spas, salons, gyms, sports events, dining in restaurants. Of course as an introvert I’m kind of loving it. I am also working from home right now due to the demand to minimize human interaction at work. Which I also love. I am definitely saving on gas which I hope will somewhat offset the purchase of a gas fire bowl. But I digress…

But T, what about FI/RE? 

Not much is going on with us on the FI/RE front other than the aforementioned bowl. We did meet with our financial advisor this month to discuss plans for the future and confirm that the financial plan is still looking good for early retirement. I am happy to report that it is! I do need to scrape up some additional cash to contribute to my retirement account before the deadline this year. As you may recall if you have been reading my blog, my goal is to deposit and invest $1200 monthly and there were some months in 2021 where I did not quite make that goal. I have been feeling very unambitious in the area of finding extra income to top up my contributions. I have discussed this with Hubs and we have some ideas, but we need to execute them. It is hard when you have all this other “life” bullshit to do in the evenings and on weekends when you’re not working all day.

As usual, thoughts about how much I need to save (and the strong desire to save more more more) leads me to lament over the fact that I didn’t start this whole process a decade earlier. Shooting for FI/RE starting at age 42 has helped us immensely over the past three years, there is no question. I just can’t help thinking about all the lost time even though I know it does me no good. So I’m going to say right now, I’M DONE WITH THAT! I have a plan, so I need to look forward to it. If I want to think of ways to improve my life in the meantime, that’s fine. Or ways to improve the plan itself. All good. But I cannot think about the past, except to thank the stars I got my shit together in 2018 by finding the FIRE movement.

Well, thanks for listening and reading this far. Did I mention there will probably be quite a few low-effort, rambly posts this year? Yes I’m sure I did.