And The Market Gets Worse …

So after another poor week in investing it feels like a downward spiral. Every day seems to lose hundreds of dollars from our portfolio but rest assured – if it’s impacting us, then it’s probably impacting you as well. Cold comfort, but there are opportunities to invest more money now. Eventually the market will recover but nobody knows when that may occur – and when it does I’ll know I’ve done everything I can to bolster our investments. The rich have an advantage during downturns – they hold their money and when the time is right they swoop in, buying low.

Once the market recovers, they’re the ones who make the biggest profits. Unfortunately unless you’ve got the capital and you’re a retail investor like us, then you’re totally at the mercy of the markets.

Hold your nerve, keep investing, because one of these days the sun is going to shine again! 🙂

Buying In Bulk

Any time we go to the supermarket we always try and buy any specials if we see them. Like most budget conscience shoppers we have a list of things we want to purchase but on some occasions extra special bargains appear on the scene. These MUST be taken advantage of!

If for example we went to the supermarket to buy bread and milk, then we would take advantage of the lower petrol price (with a 6 cent discount per litre) and fill up the car while we’re there. The supermarket we normally shop at is Lower Hutt Pak ‘n’ Save and the petrol is 99.9% of the time cheaper than what we could get from BP, Z, Caltex or any of the other New Zealand petrol retailers.

Depending on what we might need, on occasions we will shop at the local Countdown supermarket and they have some items there which are better than Pak ‘n’ Save however in terms of what we buy this only amounts to 5 or so items.

These items are:

Champagne Ham – $2.20 per 100 grams

Baked Beans (Woolworths brand) – 80c per tin

Essentials Oven Chips (Straight or Crinkle Cut) – $2.00 per 1kg bag

Soft Drink – 99 Brand – $1.00 per 1.25 litre bottle (Sugar free)

Choice Brand 2 minute noodles – $1.80 per 5 pack

99% of the other product range at Countdown is more expensive than Pak ‘n’ Save but these items are things we would normally buy and are cheaper at Countdown for similar quality products.

The other day we went to Pak ‘n’ Save and picked up some instant coffee which was “Pams Smooth Roast”. Not only is this one of the cheapest avaialble, it’s also our favourite and it was on special.l So what did we do? We purchased 13 packets. We love coffee, it’s going to get consumed in our household and at $1.88 per 100 gram packet it was an absolute bargain. In hindsight I should have brought another 20 packets:

And on the way home we stopped at the local countdown. We tested one particular brand of baked beans and found they were the equal to our normal “Oak” brand except instead of paying $1.50 a can, we ended up paying the regular price of 80 cents a can. Before inflation bit in the last 3 or 4 months the original Oak brand could be found for around 99 cents to $1.20 but at $1.50 a can we decided to look elsewhere. Not only are these good for long term storage, these will be useful for additional stock piling. It’s a matter of time living in the Wellington region before we have another earthquake or man made economic disaster. Better to be prepared that not! SO, 36 cans later:

We’ll make sure we rotate these before they expire and ensure we mark the expiry dates so we don’t end up wasting any of them. By buying items that we normally consume in bulk at discounted prices we not only save on additional shopping trips, time and petrol, but we end up saving a whole lot of extra money in the process as well.

Next time you go shopping, compare prices at your food suppliers and if it’s on special or just a great deal then make sure you take advantage of it!

Market Downturn?

We started investing seriously in April 2018 and literally started off with $20. As our finances slowly improved I was able to invest more and more as our debt decreased and while interest rates were low everything was coming up roses and looking positive and then …. Covid hit!

Markets dropped and recoiled which was quickly followed by a reasonably quick market recovery. Unfortunately production was limited due to various government policies and led to job losses and businesses having to close up or scale back. Examples in New Zealand are obviously retail, tourism and hospitality.

Governments around the world turned to printing money to keep their economies afloat which has now led to massive inflation and interest rates rises. House prices have now hit the wall and most people are going backwards financially. Bring in a war between Russia and Ukraine and all of a sudden you’ve got increased oil prices which increases the cost of most goods and services and businesses having to raise prices in order to survive.

In terms of investments? Well we had a good run from 2019 through to 2021 while interest rates were low but now the chickens have come home to roost so to speak. Here’s our current investment income gains/losses for each calendar year in the last 4 years since we started tracking this:

Obviously 2022 has been a bit of a shocker not for just ourselves but pretty much most people on the planet. Unfortunately no one can predict the market and in some years you will make less than you put in but history has proven that overall you should be receiving a return of between 8 – 10% over the long term (assuming you invest into the stock market).

Our goal is to build this amount up so it at the very least it covers our expenses. This is not a quick 5 minute solution however and requires commitment, time, sacrifice and hard work in order to achieve the goal. Once that goal has been reached we are then in a position to re-evaluate what we want to do next (i.e. work part time, quit working, do something else) or whatever that might look like. It may be very carry on working full time but we will have more options at that point. People generally are good at burying their heads in the sand when it comes to financial matters and worry about it later. The funny thing is eventually that later turns up and retirement stares them in the face.

We are still investing and will continue to invest in the meantime. Utilizing dollar cost averaging means even as the market is going down we are still able to buy stocks and investments at a lower price. With Covid restrictions starting to ease and an eventual end to the Russia/Ukraine conflict there will some kind of return to “normal”. They’ll call it a new normal but it reality life moves on regardless. Think of Germany back in 1939 and the impact of that on neighbouring countries at the time. Of course that dragged on for a number of years. Not ideal!

So here we are in 2022 with the markets looking unfavourable, rising interest rates, rising inflation, and investment balances crumbling. What to do?

Here’s what we’re going to do:

1). Not panic …

2). Get some more supplies (e.g. Canned food, dried food) that can be stored long term in case things get even worse – it’s better to be prepared that not be prepared …

3). Keep investing!

So, keep you head up, come up with a plan, live frugally and make smart financial and life decisions !

Welcome!

Welcome to Project Frugal!

If you have begun to follow our story, you know that our family is dedicated to frugal living and we are taking steps to achieve FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early). We are also looking to grow as much of our own food as possible from wherever we might live …

In our videos we share ways to live frugally, make money, save money, and invest money – to inspire you to pursue financial independence and less reliance on the 9 to 5 daily grind …

Our goal is to share our experiences with you, so that you can learn from them and so that you can also successfully pursue financial independence …

So, what are you waiting for? Join us and start that Frugal FIRE journey!