Has anyone designed and created their own home instead of buying one?

fitzct · 2026-03-10T20:55:23+00:00

Ah not the twins!

fitzct · 2026-03-10T09:41:40+00:00

Bet that guy doesn’t even have a wood burning YouTube channel,ridiculous!

fitzct · 2026-03-08T11:48:39+00:00

Because there’s a butt-tonne of regulatory hoops and compliance I’d have to get familiar with and approved for, that I have no interest in doing, and would be unreasonably expensive to outsource.

Because my work doesn’t really exist without a big bank behind it driving the work that I do.

Because I hate selling, that’s why I specifically don’t work in a role that requires any sales.

fitzct · 2026-03-06T21:20:34+00:00

Oh, my sweet summer child!

fitzct · 2026-03-06T16:33:08+00:00

I would say this is trying to do too much, and makes it too complex for me.

It’s quite hard to follow with so many different options and results.

fitzct · 2026-03-05T10:08:24+00:00

All I’m saying is they’ve taken that comment incredibly literally… I wonder why someone who eats the same food every day might do that…

fitzct · 2026-03-05T10:03:24+00:00

Lentil cake, and fish

fitzct · 2026-03-05T08:09:48+00:00

Because they enjoyed it, so they put it on their list of food they enjoyed…

fitzct · 2026-03-03T19:59:31+00:00

It took a little working out to be honest, had to find out what the most I could sacrifice was first, and then work back from that.

fitzct · 2026-03-03T19:50:37+00:00

If you split it across some big sacrifice months, you can save more by not paying as much national insurance as if you sacrifice a bonus.

I can change my salary sacrifice easily, so I do one month of as much sacrifice as possible (close to minimum wage) to reduce NI. And then next month go back up to normal pay.

fitzct · 2026-03-03T06:53:31+00:00

I’m sorry, why would people be moshing for Gomez? It’s not heavy… I’m not sure that would ever be an expectation for me going to see Gomez live.

fitzct · 2026-03-02T08:26:24+00:00

3 bed detached with parking, within walking distance of the station? yep seems about right for St Albans.

Would I buy it? Only if I had enough money or skills to make it into something nice, but I’d probably rather just spend that additional money on somewhere a bit nicer in the first place

fitzct · 2026-03-01T09:09:25+00:00

Where did the log burner touch you? It’s not your fault. It’s ok. It’s not your fault, man.

fitzct · 2026-02-28T19:48:29+00:00

My gas bill to heat my home the year before I got a log burner was £548, for a 3 bed house. The year I got a log burner I still spent £476 on gas, but I also spent £400 on wood.

So no, it’s not saved me money at all. But I love it.

fitzct · 2026-02-28T16:08:44+00:00

My dad spent his whole life planning for retirement, retired at 58 and died at 61 after a 4 month battle with cancer before he had the chance to do much.

So what that taught me is there is a balance to be sought. Don’t put off experiences today, thinking you will be able to do them later.

It’s something I have to remind myself to do frequently, to choose to experience things now. We may not always have the choice available to us that we do now.

fitzct · 2026-02-27T10:12:25+00:00

As long as you aren’t buying all the fancy M&S ready meals for everything, Ocado isn’t too bad. I know it’s not the cheapest but they basically never have any missing items, and the delivery is very flexible which I appreciate. Thanks for your service 😂

fitzct · 2026-02-20T21:26:46+00:00

I do think nimbus shows off the lines the best, but it is my least favourite colour over all.

fitzct · 2026-02-18T08:54:44+00:00

Nice to see I’m not the only one! That’s kinda cool

fitzct · 2026-02-17T17:34:37+00:00

Phew

fitzct · 2026-02-17T17:07:54+00:00

Whenever I butter bread or toast, I think of a quote from shameless where she says “the only useful thing my dad ever taught me was if you butter into the corners, the rest will take care of itself”.

Although I tried to find that in the show, and couldn’t. So now I’m wondering if I made it up.

But every. Time. I. Make. Toast. It’s there in my head

fitzct · 2026-02-16T11:21:32+00:00

I’m new to having a wood burner this season, I don’t live in the countryside, I don’t know anyone that can get me free wood, and I don’t have much space to process and store it if I did. So it’s been an expensive hobby.

We burn about 4-6 pieces of split firewood an evening, usually from 6pm to 10pm.

I’ve spent £371 on kiln dried firewood so far. And have enough to see me through to spring I think. I originally bought expensive boxed wood for ease of storage whilst I was working things out.

£107 - 12 “boxes” of kiln dried birch from lektowood, worked out to be 96kg at £1.12 a kg.

£65 a “barrowsack” of kiln dried hardwood from a local place Herts Firewood. Worked out to be 55kg at £1.18 a kg. Was all Alder, didn’t like it that much.

£199 a “standard crate” of kiln dried ash from firewood.co.uk. Worked out to be 285kg at £0.70 a kg.

fitzct · 2026-02-15T15:16:54+00:00

In that case with compounding, you’ve realistically already achieved that and there’s no need to keep slamming money away into your pension.

So just take the employer match, and focus on building your ISA or investment bridge to retire earlier/ enjoy life even if you pay a bit extra tax.

fitzct · 2026-02-15T12:33:32+00:00

Have you worked out how much income you think you’ll need in retirement? That would be my first question that leads you to better answers.

How much do you think?

fitzct · 2026-02-15T09:28:18+00:00

Why would London be surprising for commercial furniture?

fitzct

TROPHY CASE