Simplify

No Hilton in sight...

Wed 11 Nov - Day 3

So I’ve been living the Simple life for three days now and no, Paris Hilton has not suddenly made a sparkling entrance into my life. Simplify may sound glamorous, but believe me in real life its hard work!

 

In truth so far things have been quite easy. I seem to be a lucky man when it comes expenses. Unlike one of my colleagues who had a major accidental expense on day one, I have managed to get away with spending precisely £3 so far this week. On half a cheesecake for my church group – only the essentials for me! When a man can’t afford bread then let him eat cake!

 

Despite not advertising Simplify much, I seem to be getting free meals whichever way I look. Meals at work, a flatmate cooking, cooking at church, even sweeties at meetings. I’m not sure how long it can last but whilst it does I’m going to ride the wave – it may crash on me in a few weeks! Watch me flounder in the riptide!

 

There have been small, medium and large temptations. On the small side the temptation to stop at my favourite corner café to buy a roll of fruit pastels. Successfully resisted. Its great to break bad habits. When it comes to medium temptations the London jazz festival starts this week. I soooo want to buy tickets but have passed on that – but with some research I did find that they are having some free performances so am hoping to head to one of those on my bike. On the large side, a very close friend invited me to her 30^th birthday party in Munich in January – and insisted that I buy a ticket today. Normally I would do so without thinking, but now I can’t. She tried to get me to cheat and even offered a ticket as a gift.

 

The thing with doing this just for a month is that it feels a bit hollow because I can just buy the ticket in December (ironically probably for more money). But Simplify has at least caused me to think about the choice. Weighing up my increased carbon footprint against the good that £60 could do for charity versus honouring a friendship of over a decade I will still go for the friendship. I guess that is just a function of my priorities.

 

Some of my fears for the week haven’t been realized. For example my breath no longer condenses when sitting in my lounge. Fergus managed to get the heating fixed. All it took was plugging it back in – its still relatively chilly but at least we’re making an effort. But tomorrow my friend is coming over from South Africa to stay the night and I have to provide him with a decent meal as well as a warm bed! And then I have a friend celebrating his 25^th birthday on Friday – cash intensive bowling in elephant and castle.

 

I have definitely saved enough these first few days to be able to provide some culinary offering and not break the tradition of hospitality. However, my Simplify challenge of the week is to enjoy a birthday party with no cash without causing any social embarrassment. Come back next week to find out whether I succeed!

Finally I begin!

Sunday Nov 8 - Day 0

It’s Sunday night and the time of reckoning has finally come! Members of the Evangelical Alliance have been doing simplify for the past two months and finally it is my turn! My plan is to take it a week at a time. At the moment I am split between online shopping for bargains at the beginning of the week or drawing £5 cash per day, hiding my plastic and going foraging for the cheapest deals I can find! I’ll start with the cash and see.

But before redemption, first my confession. The past two months have certainly been one of my most decadent periods of my life on record thus far. I have just returned from an expensive trip to New York and have attended something like four concerts in the last month and traveled to three countries in the past two months.

So on one level I am quite looking forward to this.

 

I need to slow down, use my money more wisely, take time to think and pray more and connect with my friends here in the local community of Battersea. In moments of optimism I even think that slowing down might, just might, give me some time to organise my mind and ensure that some of those big thoughts that so often escape into the ether are captured on paper or pixels.

Simplify will also help me to identify with people on my estate. In my area there are many living on benefits. Some may think that benefits are the easy option, but I suspect that it won’t be quite so cushy living at these levels.

But I do have my worries.

 

My dad is known to say, “you and your mother spend money like water”. I could blame my mom, but I’m 30-something and, like Adam in Eden’s garden, I guess I need to take some responsibility. Being single and more or less responsibility free means that I have never had to budget very tightly. I know the broad categories where my money goes, but don’t bother drilling down into the detail, which would take time I don’t have.

However, with the exception of travel and entertainment I do live a fairly frugal life – I ride my bike most places and like most men wear my clothes until and beyond the holy stage (amen brother!). But this is London. Travel, entertainment and shopping are the triathlon of the future Olympic capital, and so I suspect I will have to change my ways this month. 

I wonder what will happen to my social life. Will I be bored, will friendships suffer, what will people think when I miss their cash intensive birthday bash? Being single means that a night at home is not as exciting for me as for the marrieds amongst us – and I don’t mean to take anything away from dear Fergus my flatmate. His barrister stories of London street crime are enough to persuade anyone to stay at home - day and night. But I am more accustomed to varied and exciting nights out with a 2am bedtime, than a staying in with the television.  (And its too late to buy scrabble now – can’t afford it).

Finally I live in a large old and cold house and I have guests this week from the South African springtime and the heating is broken! I want to be able to look after them as well as I can, but I suspect that fixing the heating might cost quite a lot. If some of my short term heating fixes like changing the curtains or adding cellophane to the windows won’t work, I may be forced to go out and get a loan to cover the costs of fixing the place. Of course around here the loans are at exorbitant rates and penalties for missed payments include broken legs. But that is the reality for most people living on the breadline.

This really isn’t a joke after all. I wonder what God will teach me this month?

So in Conclusion.....

So the 31st October finally arrived. I did it! I survived with a few £pounds left over. I always knew I would need some 'savings' because this was the part fo the month I knew was unrealistic. In the other 11 months of the year would fall many bigger bills for items I could survive without for a month. It is a shock how little I had left over when I was so hard on myself.

It was certainly a journey I wanted to be on. I am glad I have done it. I will sort of miss it and the discipline to life it brought. That's why I won't simply slip back into the old routines this week.

To finish off the experience I was lined up for a last interview. The Independent Diary had almost been complimentary for a cynical newspaper! But on Sunday evening I nervously sat by the phone at 11.30pm. I had been lined up with much urgency and great authority to appear on the Stephen Nolan show on Radio 5 Live to talk about Simplify. I know his reputation so I was expecting the obvious if somewhat boring and predictable link to expenses. What I had only half expected came true. Other stories takeover and we were running late. Five minutes to midnight and eventually the phone rings. Three minutes later it's all over. I had been squeezed out by a story about fat bus drivers and a very passionate debate he couldn't stop. I ad several conversations with BBC Researchers to line up the interview. They all got it and wanted to seriously know more. I am not so sure about Nolan.

And so now I return to normal life. What will I do. Well for a start I won't just revert back to normal. I will only build back into life what I really want above the £5 limit. So I will start playing 5 a side and going down to the gym again. They are quality bits of my life that cost money. But there is little else I have missed. I have learned to borrow and beg. I don't feel the need to 'own'. I have found time in my day - especially around cycling in the constituency even more. I HAVE to slow down between meetings. I need 20-30 minutes between everything. That has been liberating.

So 'Thank you' to Simplify I have physically done what I have been edging towards for the last 4 years. It has made me simplify and take action not just think about it. I am now healthier, happier, live a more sustainable lifestyle and enjoyed the experience. I have been able to talk to hundreds of people about this and I get a real sense people would love to try if only they weren't busy this week!! Setting the goal to do it for a month in a shared experience could be the time your life changed for the better. Just do it.

Almost There....

As I head into the final week of Simplify I am starting to think I will miss some parts of what I have learned. But of course that is the point. I don't have to miss the lessons I have learned I need to carry on and build on them.

As I have said previously the part I have found the hardest has been the cost of socialising - especially around sport. I know lots of socialising can come free and I have enjoyed some great hospitality but this has not been a proper substitute for my 3-5 sessions of sporting activity each week. But at least now I know the true financial cost!.

Overall I have been coping quite well on the £5 per day. In fact there have been many days where I haven't spent anything like that amount of money. My food has been planned and pre-purchased so I have found I need nothing more. But I do know this is highly unrealistic. I know there are big bills stored up which I would need to save for. So whilst I have been creative in making savings in my lifestyle and many of these I won't reverse, I am not at all complacent that I could live year after year like this without savings to back me up.

In the time I have created I have reflected quite a bit. Suddenly the amount of time I have spent thinking about food has been in direct correlation to the lack of money I have. I was humbled once to hear an Ethiopian boy when asked what he liked to do said "I like to pray for food".  Even though I have had to think about how much I have to spend on food the fact that I can walk a matter of 100 m in any direction and find an abundance of food if I have the money is very humbling. In East Africa again this Autumn it is estimated that 20m face starvation. Even the £5 a day I have seems like luxury.

So when I have finished I will reflect properly on which bits I am carrying into my daily life. But for now I will try to get through this last week with a smile on my face and a determination to encourage more people to take this small journey to discover more about themselves. For that is what this is all about. We can find our true selves by what we are able to leave alone. And don't forget even if you win the rat race - you are still a rat!

Lack of Fashion Sense Finally Pays Off

I have never been interested in fashion as many people will testify! This is one area where Simplify comes easy to me. I hate buying clothes and really detest the need generated by the fashion industry to throw away perfectly good clothes because they deem 'fashion has moved on'. I have always felt fashion is the most glaring example of our consumerism gone mad. People willing to pay silly money for items with a label.

I also seem to have the knack of not wearing clothes and shoes out. However, I can take this all a bit too far and I did notice my 2 pairs of shoes are finally coming to an end. They should be, they are both over 6-8 years old. In normal times I may well have been tempted to replace one of the pairs. Alas no. I have a great excuse to carry on for another year in my shoes and my favourite scruffy rugby shirt & jeans. I can honestly say I have found an element of Simplify that comes all too easily to me.

A Day in the Life of an MP on Simplify

Watch the short film below of Andy Reed MP as he talks about the challenges that have come with Simplifying his life.

Andy Reed MP on BBC Radio Leicester

Yesterday Andy Reed MP spoke to BBC Radio Leicester about his experience of doing Simplify, start listening at 13 minutes in.

Moving to the Next Level - Tackling Gadgets?

So far I feel I am coping with what Simplify has thrown at me. It hasn't been easy and I am sure some of the things I am coping with missing I will look forward to doing again. So far it is the cost of social sport that has struck me. I didn't realise how much I spent and how cut off and isolated I would feel not being able to afford to participate.

But my biggest challenge is the one area of life and Simplify I know am the biggest failure. I am a man and I love gadgets. There I have said it. I am sad. I am amazed at what my PDA/ iphone can allow me to do. Most of it is meaningless but the fact that it can do it is good enough for me.

Last month for my birthday i got a great card from my family which summed this up. A man sitting at his computer shouts out in excitement at his computer which has a programme which can show him the exact weather at his exact location in real time. Sitting behind him is a window which of course would do exactly the same!! I saw too much of me in that cartoon character.

So far I have no answers. In fact having more time to fiddle with gadgets has been an upside of Simplify. I now need to spend the rest of the time reflecting on what and why I use gadgets and if I can do it differently. I am sure I am not alone in this modern dilemma.

Archbishop's challenge to reconnect with the environment

Taking the time out to rethink our lifestyle is a key part of Simplify. This week the Archbishop of Canterbury challenged us to make small changes to reconnect with the world around us - and to set aside the damage our behaviour has done to our souls.

Speaking at Southwark Cathedral, Dr Rowan Williams said people had allowed themselves to become "addicted to fantasies about prosperity and growth, dreams of wealth without risk and profit without cost".

The consequences of such a lifestyle meant the human soul was "one of the foremost casualties of environmental degradation".

Read the full story at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/13/rowan-williams-climate-crisis.

Short Term v Long Term Simplification

As I get further into 'Simplify' I find that apart from food planning and having to think a bit more about various aspects of my life, not a lot has changed. In fact by thinking ahead and planning I am finding I am spending virtually nothing outside of my food needs. Maybe I am more boring than I though. However, this is why I know a month is not long enough. There are far too many 'big bills' and hidden costs in my life that I can get away with even in one month. I have generally been able to walk and cycle. But because I am still working I have needed the car on a few occasions. I have used it far less however so that is good. Suddenly a 5 mile bike ride to a meeting just means building in 30 minutes either side. That is 30 minutes of ME time too. But even though my car is a 10 year old Rover 25 with low tax, insurance and running costs I know these are annual bills that have to be budgeted for. I know I have to budget for depreciation/ replacement costs too. (As part of my wider move to simplify all aspects of life I do believe in not borrowing money as far as possible too!) Once these are taken into account the little I have spent on fuel for the month makes the economics of owning a car seem ridiculous. No wonder car share schemes are booming. This is certainly one area of life that needs deeper thought.

Other gems this week. By volunteering as I do with the Cubs I got a free swimming session. The swimming for the Cubs of course is now free thanks to the introduction of free swimming by the government earlier this year. However, the thing I will miss most this month are my sessions at the gym. I have taken the useful advice and decided to use the natural environment to keep fit instead of paying to use gym equipment. But I will miss the whole experience.

So far so good. But now I am back at work in London I face new challenges. I have promised myself not to eat at work using canteens. The problem is that we work 9am to about 10.30pm so there is no opportunity to prepare and cook a hot meal at home. I will have to see how I get on with this. On the other hand it does stop me spending money on leisure. But for me simplifying my life properly would be to end these ridiculous long hour work cultures just as much as cutting back on the cost of food and leisure.