The Money Principle Brain Teaser: what are the three most financially savvy things you’ve done?
We have not done the MP Brain Teaser for some time now – since July to be precise. It is time to resume it; but with a twist. This time, I am not going to start profound discussions about moral qualms or life positions. What I would do is ask questions that will help us get to know each other a little bit better – you will get to know me, I will get to know each of you and you will also get to know each other. Hopefully!
Let’s play.
Today’s question is:
What are the three most financially savvy things you have ever done? Continue reading
Five reasons why we shall not be parted with our bread-maker
We have had bread-makers for close to fifteen years now. Yes, oh yes, the first one was because of my gadget addiction – it was the very front of the adoption wave and this is where I was. Thinking about it, this is where I still am most of the time; I just have smartened up and find ways to satisfy my addiction only when someone else is paying for it. Otherwise, it is carefully controlled.
We have made bread for a very long time. In fact, there are places in Europe, particularly traditionally poor agrarian economies, where bread was the main food. My Bulgarian grandmother still used to ask not ‘shall we have lunch’ but ‘shall we eat bread’. Now this is basic, this is primal and this is very important. Of course I have a liking for bread – great smelling, substantial, tasty bread that gets hard and moulds. Not the white, fluffy plastic rubbish that lasts longer than my spectacles. Continue reading
The Money Principle Running: how I started running?
Running is a big area of transformation for me. Ten years ago my favourite sport was sitting in coffee bars; not to mention that I smoked twenty Camels a day for large part of my life – with one interruption between 1996 and 2003 and a complete stop in 2006. This is another story, though.
My metamorphosis from a coffee bar loving smoker to a long distance runner began one day in spring 2002. I was walking down the street in the city centre and just happen to catch a glimpse of this woman in a shop window – gosh, she was so out of shape. I looked closer and then recognised the woman; it was me. This gave me the strongest motivation ever; starting to run didn’t need any discipline. Try it for yourselves! Look in the mirror and if it is hard to recognise the stranger staring back then it is time for change and action.
I started by running for about five minutes, then resting, then running again. Four months later I ran my first race – Race for Life in a Manchester park. I finished the 5K busy race in 29 minutes and will never forget the feeling when I crossed the finish line; I collapsed on the ground and started crying – so overwhelming was the satisfaction of achievement. And I knew – my son who was fourteen months was to remember me like that, running and active.
Since this first race I have run a number of half marathons, I have completed four marathons and would one day run an ultra-marathon. But I still feel the trill, the power, the healthy tiredness.
Today I officially started training for the first ever Liverpool marathon. Choosing this year’s marathon was a close call between Liverpool and Chester; then I realised that the Chester marathon is sponsored by MBNA and let us just say that this is not my favourite bank. Liverpool it is!
This morning I developed a training programme that, I hope, will allow me to run the Liverpool marathon in 4 hours 30 minutes. If anyone is interested, the programme can be downloaded here. It is not a standard marathon training programme and assumes that to run well people shouldn’t only run. More about this next time!
