Welcome to my blog. My name is D. and I am a happily married man and a father of two. I am a busy bee both, at work and at home. I just cannot remain idle for long. I guess it came with the package. I have been collecting free cash for a while now. I have also been thinking for some time about sharing my experience but always put it on the back burner for one reason or another. Now it seems to me like the right moment to start writing about it.

I have never been neither vocal nor secretive about the topic, however, as a subject of casual conversation among friends and peers, I found mixed feedback. Some people look at it with disdain. Many just could not be bothered. Some put it occasionally into practice. Very few do it systematically. Not difficult to guess which category I fall into. 

First, let me put things into perspective and disclose some personal details. In the early days, a few years back, I was not pursuing a financial goal or was motivated by a traumatic event such as inability to cope with debt. I was not looking for a side hustle either. I casually stumbled upon the money saving subject and found myself a new interest. That interest led to money making ideas which interested me even more. I was not keen on increasing my working hours after my 9 to 5 job and came into the realisation that many of them were not worth my while in terms of hourly rate return. However, I had a strong feeling that I was on the path to something that I could make work for me. Uncharted territory as it was, the only way forward was trial and error: rule out the ideas that involved a fair amount of time investment and stay with the ones that required minimal or no effort. Over time, and through a testing process, I developed a routine that I now apply unconsciously and by default. The final product was a nice cash amount that I rewarded myself with at the end of every year. Not a life changing sum but somehow, it brought to me an intense sense of joy. Similar feeling to suddenly finding a 20 quid note in the back pocket of those old trousers that I would have never suspected it was there at all. Cash for nothing really, I thought. I just happened to be lucky enough to find it… or maybe not.

Since it was cash that it was not supposed to be there for me in the first place, I took the approach of setting it aside as if it had never existed. I just saved it away and forgot about it. I guessed I was not in a rush to figure out what to do with it. I was not short of options though: put it in my pension, transfer it to my kids savings account, pay off my credit card, spend it on a holiday break, round up my income, pay off my mortgage, … For all possible avenues to take, I just did nothing with it, I just invested it conservatively and watched it grow. At the end of the day, it should not be there at all, should it?

Back to the present day (November 2020), two events collided for me: first, the modest sums had added up, compounded and grown into a decent enough figure, and second, our house was asking for a much needed extension. I must admit that it was not such a tough decision for me to make after all: a house extension funded out of free money. Was it really? I had to pinch myself , but absolutely yes it was.

Elated as we are now with the end result and the value added to our property, the downside is that all funds (and a little bit more) have been completely depleted. I definitely do not feel sorry for myself but it only means that undeterred as I am to keep going, I will have to start out from scratch again. This time will be slightly different though, as I will be sharing my entire journey with you.

I am setting off with no big aspirations or goals but on the other hand, I am conscious that what before was more of a casual activity within a private remit, will now be more structured and somehow in the public domain. I am just hoping to entertain, present ideas and inspire others, and why not, have some fun for myself in the process. I am most glad that you are reading these lines. Thanks for joining me so far.

Are you happy to come along with me?