No poo - day 1

I look around at my bathroom and I see plastic tubs full of expensive gunk, expensive gunk to change me into something I am suppose to be - pretty, healthy, perfect, smelling alluring.

I've recently made the choice to reduce my environmental impact by changing to a vegan-ish diet. So what's the point if I'm still buying and wasting tonnes of highly processed products to make myself more... more what, and at what expense? 

Obviously as I've quit my job one of the expenses I want to save is money. My shampoo of choice for my frizzy and never perfect, curlyish hair is between £4-£10 per bottle, plus there's the conditioner, the frizz tamer, the mousse. I'd estimate that we go through two bottles a month of conditioner and one of shampoo. That's £12-£30 a month, >£150 a year.

Then there's the environmental impact. 40 plastic bottles, at least, a year. To wash my hair, all going to waste. The impact of making those bottles and the contents. 

I'm not you're average hippy and I'm all for technical advancement, but even I'm starting to wonder what the inevitable impact of all this consumption is, on the environment, on people. Consumption that seems to be - for the sake of it, ignorant, selfish consumption. I'm not even sure if the contents of this bottle I spend so much on is any different than the 99p brand. I'm surrounded by marketing which makes me think I should spend more, but do I actually need it?

I could spend hours researching the true impact, trying to justify that one brand is better than another, or more ethical, that without advancement in shampoo some other advancement wouldn't have been made. But, I only have one lifetime. The most sensible solution seems to be to check whether I actually need it... not just this bottle, but any shampoo at all. If I don't, why would I need to spend time on justifying using it.

Here I am, day one. No poo they call it. I've had a shower, I rinsed myself and my hair with water. It was quick, I don't smell. My hair doesn't feel greasy (yet) I'm told it will and it will take a few weeks to adjust. I might need to come back to this when I've finally left my job and the need to 'fit in' is no longer a major consideration, but I've got a few days until Monday so I might as well give it a go in the meantime.

Quit my job

Unhinged one might say... to leave a job with a salary comfortably in the top 3% of UK earners. But that's the fortune of my privilege. I'm under no illusions here, I'm not brave to be quitting, I'm lucky.

Me and my partner in crime have overtaken each other in salaries at different times, but since my last promotion I've been firmly the main bread winner. So its slightly sickening to say that even without me working we'll still be seated in the bracket of middle briton earners.

Despite this, I am still asking myself if we will survive or not, will we starve, will we be able to afford to pay our bills, will we spiral into a pit of debt? So if I'm thinking that, how do the almost 20% of UK families with incomes below the poverty line survive? And, what can I do to live within my means and what can I do to make any impact on addressing the mass of inequality in the world?

That's what I hope to start to answer as time goes on. First will be re-adjustment. Freedom begins in March 2017.

I'm looking forward to more time at home with the children, more time to spend on what I value and more time to put something (other than tax/wealth) back into the world.

For now, here's the reality of the situation:

• Low worry about pension future:
• I was lucky enough to be able to buy my first house in my early/mid-twenties. A house which has increased in value by almost 50% since buying it.
• I've benefited from the low interest rates, but when I bought I firmly considered whether my then partner and I could afford payments if the interest rates went up to 10%+ as we'd both seen in our lifetimes.
• I was lucky enough to rent that house out when life changed and my then partner and I split up, and the rental income has always been more than the outgoings with no periods of vacancy. Some might say I was also prudent to buy in an area with a buoyant rental market.
• My partner and I have both paid into and actively managed and planned our pension investments. My partner has been managing his since his early twenties and its definitely paid off - mine in comparison having only been concerned about it in my late twenties is pitiful by comparison but its balanced out my by house ownership.

• Living on a boat:
• My new partner and I stopped renting houses and moved onto a boat, the first boat we owned we sold on without a loss, we bought safe, an asset within our means and at the bottom of its depreciation curve and which would sell on if needed.
• We bought a second bigger boat when baby two arrived, we borrowed the money from parents and paid it off, again benefiting from low interest rates. We never missed payments and we made sure we had a plan and stuck to our plan to pay it off. We also bought safe, a boat at a price we knew we could get back if we sold it on.
• Living on a boat doesn't give quite the same security as a house and isn't quite as easy to sell on as a house - but it does mean living costs are a lot lower. We do have mooring costs and being in the South they aren't cheap, but they are manageable. Our water costs are included, our council tax bill is low, our electricity is part solar/wind powered and our gas and diesel costs are low.

• Not in debt:
• Politics has always been a avid topic of debate in my family. Whilst my Dad's opinions at times seemed slightly paranoid and sometimes unrealistic, I can only thank him for bringing me up with a healthy attitude to debt - its a simple concept, if you don't owe anyone anything they don't have any power of you.
• The point above obviously wasn't hammered home enough to me growing up as at University I learnt the hard way that a small debt can easily spiral out of control and the banks that are happy to lend you the money aren't so helpful when you fall behind on paying it off. Thanks to some sound advice from my parents and a couple of bail outs (which I could then pay off without excessive interest and charges) I settled them. Since then I've always tried to live within my means - to the extent that when I was at Uni and I couldn't afford bus money to my job 4 miles from my home, I got up early and I walked there and back, I worked in a bagel shop and when I couldn't afford to eat, I ate bagels morning, noon and night. I've lost some of this diligence with the affluence I've enjoyed in the past years, but I guess I'm going to have to start applying it more in the future.
• I've resisted the urge to buy new cars, bigger houses. We drive an old fiesta and an old mondeo. They're functional and affordable. 
• There are exceptions to this:
• I had a student loan. This only gets paid off when I am earning above a certain threshold and interest is at a rate aligned with inflation, so in real terms it never really increases.
• I have a mortgage - its paid by the rent and the property is in positive equity. I had to take a loan to pay off some equity to be allowed to rent it out - its paid by the rent and its almost paid off, I've saved hundreds by shopping round and moving it when interest rates lowered.
• Sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate - I'd class the mortgage in this category and also the boat loan - I wouldn't be beyond taking a loan if I had a very clear plan of paying it off and escape/contingency plans.

• I've earned a lot of money and I've wasted a lot of money:
• When I moved out of my house and onto a boat I realised how much stuff I had accumulated. Most went to the charity shop, who kindly sent me regular statements of how much my donations had earned them. Hundreds of pounds of junk which had cost me many hundred more.
• Coffee, cakes, must haves, will make me feel better... crap.
• Clothes, shoes, some of which have never been worn or only worn once.

• Got to start saving:
• I don't have a wealth of savings, I do need to start saving for us, now rainy days aren't going to be so easily covered by next months wages!
• I have been diligent in putting money away for the kids and I'm glad I have.

• Got to start living within our means:
• Less convenience food
• Less useless products
• More reuse, reduce, recycle
• Understanding what we value and sacrificing spending on what we don't value.
• I've been working out a lot in the past 6 months and I'm loving it, I'm also having regular sports massages to reduce chances of injury and deal with old injuries. I hope I can still do this, but it might mean sacrificing other things like haircuts.
• Can I keep making ethical choices whilst having a lower household income? 
• I've recently changed to vegan-ish, and the rest of the family are still eating meat - can we keep eating organic and local given the price difference?