added some work in progress posts

1 files changed, 55 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/se-renta.txt b/se-renta.txt
index 0f84ee0..6c98a84 100644
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+++ b/se-renta.txt
@@ -11,8 +11,51 @@ But here's a rough number for a family of five, barring unforeseen expenses, whi
 
 
 
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 We spend just over half that in Mexico, sans bus. 
 
+Part of it is that some things are cheaper here. Though really, not that much cheaper. I'd say food, which makes up the largest part of our budget, is about 30% less here. That's nothing to sneeze at, it helps for sure, but it's not the real reason it's cheaper to live in Mexico.
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+When I take a hard look at the spreadsheet, and then rotate it sideways to get a new perspective, what really jumps out is the "miscellaneous" category. I don't get real fine grained with categories so miscellaneous holds everything that is not gas, food, lodging or vehicle repair. Basically it hold the non-essentials.
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+Why is the category larger for us in the US? After spending some time meditating on this I have a very simple answer: in Mexico you are not bombarded with advertising. Mexico has pretty much everything the United States has, but it's no in your face 24/7. Shops do not have windows, most do not even have a way to browse through stuff. Instead you walk in, tell the person what you need, the person asks small medium or large and then goes rummaging around to find what you want.
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+Everything you buy here comes from your own mind first and is found second. 
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+In the United States everything is presented and then your mind decides what to buy. 
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+One of these models will leave more money in your pocket than the other.
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+I like to think I am immune to advertising, that I am smarter than the advertisers, that I resist the never-ending onslaught of stuff, but my spreadsheet says otherwise. And I don't even own a TV, how much more would I be buying if I watched television?i
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+And it's not that I'm comparing many years of life in the U.S to just three months in Mexico. Comparing the U.S. to Mexico is not what made me notice this, it was comparing the time we spent in the bus without a car, vs the time we had a car that made it painfully obvious. It's very simple: given a car and easy access to everything, we spent more. Take away the access and we spent less. Mexico also takes away the access, so we spend less here to. But it's not the situations or places, it's us.
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+I am not immune. You are not immune. We all fall victim to advertising. 
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+Advertising is a debased form of magic, which is another way of saying it's powerful, but there are things more powerful. The most important of those is your will. If you want control over what you consume, you're going to have to strengthen your will. So long as you are surrounded by signals that are trying to get you to spend money on crap, it is going to be an uphill battle.
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+If you can I strongly suggest removing yourself from the signals. If you have the ability to travel to somewhere you don't speak the language and is outside the general sphere of western advertising then do it. Spend a month tracking your spending to the penny. Then move away for a month and track your spending again. Observe the difference. Now that you see mediate on why it exists.
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+If, like most people, you can't pick and move to foreign country for a month then you're going to have to try to change in the midst of the battle so to speak. While possible, this is much much harder. And again, while I like to think I have mastered this, my spreadsheet says otherwise, so take this advice with a grain of salt. Chances are good that this actually much harder than you or I think and you're going to need to put in more effort than I'm suggesting.
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+The most important thing is to develop your will. I am serious. Start doing exercises to develop your will. For example, force your self up out of the chair right now, turn away from the computer and walk to the nearest wall. Touch it. Come back and sit down. Repeat this at random during the day. Is it pointless? Absolutely. So is lifting weights. The principle is the same. So choose a deliberately pointless thing to do, and do it. Then do another one. Then do the same thing every morning for a week. 
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+One will-building exercise I do periodically is what I call, for lack of a better phrase, micro travel. It works like this: pick a place at random in the city you live, somewhere you've never been. Choose a time and make an appointment with yourself. Now go work out all the details of getting there, if possible use public transit or walk. Then meet yourself there and make sure you're there on time. Now enjoy a few minutes exploring the area and head home.
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+I'll leave thinking up other exercises to you, but the point is to develop your will, to have control over your life. It takes a little time to see and feel the effects of this, it's quite subtle, but it will cascade throughout your life in a number of interesting ways, I promise. One will be better control over your impulses. When you walk into, say Target, to buy a new toothbrush your newly developed will will make it easier to walk past everything else and only buy the toothbrush. 
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+Eventually your will may help you recognize that stores that have everything are too much for your will. It would be cleverer to buy that toothbrush at a smaller store with fewer things, because it's easier to remove temptation than resist it. Think of it like dieting. If you're trying to eat less ice cream it's much easier to not walk down the ice cream aisle at all than it is to walk down it and without buying anything.
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+This also leads into my second suggestion for buying less stuff: change your habits. It's convenient to go to Target and get everything you need in one place, but chances are you're going to spend more than you intended without realizing it. In fact the entire experience of being in Target has been engineered to increase the chance you'll spend more than you intended. Every time you enter a store you are entering a hostile environment designed to extract your life energy from you. 
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+Oh sure it's all abstracted so you don't have think of it that way. Still, strip the abstraction and relationship is pretty clear, you trade hours of your life for shit you buy at Target. You get up the morning and go to work. That's a day of your life you just traded for paper tickets. Why do you need those tickets? To put a roof over your head and food in your stomach. Pretty much everything after that is not strictly necessary. So once those basics are met you're in th realm of swapping your existence on earth for stuff. 
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+The less stuff you buy, the less you need to work. By extension, the less time you spend in places designed to extract money from you, the less of your life you'll have to trade for stuff.
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+That's a habit you can break -- going to all-in-one-place stores -- but there are other habits you can build that will help immensely as well. 
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+
 
 One of the things I've been at pains to avoid is making it sound like we don't like the United States. In fact we do very much, it's one of the most beautiful places in the world and has some of the wildest and safest wilderness you're ever going to enter. 
 
@@ -59,12 +102,20 @@ If we keep the bus what needs to be done?
     - Additional solar panels - 160W flex for 280, 100W flex for 205 ~ $600 for 320W or $400 for 200
     - MPPT controller $400
     - 12V fridge - $1000 vitfrigo
-    - rear rack - $300
-    - shelves in closet $100
-    - toilet $150
+    - rear rack - $220
+    - shelves in closet $80
+    - toilet aqua magic iv $120
     - paint bathroom
     - redo area around air-con/shelf with pots and pans
     - counter water damage around sink
     - leaks? 
 
-600+400+1000+300+150+100
+600+400+1000+220+120+80
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+Travco window seals:
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+Cr Laurence is where I got mine but when installed I cannot slide the window, but it is closest I have found . I lubed no luck so next step is to take some of the flock out with knife or grind. Another source is dk hardware is where I found my vent window flex channel
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+John Galloway Sorry the cr Laurence came from dk hardware and vent window flex channel came from Pelland
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+New headlights: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001G72SKQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1&fbclid=IwAR0QSHKWOv2pU8uKkvs_EPP-6kJQeRQORaVkiqvEcCl9OREacIma95WRAzo (as per Paul Zueke)