23 Comments
Feb 10, 2023Liked by Charlie Brown

Hi, Charlie. I finally have a steady income and some earnings from other sources, that still come to just under $2K a month. I am happier than I have ever been! No "Comfort Creep" will be going on with me. I have cut my expenses to less than $500/month, so I have a lot of surplus funds to tackle that pesky VISA bill that ran out of control while I had a wildly fluctuating income. I'm going on a holiday and attending a convention this summer. Instead of staying in a hotel, I'll be in a 1-bedroom apartment in a condo building for five days, at about half the cost of the convention hotel. I'm going to get some essential groceries before I "check in" so I can always have 2 meals a day in my temporary home. The last two days I'll be visiting friends, so no real accommodation cost there. But I'll do my bit by cooking and washing the dishes. Including airfare, the whole cost of my week's holiday comes to about $1700. I expect to enjoy it thoroughly.

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Not a word here I can disagree with . We, too, have put up with a lot of less than pleasant things. The insanely loud bar underneath our apartment in Istanbul. Kneeling on my knees to wash dishes in the bathtub for six weeks in Keszthely, Hungary, because the kitchen sink was broken. And just a couple of months ago freezing in the Netherlands because the Airbnb host wouldn't turn up the heat.

Yet, when I got a hot water bottle to keep warm with I was so grateful. No, I wouldn't choose to be cold enough again to need a hot water bottle, but being that cold was a reminder of how nice it is to be warm, which I take much less for granted now.

I'm not sure how one avoids comfort creep or to convince other people that corporations are constantly scamming them.

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First time hearing of the term 'comfort creep' and I understand the concept. I loved reading your article and the way we shift goals has me thinking.

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This article is needed! Well said. I started simplifying my life last year in little ways and it’s made all the difference.

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Hi Charlie. I can totally resonate with this! My husband and I are currently travelling Europe in a campervan where we have to think about things we would normally take for granted such as where are we going to be able to get our next hot shower, or where we can top up our water or figuring out where we are going to park to sleep. We are used to living so comfortably and this lifestyle has given us a new found appreciation of life and the little things, something we never really did when living in our house in the UK. I'm very happy to have stumbled across your newsletter 😊

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Did you see Substack is profiling your newsletter this week?!! 🥰

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May 11, 2023Liked by Charlie Brown

I love your articles! The one on Ted Lasso and interested, curious people was great as you come across these non ones all the time, and just want to get out of there. You find your own tribe eventually, and you may not be particularly interesting to some people, but there are always those out there that will click with you, and you with them. Note...they are not to be found on social media, an egotistical and toxic place at the best of times, people sadly trying more to boost their own fragility. I'd love someone to do a study on influencers and the rate of divorced or busted or dysfunctional and broken homes they have come from. I think there is a correlation, if not for that then, then for a destructive and narcissistic desire to be wanted or make money. It is a worldwide thing, from the US where it is the worst, to 3rd world corrupt countries where it is more about making cash from their desperate lives ... these ones want in on fame from social media sadly, and use it to validate their identities, or make some cash from their impoverished lives. Neither works long term though!

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