Eating the elephant

Seanymph

£66,051 today - no idea why that's gone down again - but importantly I'm nearly in the 65's!

I almost mind that when I started I was fourteen pounds off of £70k - it would feel bigger.

Today has been a worky weekend, and it's all gone a bit pants where I'm leaving. I hate it when that happens. Something hasn't worked out how my bosses wanted it, despite it being what they asked for, and they are shooting the messenger. Well I didn't decide it they did!

So Financial Independence is looking more and more attractive.

Mr Sea is returning to work tomorrow - and harvest is still full swing, so hopefully he'll get to full speed in time to pick up some of the annual overtime we need so badly.

And having done the money shuffle I got mr Sea to check our accounts he oversees (france) and by the end of next week the Roof is covered plus about 800 euros (depending on the exchange rate Friday) so we are clear and working towards holibobs money there.

Thank goodness.

Unfortunately (or fortunately because it's nice) I have an annual visit from a second cousin starting next week. She is in her 80's, and travels all year - she comes in September to Norfolk and spends 10 days nearby in a posh b & b and I have to squire her around the County visiting places.

it's a real bind with work - because juggling the two is hell and I refuse to take two weeks holiday - and, more importantly, it's blessed expensive!

Although she pays her way, I have to pay mine! so if she pays the entrance by the time we hit the coffee shop she smiles whilst I queue and pay.......... The 10 days end up fairly costly.

Still, she's lovely so I shouldn't moan.

norfolkdream

peeps in to say hello - Oohh you live in Norfolk! Can you give me pros and cons please. Can I ask whereabouts? Like you with the motorhome blogs I belong to a few norfolk groups on FB and people share photos all the time and I just sigh and think 'one day' I would so love to live near the coast and see the sun go down every day.

Hope Mr Sea is getting better.

Seanymph

I'm not north enough to see the sun set in the sea. I was just South of Cromer in a coastal village and we have moved even more South and slightly inland.

So I'm underneath the expensive bit now. I live on the very boundary of the Norfolk Broads - in fact my back garden runs alongside an old railway line which is now a long distance footpath (I have a gate onto it) and the other side of the railway line is all broads watermeadows - so we get to sit and watch wildlife and nothing much else, well, apart from the odd rambler.

And we can walk onto the trackway, and from there across and into the Broads and just bumble about indefinitely really.

The coastal thing is lovely - except for the horrendously filthy windows, and the fact that the temperature is always about three degrees lower than two miles inland - not to mention the wicked northerly winds. As you had a seaview from my back door, for about 10 days a year you had to hold your breath as you opened it because it was so cold you couldn't breathe until you got behind the fencing!

Mmmmm, Norfolk - well I won't be leaving again. I moved into Norfolk and found it hard to adapt to start - when a plumber tells you he'll do a job here he'll do it. But it's hard to get him to commit to when.

The good news is everyone knows someone who can sort it out for you.

My kids grew up here - and loved it.

It has outdoor playground all over - sea, broads, heathlands, woodlands - but also a city, with the theatre and all other options.

There are loads of independent shops, creative things and tourist attractions galore - but a pace of life I haven't found anywhere else really.

When they were dualling the A11 most Norfolk people I talked about it with said 'dual it, they should put a bloody gate across it!'....

it's strange, I can pop to London for the day - but sit in my garden and hear nothing.

I love it.

norfolkdream

Thats great Sea, I was thinking west norfolk really, as want to be near to prob Kings Lynn for poss work opportunities and still a quick route to see family in the midlands. I do know that people born there dont really like outsiders moving in, Ive seen a lot of comments moaning about tourists but we do bring the trade in to keep the towns going. I know it must be frustrating though having strangers walking all over your town all the time tho.
If you dont mind me asking can I ask why you moved more inland?

Seanymph

You couldn't find a more welcoming bunch of people - don't let the rumours put you off, once you move here everyone is lovely.

I moved inland because of the horrid salt grime on the windows, the coldness, the bitter wind, the awful parking.....

I can be at the beach in about 10 minutes - you can walk there from here (well, I don't, but SS does) - the kids pop out in the evening and have a beach walk with the dog......... but living in land means I can sit in the garden without freezing to death whilst they are gone!

ourcornercottage

I like a good moan about tourists, but only when they wake my son with their shouting and steal my jam!

Fellow norfolkian here. Come, you'll never leave again. All newcomers welcome don't believe what they say

They are also duelling the a47 in next few years so that might open up your options.

Seanymph

I like that end of the A47 too though - spent my birthday weekend in Kings Lynn.

norfolkdream

OOh I feel like a Norfolk meet up one day so you can show me the best places only an insider would know

Seanymph

see £66051 on the sixth

£66215 today.

Makes no sense at all!

The good news is that the monthly payment goes in tomorrow - well, it goes out of our account tomorrow, probably gets credited about a week later!

Seanymph

£65,599.77

That is the lowest it will be for a while, because the payment was yesterday, so it will start going up again! BUT

£4,386.80 less in six months. Up to £731.13 a month on average.

I keep saying to myself if should go quicker as we pay it off because less goes onto interest - if anyone who understands better than me reads, could I have a 'yes you get it' or 'pay attention this is how it works' please?

I have been reading the 'retiring early' thread - OH and I were looking at 5 years this autumn. Well, I better just work until I'm bundled into a box - these guys have millions and are still saying 'have I got enough?'

I may have an ambition, but I have no idea how to hit it!

I have seen two figures where people travelling full time in motorhomes have costed a year and broken it down - one couple spent around £8,000 including the insurance - one couple £18,000. So that shows how variable people are!

If we rented out both houses I think we'd clear around £13,000 a year - the FIT money brings in around £2,000. And we'd still have a house in France to go and sit in if we didn't sell it.

But it's a fairly thin plan!

I still then face paying off the mortgage which at the current rate is 7.5 years (that's why I need to know if it gets quicker) AND buying a van (which is as much as the mortgage at least).

Not sure my reality matches my ambition here. I seem to have a gap!

In good news I suppose and reading back and thinking I paid about £7,500 last year for rent for the kids at Uni which I won't pay this year, and have just paid over £10,000 for the roof in France - so that is a one off payment.

We have other renovations before the house is lettable - but not on that scale really.

I have started writing everything I spend into a book - thankyou for the tip whoever had that buried in their diary.

But I do have spendy days - Holt yesterday for a cruise around charity shops - an East skirt for me that doesn't fit (but will, it will) and a skirt for my daughter for work. And lunch of course.

Today we are off to Sandringham.

Still, she only comes once a year - and only for another 8 days.