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Prosperous soul in the making
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I am in awe of your progress regarding general health, weight loss, work, pain control, gardening and growing your own veg. I have no such impetus or inclination, but will live vicariously through your trials and tribulations. You are doing great so far. If you could bottle positivity, you would make a killing!
I am in the same place as your hubby in relation to the drive. It needs doing. I have allocated the money from my holiday to it - assuming at some point this millennia it is actually refunded. Holiday companies are quick to take it but no so quick to refund! Anyway, I am certain the money could be used more productively, but the drive needs to be done, so getting it out of the way whilst I won't notice the cost. My real concern has been the builders desire to do it during the period of lock down. Should I encourage them to flout the 'stay at home' government guidance? Interested to know what your thoughts are on this.
Enjoying your journey. Hope you are too.What I do not give, you must never take by force.
Mortgage outstanding - 30/12/22 - £25,900. 31/01/23 - £22,300. 28/02/23 - £20,500. 31/03/23 - £17,500. 30/04/23 - £15,800. 30/05/23 - £13,800. 31/06/23 - £11,300. 31/07/23 - £9,800. 31/08/23 - £8,300. 30/09/23 - £6,000. 31/10/23 - £3,000. 30/11/23 - £1,200. 06/12/23 - £00.00
God save us everyone, As we burn inside the fire of a thousand suns, For the sins of our hands, The sins of our tongues, The sins of our fathers, The sins of our young. Linkin Park2 -
@Tahlullah.H it's not flouting guidelines, those unable to work from home can go to work. There are still gardeners working around here, my brother is in the building trade and still working on site. As long as social distancing is followed, your drive could get done, if your chosen person is working.Mortgage started 2020, aiming to clear 31/12/2029.3
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That's good to know. Have been agonizing over this! Thanks for the clarification. It's so easy to misunderstand the government guidance.What I do not give, you must never take by force.
Mortgage outstanding - 30/12/22 - £25,900. 31/01/23 - £22,300. 28/02/23 - £20,500. 31/03/23 - £17,500. 30/04/23 - £15,800. 30/05/23 - £13,800. 31/06/23 - £11,300. 31/07/23 - £9,800. 31/08/23 - £8,300. 30/09/23 - £6,000. 31/10/23 - £3,000. 30/11/23 - £1,200. 06/12/23 - £00.00
God save us everyone, As we burn inside the fire of a thousand suns, For the sins of our hands, The sins of our tongues, The sins of our fathers, The sins of our young. Linkin Park3 -
Thanks MF and Tahlullah - I work hard at being positive as I've had a lifelong struggle with MH issues. I find redirecting my energy to something positive is the best way through.
I've had a brilliant day. I manage my pain best if I have 12-14 hour days and spend the rest in bed! Just been for a short walk with DH and the dog. We have had a really productive day. DH has been assembling a new metal shed (all we could get) - and he is about half way through I reckon. I've been gathering up the bamboo and other stuff we had already cut down and forcing it into cardboard boxes or anything handy that is big enough. I am trying to rescue some of the bamboo canes in the hope of drying them out to make future plant supports. I also brushed up a load of stuff on the path. The cardboard boxes we may use as long term compost storage as it will all gradually break down and as long as it is in a more hidden part of the garden it should be fine.
I severely chopped back an elderly flame of forest so I could get to the bamboo growing through and behind it. There is a pink flowering weigela with variegated green and cream leaves between it and an apple tree. Once the weigela stops flowering I will prune it hard to give the apple tree more room. I may even move it. I cut the bamboo back in that corner too and pulled out a load of ivy that was strangling the apple tree and lopped the top off the tree. I cut back the escalonia but may leave it in as a climbing support for beans and other plants. Some of the bamboo was 10-12 feet tall easily which shows how long we had neglected it. I want to get that area clean if I can and then potentially put bark down. It won't protect against bamboo but should hopefully make it easier to spot and keep on top of it.
That area is behind my shed - and I am thinking of making it a new veg area and using the dog metal 'playpen' type thing as a growing support for plants &or to keep the dog away from food we are growing... Likely to be 'no dig' style where you either just chuck compost onto bare soil and plant into that or put cardboard over weeds and grass - then throw compost and grow in that or use some kind of containers. I have some car boot liner type bags that have sides that I am planning to use somewhere- just not sure if i am chopping the bottom out or not.
Still more bamboo left to chop in other parts of the garden but all smaller scale now. We also still have weird green marsh style grasses left to chop down / try and dig out. DH said, "It feels like the garden can breathe now." That feels like a really good description. Some of my potato plants grew and made little plants so I have now planted them in a couple of hessian containers in the garden - slowly earthing them up each time roots become visible. I planted 3 small strips of beetroot seed tape into a plastic container. I am currently recycling all the plastic boxes that come with meat, ice cream, fruit and veg as seed trays as I can't seem to buy them. They are working well.Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
2) £1.6K Net savings after CCs 14/8/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £25.3K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.2K) = 31.1/£127.5K target 24.4% 15/8/25
4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
5) SIPP £4.8K updated 29/7/256 -
Yesterday I sorted through 10 baskets / drawers in the living room and shredded loads of old papers and even did some filing. I am counting that as 3 bags worth - as some of the stuff I got rid of was over 10 years old!Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
2) £1.6K Net savings after CCs 14/8/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £25.3K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.2K) = 31.1/£127.5K target 24.4% 15/8/25
4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
5) SIPP £4.8K updated 29/7/256 -
What a good idea about using the plastic trays as seed trays, I'm running out of trays to use under planters so when watering the plants it's just coming out again. I'll remember this when cooking later, I do have a greenhouse effect made out of the strong plastic bags dh uses at work which are brilliant!
Well done for sorting through paperwork, definitely a win.
H x
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Glad it helped Hugglemonster
Well the patio and drive costs came in but they are way too high for this point in our debt journey - at least without getting at least 3 quotes. However the fab news is that over the way were getting some tree work done so we've got them to quote for ours too. So we are getting a plum tree taken down to 10 foot - it's at least twice that. We are getting a swamp willow coppiced down to fence level and then we will keep it under control each year from there. I was never sure what that tree was. The great news about that is the swamp willow is what is shading out my garden so I am hoping it will become a lot sunnier again - and therefore be better for veg growing. That will make it easier for us to reach our (cooking) cherry tree too as the other trees branches were always in the way. They will come back tomorrow. Exciting. They are going to leave us the logs so DH can have fun woodworking them or for later fire pits.Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
2) £1.6K Net savings after CCs 14/8/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £25.3K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.2K) = 31.1/£127.5K target 24.4% 15/8/25
4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
5) SIPP £4.8K updated 29/7/253 -
Great idea to use the cut down bamboo as support for plants 🙂.paydbx2025 #26 £890/£5000 . Mortgage start £148k June 23 - now £138k.
2025 savings challenge £0/£2000 EF £140. Savings 2 £30.00. 172 -
Great work on the garden. L1dl advertised some fruit trees for sale this week but none there when I checked sadly. I think fruit trees might be the way forward for me as they require minimal workIf you have built castles in the air, your work should not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them
Emergency fund 800/1000
Buffer fund 0/100
Debt Free (again) 25/0720252 -
Brilliant work on the garden. I'd say it is looking amazing. I'm envious of your garden. Ours is v small and currently half of it has been taken up with a trampoline!Total (Aug 19):€58,567 Now:€26,947
DFD:Nov 22/June 22
Mortgage: €199,712
MFD: March 2042/July 20342
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