Living the Dream Ludlow style

Singlespeeder

Earthed up the spuds, planted out 2 of the 5 courgette plants, and filled in the missing runner beans with 14 new seeds ... 
Hopefully not too hot for everything.... 
Toms and chilli are doing very well in the conservatory.
Fab walk last night up along Lower Whitcliffe and Deep wood just an amazing place.
All is good.

Frith

That’s the one! 

Its a pity the Olive Branch has closed. 

Singlespeeder

Garden is doing pretty well and grateful for the rain.
I've sorted the wood store and decided I need a chainsaw but will wait for Ald1 to do one.
We bought a Victure HC100 Wildlife camera for £41 and we have a hedgehog, possibly Eleanor, living in the garden
Scaffold is coming down tomorrow.
Mortgage repayment doesn't appear to have affected the Term but reduced the monthly repayment, the opposite to what I requested when we made it.. Another 40 wait to Barclays is in order

 

Singlespeeder

Quick update from Ludlow.
We've really settled in to living in this beautiful town.
I'm a cyclist and the riding from here is superb, 15 miles or so from Welsh border, south Shropshire hills are all around. It's bliss.
The garden has come on quite a bit and we've installed a wildlife pond at the top, which seems to be very popular with the birds!
We've quite a few hedgehogs as we've released about 8 here I think, and most have stayed in the vicinity.
We've had a good crop of broad beans already, and now have rhubarb, parsnips, runner beans, tomatoes, chilli, potatoes, courgettes and cabbages all growing in the veg plots.

Our Right of Way issue is now all resolved ( we 'owned' a defunct outside loo on the back of next doors house, they had a RoW across the back of our house. The sellers agreed it's in everyone's interest to simple swap the loo for the RoW ! Done !) and new young owners have move in next door ... it's been empty since Dec '20 and needs A LOT of work ( it needs gutting tbh and new EVERYTHING ! ) so I guess we're in for some building noise / dust.

On the repayment front, on the mortgage anniversary we paid off another full 10% ( this year it was £11k I think ) and we're continuing to pay the original £700pcm mortgage which also equates to an additional £130 pcm of the mortgage. We've been assured this is fine and doesn't impact the 10% OP we make annually. Not sure why.

Anyway we've been here 16 months and we're now below  £100k ... we've paid off over £30,000 in that time
The plan is to be able to be mortgage free by the end of the 5 year fixed term. We're on track for this and have about 3 years and 8 months to go.  

Aimingforthegoodlife

Have loved reading through your diary, you keep yourself so busy its amazing! Fab overpayments as well, shame they have reduced the monthly amount but I am sure they will change it back! Where you live looks beautiful and I think it shows how far you have come with your organisation in this diary with regards to funds! Great work, must be amazing to get under 100k! 

Singlespeeder

Aimingforthegoodlife said:

Have loved reading through your diary, you keep yourself so busy its amazing! Fab overpayments as well, shame they have reduced the monthly amount but I am sure they will change it back! Where you live looks beautiful and I think it shows how far you have come with your organisation in this diary with regards to funds! Great work, must be amazing to get under 100k! 

Thank you. I am a 'do-er' I prefer to be busy and there were quite a few things that needed doing... though there's fewer now
I have had a complete change with regards to my relationship with money. In my previous life I was perpetually in deep debt, like £45k worth of debt. I now have no debt other than the mortgage. I also have no credit cards.

We use the Starling account with it's side accounts and put most of our money in there each payday, dividing the money into the relevant pots. This has a 'baseline' of £1000 ( this £1000 is our 'zero' ).   

I also now have modest savings.
Essentially I've stopped spending money. I want for nothing really. And I don't hanker after anything.

This way of life is a much better place to be than the indebted one, for sure !

Singlespeeder

Well we're heading into winter. We had a good summer but seem to be paying back for it now in RAIN.
As of today, we've not yet had the Central Heating on this Autumn / Winter , though we've lit the logburner 4 or 5 nights.
We do use electric blankets, one on the bed, and one over us in the lounge. TBH it's absolutely fine ! 
Our last 2 months combined fuel bills have been ...... £23 and £33  (obvs this is after the £66 has been deducted )  and we're saving the difference to offset the colder months. We don't pay by direct debit, we provide the meter readings and simply pay for what we've actually used.

Otherwise Ludlow life is pretty damn good. smile:

Kerreh

What a lovely read... you seem very satisfied/fulfilled and well.. what more is there to want!  

Frith

Just caught up with your diary. I'm still 500 metres from the Shrops border but, after 23 years, my house is on the market...

I'd love to move to Ludlow but it wouldn't fit in with my sons' hobbies and work.

Singlespeeder

Frith said:

Just caught up with your diary. I'm still 500 metres from the Shrops border but, after 23 years, my house is on the market...

I'd love to move to Ludlow but it wouldn't fit in with my sons' hobbies and work.

I guess it wouldn't suit everyone. At least it has a train station (one of the main criteria of choosing Ludlow over say Oswestry).
It is a quiet town, unbelievably so in lockdown! But there's enough to do and plenty of good pubs and the brewery is fantastic.
The markets are a real treat too. We love it here.

My partner has got herself woven into the community really well. She immediately joined the local Knit & Natter (some call it Stitch & B!tch  )  and met loads of good women there. She then got a part time job in the Library, then one with St Lawrences ( the main church in the town) and now a 3rd in the Assembly Rooms. She knows ALL the gossip !

I'm a little less of a social butterfly and genuinely ok with my own company. I started and ran a mountain bike club in Coventry and now prefer solo riding. There's a Men's Shed which would be interesting I think but it only runs in the day. I haven't met any proper friends yet but I'm ok with that.

The garden keeps me busy. The Battle of The Bindweed has gone well, now we've a much reduced foe to keep an eye on ! The wildlife pond is thriving, we've seen a couple of frogs from time to time, and we were given some small goldfish, they're lovely.
I've got broad beans planted up afor next year, they were a massive success this year. Rhubarb did fairly well, though we didn't pick any to let it establish. Parsnips are looking good but I've not lifted any yet ... they might be great or rubbish. Courgettes did well and we've had loads of blackberries from the garden. And Apples !! The 2nd freezer is well stocked with pureed apples which should see us through the winter

We planted some dahlias for some colour and they did ok, I'm planning on leaving them in the ground but covering them with straw to protect the tubers from frost.

I've collected up a few bin bags of leaves for leaf mould but I'm really after a supply of manure, I think the garden would appreciate it, even if the neighbours wouldn't !

It's all very exciting seeing the changes year on year.