Escape to the country & living off savings

SuzeQStan

Hey SYA - brill news about the water meter engineer!  Reckon you will be quids in if it can proceed - got fingers crossed for you 🤞🏻🤞🏻

you are brave doing Aquafit after shoulder injection - that is one thing I will never forget from my days in ortho clinic - injections! Shivers! 

Sounds like you get a lot of benefit from your union membership - I’m probably naive but didn’t realise that union membership subs / benefits continued into retirement! Makes perfect sense though!

MF has a good point about insurance benefits - I scraped the cheapest car insurance I could get @£195 for the year and it came with a tenner of free fuel from a shell garage. 

Glad the sun is shining for us all this week - going
To take a leaf out your book SYA and line dry the bed sheets - a real treat! Xx

Skint_yet_Again

Thanks DIA and SQS

Wow I have never had free petrol with car insurance! 

Arm is improving daily. I am at aquafit again on Tuesday so hopefully it will be easier and less painful 

I have pork in my slow cooker today. I will have some later with veg and swede & carrot mash. The rest will be frozen in portions. 

Yesterday I rubbed down the cast iron table and chairs my friend gave me with DF’s wire brush and also did the hanging basket hooks at the front and back of the house. I am just about to start painting them with the free black metal paint that my friend also gave me. It’s a lovely sunny day again ☀️ 

SuzeQStan

Perfect day for it SYA - OH just corrected me - the insurance came with £20 free petrol LOL

Skint_yet_Again

Lovely sunny morning again today ☀️

One load of washing hung out to dry and washing basket is empty 🤗

DF is due to arrive shortly with his wheelbarrow so we can move more soil in my garden. Then we are planting bulbs. I have snowdrops, mini daffys and mini irises plus my friend gave me some bluebell bulbs. I am having a herb/alpine garden on the new rockery area and a woodland area opposite. I will be doing a trip to the garden centre for some ferns to go in the shady spot. I have planted buddlea further down the garden for the butterflies 🦋 

Yesterday I got a coat of paint on the underneath / legs of my cast iron patio table and chairs. Today I will be painting the table top and seats / backs of the chairs. 

doingitanyway

I keep seeing Red Admiral butterflies feeding on the buddleia bush here. Your garden sounds lovely and natural 

Skint_yet_Again

Thanks dia. Bulbs all planted and trip to the garden centre planned for Wednesday. Finished painting the cast iron table and chairs. It has been so warm and sunny I treated myself to an ice cream from the van this afternoon 😁

Water meter engineer arrived today. The water company told me he would be inspecting the property for me to go on a waiting list. He fitted the meter within about 20 minutes!! So I will be saving water where possible from now on. 

Tandoori chicken and roast veg currently cooking in the oven. I will have some for dinner 

SuzeQStan

Brilliant news  re water meter SYA!  👏🏻

Have you got a rain barrel fitted to your gutters?  No need to buy one if you don’t - they come up often for free on freecycle/Olio/FB marketplace etc.  

another thing to make sure about is that your toilet doesn’t have a leak - just pop a square of toilet paper in the bowl above the water line before bed and if it’s still there in morning suggests there’s no leak.  

Toilets that run leak can waste HUGE amounts of water and when you’re on a meter that’s no good.

 I know I bang on about it but our water bill dropped by £20 a month after we sorted our leaky loo. 

Made up you are all sorted with your meter 😊👍🏻👍🏻

SuzeQStan

Ps - I visited the ice cream van today too - too hot to say no 🤣☀️🥵

SuzeQStan

One other water tip - when running water in shower or sink waiting for it to get hot - just pop a bucket / bowl under it to pour on your garden. 

Must admit tho the shower bucket didn’t last long as our shower is upstairs and it was a proper pain to lug that downstairs so we fitted another ‘grey water’ rain barrel to catch the shower water. 

Skint_yet_Again

Thanks SQS

Aquafit today was much easier with my shoulder which was much less painful. 

After that I called at asd@ and got a hot deli chicken £6.50 and 4 tins of tuna on offer reduced from £3 to £1. Had chicken salad for lunch sat in the sun in the garden. Then walked down the village to my friends house for a cuppa

DF received a £10 off £40 for screw fix so he has gone to get me a dehumidifier with great reviews £133. There was a bit of damp in the kitchen when I moved in. We treated it and redecorated and replaced the cooker hood and the extractor fan in the bathroom. During the winter I dry washing indoors if it can’t be hung out. So I think this will be a good investment.