Living the Good Life - mortgage free and living in line with our values

themadvix · 5 May at 4:02PM

So May:

We had a relatively quiet BH weekend - we cleaned out the pond on Saturday; tamed the front garden on Sunday; and did very little except see my family and collect some (free) fish for our pond yesterday. Needed a few bits for the pond (new plant baskets, soil, gravel), but that was the only expense.

B&W Cat's recovery pending, we're away this weekend - staying with friends though and I suspect we won't be paying for much.

The following weekend, we're off to France for the day - Eurotunnel refund from our Disney trip is covering the train ticket, so it'll be lunch spends and hypermarket (I need to start a list for that). Mum, Sis and Niece should be coming, but Niece is waiting for urgent op after her issues in November (and she spent most of last week in hospital too), so that may change at short notice.

The last BH weekend we're seeing some friends (for a BBQ at their house), but I don't think we have any other major plans for May. I need to focus on getting everything into the ground at the allotment (all but sweetcorn is now sown - and I'm going to do that shortly) and looking after it. I am probably going to spend a bit of money on some netting (horrible plastic stuff) as I now have twice as much space to protect. I must not buy any more plants though! (Or compost 😂) I bought a couple of grafted peppers/chillis the other day after Foxgloves's positive experience with grafted cukes last year - so I'm hoping to have a seriously improved harvest this year.

Mr MV is still working away on the teardrop caravan - he's ordered the roof aluminium to arrive this week, so exciting times ahead! I guess, if all goes well, we might squeeze a night away in it in before the end of the month?

In terms of the bigger house projects planned for all my extra income this year, we haven't yet made any progress, bar plenty of discussion. We will get a quote from the man who did Mum's garden re some changes to our front garden (and Mr MV has pledged his work bonus towards this too), but we have no idea what the costs will be like. No movement on windows or insulation as yet.

MS things:
* S&S submitted
* Brought home and using up leftovers from Dad's birthday weekend (there were a lot - Stepmum seemed to think she was feeding the 5,000 for a month, not 11 (inc 2 children) for 2 days!)
* Along with fish, acquired two garden chairs that were otherwise going to the dump yesterday. They won't last long term and we don't have a lot of room for them, but nonetheless, handy to have for now
* Bread and granola baked this morning
* Three loads of washing line drying
* Made a batch of Dishoom dal and popped 4 portions in the freezer (using leftover cream from the weekend)

Gratitudes:
* A lovely weekend celebrating Dad's birthday - I do love how well we all get on (step-siblings etc.)
* A sense of achievement - from sorting front garden and cleaning out pond
* Lovely to see Mum's side of family yesterday - rare for us all to be in the same place except at Christmas!

Have a good evening all!

themadvix · 5 May at 4:04PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81987720#Comment_81987720

It's wood fired - you use kindling, although you can also use charcoal and/or hook it up to gas (although you clearly need to buy additional stuff for that). The Karu 12 (which is what we've got but is being replaced by the Karu 2) is for 12" pizzas if that helps. I think you'd make good use of one too! We had asparagus on our 'test' pizza on Saturday, inspired by you!

Greying_Pilgrim · 5 May at 5:43PM

Thanks tmv - that's useful to know. And YAY! For asparagus pizza 😁👍

Sending healing vibes, and positive vibes for your DN's swift recovery. That is some battle she's been having. I hope her hospital stay has been as 'good' as these things can be, and that everything goes to plan with the op, and she's soon flying on the road to a full recovery.

Family vay-cay and celebration sounds great - I can absolutely see how everything is 'even better' if folks just rub along.

I'm looking forward to hearing all the teardrop-camper test-drives and travels 😁

Greying X

TallGirl · 6 May at 9:14AM

Glad you are back so delighted to read about the teardrop sounds like it is almost ready it just sounds so cool I am sure you will have lots of fun in it.

Boo to the vet bills and the hissing Cats are funny!

themadvix · 6 May at 12:29PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81987898#Comment_81987898

Thanks GP - it's been a difficult six months. She's also going to have her tonsils out at some point too, and hopefully then she'll be back to being a healthy thing. She finally has a date this morning, after Sis complained, so 1st June it is! Which also means the car will be full next week when we go to France for the day - fun, but less comfortable!

We are so lucky with our blended family - we all get on really well and it's like having a new group of friends (even if I am the oldest!🙄). ❤️

themadvix · 6 May at 12:32PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81988502#Comment_81988502

Thanks TG! The aluminium should arrive today… although I suspect there's still quite a bit to do. But Mr MV sounds pretty determined to get it finished asap, so we can have some adventures this summer. Unfortunately the mini also needs fixing as it won't run at the moment (reason why is yet to be fully investigated), so it might be a little while yet. We can't tow with the Tesla - it's an older model 3 and can't have a towbar fitted - the longer term plan will be to swap it for a later version that you can have a towbar fitted to as there's a limit as to how far we'll want to travel with the mini.

EssexHebridean · 11 May at 4:42PM

I thought of you at the campsite last week as someone had a teardrop! Was quite nice to see one in person!

Your poor Niece really is going through it isn't she - I hope they manage to get her all sorted out and back to normal soon, poor thing! B&W cat too - so tough when the furry ones are poorly.

I keep looking at pizza ovens then reminding myself that we don't really have space, AND that we have barely used the barbeque/smoker we already have..!

themadvix · 12 May at 1:51PM

Thanks EH. Yes, it's not a great time health-wise at the moment. Niece is doing OK, and now just has to stay germ free until her op. 🤞🏼

B&W cat is currently at a specialist vets for further tests on his stomach (ultrasound and endoscopy). The bill is likely to be horrific and not all of it will be covered by the insurance - there's a limit of £4k/per year/per condition and I've just paid half the estimate at £2400 and this is just for diagnosis. In good news, the lump on his head was benign (and a different condition and therefore a different pot of money).

I am having an endoscopy too tomorrow - so I have much sympathy for him. Sadly he doesn't appreciate this and swiped at my face and bit my finger while the vet was examining him (neither of which he has ever done before, he is usually super soft for me). Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty stressed and miserable - both for him and me! It was very embarrassing - the first aider was called and it'll go in the accident book! 🙄

Fortunately we still have the 0% card from having the heat pump installed. And the insurance has already paid out for the op last week (although we need to check what they've paid and the money hasn't arrived yet - but it's usually pretty quick once they've said it's coming). We have the money for the heat pump already sat stoozing, but I'm getting a bit twitchy about the amount on the card, so we may pay that off sooner than necessary for peace of mind (and also because at the rate we're going we'll hit the limit soon!).