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

redofromstart

oh that is good news on the trailer kit, I had wondered what had happened about that.

Suffolk_lass

I hope Mr MV's knee can be treated without surgical intervention. My two surgeries on my right knee have come back 20 years later as start of arthritis

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Sorry to have been MIA again. Preparations for two weeks away, followed by the two weeks and then catching up afterwards have rather had to take precedence!

In early June Mr MV had his greenwood furniture making course in Oxfordshire over a weekend. He enjoyed it very much (and I enjoyed mooching around the Uffington White Horse and Coleshill estate while he was doing it). We now have a lovely wooden bench for the garden. Plans are afoot for him to make another and to turn the large oak trunk slice we have into a dining table to go with it. It was a relatively low-cost weekend - used a birthday gift voucher for dinner at the Swindon Harvester and took lunch for the first day (breakfast and Sunday's lunch courtesy of the garage next to the hotel). And obviously I made use of my NT membership for my activities.

Then two weeks in Ireland. Weather was a bit mixed the first week (especially as we were pitching and striking at the campsite, of course - so glad of waterproof trousers!) but gorgeous the second week. We had a lovely time - Belfast, Giant's Causeway, Derry, stayed at a NT campsite on Lough Erne, Galway, Dublin and a campsite in Tipperary. Lots of steps walked and we got to take the kayak out onto Lough Erne twice - amazingly beautiful, quiet and enjoyable pottering around on the water. While it wasn't a cheap holiday (is anything these days?), I think we did OK, given we were in hotels for about half the time and therefore had limited opportunities to keep food costs down (plus, we like eating nice food while we're away, so there's only so much economising we want to do). We cooked for ourselves at the campsites (except one takeaway), tended to have a porridge pot or similar cheap option unless breakfast was included (with two exceptions - the day we had an early slot for the Guinness Storehouse - felt we needed something lining our stomachs; and the day we arrived in Belfast, where we ate at an amazing cafe called The Pocket - possibly the best breakfast either of us has ever had). I think we spent about £2300, but I'm not sure if that's right (we sorted it all last night and some of that dates back to when we booked, so I can't entirely remember). That included some presents we bought while we were away though too and the ferries both ways (including cabins - necessary for Mr MV). Charging was more expensive there than here (or in France, last year), but actually we spent about £140, so still pretty good value for 1200 miles.

Home now and have been desperately trying to get two pieces of work finished before Monday so that I can invoice for them. I did submit my Cambridge time sheets while I was away and boss has signed them off, so that's good.

We have a man from Octopus coming to do a survey for a heat pump in the morning (one of those 'whole house needs to be accessible' events 🫣).

Plants survived mostly OK - some of the garden plants did not get enough water (our cat sitters are not greenfingered), but the greenhouse stuff was looked after. The allotment is doing well and I've harvested broad beans, potatoes, onions and garlic, as well as picked from my perennial kale and saltbush, which are both well established now. I need to get the currants off the bushes when I get a chance.

MS things:
* NW £100 received
* Found £10.90 in a bookie account I thought I'd closed - now withdrawn and into savings
* Free spins on another account netted £1.34

* Holiday spends accounted for/ready to pay off cc/Cambridge pay shuffled to savings
* Eating from the allotment now
*Used my final Gfk TV survey vouchers for a WR top-up shop

Gratitudes:
* Lovely time away - tiring because we fitted so much in, but relaxing and enjoyable too
* My friend who checked on my allotment while we were away and sent me photos (I was more worried about my plants than the cats - obviously because I know the cats will be well looked after!)
* Lovely people in Ireland - everyone was very friendly and keen to chat (including at the tiny Parkrun we went to - only 42 attendees!)

Have a good evening all!

themadvix

Suffolk_lass said:

I hope Mr MV's knee can be treated without surgical intervention. My two surgeries on my right knee have come back 20 years later as start of arthritis

Sorry to hear that SL. Hoping it can be sorted without, but it's definitely still not right (although fortunately didn't cause too much of an issue on holiday - obviously we avoided cycling!)

themadvix

redofromstart said:

oh that is good news on the trailer kit, I had wondered what had happened about that.

We were beginning to wonder too. It's all on order now - and then when it's ready we'll need to collect from North Wales.

(This is entirely funded by Mr MV's unexpected bonus, so no impact on other budgets.)

Jessy103

Sounds like you had a lovely vix! Good to have you back though x

rtandon27

Fabulous to have you back Vix!

themadvix

Morning all,
Thanks Jessy and RT!
Am just sat enjoying a cuppa on our decking before it gets too hot. Not in the hammock sadly, as when we got it out on our return, one of the strings has pulled (we’re not sure how as we’re really careful with it) and it’s damaged. In good news, having contacted the company who made it, expecting to return it for service or some instructions on how to fix it, they’ve just confirmed that they’ll send us a replacement! 😊 
A lovely, if hot, weekend here. Went for beer and burritos on Friday with the usual Friday crowd - a nice change from the taproom. And a met an old school friend and her husband on Saturday night for dinner. Meals both nights were very reasonable (particularly on Saturday - £14 for a generous portion of scampi), so not too spendy. Yesterday we went to Dad’s for a bbq and as they are going away today, we’ve brought all the leftovers home with us (others were offered them, but they didn’t take much). So that’s lunch and dinner tonight sorted.
A busy week ahead - tomorrow I’ve got evening class and Mr MV is meeting a friend for a drink (friend lives in same road as evening class, so it works well); Wednesday I’m getting my hair cut and volunteering at the allotment shop; Thursday we are off to Henley Regatta. The tickets (for the stewards enclosure!) were free (long story) but it turns out the food and drink are not… (the long story involves a lot of garbled communications!). Our friend has offered to drive as she doesn’t drink (there were four tickets, so they’re getting a 'free' day out too), which will save us £100 on train fares, and I think we’ll be given a bottle of fizz to enjoy when we get there. There are food stalls (as well as posh three-course options), but no idea how much they’ll cost and we can’t take anything in with us… but we can leave and go into Henley and come back, so that’s something. It promises to be an interesting (if long) day. We’ll be staying over at the in-laws afterwards as they live in the same town as our friends. 

We’ve been informed that the kit for the teardrop caravan is ready to collect - so either Mr MV or both of us need to go to Wales to collect at some point - will require hiring a van, so something to do in a day to minimise costs.
 Apart from those bits and a work day in Cambridge, July is looking relatively quiet. Suspect kayaking and building the teardrop will take up most of our time, which should be nice. 

MSE stuff:
* Blitzed surveys yesterday morning
* Free food
* Picked, blanched and double podded most of the broad beans at the weekend - they’re in the freezer now, with the exception of a few still on the plant and those in the fridge for dinner Tuesday. Also picked strawberries and raspberries for breakfasts.
* Hammock issue has been resolved
* Our wine barrel water butt (200l) is still 3/4 full, despite being used for all garden watering

Gratitudes:
* So lovely to see school friend and her husband - it’s been years since we’ve had a catch up just the four of us
* Lovely dinner Friday - lots of very silly conversation
* Lovely to see family yesterday 
Have a good day all!

TallGirl

Great news re hammock you will soon be snoozing in the share. Also amazing news re the teardrop can't wait to hear how that turns out that is so a cool idea. 

themadvix

Thanks TG - it is indeed good news that we'll have a hammock back soon. I might send the broken one off to my mum - she loves (?? - is good at!) untangling necklaces and the like, so she might be able to get it back to usable, if not perfect.

In a slightly more MSE focused post:

* We've had the heatpump quote (which has gone down from the initial quote: it was £4800 and is now £3300), so are considering what to do there. We will probably go for it, but needs further discussion, especially as we'll want to get a bigger house battery to support it (something that could wait a couple of months as we won't need it until the winter).
* I am finishing up the large ongoing project for main client today, and have already sent back a fairly large one that was troubling me last week - it was an absolute PITA. Cambridge work was on hold last week with these two projects to get done, so I really need to get the outstanding report finished for them tomorrow/Wednesday.
* I've got cat sitting to do this week - two separate cats today and then ongoing until the 10th for one of them (friend is going to look in on her on Thursday). Have 3 more clients lined up between now and end of August and I'm thinking that's enough - worryingly I've not heard from a couple of regular summer clients, but I'll farm them out elsewhere I think - I'm fully booked!
* Have transferred £100 grocery budget underspend to savings.

We have a few household maintenance/improvement things we need to get sorted - the heatpump is one, but is related to needing to replace a radiator (both because it is a rubbish, ancient thing and because B&W cat likes to pee on the pipework, which is corroding it, so a matter of some urgency); some windows which could do with replacing - we will give one of these a go ourselves and if it's not too tricky, will do the others; replacing the floor in cloakroom (see B&W cat's issues above) and repointing the garage wall (something that's been on the list for several years, can only be done in the summer when the wall is dry - part of it is below the level of next door's garden, which is part of the problem). I have decided we'll outsource the latter - yes, Mr MV (or even I) could do it, but we don't have time, it's probably not going to be that expensive to get done and it doesn't involve asking someone to deal with cat-pee-soaked anything.

With these expenditures in view, the next few months are going to be focused on saving for these items I think. Grocery spending should be much lower for a few months as I won't need a R'ford delivery very often now the allotment is back to productive and I'm thinking we'll be busy (as above) with kayaking, teardrop building and DIY (which we really need to get on with), so less expenditure on other activities. Have put a little bit of the grocery underspend (on top of the £100) to 'grocery savings' (which now has £55 in it) - we can dip into this if we have people round for a bbq or other entertaining.