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

themadvix

Morning all,

And now today's update. Went to Winchester yesterday to the closing down zero-waste shop - so sad. But I did get my stash of sunflower seed chunks and mince and was surprised to discover that there was 30% off as the shop was closing down. Not expected but a bonus for my grocery budget - £38 spent instead of nearly £60. We had a lovely wander around, didn't go into the cathedral (would have been £26 for both of us), had hot chocs and a piece of tiffin to share (I paid, £12) and lunch in a pub (Mr MV paid). Popped in to the NT water mill for a quick look around and then headed home early to avoid the weather.

Have woken to a smattering of snow that is rapidly melting. I need to take the CP donation today and I'll pop and see Mum while I'm that way. We'll get the Christmas decorations down and away and it's quiz this evening. Dinner will be Irish stew using the sunflower seed chunks and served with half of a red cabbage left from Christmas (another one still to go). Will also do some holiday hunting/leave planning and play with YNAB. Better get cracking then!

ladybird1106

I’ve really enjoyed reading your diary. We are in a similar situation, we’ve paid off our mortgage and now want to enjoy a simpler and more eco conscious lifestyle. 

Love 🐞

LadyWithAPlan

In YNAB it does not care where you keep all your money - it does its own pots but you can add as many bank accounts etc as you want
but if you want to keep  all your pots as is it’s fine - 

when I started YNAB I had loads of accounts and saving pots at starl&& monz& hali etc and I just linked them up - over time I realised for me I could trust my YNAB to keep the divisions but it does not force you 

If I were you I’d set it up with the nick true guide I posted then run the 34 day trial alongside your normal system 

Great on your saving on the zero waste - pity it’s closing down though 

rtandon27

@themadvix - you mentioned that the one in Winchester is shutting down, but it appears a refill shop is opening up in nearby Stockbridge!
...and there is another in Weyhill (which I've been to, but it now does local delivery!)...
I'll have to plan the new one into our January weekend outings to see if they is it any good! 

greenbee

I'm sorry to hear about the Winchester shop closing. It doesn't feel as if it's been open that long! It looks like one of the Petersfield ones is closing too. My local one up here closed last year. 

There's a good refill shop in Romsey, but I don't think they do the sunflower mince. They would probably be worth asking though, as they are very responsive to customer requests. 

themadvix

Thanks LaPlan - I will persevere for a bit longer and see.

That's good to hear that even if the Winchester shop is closing there are other options for you RT. I think @Greenbee that it's a combination of financial issues and the owner having had a baby that has done for the shop - not just the finances. I may be wrong, but that's what I gleaned from an overheard conversation and communications with the owner. The sunflower mince is extremely difficult to get hold of since Brexit. They used to stock it at one of my local stores which is how I know about it, but that shop has since been handed over to the garden centre it was located within and I don't think they have the time/inclination to get hold of it. My other local one has made enquiries but basically said it wasn't an option. Was really surprised to find it at the Winchester shop but the owner said she has to buy in large quantities now as it takes so long to get it through customs etc. It's basically the waste from organic sunflower oil - and that's it - formed into either mince or weird-shaped chunks. It's a really high protein, tasty (quite chewy, which is a novelty for veggies) alternative to mince or meat pieces and being shelf stable and sold loose if you can get it from a refill shop, a great option. You can order individual boxes of the stuff with slightly more luck, but they have an unrecyclable filmy plastic lining, which kind of defeats the object for me. I'll have to eke this lot out and see whether I can find it on the continent next time I'm there - I had investigated the possibility of buying some in Cologne when we went, but then found the shop in Winchester. Either that, or I start bulk importing it and set up some sort of distribution network, but I'm not sure how I'd go about that!

CP stuff has been donated, Mum visited and half the decorations are down. And we've made progress with holiday plans - Ireland and Amsterdam are firming up. Better get these decorations up in the loft!

debtfreeoneday

thanks for the heads up about the travel site. I’ll absolutely look at that. 

themadvix

Morning all,

Well we missed the boat on the super cheap Amsterdam tickets... 🙄 Mr MV says 'such and such is XX amount' and I say, 'yes, let's do it'... he ums and ahs and then we miss out. We may still do it - need to decide today really and book so we don't miss the next cheapest option as we've been gifted a generous amount of cash from MIL and FIL for our birthdays, so it would be nice to spend it on something specific (yes, I'm aware I listed lots of 'specific' things above!). Otherwise, as Mr MV has pointed out, Eurostar have frequent sales.

In other news, everyone is back at work today and therefore I have been inundated with requests, so that's good. Cambridge still relatively quiet, although I'll take a look at my inbox there later.

We're going away tonight for my birthday tomorrow - I have no idea where we're going, beyond 'it's a couple of hours away' and we're driving and I don't need a passport. Mr MV had booked an activity for tomorrow but because it's the beginning of January no one else has booked so it's been cancelled 🙄 Standard early January birthday then. We'll do it another time, but he wanted to stay overnight so it wasn't such a long day.... oh well.

No further progress with YNAB, but I have very diligently transferred my spends from the various pots into the pending/assigned to CCs pots and they match, so that's good and I can see what I have left to spend. I have also been paid by main client and am cursing the poor exchange rate (great for travellers, not so great if you're paid in euros) - my income will be considerably down on the last few months, even with the buffer I left in my business account. I do, however, have some cat sitting bookings already in for half term and plenty of proper work expected this month and next too.

Better get on with the work now!

themadvix

Rather frustratingly (since I have specific reminders set in boss/friend's work diary), it doesn't look as though my Cambridge timesheets got signed off in December, meaning I won't get paid by them this month. Really irritating, given the lower income anyway. And difficult to raise as a real issue, given the boss-friend relationship (the friendship bit came before the boss bit). I could ask other boss to be a timesheet signer (I think technically she is), but she's about to go on mat leave. Oh well... I'll really have to rein in the spends this month. Fortunately, after this week (birthday, so hopefully it mostly doesn't cost me), we have few plans for January. February will be a bumper pay month I guess!

Making good progress with work for main client and have returned the cat key this morning. Lunch is going to be 'something on toast' (baked beans and egg, I suspect) as there's only enough bread for a slice each.

Suffolk_lass

Yes, re Hook of Holland. The train station is right by the Harwich ferry terminal, a short journey from Manningtree (on the Anglia Norwich to London L St line) You can take e-bikes on the Stena ferry and cycle from the Hook. Or there are frequent trains in to Rotterdam - and you can get regular river taxis (busses really, very cheap around Rotterdam, and Dordrecht). It is all really easy for bikes - so for instance there is always a tyre gully on foot bridges so you run up or down the steps if you are wheeling your bike and don't need to hoick it up on your back, just run the tyre in the gully. We always had a good cabin (and for not much more money) and it felt like the holiday started with that exclusive little bit of privacy.

Dordrecht is a beautiful, small, medieval city and we stayed in the nicest of the VanDerValk motel chain hotels at Zwijndrecht, from which it is easy to explore Dordrecht. It has some spa facilities and a good restaurant, and runs along the Old Masse river. Lots of river freight but still rather lovely. That is where we initially rented e-bikes and rode alongside the river. I recommend it. They often have offers but you might find the average Dutch customer is a few years older than you - it is a middle aged, middle class, good quality, but not the most expensive, but great for a treat. Utrecht is also lovely, medieval and a University down and quite buzzy. It reminds me of Heidelberg, which was always packed full of students. We always used to stay less than an hour from the HoH ferry terminal on the way home from Italy, hence our exploration of a number of Dutch cities (and I worked there on EU Projects, when the UK did that sort of thing). We liked the Zwijndrecht place so much we used to stay a few days and went to the Christmas markets from there, taking the car over on a cheap ferry ticket.