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

themadvix

Evening all,
Jessy, she absolutely is - if she deigns to appear, it’s on the stairs and I literally creep past her as she’s a vicious little thing. Occasionally she feigns friendliness and I feel obliged to make a tentative fuss, but this nearly always ends with her hissing - and she’s drawn blood more than once! It’s always safer on the way out as I distract her with treats! 😂 She’s feisty with her owners, but I think she saves the worst for me. I think it might be something to do with being traumatised by the smoke alarm going off intermittently for hours the first time I looked after her (when she wasn’t much more than a kitten). Although she’s definitely got worse as she’s got older - we did used to have a bit more interaction…

A slightly less busy weekend, but still productive. Womanned the allotment shop yesterday morning, which resulted in the acquisition (for a small donation - items were donated to the shop by other allotmenteers having a clear out, rather than being shop stock) of a quantity of wire mesh that I need to make a replacement cover for my beds (to say the existing, inherited one is on its last legs would be an understatement) and some ground cover fabric, which we need for the front garden (and I can reuse at the allotment afterwards). Also bought two bags of manure and two sprouting broccoli plants.
 In the afternoon I met mum for a cuppa - was meant to be a JL freebie, but discovered that the voucher had expired the day before… ☹️ So we took our money somewhere else. I paid, but we didn’t go to the pub on Friday evening, so personal spends budget was just about ok. Also popped to WR for milk, butter and weetabix (on offer). Spent £31, but the vast majority of that can be counted from September and October’s food budgets.
Dinner last night was a courgette pasta dish cooked by Mr MV - it had harissa paste (I’d only thought earlier in the day that the open jar needed using up), some of the beetroot I was given and some of the open sun-dried tomatoes in it - it was delicious. Today I’ve made a plum upside down cake, a batch of smoky blackberry ketchup (think it’s going to have quite a kick!) and bread (maximising the free leccy - Mr MV had a shower too (even though it was during the f1!)). Dinner, inspired by Greying is dirty rice. Not made it before, but hoping it’s going to be tasty. And with that, I’d better go and dish up. Have a good evening!

themadvix

Morning all,

Dirty rice was good, although I'd messed up a bit (not added enough water to the IP - of course the recipe I used wasn't using a pressure cooker). However, it worked and was tasty and there's enough leftover for dinner tonight (I would have frozen it, but as it wasn't perfect, I thought we'd be better just eating it. It used the first of my hg romano peppers (which haven't yet deigned to turn red, but the recipe called for a green pepper anyway). Dessert was leftover apple crumble - made on Saturday - to use up the last of last year's bottled apples. Plum cake was delish and apart from our slices yesterday and for today, has been frozen in two-slice portions. I've never frozen cake before, but didn't really want to scoff the lot this week.

So, 1st September. This morning I have sorted my accounts/invoicing and paid myself. Awaiting final info from main client, but invoice for him is going to be huge. This means Cambridge money received mid-month (which won't be a lot this month) will be transferred directly to savings. Monies added to the heatpump/battery/now asbestos removal 🙄savings pot and smaller amounts to holiday fund and car insurance (which I contribute to, but don't pay, so fund on an ad-hoc basis). Why do we start these things and then they cost more (thinking about the roof batten replacement required before the solar)? 

After Mr MV sorted/analysed his August spending, he has vowed to have a no-spend September. I think he was joking when he said we weren't going to the pub at all.... In any case, it won't be a no-spend month as we'll hopefully be booking a Christmas market trip, as well as the delights of asbestos removal and hopefully(!) the Octo install (although whether this now happens before October is debatable...). 

In any case, I think incidental spends will be very low this month (of course, I have my personal spends pot, which is allocated for guilt-free spending, so I can go to the pub if I wish [*polishes halo*]).

As predicted, the grocery pot has already taken quite a beating - things got a bit muddled at the end of the month, so I think a small overspend for August has been taken, plus the Weetabix bulk buy. There's a supermarket delivery scheduled for tomorrow too, for £87 (including £13 of beer, which Mr MV can pay for, as I've bought the last few purchases). However, that should see us through into October easily, with just milk, fresh fruit/veg if needed and maybe some eggs/cheese. (Small R'ford order set for Thursday too - just a few bits I can't grow - avocados, tomatoes (I'm useless - we've had some cherry toms, but nothing to write home about), sweetcorn (babycorn is fine, but the normal sized stuff just gets munched by squirrels/badgers/foxes at allotment).) That is half the money gone already.

Socially, September is looking quite quiet at the moment. We are going to France for the day with friends on the 20th and staying the night before near Dover, but as it's my birthday present, Mr MV is paying and it will come out of his presents pot (so I'm told). Can't bring back dairy, so will be limited in what we buy anyway! There will be a bit of stocking up in the hypermarket, but will try to keep it low-cost. A lot of social stuff (invites to people) is currently on hold as we're in limbo with the heat pump installation  - we won't have heating for a week and they'll need access to every room except two, so the house is going to be chaos. If/when we get a date, we may invite some people round!

Workwise, September is usually very busy - both with SE stuff and Cambridge (we a festival event with multiple events occurring, which results in a lot of admin, not report writing). I'm making the most of this morning before main client wakes up and sends me stuff!

I'm currently risking showers and have washing on the line - so far, so good! Might pop and do some gardening (I was at my desk well before 9) and/or pop to the allotment now.

MS things:
* 1P surveys
* YG survey
* NV survey
* More preserving and using of hg veg/fruit

* Good use of the free electricity when car is charging

Gratitudes:
* Sociable time with allotment society pals
* A work colleague shared their beautiful Ireland holiday photos with me 
* A few hours this morning to get invoicing/Cambridge stuff caught up before anticipated onslaught
* Plums... always plums!

Have a lovely day all!

edinburgher

It sounds like everything is going to plan, a few frustrations aside

This is probably a good time to share my ultimate unexpected costs story! When my parents went to sell their main house they had what they believed to be a small roof leak coming into the attic. They didn't delay fixing it, but it wasn't a big priority. When they had a reliable roofer out to check it, they were able to demonstrate that the whole thing was gubbed, sarking boards so rotten that they could be crumbled by hand, that sort of thing. They spent £60,000 replacing it before they could sell, reducing effective their sale price by c. 10%

I suppose the moral of the story is that it could always be worse!

themadvix

edinburgher said:

It sounds like everything is going to plan, a few frustrations aside

This is probably a good time to share my ultimate unexpected costs story! When my parents went to sell their main house they had what they believed to be a small roof leak coming into the attic. They didn't delay fixing it, but it wasn't a big priority. When they had a reliable roofer out to check it, they were able to demonstrate that the whole thing was gubbed, sarking boards so rotten that they could be crumbled by hand, that sort of thing. They spent £60,000 replacing it before they could sell, reducing effective their sale price by c. 10%

I suppose the moral of the story is that it could always be worse!

😮😮😮 Oh Ed, thanks for sharing, that makes me feel better! But how awful!! (Although emphasis on ‘main’ suggests that maybe they could afford it 😬)

edinburgher

They are certainly wealthy and I think there will (rightly) always be a chorus of tiny violins playing in the background when people with several houses have to find money to repair one of them! That said, they retired early on very little income (well before SPA on relatively small pensions), so I'm sure having to find money to bridge the expense was a real pain in the behind. Anyway, water under the bridge for them now, they are very sanguine individuals.

themadvix

Sounds like you might take after them in some respects - clearly they are pretty financially savvy with money if they decided to retire early with a small income.

Watty1

Ohhh enjoy the trip. Many years ago I used to get free travel on the ferry from Dover so used to regularly shop in the hyper market.  I knew what was cheaper there than in the UK and stocked up 

them were the days! 

edinburgher

I would consider France just for the bargain booze

Suffolk_lass

edinburgher said:

I would consider France just for the bargain booze

Me too.

Our unexpected expenses have been many and various. A few immediately come to mind:

• from removing the downstairs bath to convert it to a utility room and finding - earth instead of tiles to the walls (and in itself, converting a house conversion into two flats, back into a house)
• to asking for the brick pillar to be removed beneath the middle post of our cart lodge, so we could add barn doors - and finding that the post had completely disintegrated and looking up at the solar panelled roof, we could see the V as that was collapsing in the middle - a simple job turned into a week and £2000 - just ten times the budgeted amount!
• beyond the house, allowing the european breakdown cover to lapse when we moved house one Christmas - four days after it lapsed on 4th January the Mercedes Estate (OK, it was an old one) blew a gasket and had to be recovered from Belgium and incurred a top-end rebuild (it was £1800 plus £500 to collect it instead of the €6000 quote on the mainland

themadvix

Afternoon all,

We love a day trip to France - always enjoy finding a nice little restaurant for lunch before heading to the hypermarket. Bargain booze will be definitely be bought, as will various other bits - just frustrating about the cheese!

Thanks for sharing your unexpected expenses list SL - it's definitely making me feel like we're not the only ones! 

I have made progress today! I now have a Monzo business account - instantly opened, no faffing on and no rejecting me. I will have to keep an eye on the foreign currency fees though, as I have a feeling they may be higher than what I pay with Santa - but because it's an old account with Santa, I'm not sure I could find the details if I tried. At least it's open now (although frustratingly in my married name, not my maiden name - but I've got to the point where I'm just going to let that go).

And, out of the blue(ish), the asbestos removal co. man who had given us a rough estimate emailed to say he could call round to do a quotation now. He's just been, quote has gone up to £1250+VAT, but that's still cheaper than the 🐙 company and because it's licensed material, I've been struggling to get a third quote. He was also really nice, found some more AIB in our cupboard under the stairs (insert blue shrieky emoji here) and will encapsulate that when they come to do the other work for no additional cost (and recommended that if we went with another company they should do it too). I'm definitely beginning to see the appeal of building one's own house now - no nasty surprises! The bad news is (apart from the stuff in the house) that it'll be 4 weeks for a date (and that'll be a weekend) as they're so busy. Let's hope for a mild October when the heat pump is being fitted - we'll be without heating (and hot water?? I think possibly not) for a week.

Supermarket delivery arrived, an egg was broken, so a refund coming for that. Popped to the allotment to pick - french beans, blackberries, a couple of raspberries and more plums (of course). The expected rain has now arrived (although not as dramatic as it has been otherwise lately), so pleased I went first thing.

Workwise, am doing something for UK client, have finished off a bit for main client and need to 'call in' on Cambridge (virtually).

MS things:
* Clicks and HW
* MS Rewards - had completely forgotten about these. Not sure I'll continue for longer, but I'm 200 points away from a £10 voucher, so will stick with it until then at least!
* Dinner tonight will be the courgette pasta dish Mr MV cooked the other day - mostly uses homegrown ingredients
* Dinner tomorrow will be falafel - chickpeas soaked overnight and cooked in the IP
* Thursday will be stir fry - I was bizarrely excited to see the soy sauce and lemon juice in our delivery - we ran out of both at least a week ago and I hadn't appreciated how much we use either of them!

Gratitudes:
* Monzo, for not being complete (insert rude word of choice)
* Mr Asbestos man for just getting on with it and coming round (email sent at 11.56 said 'I could come between 12 and 1 today')
* Lovely chat with a man at the allotment. His wife always says 'Hello TMV' and can I, for the life of me, remember her name. He always stops for a chat too. And today he mentioned her name in passing, so now I will remember it! 

Have a good afternoon all!