The Edcawber Principle

Suffolk_lass · 23 October 2020 at 7:00AM

Haha, just call me Lexi(con!) - I only know about virement because the regulations for Parish Councils mean that we have to move money between budget headings if we overspend any of them!

Varroa mites are now endemic in honey bees. Currently DEFRA (APHA - Animal and Plant Health Agency in England - you have your own regs in Scotland, I think) recommend beekeepers treat this twice a year - in Autumn and again by vapour in January. The impact is that the mites burrow into the abdomen of the bees and apparently over time they cause little mutations in the brood and malformed wings is typical of the signs (not helpful for foragers). We have just watched a presentation by a professor in the UK suggesting that if you don't treat, the bees develop their own immunity based on the mites needing their host to sustain, so as the percentage contamination reaches a certain level, the mites become less active so the colony effectively tolerates a certain level. There are a growing band of beekeepers not treating and suffering relatively few collapsed colonies. We are relatively new to all this but in principle like the idea of not treating as the chemicals are based on oxalic acid - we've got plenty of that in the plant forage here after an invasion of oxalis corniculata (creeping wood sorrel!).

The kitchen is surprisingly satisfying but very long-winded and a complete faff (faff because I can only really do two at a time or I take over the whole kitchen - and while using a roller gives no brush strokes it is a pain in the proverbial to keep cleaning the roller and tray between coats; while a tablespoon pops just enough in the tray to let it spread it is loads too much in terms of waste). It continues. Final coat on 2 more today, with three more white ones to do, then it will be onto the grey base units. The finish is good (if I do say so myself).

In terms of shopping I have managed just one supermarket visit this month so far, 16 days after the previous one it is a great way of keeping my shopping (spending tendency) weakness under control. We have lots of autumn veg that keeps for ages keeping us going, with eggs and milk delivered to the doorstep.

I like Tu clothes - not bad quality for the money and not everything in Sainsbobs homewear comes from China (most does, but they use Vietnam, or at least used to). I love a bit of Ikea furniture!

edinburgher · 24 October 2020 at 4:05PM

Friday - I spent a whole day getting rid of DD's furniture and all of the crap in our garage of doom - I filled an 8 cubic yard skip to bursting. I know you're meant to be all environmentally conscious, super ethical and community minded, but I just needed to get rid of it. I believe that there's a real mental drain from fretting about mess in your home and I'd been living with some of this stuff for 5 years. Realistically nobody is going to want old cot matresses, broken furniture or scraped and "well loved" bits of generic children's furniture that everybody already has. The global pandemic has made that worse - it's not like I can have someone round to help me carry furniture out to their car at present. Sorry - I'm being defensive there - feel bad that I'm not one of those superhuman folk who can give away all their stuff successfully online

Highlights included several rolls of sodden carpet (c. 1980), two massive wardrobes that had disintegrated so totally in the leaky garage that the reciprocating saw went through them like butter (one had a 7' high mirror on the door), two fences, two beds, another wardrobe and a chest of drawers. I also did my neighbourly bit and dragged another huge soggy carpet across the road for somebody, only for them to make it incredibly awkward by giving me a tenner that I refused several times until they told me to give it to DD. I paid it into a S&S ISA for her.

I tried to remove all metal fittings from things and believe that *most* of what went into the skip can be recycled at a waste management plant.

Today I spent 5 hours building a huge [email protected] chest of drawers and Mrs E phoned me to say she'd hit a parked car while parking. Goodbye no claims bonus and £350 excess

At least I have a nice clean house and no more DIY left...

beanielou · 24 October 2020 at 5:48PM

You are right that no one wants generic stuff & you just did the right thing. I tried to get rid of some stuff recently and no one wanted it so a friend took some of it to the skip.

Sorry to read the car news.

Suffolk_lass · 25 October 2020 at 7:24AM

I totally get that mental drain. My study is a nightmare. I've got two 15cm high piles of paper I just add to. Goodness knows what is in it. I wish I lived close enough to collect some sodden carpet - especially the c1980 stuff is great for covering veg beds as a weed suppressant. Our old carpet is disintegrating after five years doing that. This might be its last year.

Sorry to hear about your car. My DH wrote ours off back in September 2016 and now has a separate policy but as the second driver on mine, my premium was at least £80 higher because it was the second one in ten years (!) and both were his fault (to be fair he is not a bad driver but he flipped the first car onto its side in a surface water situation and dozed while driving home knackered one Friday night for the other) - the net effect was the same and mercifully he was not hurt in either accident. At the end of the day, that is what matters.

What are your immediate plans for the garage? - we have an open-fronted double cart lodge that offers no security that is under periodic discussion. There is a pigeon that thinks it's perfect that has just nested in there so bird carp over everything too...

edinburgher · 29 October 2020 at 10:28PM

@Suffolk_lass - flippin' pigeons, eh? They're nesting under our solar panels and I think I'm going to have to pay to have them proofed (the panels, not the pigeons) as they are so damn noisy and crap everywhere (the pigeons, not the panel)

There is no real plan for the garage, I just needed to get rid of all the foosty garbage. I saw spiders at least twice as big as Shelob and a frog the size of my foot in there... Long term we'll get rid of it when we extend (38 months to go).

What a week. Fiscal restraint slightly out of the window as month end sets in. Suspected Covid-19 for Mrs E and DD and two days indoors until we got the negative results (thank goodness).

On the positive note, L1dl have Chablis for £5.99 this week (pronounced cha-bliss in our house)

Zola. · 30 October 2020 at 10:09AM

Just a note to say a good idea on the oven filter to dishwasher... I hadn't done it in so long...
I took out filter off and it's currently in the dishwasher, it was pretty disgusting!!

Suffolk_lass · 30 October 2020 at 11:36AM

Ah Chablis (or Shab-leee here) - have I told you we were going to have shar-donnay when we got married but the brewery delivered Shab-leee instead? I was there when the venue bar manager rang the brewery and explained the consequences and proposed I be charged for the cheaper wine as it was such a large order (included champagne, sherry, soft drinks, Fleur-eee and all the beer for over 200 friends and family) - they agreed and offered a couple of bottles of champagne on top for the inconvenience as he was explaining all the food menu had been matched to the wine (it had not). When we moved away our reception still held the record for a single day's bar takings at that location, despite them hosting a sporting event for over 400 people afterwards. Hmm!

We had those spiky things fitted to the roof at our old house as an attempt at pigeon proofing - it was great in gutters and gulleys but I distinctly remember there still being some in the area behind the bit that was boarded out. They are flying rats in my view and I don't like them, even though the latest ones are the really big wood pigeons rather than the flying rat town ones.

Sorry, I mentioned rats - it is mice here this year, we can tell. They have built a little nest around the block of poison and then died near it for convenient removal, and also the dead ones don't get eaten by their family so take a lot longer to eradicate (I tolerate them outside). The joys of living in an old house in the country!

What a relief that Mrs E and DD are negative. There is loads around where my Mum lives too. One almost 90 year old she knows is in the local hospital and the opposite neighbours to her closest pal have it. Her district is tier 3 in Scotland. Personally I remain happy to compromise on how we are living our lives for ages yet in the hope that vaccines that trigger long-term defences can be developed. I also managed to persuade my Mum to have a flu jab this year - I explained she is having it so she does not get flu badly enough to clutter up a hospital bed when others need it more for Covid! I had mine this week and have the usual itchy lump on my arm but no flu-like symptoms this year. DH has to wait until they have the next batch for the younger no-health-condition people.

I'm feeling really weird about paying off the mortgage. Two of my challenge threads on here have gone with that resolving and I'm a bit "what's the point?!" so feel free to give me a good kick up the proverbial!

ajmoney · 30 October 2020 at 2:02PM

Suffolk_lass said:

I'm feeling really weird about paying off the mortgage. Two of my challenge threads on here have gone with that resolving and I'm a bit "what's the point?!" so feel free to give me a good kick up the proverbial!

I am more than happy for you to stick around and you might have finished some challenge threads but on both the MFW and MFiT-T whatever there are people on there with savings goals rather than OP ones. So what if you aren't then putting the savings in as an OP.

badmemory · 30 October 2020 at 3:44PM

I think the MFW is more a state of mind & it's one that doesn't often change once you are MF. It is almost 20 years since I paid off mine but here is where I feel comfortable amongst people who mostly have the same sort of mindset. After all once you've paid off the mortgage you are then saving for a car, an extension, a special holiday etc etc.

edinburgher · 31 October 2020 at 9:13AM

@Suffolk_lass - I love a nice chardonnay, but it's an occasional treat as Mrs E doesn't. Your wedding sounds like fun, I do enjoy a good knees up

We are also Tier 3 although I suspect that a national lockdown is on the cards in the near future. I shopped accordingly and got in loads of toilet roll (I know, I know, but we were out), kitchen roll (also out, Home [email protected] was already running out of all paper consumables), a couple of small bottles of sanitiser and a tray of our favourite lazy Japanese instant noodles if we can't face going out to queues (far too much salt, but ok as an occasional dinner if you jazz them up a bit with veggies, seaweed etc.)

It must feel strange reaching the end of the mortgage, I can't really imagine it.... I know that we have to pay ours off at some point. If we can extend in 3 years that will leave us 17 years to pay it off assuming retirement at 58 (which seems doable at this point).

DD is high as a kite for Halloween today. She is dressed up as a rainbow cat for her drama class this morning, then Mrs E has promised her arts and crafts, apple dooking and a little trek around our neighbourhood to see all the houses that people have decorated in lieu of trick or treating being an option this year, no doubt up to her eyeballs on sugar! As well as that, I've got tickets to take her to see The Nightmare Before Christmas tomorrow afternoon at our local cinema, a cheap activity that should allow Mrs E a few hours off.

Other than that, I have a ridiculous amount of month end housework to do, so best get on with it. Have a lovely Saturday all (hope your weather is better than ours)

The Edcawber Principle - Page 195

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The Edcawber Principle

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