Finding Enough

It happened at last! After 1 year, 9 weeks and 6 days of housesitting, campervanning and renting; on the 14th September, we got the keys to a home that we own. It is an eclectic mix of 18th century shepherd’s cottage and 1980’s additions, but it was the 2 acres of garden, woodland and scrubby wild areas surrounded by farmland and wilderness that was the real draw. Having looked at all sorts of different property options and building plots, we decided that being in a ‘nice spot’ with few neighbours and plenty of wildlife was our top priority, which meant we could be less fussy about the house itself. It turns out that our purchase also includes a rather wilful chicken.

The previous owner was unable to catch her before they left. A neighbour agreed to take her, and helped try to catch her, but she has quite long legs and is surprisingly fast…….so we have a feral chicken. We have called her Beryl. She has plenty of food to forage for herself, but has been happy to supplement her diet with seed and breadcrumbs, providing we don’t get too close. If she is still around at the end of the month when we will have a bit more time, we will build her a house, but until then she’ll have to take her chances as decent fox-proof ready-built ones appear to be astronomically expensive.

We only had a little over a week to start moving our belongings the 50 minutes down the road from our rental before we were due at a repeat house sit in the Scottish Borders to look after two dogs. This didn’t seem ideal timing, but in fact it has worked out fairly well. After numerous trips backwards and forwards, loading and unloading the van, sleeping alternately in different places (and having little idea where everything is), we welcomed a bit of a break.

Unexpectedly, being home owners again after so long has introduced a bit of anxiety. I never used to worry about the state of our home when we owned before (and we had much more capital tied up in our last house than this one), but having been responsibility-free for so long, it now feels odd. Like any change, I am sure I will get used to it with time. It probably doesn’t help that I have joined a couple of period property forums online, which have been alternately alarming and reassuring about the task we have ahead of us, trying to make energy efficiency improvements. It also didn’t help that our new home was in the path of storm Agnes last week, while we were on the other side of the country. We are hoping we won’t return to find a tree through the roof or half the slates missing…….

I am writing this in the lovely sun room of a large stone farmhouse with two sleepy dogs next to me. If you have been reading for a while, you might remember the last time we were here, there was a housekeeper, gardener, maintenance man and robot lawnmower. This time, the lawnmower is still here and we have seen Brenda the housekeeper for 2 mornings, but otherwise we have been left to our own devices. I suspect we have passed the test and don’t need to be kept an eye on as much this time! Tomorrow we will head back to the slightly organised chaos we left behind just over a week ago, for 5 days of hard work before heading south to dog sit for some friends for a week.

A couple of good friends have kindly offered to come and help move ‘the big stuff’ in a hired van, but they are only available next week, or mid-November, so next week it is! As this means the rental will be more or less empty after next week, we have decided to give notice a bit sooner than planned. There is no point paying rent and bills for an empty house, so we will hand it back on 1st Nov. That gives us just over a week when we get back from our next trip to clean and make good any issues before our inspection.

As expected, September went by in a flash, and I anticipate that October will too. I have given very little thought to our spending or investments this month, beyond having to re-assemble funds for the house purchase from the 7 or so savings accounts it was residing in. It turns out the freedom fund value is once again pretty flat, coming in just over £1k up on last month.

• Freedom Fund Value: £1,189,624 (up £1k on last month)
• Monthly expenses: £3,996* or a withdrawal rate or 4.0% if we were to maintain this rate of spending. This does not include the property transaction cost, land and buildings transfer tax (the Scottish equivalent of stamp duty) or solicitors fees, but does include spending on new appliances and maintenance jobs around the house
• Earned Income: £0
• Miles walked: 150 vs. a target of 146**
• Books read: 15 vs a target of 18 (2 per month)

There’s not much to say about the freedom fund this month, it has bobbed along at a similar value all year, which considering we are drawing from it, isn’t too much of a worry at present. We are just considering how to handle the house funds left over from our recent purchase. This is currently not included in the freedom fund value, and certainly some of it will be required to make the changes we are planning over the next couple of years. That said, we want to make it work as hard as possible in the mean time. I expect we will have made some decisions on this by next month.

I wasn’t really paying attention to spending this month, but I had been expecting an expensive month, as a busy month usually equates to higher spending. It seems a long time ago now, but we had a fabulous few days on the Isle of Arran, which upped our normal living expenses and fuel costs, the latter was also affected by multiple trips back and forth between houses later in the month. Added to this, we had to take out home insurance for our new house (£478) – which seems to have gone up a lot since I last took out a policy in summer 2021! The range was from £271 – £923, so I had to do a lot of research on individual company reviews when it comes to paying out. Part of it is probably the age of the property, but I think inflation has a big part to play here too. We also ordered a new fridge freezer (£485). Our current one has been playing up for some time (frozen salad anyone?), but we have been putting off replacing it until we knew the new kitchen it would be going into. It’s a good job we did, as without major layout changes, there is only room for a 550mm wide appliance rather than the more standard 600mm. The plan is to scrap the old one from the rental and have to new one delivered to the new house, so it’s one less thing to move. Insurance (£383) and MOT for the van were also due in September and added to the total.

Following a month of no coaching or mentoring in August, there was no income this month to report. I did have a couple of online sessions in September, so there should be a trickle of income next month, assuming my invoice is paid on time. I have made plans with my mentee to have the next session face to face, as I will be in the area. That will make a welcome change.

It was a pain to keep track of miles walked this month, due to an aging fitbit with a much reduced battery life, and a charger cable which always seemed to be where I wasn’t. There was some estimation involved, but after a couple of years of tracking, and a lot of walking the same routes, I am confident I hit target this month. Several days of moving furniture and boxes certainly contributed and well as dog walks in the last week.

September saw me fall further behind with my reading target with only one and a bit books read. There are a couple of titles I have my eye on to continue my period property renovation research, maybe the library will even have something to help. I am not sure October will be much better though, as we again have a lot planned.

Writing these updates is a great opportunity for me to reflect over the past month. Apart from the house situation finally coming good, the spontaneous trip the the Isle of Arran in the first week of September was a real treat. For around £140 (ferry crossing & 4 nights on campsites), we enjoyed fabulous weather, scenery and wildlife. It is almost like a miniature Scotland, with the most of the towns and farmland in the south, and more wild uplands in the north. We spent 2 nights in each, with the campsite at Lochranza in the north being particularly memorable for its mountainous backdrop and all the red deer – especially the one that decided to use the protruding hinge of our rear doors as a scratching post at about 1am 😆.

Arran definitely warrants it’s own set of photos this month. If it weren’t for the great Scottish midges, it could almost be the Mediterranean:

If you ever make the trip, be sure to check out the standing stones at Machrie Moor. It’s a bit of a walk from the road, but that just adds to the atmosphere. The gardens (and red squirrels) at Brodick Castle are also gorgeous, especially in the warm sunshine we were lucky enough to enjoy. As we were looking for the ‘doctor’s bath’ (a bath tub shape carved into the rock on the rocky shore), we had a close encounter with a military cargo plane – I think American, but I’m not an expert.

As the ferry at Ardrossan isn’t too far from us, I am pretty sure this will not be our last visit.

As well as all the above, we also squeezed in more sea swimming in crystal clear water, our first tea with a view from the end of our garden, cleaning carpets (yuk!), a bat walk in local forest (watched by curious cows), as well as a foraging experience, gifted to me by my former colleagues before I left last year. We chose a coastal location in Alnmouth for this and spent a few hours learning about coastal plants and seaweed and then cooking up what we had found. Sea buckthorn berries were a revelation! To round off the month in photos, there was of course more fun with Bella the black Lab and Slipper the Norfolk Terrier on the beach and exploring a local ploughing match!

So that’s the end of a busy September, and I think October will be just as hectic. We’ll be looking forward to a bit of time to take stock and work out where to start with the house after that. I think we’ll take the winter to get to know the place and no doubt discover plenty of gremlins, before getting started in earnest in the spring. We did buy a dehumidifier from Facebook marketplace in preparation…..