Finding Enough

My memories of October are mostly of torrential downpours every time we needed to move our belongings from house to van and van to new house. The trips we did on our own in the campervan, we were able to wait for it to ease off a bit, but the two days we hired a larger van and had a couple of friends to help, there was very little let up. To add to the soggy furniture being moved in, we also discovered a bit of a damp issue at one end of the house☹️.

We knew the house was a project when we bought it, and this was all part of the plan, but damp was not something that was mentioned at all in the survey, so was not something we were expecting. We have raised a complaint with the surveyor, as there is plenty of evidence it has been going on for some time, and they should have spotted it. I expect they will find some way to wriggle out of it, so we we are focussing on building our knowledge of breathable traditional materials (the problem is in the solid stone-walled old part of the house) and understanding the correct resolution. We were going to have to make a mess improving insulation anyway, we will just need to get started on these 2 rooms a bit sooner than planned.

The miserable weather and pressure to get our belongings moved (who’s stupid idea was it to move ourselves??!!) made the start of October a bit of a low point for me. Constantly needing something that was at the other house, and not being able to properly unpack into the 2 rooms affected by damp, rather took the excitement out of having a new house. One way and another, I was also spending most of my time indoors, which I don’t think helped my mood either. We were glad of a week and a half down south dog sitting for friends and their nutty springer spaniel, to break out of the rut. It seemed frustrating at the time, as we still had so much to do up here, but looking back, it gave us some much needed perspective and a bit of a reset.

I am sad to report that Beryl the chicken vanished around 3 weeks after we moved in. We created a shelter from the elements for her, and arranged for the postman to feed her while we were away, but just didn’t have the time to build a proper secure house. It would be nice to think she shuffled off somewhere new, but it is far more likely that a fox or even badger had something to do with it. We do plan to have chickens eventually, but when we have had a chance to make accommodation for them. It’s actually a relief to remove ‘building a robust chicken house’ from the never ending list of urgent jobs to do. RIP Beryl, you were a character.

Beryl’s demise was not the only sad event this month. 2023 is turning out to be a very sad year for friends and acquaintances meeting a premature end. October brought 2 more shocks. A former colleague and friend died at the age of 53, only around 8 weeks from noticing symptoms. A rare and completely random form of CJD was to blame. She had made dinner for us on one of our trips down south in the summer, and was her normal cheerful chatty self, so seeing her brother announce her funeral on LinkedIn was something of a shock. We had been planning to give her a call when we were in the area dog sitting, but it wasn’t to be. The following week, we found out that Mr Wombat’s cousin had died suddenly from a heart condition in his mid-30s.

I am really hoping that’s it for funerals for some time. I suppose it is inevitable that as we get older, this will become more common, but it would be nice to be able to say “they had a good innings” next time. That has not proved not to be the case far too often this year.

The sombre note continues with the freedom fund update this month. It hasn’t been a great month for investments. We have decided to play it safe and keep the surplus cash left over from the house purchase in instant access savings for now. It will show up in our net worth figure, but not the freedom fund for the time being. While we can earn 5% on it, and it is unclear how much we will need to spend sooner rather than later to get the whole house in a comfortable liveable condition, this seems best.

• Freedom Fund Value: £1,143,912 (down nearly £46k on last month)
• Monthly expenses: £4,033* or a withdrawal rate of 4.2% if we were to maintain this rate of spending.
• Earned Income: £0
• Miles walked: 146 vs. a target of 146**
• Books read: 15 vs a target of 20 (2 per month)

The Freedom Fund took a significant dive this month, which coupled with still fairly high expenses and a reduction in interest income from our property lump sum (now we’ve spent most of it on a house), is not ideal. It’s not giving us sleepless nights, but we are glad we have a cash cushion as we navigate choppy market conditions, I suspect for some time to come.

Expenses are still higher than we would like, but this was the last month of paying rent, and associated utility bills. All the small new home costs add up too. Some were expected, some not so much, but never the less need doing (dehumidifier, blinds that fit, fixing gutters, replacing window locks….). Included in October’s expenses are also some more fun items, like £420 on flights for a trip. We were contacted in October by a couple we dog sat for in Ayrshire in February. They relocated to Mallorca in the summer and asked if we would be interested in sitting for their dog again, but this time in their swanky apartment in Palma. We figured that we would be glad of a winter break, so decided to go for it. Tilly the cockapoo was quite sweet and a couple of weeks somewhere a bit warmer when it will be cold and wet here is quite appealing.

We earned no income again this month, and we expect this to be the case for the forseeable future. The budget for coaching and mentoring at my previous employer has been reduced to zero. As I suspected when I started doing this freelance work, once my personal contacts in HR left, I had very little contact with the new team and the demand petered out. I am actually surprised it continued as long as it did. I am not ruling out earning again in the future, but for now, we will focus on getting the house up together.

Miles walked this month actually ended up bang on target. I had expected to come up short this month, but all that trudging backwards and forwards with furniture and boxes coupled with a week of dog walking, added up.

The reading target went out of the window this month, and I am pretty sure I am not going to catch up now. My current book is quite a long one and it’s not really grabbed me. I’m not one to give up part way through though, especially as my mother in law gave me this one.

Looking back through my photos this month, there were far fewer than usual, reflecting too much time spent indoors and doing things we needed to do rather than wanted to do. I’ll spare you the close up photos of damp patches, although I am sure there will be plenty of updates on projects in months to come!

October finished up with a run of much more settled weather up here (unlike southern England!), so we have been getting some outside jobs done, helping a new neighbour move his sheep, and making time to mix things we need to do with things we want to do. The rental house is now handed back, so life has become simpler again.

*Includes £500 per month personal allowances (£250 each), which may not be spent in the month, but which is not tracked. Some of it may show up in the freedom fund in the future, if savings build up and are invested.

** I completed my challenge to walk the equivalent of Lands End to John O’Groats and back in 2022. This is the longest overland distance between 2 points on the UK mainland or 1748 miles. In 2023 I want to maintain the 146 miles a month this required