February was generally a quiet relaxed month, with a week of frantic activity in the middle. We pottered around the house and garden, decorated the kitchen and contacted local trades for quotes for work we will need help with (building a garage/workshop, taking down a tree, hiring a skip). I also spotted something very speedy out of the corner of my eye through the patio doors. To start with, I thought it was a rat, but it had always disappeared under the deck before I could get a good look…………until one day I saw it watching me through the glass with its head poking out from under the garden furniture. It was a weasel! It took a bit of googling to differentiate it from a stoat, but its size identified it. We have seen it several times since – once with a mouse in it’s mouth, which was almost half it’s body size. They really are much smaller than I thought.
In the middle of the month, we drove almost the length of the country to help my parents move house. Having spent a stressful few days last August helping them to de-clutter, moving day finally came around.
It was a big move for them, from one side of the country to the other, to be near my brother and his family in the south west of England. Long term, the plan is for him to build an annexe for them on a property he is buying. Short term, they have both sold up and moved into rented accommodation. We were incredibly lucky that the farmer he is renting a cottage from, agreed to let my parents the bungalow that is next door but one, but wasn’t advertised for rent. There were no other bungalows for rent in the whole county, and with mobility issues, stairs were not an option.
They had a removal company to pack up, and their cleaner to deep clean the old house. They wanted us to help with the unpacking at the other end as they are not physically able. The removal people were fantastic, but there was more stuff than rooms, so it was a bit of a challenge. Mum had allocated at least 2 garages worth of stuff to be put in the garage, so we had to do some quick thinking to get it all in somewhere. She thought she had got rid of a lot of stuff, but I think the reality of downsizing is only now beginning to dawn. The annexe, although in a beautiful rural location and designed for accessibility, will be even smaller than the rental bungalow and will not have a garage.
After a physically and mentally exhausting few days, and plenty of games of 3D furniture jigsaw (and bickering), we managed to organise the rooms to be usable, wheelchair accessible and arranged a box storage room / study so the boxes are behind you and you can sit at a desk looking out of the window. The garage will need more work at a later date, but I am hoping after a period of decompression and settling in, we can broach the subject of maybe selling / donating some items that haven’t been missed.
It was great to see my brother and his family, and meet my new nephew for the first time. I also managed to catch up with school friends, but we are glad to be back home in the peace and quiet with no furniture to move around (for now anyway).
As well as moving my parents into their new home, we also helped our farmer neighbour move all his sheep through pens for ultrasound scanning by the vet. It was a bit of a damp day, but fun to get involved with (if you like that sort of thing!).
This month the freedom fund was working as hard as we were and ended the month up £24k, a level not seen since spring 2022.
Financial Update:
- Freedom fund value – £1,233,269 (up £24K on last month)
- Expenditure – £1,694 (or a 1.7% withdrawal rate)
- Earned income – £0
It has been a good month for the numbers. The freedom fund is up, our expenses are down. Despite driving down to southern England, meeting friends for 2 meals out and a couple of breakfasts on route, we didn’t have any major spends this month, except a delivery of dry logs (£170). My parents insisted on contributing to our fuel costs too, so this didn’t cost as much as it otherwise would. We may well make up for this thrifty total in March.
We sort of earned £20 in February, but really it was more covering our costs, so I haven’t included it. An artist appealed on social media for someone with a large vehicle to help her move 2 paintings to a local gallery, which she had painted before she realised the canvases wouldn’t fit in her car. I offered to do it in our van if she paid our fuel costs (about 45mins each way). She wouldn’t let us take less than £20, and coffee in a cafe. We didn’t make much on the deal financially, but had a lovely chat over coffee and discovered we had a lot in common. I am very glad I got in touch. It was nice getting to know the friendly gallery owner too.
Non-Financial Goals:
Forage something every month – Spring is still to get in full swing, so foraging options were again limited, but I have my eye on a few things starting to come through for next month. In February, I was lucky enough to spot a fungus which is useful not in cooking, but as a firelighter! Someone had posted a photo of ‘King Alfreds Cakes’ (they look like burned cakes as in the legend). A couple of days later, I spotted some growing on a fallen branch in our woodland, so decided to test them out. they are currently drying on a windowsill, so I’ll let you know how well they work next month.
Wild swim at least once a month in as many different places as possible – In February this seemed a much easier goal. At the start of the month, I checked out a loch on my neighbour’s land only about 15-20mins walk from home (with permission). After a bit of searching, I managed to find a spot to get in and out quite easily. The resident geese are quite curious, I’m not sure they had seen a human in a bobble hat in the water before! Since that first test run, I have been in twice more. It is such a lovely place to be on a sunny day with birds and moving water the only sounds……….both the photos below were taken whilst having my post-swim cuppa:
I have now made contact with a very informal local outdoor swimming group, so I am hoping to test out new spots very soon.
Document our house renovation progress in an illustrated journal – Another month with not much to write about this month, but March should involve a lot more progress on this front, so I will try to save photos and make notes as I go along during the month rather than leave it all until the end.
As well as my regular monthly goals, we have another challenge in the next month or so; a decision we have been wrestling with for a while. When we sold up down south, we sold our run-around car as well as the house. For almost 2 years our only form of transport (not including the very impractical sports car that only comes out on sunny days) has been the camper van. We always planned to get a car when we were settled, but now we are in the right situation, we find ourselves struggling with what to buy. With multiple sets of visitors due in 5-7 weeks time, it would be very handy to have a vehicle that we could all go out in together, without them having to drive. It would also be nice to have something easier to park in small towns and more comfortable for long drives when we don’t plan to sleep in the back.
We pay into a sinking fund for vehicle expenses, including depreciation, every month. This is where the limited proceeds from selling the last car went. Right now, that fund stands at £12k, 4 years after purchasing our last vehicle. Theoretically, that is the budget. In the past, this would make the process fairly simple as we always buy second hand, practical cars which we keep a long time. This is the first time we have been looking to buy a vehicle when electric and hybrid have been a realistic options. We both like the idea of an EV, and think it will suit us well, as we are rarely in a rush to get anywhere. As long as the range was such that we would only have to stop once on a trip down south to visit family, then it wouldn’t be particularly inconvenient for our lifestyle. With our plans for solar in the long term, it should become even more cost effective to charge at home. But then, we have to consider how much we want to stretch the budget with a lot of expensive home renovations to come. EVs currently depreciate heavily, so would this be a wise use of cash? That said we would buy used and keep it a long time, so perhaps this should be less of a consideration. Who knows what the used car market will look like in 7 or 8 years time with unknown legislation changes between now and then.
We do need something with reasonable ground clearance for the roads round here, and passing other cars on single track roads, but we don’t need a 4WD. Is the higher upfront cost worth it for the lower running costs of an EV (tax, ‘fuel’ when charged at home, servicing)? We love the idea of emission-free driving and have somewhere to charge at home. In summary, we are flip flopping between options 1 and 3 below. I think we have pretty much ruled out option 2 as being the worst of both worlds.
Option 1 – Spend less than the budget on a standard petrol of diesel vehicle with around 50k miles on the clock. Probably something like a Vauxhall Mokka, Dacia Duster, Renault Capture or similar- Cost £8-11k.
Option 2 – Push the budget to buy a plug in hybrid. The only vehicle which really fits the bill in this category right now (20-30 mile range, cost, ground clearance) is a Mitsubishi Outlander, which is not much smaller than the van and not very economical when using the combustion engine. Cost £13-17k with around 50k miles on the clock.
Option 3 – Push the budget for a low cost 64kwh full EV. We are told there is less to knock off the underneath of an electric vehicle, so we can perhaps be a bit less strict on ground clearance, but we would need a real world 250+ mile range. We would be looking at something like a Kia Soul or Niro with around 50k miles on the clock Cost £16-18k
We can afford to push the budget, but is spending the extra £5-6k worth it? What would you do? I would love to hear in the comments.
As well as the above dilemma, we have also just got started on pulling down the plasterboard lining in the downstairs bedrooms. We have made some interesting discoveries, which I will talk about more next month. I think March is shaping up to be a busy one. Probably also an expensive one with fuel oil deliveries and tree removal on the cards in the next couple of weeks. It is also Mr W’s birthday, so we are planning a night away.
Looking back though my photos of the month, we have had some lovely sunny days and it has certainly been drier up here than in much of the UK. As well as getting outdoors and spotting the first frog spawn, moving some snowdrops ‘in the green’ and making out first dead hedge, we did get on with some decorating, adding a bit of colour to the kitchen.
Finding Enough 