Finding Enough

Despite having moved into our cottage in SW Scotland in 2023, we hadn’t yet spent a Christmas here. Much to the disappointment of certain family members, we decided to have a quiet one at home this year. When an old school friend asked if she could come and stay for a few days while her kids were with her ex, it seemed a good excuse to keep things relaxed and simple. It also meant there was a little pressure to get a spare bedroom habitable and make the kitchen a bit more functional…….

We had managed to move back into our bedroom in November, but what is intended to be the guest bedroom / study is a long way from being finished, as it was put on hold when all the ECO4 work started. Rather than rush to do a bad job (and technically we aren’t supposed to change anything until the install is officially signed off), we focussed on the small second bedroom upstairs. This will be our dressing room, as there’s not a lot of room for storage in our bedroom. This room was also insulated with SWIP boards on the sloping ceilings, so is much warmer than it was, but (as is the case with our bedroom) this came at the cost of a slightly smaller room all round. Thankfully, one guest meant we could get away with a single bed. A double would have been a bit of a squeeze with the lack of headroom.

I had a bit of fun with the decor in this room, painting a few native wildflowers on the gable end wall. This did mean I didn’t get the hallway and landing finished before she arrived, but I made a start and we managed to install the cupboards in the kitchen where the Rayburn used to be (rather than just a bit of old worktop balanced on a small table). The wall units still don’t have doors, but the extra storage space is a revelation. I unpacked the ‘posh plates’ for the first time since we packed up our old house in 2022 and they were put to use for Christmas dinner.

We took a break from DIY between Christmas and New Year. The never ending rain changed to cold, clear days, so we took our guest on some lovely walks around local coastline and managed a pub lunch too. I fear I have little interesting to share this month, but we have started the year with renewed enthusiasm to crack on.

The dog continues to learn, and has a huge amount of energy. Her recall is good around the house, but all the exciting smells and close proximity of sheep (over low dry stone walls) means we can not let her off the lead outside the house. We have been in touch with a local trainer and start a weekly class next week. This will be a safe environment for her (and us) to learn to work better together and hopefully to reduce her excitement around other people and dogs. We have found a good walk not far away, around a wind farm, where we can let her off, well away from livestock. Her recall is slowly improving, but she is very easily distracted. We will probably need to invest in improved fencing in part of the garden before summer. It is at the back of our minds that if her chase drive remains very strong, and training fails to control it, we may not be the right home for her. We are just at the start of the journey, so we will see how we get on.

Freedom fund value – £1,481,028 (up almost £10k on last month)

Expenditure – £3,129.43 (or a 2.54% withdrawal rate) including renovation costs, or £2,133.68 (or a 1.73% withdrawal rate) without renovation costs

Earned income – £1,084

I will cover annual changes to the freedom fund in a separate post, but it bounced back from a drop at the end of November to end the year at a similar level to October. Monthly expenses, not including renovation costs, was probably a bit below average, despite a huge groceries bill. We spent nearly double our normal groceries spend in December! This did include a £115 case of wine from Laithwaites, £124 at the butcher and an £85 Galloway food hub order. On the plus side we do now have a very full freezer and the £206 refund for that ill-fated train ticket in November helped offset this a little.

As we were so busy getting the house ready, we didn’t do (or spend money on) much else. There was some joint spending on presents, but most of this was taken care of through our individual monthly allowances, as we tend to buy gifts for our respective families from individual funds (we each have £250 a month to spend as we choose – to cover clothes, hobbies, gadgets etc).

The renovation spending was mainly on kitchen cabinets and a lot of smaller items like paint, lights, door handles etc. We were able to buy individual base and wall units locally and plan to make doors. We will build an extension eventually, which will be a kitchen diner, so we didn’t want to overspend on the kitchen now. Kitchens are astoundingly expensive if you aren’t a bit clever about it. Of course no-one was selling anything suitable second hand within a 3 hr radius when we needed it.

That invoice I had been chasing since July, for work done in April, was finally paid in the first week of December. I doubt it will lead to anything else, but I was contacted out of the blue by another ex-colleague who is now heading up a large team for a different company. He is interested in my help remotely for what would amount to an hour or two a month, so we’ll see if that leads to anything in 2026. It would be a nice contrast to and easy to blend with my lifestyle.

Reduce plastic waste by making one change every month – I have failed to make any significant progress with this again in December.

Do something creative every month – The only thing to report this month is that mural in the small upstairs bedroom. My artist and makers group don’t meet in December, as so many members are busy with craft fairs etc in the run up to the festivities. I am slowly but surely re-discovering some space in my studio area, as storage in the kitchen increases. I really hope to be able to clear some bench space soon.

Record the birds and mammals spotted around the house each month – I am back to a routine with this now. The birds are becoming quite demanding when the feeders run out in the cold weather. It doesn’t take them long to spot me heading to the shed to refill them, and the air seems to be filled with fluttering round my head. Robins and Blue tits seems to keep the closest eye on what I’m doing. I have had to put water out during the cold spell too, as it barely rose above freezing during the day. The pine martens continue to visit regularly overnight for peanuts and we continue to see the red squirrel a couple of times a month – although it doesn’t seem to have found the peanut feeder yet.

There were a lot of misty mornings and evenings at the start of the month after all that rain. Once this turned to cold crisp days, there were some lovely sunsets. We had to break the ice to get in for a couple of winter dips! The dog was very pleased with her octopus toy Christmas present from a family member.