March saw the snowdrops give way to daffodils in the garden, and we are fortunate that a previous owner planted a LOT of them. I have no idea how many varieties, but there are quite a few, so the flowering period is spread over weeks. They are such cheerful flowers and they come up all along the track to our house to welcome us home. Some welcome spring weather allowed us to get on in the garden this month too, and the solar panels started earning their keep.
We built the raised beds we bought in February and then there was just the small matter of finding something to fill them. There were piles of soil dug out to improve drainage around the house and the remains of a pile of wood chippings which is now well rotted, to get us started. We then arranged for 4 massive bags of top soil to be delivered – no easy feat with difficult access to the house and only one local supplier who were dubious accessing our property with a large truck with hoist. I had to send photos of the access and where we wanted the bags to be dropped. The the driver was far more relaxed about the whole thing than the guy I had spoken to in the office. When they finally arrived, we were just left with the task of shovelling 4 giant bags of the stuff into a barrow and out again into 4 raised beds. As you might imagine this was hard work and took a while. I was actually glad of the wet days to have a rest.
The top soil was also used to finally finish filling the raised bed we built in the fruit cage, which was abandoned last spring when my mother died. By the time I got home last year, the fruit bushes were already growing away, and it was too late to move them. My heart wasn’t really in it either, so I’m a year behind what I planned, but better late than never. I have ordered some strawberries and blueberries too, but at the time of writing they haven’t arrived. They are being shipped bare rooted and with Evri, who are always very slow round here, so I’m a bit worried they’ll be past saving by the time they get here.
Longer days and improved weather also meant we exported excess solar power for the first time. We earned £7.03 in March for exported power. Our monthly electric bill has also dropped faster in March than we thought (even before the credit for power sold to the grid). I knew the solar and batteries would make our, now all electric, house cheap to run in the summer when the heating was off, but they are performing better than expected already. It will be interesting to see how the costs compare after a full year. We expected the costs of running the heat pump to be similar to our old oil system, but with the benefit of keeping the house at a constant temperature (rather than a few hours of heat morning and evening). The early indications are that we might save money as well as being warmer. I suspect I didn’t fully factor in the benefit of being able the charge batteries off peak at a much lower cost.
As well as outside jobs, we made a little progress indoors. Mr W added a light in the stone fireplace we have been renovating. This has been very helpful for ongoing wall repairs, which also slowly progressed this month. We plan to keep the light in the final scheme, but will have to tidy up the wiring, which is currently lashed up, looping out of the fireplace at the front. I have now filled the largest and deepest hole in the fireplace wall, but there is still more to do lower down. I am saving it for a rainy day, or maybe just putting it off, as the last bit is down low and awkward to work on.
Freedom fund value – £1,491,005 (down £68k on last month)
Expenditure – £2,553.83 (or a 2.06% withdrawal rate) including renovation costs, or £2,553.83 (or a 2.06% withdrawal rate) without renovation costs
Earned income – £125
As anticipated, there was a sizeable drop in freedom fund value this month. In the grand scheme of things, this was not as much as I had expected. We were down £68k since last month. A lot of money, but if you zoom out a little, it puts us back at the same level as the start of the year. This is the equivalent of a 5% drop, so it’s always important to have perspective. I suspect there is a lot more market turbulence in our future, and it is not something I am expending a lot of time or energy worrying about.
There was one upside to the Middle East turmoil and uncertainty. I took advantage of the heating oil price panic and fear to motivate someone to come and take our old disconnected oil tank away. The tank itself is not bunded, so does not meet current regulations. This makes it worth little as a used tank, but it was still a little less than 1/4 full…….. Setting a come-and-get me price of approximately 1/3 of what it was currently retailing for (or only slightly less what I paid per litre for it last year), was a great motivator. I was inundated with enquiries and someone came later the same day and did the hard work of removing the tank for me. They even gave me £100 for the privilege. We now don’t have to worry about the tank and connections degrading and the contents leaching into the soil at some point in the future.
Expenses this month were about average, with no specific renovation expenses. The biggest cost was £570 to replace the air conditioning compressor on the van. Grocery costs were up, but there was no eating out or takeaways, so overall it balances out.
The £125 income was made up of £100 for the oil tank and £25 for selling a wall mounted plate rack that we took out of the kitchen when we rearranged it following the removal of the Rayburn last year.
March weather was changeable, sometimes with sun, wind, rain, sleet and hail all in one day. There was enough sunshine (and more daylight) to get on with outside jobs and fit in a few swims (although the water hasn’t warmed up much yet). I love spring in this part of the world, there is something new every day.
Finding Enough 