Finding Enough

The local agricultural show is considered the end of the summer in these parts. Nights start to draw in quickly and the weather cools. This certainly seems to generally be the case this year. Although there hasn’t been much rain, sunset has gone from 21.21 to 20.13 in August.

We managed to get a few more jobs done on the house this month before we were distracted by a new arrival. One of the projects involved turning 200 year old floorboards into shelves. We took some timber taken out during the installation last year along to a friend who has a large workshop, including a planer thicknesser. He ran them through to even out the surface for us. We were worried the historic woodworm would make them unusable, but a bit of tinted wax has actually made the wormy bits my favourite parts.

Carefully placed support brackets enabled us to turn 3 pieces into one long high shelf in the living room, and I’m just waiting for an LED strip to be delivered to illuminate the things that will sit on top – including a couple of glass sculptures that have been packed away since we moved out of our old house 4 years ago.

The DIY in August also included finally finishing the wall repair where the heat pump connected through to the hot water tanks and controller inside. If you remember earlier posts, I had to postpone this job when great tits made a nest in the cavity in the spring. I left well alone until the end of summer, in case they had a second brood, but I didn’t see any evidence of that. When I moved the loose stones away, I found A LOT of moss inside, and it was actually quite a large space. The depth of the cavity to be filled was significant, so I did it in 2 layers and I’m pleased with how it turned out.

Along with the purely practical house projects, I also had a bit of fun customising the OSB kitchen cupboard doors we made last month. I used the hill line, as seen in the distance from near the house, as inspiration.

While I was playing with paint in the kitchen, Mr Wombat was taking down the ceiling in the end of the house we affectionately call the rubble room. As well as 18 butterflies preparing to hibernate, he found a Smiths crisp packet dating back to the early 80s! As well as this treasure, there was also an old 10p minted in 1969.

It is a good job we got a few things done earlier in the month, because at the end of August we picked up a new furry family member. We had agreed to leave getting another dog until the house project was further along – especially with an extension in the planning for next year. When Mr Wombat spotted a dog needing a home on a local rescue centre page, that decision apparently went out of the window and we had to go an meet her. I was apprehensive after our recent experience, but he was set on it, and so we now have a dog again. She is a lovely girl and very friendly, but she is a bit on the large side, being a rottweiler cross. As 35kg, we definitely won’t be picking her up, but we are much more confident that she won’t be jumping over boundary walls or fences any time soon. Her previous family had to give her up after a family member became disabled and a large dog wasn’t compatible with a lot of tubes and equipment. She was spending a lot of her time in a crate, but she is surprising well adjusted considering.

August was another fairly flat month for the freedom fund, with a small increase on July, which barely registers on the graph.

Freedom fund value – £1,599,062 (up £7k on last month)

Expenditure – £3,166.85 (or a 3.39% withdrawal rate) including renovation costs, or £3,083.54 (or a 2.31% withdrawal rate) without renovation costs

Earned income – £0

Expenses were a little higher than average this month, driven by dog costs (£423.23) a home insurance renewal, which I struggled to bring down much even with a lot of comparisons (£524.30) as well as £138 on tracking and a wheel bearing check on the car.

One cost that is moving in a positive direction is our energy bills. A year ago, when we had the heat pump installed, I calculated the previous 12 months of energy costs (oil and electricity). It worked out at an average of £208 per month. The end of August 2026 marked a full year since the switch to all electric. Our new monthly average is £102. Both figures include car charging, but I think that has been fairly constant, as long trips mean mostly public chargers. We didn’t expand our battery storage capacity until May, so I would expect a little more upside over the next winter, but unit prices will be going up too, so the impact may be wiped out. We were expecting for our new bills to be similar, but for the house to be much warmer over the winter. The house was definitely much warmer, and more consistently so, but it is working out cheaper too – win win!

Other highlights of August included the local agricultural show, where I volunteered for the beekeepers association stand, getting a brief glimpse of the solar eclipse through the cloud and building an oak raft using traditional boatbuilding skills (and swimming out to launch it). The cow at the end was watching me swimming!