The UK saw a lot of change in September with a new Prime Minister followed quickly by a new Monarch and then an interesting ‘mini-budget’ that was really anything but mini. While the world was changing around us, we remained in limbo regarding the property we want to purchase in Scotland, so carried on with our mid-life house-sitting vanlife adventure.
I had hoped that this month I would be able to say that we had concluded missives on our next property, making the deal legally binding and giving us a move in date. Sadly, we are not quite there yet. The main stumbling block is the water supply. If you have read this blog regularly, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that we are looking at properties in very rural and much more wild parts of the country than we have lived before. This means a private water supply, and most often (as in this case), a spring fed well. When buying a property in Scotland with a private water supply, the seller has to provide a water quality test report proving that the water from the kitchen tap meets the correct standards for drinking water quality. This test failed the first time around and the seller committed to resolving the issue with additional filtration at their expense. We were expecting the re-test to be a formality, but unfortunately, it has failed a second time. Originally, there were three elements that exceeded regulations. Now there is only one, but that one is lead, so it is less than ideal.
We are now waiting for the results of a third test after an additional filter was fitted, and this test will also include sampling at the well, so we can try to work out the cause of the contamination. If is it a lead pipe somewhere between the well and the house or within the plumbing of the house, that can be resolved (at a cost). If the ground water and therefore the well is contaminated, then that may mean we have to reluctantly walk away. You can’t live off grid without access to drinkable water, and reverse osmosis is probably going to be too power hungry to be a viable solution for off-grid living quite apart from the initial outlay.
And so we wait…….and start to formulate a plan B. I can’t really see property prices rising for a while, so we are in a strong position as chain-free cash buyers if we do need to go back to square one.
Waiting for some certainty about a permanent home is starting to get to us a little bit. Partly because it is frustrating to see storage fees disappearing every month with no end in sight, and partly because we normally always have some kind of a project on the go, and not having a home or access to most of our belongings means we feel a little lost when we have free time. House sitting means there are always dogs to walk, cats to feed or chickens to let out, which gives structure to the day and that definitely helps. We are trying to focus on making the most of our extended holiday and really explore the areas we find ourselves in.
We have certainly seen a bit of the country during the last month. We started September in the Yorkshire Dales, before heading up to SW Scotland for a few days camping in the van (and finding the most fun campsite toilets we have seen yet – check out the photos at the end of the post). We then headed over to Northumberland to cat sit for friends while they were on holiday, which coincided with the annual village show nearby. This was a decidedly British affair that took me back to childhood, with all the excitement of waiting to see how the judges had received my creations :-)……and who would have the funniest shaped vegetable. We then moved on to two consecutive trusted house sitter sits in the Scottish borders and Norfolk at the end of the month (where we are now for a couple of weeks).
I do love a quarter end month; while we were galivanting round the countryside, my inbox was slowly filling with dividend notifications. It always makes me smile to see I’m making money while I’m out walking or sitting in the sunshine with a cup of tea. A good dividend month did not, however, offset another rubbish month for the Freedom Fund:
- Freedom Fund Value: £1,146,098
- Monthly expenses: £2,046* or a withdrawal rate of 2.1% if we were to maintain this rate of spending
- Earned Income: £0
- Miles walked to end September: 1417 vs. a target of 1311**
Although the Freedom Fund dropped another £38k during September (or 8% from its all time high in June), our expenses were also lower this month, so we actually had a lower withdrawal rate than last month. To put the drop into perspective, it is back to the level of about a year ago, so nothing too shocking…… so far. We have decided to take this month’s income from cash for the first time (we built up around 3 year’s worth of spending in cash before quitting the day jobs fully).
Expenses in September came in around £200 lower than August despite including the renewal of the van insurance at just under £310. This was helped by one of our house sit homeowners leaving us almost enough home cooked meals to last the whole week, as well has fresh eggs from her chickens. Result! We did a few repairs around the house and cut the (enormous) lawn as a thank you.
September is a fantastic month for foraging and for fruit in gardens – probably another reason our grocery bill was so low this month. As we gravitate towards rural areas we have enjoyed free field mushrooms, apples and plums as well as eggs and vegetables when we are sitting for homes with a veg patch and chickens.
All that dog walking and foraging also helped me to add another 181 miles to the walking challenge tally for 2022. Still comfortably ahead of target for the year. I now find it hard to remember the days when I only managed 4000 steps a day. A challenge is a great way of building a habit. Just make sure you tell someone else about the challenge to force yourself to be held accountable.
Here are a few images from our September. Next month I will have experience of caring for a rather different sort of animal to share and hopefully some movement of the property front……….
*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 challenged myself 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.
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