March Accounts = Spending and More Spending

 Thank you for all the comments on the shopping post. I promise not to do it again - unless I have a shortage of ideas for posts sometime.

This is how March went on the financial front..................Please don't read it if it's too long and boring. 

The bill for the February toilet repair (£222) and the February annual boiler service (£144) appeared in the first week of March. ( The boiler repair bill for the water pressure tap thingy will arrive next month)

 I booked the car in for it's annual service and MOT mid month and to get the clutch checked -something wasn't right with it. The car also needed new brake pads and discs and the guys changed the clutch master cylinder - what ever that is - they said they'd had another car with the same problems a while back but could never get the clutch to play up when they tried it but that car hadn't been back in after doing the cylinder  so with any luck they will have cured it. The total bill was big..... £645!.....heck! Tom told me the cam-belt will need doing next year when the car is 10 years old - oh goody!

No Council Tax again in March, but the letter came about what it will be from April and it's gone up by a whopping £8 a month. It will be £171.86 in April and  £174 for the other 9 months. I get a 25% discount for being alone.

Other direct debits and regular expenses were the usual phones and broadband, charity donations, diesel for the car, monthly electric bill and came to £208.

I had to buy a new wheelbarrow this month, the old one came here from the smallholding via Ipswich very small bungalow and Clay Cottage. BiL had replaced the wheel and repaired the fixings before but it had really come to the end of it's life. I thought a new one would see me out. It's lighter than the old one too and has a puncture proof tyre. I need a wheelbarrow to get compost bags and growbags from the car to the back garden. Apart from that only  garden spending was on the primulas from a boot sale mentioned earlier in the month.

Other spending was for the window cleaner,  a new indoor doormat from Aldi as well as the small bits from boot -sales. Smol laundry and dishwasher tabs (they're now charging for delivery so I may have to abandon them and change to another eco-friendly company.) Bought a booklet of second class stamps - as they are going up again next month. Birthday gifts for sister and son in law and mini easter eggs ready for the Grandchildren's egg hunt. £4 was spent on sunflower hearts for the birds and finally I sent for a new basic TV remote to replace the one that packed up, but can't get it to work, it should work automatically. Luckily I still have the smart remote to use. I'm going to take both remotes to the TV shop in Diss soon as they have a thing that can check if it's the remote or the TV sensor playing up.

Personal  spending was some flowers early in the month, Keep Moving Group, a new Puzzler book, a much needed haircut and 50p on one second hand book and finally I bought myself some new croc type slip on outdoor shoes - but ones without holes all around them - so I can work outside without getting wet feet. I've been meaning to get a pair to replace the ancient crocs  all winter and finally saw some at a sensible price.

Phew - what a month - Outgoings were definitely more than incomings this month! and April will be  nearly as bad.

Any penny savings? Mostly just the usual

• Used apple and pear peel and raspberries that were in the freezer to make compost jelly.
• Handy kitchen bits from boot sale at 50p each
•  Reading library books for free.
• Bread machine used for 50/50 wholemeal white bread and pizza bases and fruit loaf
• Batch making pizza topping 86p + 70p+ 10p = £1.66 ÷ 5 = 33p each
• Bought 2nd class postage stamps before they go up in price again - never use 1st class.
• Dish washer only used every other day
• Checked cheapest local place for diesel for car - keeping it topped up Just In Case.
• Avoided using tumble dryer all month
• No magazines, newspapers etc

Back Tomorrow

When and Where I Food Shopped in March

Whoop Whoop (that was an ironic whoop whoop!)  lots of shopping photos but  apologies - this is a long post full of lists! I gathered all the shopping photos together and realised it was a looooong post but thought it might be interesting to see what was bought and how much it costs, before prices shoot up again.

First was just a very small quick shop and was actually on the last day of February but I'd already done the February shop post and done the accounts in my book so put it down as March. I went to Diss because my planned change away from the  weird ingredients  in Pringles, when something with crunch is needed,  is a change to nuts. I wanted to compare Aldi to The Grape Tree (No Grape Tree in Stowmarket). Not comparing price as I knew the latter is way more expensive than Aldi  but it was more the quality that I wanted to check. 

Prunes, carrots and value range cashews from Aldi £4.42 , eggs from the roadside stall have gone up to £1.25 for six and the bigger bag of cashews from The Grape Tree were £4.99.

Total spend £10.66 - (I decided it wasn't worth the extra to buy from The Grape Tree and anyway peanuts are cheaper so I shall be alternating) 

My proper first shop, a week later was a lot more, everything from Aldi except the tea-bags.

Not pictured as they went straight into the freezer are two Linda McCartney mozzarella veggie burgers, Thankfully British apples and pears are still  around. Aldi yeast has gone from 8 sachets in a cardboard box to 6 sachets in a pack wrapped in film for the same price I think. A big cauliflower and leeks - again British. Self Raising Flour, Penne pasta, noodles, a bar of cooking chocolate and choc drops(for the next batch of brownies) and dried prunes. For the fridge... 1 dozen eggs,  Cheddar and Stratford Blue cheese, mozzarella ball (which I cut in half and freeze for topping pizzas), 4 pints milk and 250g butter. Salted peanuts (Cheaper than cashews, bought to use as a snack instead of Pringles) and from Asda (have to spend over £5 to get back the £1 car park fee) a huge box of tea-bags - they'll last me most of a year! Junk food from QD was a couple of packs of the Dunkables broken/misshapen chocolate biscuits - the ones I had back in February had a good mix of all sorts of chocolate biscuits.

Total spend £40.31

Another week later 

Everything from Aldi again. Vegetables were Salad leaves, purple sprouting broccoli, celery, mini potatoes, baby plum tomatoes. Fruit in season British Apples and pears . Into the fridge Extra mature cheddar, Shropshire blue and 'salad' cheese (aka feta). For the freezer 2 packs of sweet potato fries, petit pois peas and fish in batter. For the store cupboard - wholemeal bread flour, cashews, multi grain crackers, ground coffee, jar of olives and stock cubes. 4 pints of milk also into the freezer. Total spend £30.89

The next week I went to Diss to do a tour of the charity shops and to look at the new B&M. There is one in Stowmarket but it's on the edge of the town centre and I usually can't be bothered to walk right through town and their car park has to be paid for with no way to get the money back, unlike the car park at Asda.

There were a couple of things I needed so did a small shop while in Diss at Aldi and Morrisons.

The only things I got in B&M was the Fray-Bentos steak and gravy pie for £2 to put in the cupboard for when I next wanted a meat meal - been a long time since I had one of these (they are £3 in Morrisons) and some mini easter eggs ready for egg hunts with grandchildren when ED and the two boys are up from Surrey just after Easter. They're not counted in food spending so not in the photo.

From Aldi - veg was a savoy cabbage (cut off the photo by mistake), 2 little gem lettuce and a red pepper. I got 6 more apples as they were one of their specials '6 reduced price' this week.. For the fridge just cheese and a pack of crumpets to go in the freezer. For the store cupboard  I bought more ground coffee, didn't need it but apparently it's one of those things that are going to shoot up in price. I would have got de-caf too but they didn't have any. Also peanuts.

Into Morrisons where they have rape seed oil,  (which I always hope might be locally grown). Cooking oil is another thing supposedly liable to shoot up in price due to the current ongoing war- Aldi only have sunflower and 'vegetable'(which could be anything). Rapeseed oil is canola in the US and Canada. Carrots that I forgot to get in Aldi, and two lots of plums which were on some sort of extra  special offer at 52p punnet. A bargain treat all the way from South Africa.......the opposite of local!

Total spend £18.37

 

After the car boot sale a couple of weeks ago I went into town for Superdrug and to take some books back to the library and needed to spend £5+ in Asda to get my car park £1 money back again. 3Kg Allinsons bread flour  £3.40 and value range drinking chocolate £1.77 to mix with a tub of expensive Divine Drinking Choc that I 'found' in the cupboard - way past it's BBE date and it was discontinued it in 2024 but sealed and still good.

Total  £5.17

The only things bought from the  boot sale last weekend were these two small boxes of shortbread fingers for 50p each which is way less than shop  half price- still well in date too.

£10.66 + £40.31 + £30.89 + £18.37+ £5.17 + £1  =    £106 .40

Add £1 for Rhubarb from a house in the village and eggs from roadside stall £1.25 = £108.65

Finally, I called in at Aldi as I wanted something that was advertised as being in the middle aisle for my Sister's birthday. No luck with what I wanted - they were not in until Sunday (and turned out to be unavailable anyway) but they did have just two packs of decaf ground coffee, which I couldn't get from Diss - so I bought both - £2.99 each = £5.98

So March food shop was £108.65 + £5.98 =  £114.63, slightly below average  (February was even lower at £88) 

 No doubt that two lower months just means April shopping will be more, and ED and two boys are here for a couple of days so I'll need some extra different things and hopefully will have enough of interest to blog about other than Shopping!

Towards the End of March

Weird weather week here in Mid Suffolk and Wednesday had a really cold wind. Thursday morning a very thin layer of snow on the car roof. March Many Weathers for sure. 

It's good to have all the new ladies at Keep Moving Group but they all know each other so tend to only talk amongst themselves - difficult to get them to help with things too and to get them to stop talking!! Oh well, it's my fault for putting the group details on the local villages facebook pages! but previously it's just been one or two new people at a time. 11 is a bit overwhelming. The lady who has been leading our exercises for  a year now has been poorly so me and another lady have been sharing the leading. We have all the exercises written down and have been doing them for 3 years now so it's just a case of standing at the front and  working through them.

Being short of blog ideas I've already posted about virtually everything done in the kitchen this week except for making a big pan of pizza topping. It was two tins of plum tomatoes without the juice, onion chopped small and almost all of a red pepper, I saved a piece for my salad. Seasoned the mix with  oregano and divided into 5 portions.

I walked up the road to post a letter and saw this bundle of rhubarb for sale out the front of a house, luckily I had £1 in my pocket. I wiped them all and chopped and popped in the freezer. I shall add to some apple I have in the freezer and make a big crumble for when family are here after Easter.

This book below was a good read, a small girl growing up during the war years on the edge of London. 

In 1939, Valerie Braunston and her family hoped the war would pass them by in the quiet neighbourhood of Bush Hill Park, Enfield. But as the Blitz began, her carefree childhood became a daily fight for survival. Valerie endured air raids, rationing and a fractured education while London was battered for eight relentless months. By 1944, V-1 and V-2 rockets forced her evacuation to a pig farm in Lincolnshire, but she quickly plotted her return to London to pursue her dream of becoming an actress.

Years later, after Valerie moved into care at 88, her son found a manuscript while clearing out her house. Discovered beside a jammed-up typewriter, it captured her memories of that time, infused with her humour and resilience.

I've also finished the book by James Rebanks - The Place of Tides.

One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on.

Back at home, Rebanks couldn’t stop thinking about the woman on the rocks. She was fierce and otherworldly – and yet strangely familiar. Years passed. Then, one day, he wrote her a letter, asking if he could return. Bring work clothes, she replied, and good boots, and come quickly: her health was failing. And so he travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her last season on the island.

This is the story of that season. It is the story of a unique and ancient landscape, and of the woman who brought it back to life. It traces the pattern of her work from the rough, isolated toil of bitter winter, to the elation of the endless summer light, when the birds leave behind their precious down for gathering, like feathered gold.

Another excellent book and the last of my library books until next week- reading from my shelves for the next few days then.

 Clocks Forward this weekend, have to remember how to do the car clock again - it's easy - once I remember. Have a good weekend - I'll be back Monday.