Awful news of the tinder dry Heathland fire on the Suffolk coast around Dunwich. The caravan site where I stayed last year was evacuated and National Trust land and part of RSPB Minsmere destroyed. I hope they can get it under control. So much of the area along the coast there is heathland including a lot of land around Sizewell Nuclear Power Station!.....worrying times. My Youngest Daughter and EGD are about 5 miles south of the fires but if it got to them the power station would be in danger too. 'Luckily' huge swathes of land have been cleared for the new railway and associated Sizewell C works between Leiston town and the fire.
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State Pension is paid every 4 weeks and July is the month for me this year with two payments which always makes the bank balance look very good......for a while.
In 2025 July was my lowest spend month and I hoped for similar in 2026 as the only known extra above all the regular monthly outgoings was the virus protection for the laptop.
Just the usual income of State Pension, County Council Spouses Pension and interest on savings.
The regular monthly outgoings are Council Tax, Broadband and phones, diesel for the car, charity, the variable monthly electric bill, plus the annual lap top virus protection those totalled £413.
Smaller expenses were for a new frying pan - the second I've bought in a year as the first replacement was dreadful. Bits used in the bathroom, cholesterol reducing drinks and paracetamol in the 'Health' column and a few car boot finds for grandchildren, Sunflower Hearts for the birds and Finally I ordered a pack of six new filter cartridges for my water jug.
My personal expenses were just exercise group, a couple of secondhand books from the library 'For Sale' shelves and the new Black n' Red note book from a boot-sale (to use for accounts when I've finished the one in use) that I mentioned at the start of the month.
Food spending for at home was around £128 (including visitors), plus there was also some food/coffee out with and without family ..........so not a cheap month foodwise at all.
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image from google freepik
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Pennies Pinched.................
- I've gone back to making 400g loaves in the bread machine rather than 500g, saving money and calories. Still 50/50 wholemeal/white flour and a good money saver.
- Climbing French beans from the garden
- Courgettes from the garden
- Cucumbers and tomatoes from the greenhouse
- Beetroot from BiL's garden, I gave him a packet of seed and he sowed an extra row for me.
- Few figs from the garden before wasps moved in
- No books bought online
- No 'products' bought
- No clothes etc bought
- Used saved apple peelings and the too seedy raspberries to make 3½ jars of compost/mixed fruit jelly
- Saved all of 19p by clicking the "no hurry" button when ordering the water filter jug cartridges.
- Dishwasher only used every other day
- Washing machine just used once or twice a week and washing dried outside of course.
- Make sure to always get refund on car -park ticket by spending £5 in Asda when going into town.
And Looking forward........................
August is another month with only one known extra above all the regular payments, that's for half year sewer and water charges. Last year (and February this year) this was a big bill because I'd not realised there was a problem with the bathroom loo.....which I got fixed in March...........so hoping for something a bit smaller this year, although it's £97 for standing charges per half year without even using any water! Google AI tells me the average cost for 1 person, with a water meter for water and sewer is between £350 - £450 per year, I hope I'm at the lower end of that total. "Water poverty" is counted as spending more than 5% of total income on water and sewer bills, and the way water bills keep rising and summer droughts, we'll all be there soon.
