July Financial Round-up

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. 

image from google freepik

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.

St Mary's Church, Barking (The One in Suffolk not Essex!)

 St Mary's Church Barking is at the end of  the aptly named Parsons Lane, a narrow road a mile from Needham Market, and is Huge, yet the actual village of Barking is over a mile away, set around a large green or Tye and has a population of just 400.

The reason the church is so big is because it once also served Needham Market which has always been a town. Later a Chapel of Ease was built in Needham to save the population the long walk. I wrote about St Johns Needham Market HERE way back in 2019.

A very wide central aisle, side aisles, Clerestory windows and side chapels, both with parclose screens This church has everything you would expect in a large  town church.

Including a Rood Screen still standing

The South side chapel has matching parclose screen

and on the other side chapel too, with remnants of colour

This could be the coffin bier that had to be pushed all the way from Needham Market along a causeway (corpse way?) for burials in Barking churchyard. The line of the path across fields out of Needham Market can still be seen on overhead views of the town.

The font has a Very fancy carved wood cover

Beautiful stitched altar cloth and interesting reredos set on the window sill of the East window.

It looks as if there was once a window here on the north wall of the Chancel.

Just one stained glass window in the church  - in the bell tower, seen through the bell ropes.

Huge old chest for all the parish treasures and records - three locks was quite common, therefore needing three key holders to be present.

It really is a surprise to get to the end of the narrow dead-end lane, turn a corner and find this huge church.

 

The 2nd and 3rd Food Shops of July

 I said "no more food shop posts" but the photos were there so might as well use them.....filling a blog post again.

Second food shop of the month was on the 11th

 Asda first then Aldi. I'd put ice packs in my cold box in the car so the Asda things were OK while I did a whizz round Aldi before heading home.

There were so many things missing in Aldi, which is unusual. I don't know if it was because I was so early or their deliveries were late or the shortages talked of  for months have finally happened.

1kg Nectarines £2.39; 6 apples £1.39;  6 ordinary meat sausage rolls £1.55; 2x dried prunes @ £2.49 = £5.58; 2 x decaf ground coffee @ £2.49 = £4.98; Extra Mature Cheddar 400g £2.49; Large pack of back bacon £4.69;  Tortilla chips 57p; Pack 6 mini cheese bakes 99p; Peanuts from car boot sale £2. Not in the picture are two things from Asda as they went straight into the freezer ...... Flora cholesterol reducing spread £4.60 and Linda McCartney burgers £2.48.

Total Spend £31.71.

I bought 2 decaf ground coffee as they've not had any the last two Aldi visits. I wanted Aldi's pack of 6 cheese and onion rolls but they didn't have them or the vegetarian frozen sausage rolls either - so got ordinary meat ones which aren't so good (I put in freezer and use two at a time as the main part of a meal with vegetables, they are handy for a speedy meal). I usually get a pack of the cheap  bacon bits from Asda, but they didn't have any so spent out more on a huge bacon at Aldi which I split into smaller packs before freezing.  All in all my spend was more than it could/should have been.

Just to make things worse the car-boot sale peanuts had to be thrown out, even though they were still in date. As soon as I opened a pack I could smell they'd gone a bit rancid, and one mouthful told me I was right. (No point keeping them to take back as the guy selling isn't always there and it's really a case of 'buyer beware'.)

 Running total for July £26.80 + £31.71 = £58.51

3rd Food shop on the 18th

All from Aldi. Carrots 44p; cherries 65p; mini potatoes 59p; nectarines £1.39p; 2 x peanuts @ 59p = £1.18p; pack 6 jammie cartwheels 99p; extra mature cheddar £2.49; multigrain crackers 85p; eggs £1.49; 4 pints semi skimmed milk £1.65p.

Lovely to get the cherries from the "supper six" fruit and veg offers, I love them but they are usually so expensive to buy. This packs usual price is £1.39.

Total spend £11.88

Running total £58.51 + £11.88 = £70.39

The 4th  July shop has already happened and photo to follow......maybe. I thought that would be the last shop but the birds have munched their way through all the sunflower hearts very fast so I need to go into town on market day and that means paying £1 for car park and having to spend £5 in Asda to get the parking fee back so there will be an extra food shop after all.