The decision was made - Suffolk County Council take back the running of Suffolk Libraries from June. No doubt things will stay the same for a while and then we will see what happens. 20,000 signatures on a petition meant nothing.
Meanwhile...............
Two letters arrived................... Council Tax up by £70 a year for 2025-2026, electricity probably up by about £30 a year? and an email - Broadband/phone up £3 a month.
More frugalling needed in some places to afford all these!
I keep quite detailed accounts of what I spend, it's very useful when letters like the above arrive and I can look back at how much things were costing in previous years. I divide my page into these categories and can see how much I spend each month. Some can't be avoided or changed, some can be altered . This is the way to work out which is which and where spending needs to be cut to take account of price rises.
Council Tax - with 25% single person discount
Phones and Broadband
Charity Donation
Water/sewer (based on water meter readings)
Heat and Light (electricity and heating oil and boiler service)
TV licence
Food - This one I Must try and spend less - stop offering to pay for meals out when the family are here!
Christmas. (Cut this by £100 last year from the year before)
Birthdays/gifts and cards (5 adults and 5 grandchildren for gifts and several more for cards)
Grandchildren (things I find at boot sales)
Postage
Car (includes diesel, MOT and service, Insurance and Breakdown cover - No road tax to pay)
House expenses (other than below)
House buildings and contents Insurance
Laundry
Bathroom (soap, shampoo, toothpaste, loo rolls etc)
Kitchen (dishwasher and anything used in the kitchen etc, etc)
Garden (seeds, plants, compost)
Wild birds
Personal Spending (includes exercise groups, haircuts, swimming, books, memberships, outings)
Clothes/shoes
Health (includes dentist, paracetamol etc, cholesterol reducing drinks )
Miscellaneous - any thing else.
There was a section for holidays but I'm not having any this year.
Two expenses this week, first I had a haircut, it seemed to be growing like crazy and I thought it was only a month since I'd had it cut - but it was actually 8 weeks, really needed doing. I'm not having the trimmers anymore, makes it a bit too short.
Then the car went in for it's annual service and MOT, thankfully not much needed doing although there is a note on the MOT certificate to say the car has an outstanding manufacturers recall on it for something. I rang a Ford dealerships to see what the problem was and it's nothing drastic and done for free but would be about 2 hours to update something to do with transmission? - haven't a clue. None of the dealerships are close to home and none anywhere to do something while waiting so I'll be hanging around a repair shop for a couple of hours sometime - oh lovely!
The forecast for the weekend is OK, not quite as warm as Thursday or yesterday but should be dry enough for my early morning walks with a purpose (car boot sales!). There's a model railway exhibition on locally - the layouts fascinate me. I might go and look although there is an entrance charge............and if I'm cutting expenses can I afford it?
Another photo of a print for spring from the Angela Harding book - A Printmakers Year
Have a good weekend wherever you are and whatever you're doing and I'll be back next week.
