Almost the End of May Frugal Notes

 How did May go for frugal and thrifty? 

The income was the usual 2 pensions (both have gone up a bit so I await notification from HMRC to tell me my tax code will have changed and not for the better!)) and interest on savings bond and ISA.

Outgoings were the usual too - Council Tax, electric, charity, phones and broadband, 2 x diesel for the car, food, household needs. The biggest extra outgoing this month was the car breakdown insurance but there were lots of smaller things.

 I thought there would be no more garden expenses but then the strimmer cord ran out - it's lasted years so has done well, the silly thing is that the cheapest way to buy was in packs of  12. I found somewhere to buy just  4 but I reckon - I'll be long gone before they've been used! From a car-boot sale I bought a pot of Chrysanths to fill a space out the front and when I saw someone else had small Fig trees (first I've seen for ages) I bought one - just in case I decide to move!

The window cleaner came early in the month and I bought postage stamps and birthday presents were sent to Eldest Grandson who is now 8 years old and of course more wild bird feed again - although I've now had to stop feeding for summer as the starlings have about a dozen babies and when they swoop in the feeders are empty in 10 minutes.

On the personal part of the accounts, no flowers or  books were bought - a very good thing! I had a foot care lady round for the first time and went to the opticians where I paid the extra for eye pressure test (the basic eye test is free but they do an extra pressure test which is £20 ) but other expenses were smaller,  the exercise group, a cheap pair of sunglasses from a car-boot sale and I bought a new insulated cup to replace one that wasn't much good and a few other bits and finally on Monday decided to have a months subscription to Discovery+ TV (£6.99)so I could watch the French Open Tennis  - I just have to work out how to cancel the subscription to it before the month is over - it took me an age to find out how to get it in the first place - it's so frustrating to be so technically dense! 

Small things were needed in the kitchen, the regular delivery of Smol dishwasher tablets arrived and I looked several times for the cheap bags of dishwasher salt in Aldi and Asda - but the shelves were always empty and the local hardware place only had huge boxes of the expensive Finish and I was told there was a shortage -  like a year or so ago, so I sent for some and of course next time I was in Asda - there were the cheap bags, sitting there - full shelf! The filter needed changing in the water filter jug that I got for filtering water for the coffee machine so I  sent for a new stock up while I remembered.

 So, we are told that inflation is increasing more slowly and some foodstuffs are coming down in price .....really?? can't say I've noticed. My shopping just seems to be expensive each week . It doesn't help that I like to eat lots of fruit - 3 portions a day if I can - and fresh preferably . But at this time of year it's between seasons and I'm eating  an apple, slice of melon and canned pineapple. Nectarines are just appearing in the supermarkets and hopefully will be costing less than they are at the moment once the season gets going. And then BiL's strawberries and my raspberries will be ready- can't wait!  I always pick the biggest fruit or veg if they are priced up individually and the melon I found one week was so ginormous that it made the scales on the self service checkout bleep - the scales thought I had more than one! I had a big slice every day for 8 days.

Frugal things I can think of 

• Mending my ironing board cover with new elastic
• Mending leggings again - now all put away until autumn. I'm in shorts for the duration now
• Home made white bread, malt loaves and granary bread - another recipe from the bread machine recipe book that I'd not tried before.

• Reading library books and my own books
• Made big batch of vegetable korma curry = 8 portions - about 60p each
• Greetings cards from boot-sale for 50p each
• Pick the biggest of individually priced fruit veg (cauliflower, melon, cucumber etc)
• Made a batch of Thai Red Fish Curry = 7 portions, worked out at just under £1 each as I added green beans for a change. Curry in the freezer for several months now..
• Only use 2nd class stamps

Found in the new Mind charity shop,  a good t-shirt for home wearing. It's a man's one - they are always so much better quality than women's and have a looser fit for hot weather.

Out of the house went a bag of old towels to the RSPCA charity shop and some new (won in the raffle) items to the church in Stowmarket (where the café is)where they have a sale table and a help-yourself-if-you-need-it shelf of toiletries. 

I briefly considered hanging onto things to do a car boot sale myself but I've been to so many, and they've been packed out with folk selling with the same old stuff week after week so I don't think people are spending much and anyway I vowed, after last time, not do one again EVER!

Looking forward to next month..................and June is often a low spend month with the only extra expense (hopefully and touching wood)being the bill from the District Council for the garden waste bin. I have plenty of meals in the freezer now and there will be strawberries from BiL so food spending could be low.

Back Soon

Sue