The July Round-up

 A quiet month, nothing much happening  and it turned out to be a weird month due to getting into a slump - but you've heard enough about that already! And I'm sorry for going on and on about it. I'm annoyed with myself for even mentioning it but  feeling 99% back to normal now so it was just a blip.

In the first week of the school summer holidays I had the 7½ year old EGD here for a couple of days - totally exhausting (for me - not for her!) she then went into hospital to have her tonsils out, should improve her breathing, especially  at night.

 I didn't bother to go and look at the Rural and Domestic Bygones sale at Campsea Ash auction yard last Saturday  (the one that's  held three times a year ), after looking at the on line catalogue there didn't seem anything worth photographing for the blog and certainly nothing to leave a bid on.

Last Sunday DiL was away on a Hen weekend so son brought the YGD and MG over, with a chicken to roast and cooked dinner here for us all - what a treat. DiL will be working as a TA in the same school as the children attend after the summer holidays. It will make things so much easier for her, no more rushing to drop them off in one place and hurry over to this village for the school here and afternoons will be easier too. She had to leave this school early to get to their school so had to have a shortened lunch break to make up the time. Now she'll have a less stressful day ( although working in a school with 5 - 11 year olds is pretty stressful anyway!) The 6 year old YGD said " I've got to call Mummy Mrs C....... when she's in my class but I can call her Mummy sometimes!"

Loving the Olympics - Adam Peaty was amazing in the pool - it really annoyed me that some reporters called a silver medal a 'failure to win gold'. 2/100th of a second is hardly a failure. Other things I've enjoyed were the 3 Day eventing gold medal, another gold in shooting and the cross country mountain bike gold too. Poor Jack Draper melted in the heat playing tennis yesterday - he was playing at just about the hottest time of the day poor fella. Rafa and Alcaraz were brilliant - a dream team and being Spanish the heat didn't bother them. Thankfully it was cooler for Andy Murray and Dan Evans to play. I switched the lap top off before the end, so can't tell you the result!

Good to see the French are winning lots of  medals, it costs a fortune to host the Olympics so they need their competitors to do well to get value for money for their tax paying public.

My mojo returned just in time to take my entry form in for the Flower and Produce show,  so many things have failed this year, so only tomatoes and peppers to enter and perhaps courgettes if I have 3 the same size on the day. I wasn't going to bother at all but thought  "might as well make up the numbers ". I'll let you know how I get on next week. I'm only entering one bit of baking this year but once again I'm stewarding for the judge in the baking classes - hope it's not too hot in the marquee.

So onto the regular end of month financial roundup - Income was the usual two pensions and interest on savings bond and ISA. 

image from google freepik

 Spending wasn't too bad until this last week when I heard we were in for another mini heat wave and decided to buy an electric fan (Should have read the measurements - it's HUGE about twice the size I thought!) and some cool gel pillow things. One of the annoying things about living in a bungalow and sleeping in a bedroom at the front of the house is not being able to have windows wide open at night.

Other outgoings were mostly normal with charity donation,  Council Tax, phones and broadband, diesel for the car, electric bill, household bits. I also needed annual virus protection for my lap-top.

 I'm not buying more or different (except for some granary flour for bread) but food spending was up again this month, even taking off the few different bits I got in for EGD staying. 

The frugal stuff .........................

• Raspberries from the garden every day right through the month up until the 27th.
• Plenty of courgettes, tomatoes, green beans and cucumbers
• Someone asked about running cold water into a jug before the hot appears - Yes, I still do that but find I don't often run hot water in the kitchen, where it takes an age, it's cheaper to heat a kettle for boiling water for anything needed rather than  getting the oil-fired boiler to fire up. 
• Using the dishwasher only every other day saves electric and water too, compared to filling a washing up bowl two or three times a day.
• No books, flowers etc bought 
• Home made bread 50/50 white and wholemeal and 50/50 white and Granary
• Plenty of library books for free reading 

Personal spending was exercise group, a new Puzzler magazine and my hair getting longer was driving me nuts so I went back to normal very short again (how does Claudia Winkleman cope with that fringe?) . I bought a Radio Times for the Olympic TV coverage pages and a cheapy version other weeks. A few other expenses for visits out to windmill etc. I joined English Heritage when taking the EGD to Framlingham Castle, just for a year. Will be able to re-visit a few places I've not been to for ages.

Final thought .......... 

I hope no one in British Politics would ever call anyone "a bum" - not just once but twice.

(edited in to say Andy and Dan won and them jumping about laughing was the most joyous thing to see)

Back in a couple of days. 

Sue