August Financials - In and Out and Frugal Notes

 Income was the usual State Pension, County Council spouses pension and interest on savings + £21 for books sold online - Son and DiL took them away and added them to some they had to sell.

image from google freepik

In August there was only one known extra expense............ the half-year bill for water/sewer costs, which was a big ol' lump of money - as expected. Despite using less than the last half year, the unit cost and standing charges have gone up, so the bill wasn't much less than in February. Looking back a few years and this is one of the things that has gone up by a large %. I don't mind paying for water - but object to this....

"Essex and Suffolk Water operates as a water-only brand of Northumbrian Water Limited, itself a subsidiary of Northumbrian Water Group. Rather than standard performance bonuses, the parent group's remuneration committee awarded Chief Executive Heidi Mottram a massive £1.5 million retention package structured over five years (£300,000 annually until March 2030), designed to sit outside regulatory performance-related bonus restriction."

I was quite peeved to get an email from E&S Water saying they will repair loos that are using too much water for free....It cost me £200 to get mine fixed in February.....why didn't they tell me before!

Outgoings...........

Direct debits for Council tax, phones and broadband, charity and the variable monthly electric bill plus that Big sewer/ water bill and just one fill up of diesel for the car came to £548.

Other expenses were for odds and ends including the window cleaner, more sunflower hearts and Nyjer seed for the birds, dishwasher tabs, postage, a new loo brush, toothpaste, antiseptic cream and when I spotted small saucepans in the middle aisles of Aldi for just  £3.99 it seemed like a good idea to get one. When I moved here I only had one saucepan suitable for the induction hob so I bought two others and they were a Lot more expensive than £3.99!

Personal spending was more than recent months included the outing to the ceramics festival with the garden cane topper, a new pair of slip-on indoor sandals in the sales ready for two years time when the ones I'm now wearing wear out,  a new puzzler book, a couple of second-hand books from abebooks and the car-boot and book sale books.

Food spending wasn't too bad - just under £100 for food at home, plus coffee out twice, both instead of breakfast and taking YD and EGD for a Sunday lunch out.

A few penny pinchers as usual.

• Courgettes from the garden
• Cooking apples from garden into freezer
• Tomatoes, cucumber and peppers from greenhouse
• Aubergines from greenhouse made into a pasta sauce.
• Gifts of runner beans, pears and windfall cooking apples from Keep Moving Group friends
• Bread from bread machine as usual
• Reading library books for free
• Finding a few books from boot sales
• Peeled, sliced and blanched a few carrots and popped in freezer when I found 'yellow sticker' pack for few pence but already had some in use.
• Saving bits of bread crust into the freezer ready for making dried breadcrumbs
• 15% discount on dishwasher tabs for regular order.
• Started saving peels, cores and other odd bits of fruit in the freezer ready for the next batch of compost jelly.

Looking ahead to September and there are just two known extras - one is DiL's birthday and also Amazon prime which covers postage.