Last Day of the Month - Ins, Outs and Frugal bits

How did July look in the Accounts Book?

Added to the usual income (County Council spouses pension and interest from savings) was the £55 Wayleave payment and £10 from books sold to Music Magpie.

Outgoings were the usual Direct Debits  for Council Tax, Phones and Charity and a new one of Car Breakdown Insurance after negotiating 3 months without paying any. I had set up a regular order of the cat calming plug-in pheromone stuff on Amazon - it's not cheap but has certainly stopped Polly over grooming herself.
Then there was food for me and cat and  2 new books mentioned yesterday.  There were no household bills in July but I used a bit more diesel this month - trips to the beach at Felixstowe with family added some extra miles, although still spending only half what I was spending each month before covid and price drop. The window cleaner turned up - neither of us could understand how 7 weeks goes round so quickly.
Car boot spending has been minimal - due to Sunday rain and the fact that I don't need anything so my purse is only opened if I spot something to put away for Grandchildren or something that will save me money later. There are loads of people selling and buying at Stonham Barns because the two bigger boot sales are not re-starting but much is tat and ornaments. Last Sunday I spent just £2, the boxes of matches were 50p each which I thought was a good saving but turned out to only save 25p each box and when I put them away I found there was already a box in the cupboard..........no matches needed for ages now.

Another of the Orchard Toys games for a grandchild was the other £1 spent. As usual I could have spent lots more on games and toys, but I need to be sensible about what they really need and how much cash there is to spare.

I didn't bother with a Chinese take-away last Saturday after all  so my only spending on food away from home was one pensioners fish and chips and treating the family too when Eldest was here. Even meeting blogger Rachel-in-Norfolk for a cuppa in Morrisons turned into a cheap morning because their coffee machines weren't working - so no cappuccino - just a £1 tea instead (and a 30p doughnut - tut tut!)


Frugal bits

• Lots of fresh vegetables from the garden
• Saving the cold water to use elsewhere while waiting for the hot when washing up
• Choosing dry days to do the washing
• Green beans and mange-tout peas put into freezer
• Bread-maker used for all my bread
• Always mixing milk half and half with water
• Nothing spent on gardening stuff or clothes/shoes/hair.

How will August pan out? Well, in theory I don't need to buy any more books now the library van will be round each month  and they've let people reserve books again - at last,  BUT the Furrowed Middlebrow NEW SELECTION of reprints is out on the 3rd August and I might be tempted.

The half year water bill is due - that might be a bit more than usual. Sometimes the electric bill comes right at the end of August and it looks as if one of the cooker gas cylinders will run out  during the month too and I've just emptied the last of the petrol into the mower so that will need refilling.
Other than that it should be a lowish spend month..........I hope.

Have  good weekend
Back Monday
Sue

Yesterday

Very pleased with what I got done outside yesterday  - first the biggish job of cutting down all the raspberry canes that have finished fruiting. Two big wheelbarrows full added to the bonfire heap. It's easy to see which canes need cutting down while the leaves are still on them =  all the ones that have gone yellow and starting to die off. Somewhere in the overgrown muddle that is the raspberry area are some Autumn fruiting canes - hopefully.

I came in to have a coffee after the clearing up and THUD - the postman brought me a new book - I'm so enjoying this buying  books thing - I told my sister about Mum always saying when giving me birthday or Christmas money " for goodness sake don't spend it on books" and she doesn't remember Mum ever saying anything similar to her. So it seems it's only me with guilt about spending money on things I love best.

These were the two books I bought for July. I'm reading The Splendid and the Vile - it's fascinating but I'm not going to get it finished before the mobile library brings my great ol' heap of reservations.

While I was indoors a man came from UK Power Network with information about a planned power cut in mid - August . Just for one morning when they are working on some power lines down the road - so no problem.

Back outside and I remembered I wanted to wrap some duct tape around my washing line - trying to make it last a bit longer as the outer plastic has split in several places. Then I filled some small pots with compost for pegging in some strawberry runners that have appeared from the new plants in pots on the patio. I'm thinking about abandoning the strawberry bed we made when we came here - it's just too dry where it is and too far to carry water and if I don't bother with squash and pumpkins in pots then I've enough big pots to have several filled with strawberries on the patio - within reach of the outside tap and hosepipe.

After lunch I strimmed around the edges of the raspberry bed and did some more grass cutting with the ride on mower, after that it was time for a cuppa and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the Battle of the Brits tennis. So Very good to see some live sport on TV and a favourite sport too. Saw a trail for snooker starting Friday as well.
 

A good day
Back Tomorrow
Sue

(Almost) End of July Home Produced Round Up

I've been keeping a list of food from the garden this year, with great plans to weigh things for a running total to work out it's worth BUT of course I haven't weighed or counted. I know I've given away beans, tomatoes, aubergines and cucumbers and eaten lots of everything.


An update of what I've had from the garden so far this year..........

• Lettuces
• Rocket and small beetroot leaves as salad leaves
• Lots of Cucumbers - and even more given away
• a few asparagus spears
• lots of rhubarb
• A surprising amount of strawberries from 6 new plants and a few from the old bed.
• 3lb of gooseberries
• Lots of raspberries and 3lb put in the freezer
• Several courgettes.
• New potatoes 
• Lots of tomatoes from greenhouse
• 2lb Redcurrants
• Several aubergines and more given away

New for July

• Beetroot
• Few mange-tout peas  - put in the freezer
• Green beans  - some put in the freezer
• 2 small Calabrese heads.
• Onions

I might as well have not bothered with squash or pumpkins in big pots - the plants grew, there are lots of flowers but Not One Single Squash on any of the 5 plants so far and the two pumpkin plants have produced one each - no bigger than a cricket ball and then the plants promptly keeled over and died. Back to putting squash in the garden next year and not growing pumpkins at all I think - I was only growing them to give away to the grandchildren anyway!

The 4 plants of  4 different brassica varieties are squeezed into too small a space so they might not do well - it seemed a good idea at the time to grow winter greens again after not doing so for a while but keeping the cabbage white butterflies off is a hard task,  I'll probably not bother next year.

I've no idea how the late sowing Runner Beans plan will go. The 1st June sowing are up the canes and flowering and the 1st July sowing are still only about 18 inches tall but as the French climbing beans are still very prolific there's no hurry. I've been trying to persuade Sis in Law that French climbing are a Much better idea than Dwarf French beans - they take up less space, don't get rain-splashed and you don't have to bend down so far to pick them. Maybe I'll pop some saved seed into the Christmas Hamper.

It's been lovely to see SiL and BiL enjoying vegetable gardening for the first time in many many years. Sil's job involves her travelling around the country, much responsibility and many hours but 4 months at home shielding BiL means that Board Meetings etc are now all online and that's given them both time to clear what was a patch of brambles and wildness into a very productive patch. Their greenhouse took her days to empty, tidy and clean but that too is now full of donated tomato plants - including a Black variety - which I didn't fancy eating at all - a bit too reminiscent of a Deadly Nightshade type thing!

Back Tomorrow
Sue