What a gloomy day yesterday was here in Suffolk. I think the rest of the country had decent weather but Norfolk and Suffolk got drizzle and then really heavy rain and back to drizzle again. I went and got a proper hair cut, picked up my tablets from the surgery and had a stroke of luck..... no queue, which meant I avoided getting too wet but what on earth are they going to do when the weather gets really bad. Making very elderly people queue outside to collect their prescription medications will end up killing them off! I know they do some deliveries but lots of older people like the little bit of independence .
Anyway it's the end of September so..................
The usual monthly income - County Council Spouses Pensions, interest from savings plus £50 for the sale of the Fruit Cage and all of a £1.50 Tesco voucher!.
The usual outgoings....Direct Debits for Council Tax, Car Breakdown, Phones and Charity -
all the same each month. Plus........The electric
bill finally arrived, three weeks later than last year so it was a bit more and I bought a new gas cylinder for the cooker = £37 - they've stayed the same price since I had the LPG cooker installed 3 years ago
More
diesel used this month now that I'm driving more to swimming, boot
sales and across to the coast to visit or look after Eldest
Granddaughter, diesel spending not quite back to pre-lockdown but nearly.
Decided
to "allow" myself one new book a month if there was no sign of the
library getting a copy, this month it was a second-hand copy of one of
the British Library Crime Classics.
Food for me and stocked up on more cat food than usual as some was on offer. Few bits for the first aid drawer and the bathroom cupboard. I spent £20 on compost, Heathers and some allium bulbs for the garden and I bought the local paper a couple of times and a new puzzle book.
And finally after 6 months I had a proper hair cut which I really REALLY needed.
Frugal Bits
The only fruit bought all month were the 3 mangoes for the Mango Chutney. I ate pears and apples from the garden
Only money spent on vegetables was a few pence for carrots and £1 for a bag of stir-fry bits including bean-sprouts to make a change from my usual pepper/carrot/onion combo (the bag did 3 meals)
Home made bread all month
Cold water caught before the hot appears - to use elsewhere
Milk mixed half and half with water
Boiler not used for 2 weeks when it went wrong! (luckily the water got heated by the solar thermal panel and the weather was still good.)
Reading library books for free
2 DVDs borrowed from library for free (they go back to charging for them and overdue books in October)
One Pensioners Fish and Chips meal when picking up prescription meds from next village.
A pensioners discount on haircut too because of going on a Tuesday
No clothes, shoes, make-up, perfume etc etc etc
A bundle of Puzzle pages out of the local paper from my sister.
Cheap swimming using my prepayment discount card - which from Oct 1st the company have now withdrawn - and, because of now having to book and pay online, they've not worked out a way to refund the unused portion which means they have £15 of my money! Everyone Active run over 180 leisure centres around the country so there must be quite a lot of people owed money and with so little money coming in because of the limitations on numbers, I wonder if I'll get my money back
Plans for October
The bill will arrive for the boiler repair/service and I'd better organise the chimney to be swept.
There shouldn't be too many big expenses - hopefully, and after all the recent rain there might not be any small at-the-car-boot spending either as the site could well be water-logged.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
