May Day/April Spending

 

I spent the morning on the plot on this fine May Day.  Well, it was fine for a wee while then it rained!  I managed to clear the long strip by the path of weeds, planted my red and brown onion sets, planted my wee blackcurrant bushes beside the originals and discovered that my echinacea survived the rabbit mauling in the tub.  I finally found where rabbits are getting in.  My gate has been nibbled and the wire pulled back.  Hopefully I can fix that next time I'm there.  We should be past the last frost date now but I'll wait another week or 2 before risking direct sowing seeds.  There was a frost last week and some of my potato shoots were damaged.  They'll bounce back though.

As yesterday was the end of the month, I did my end of months totals.  Bit of a mixed bag.

Food/supermarket spending was £161.74 which is lower than last month and I still have loads of food in the freezer.

Pet spending was even higher as I had to take Emma to the vet again for further tests and more drugs.  She's starting to become incontinent yet another sign of her old age 😢 She now takes 10 tablets throughout the day.  I always said I wouldn't keep a dog alive just for me and I fear the dreaded day is looming closer.  She seems happy enough although she is in some discomfort with arthritis.  Total for the month for dog and chicken £196.74.

I bought a few items on Amazon last month.  A couple of things for the allotment (inc hot spot tape for my polytunnel!) and I needed a cover for my new phone.  Total £85.24 for the month which is less than March.

In Other spending I needed petrol, I bought seed compost (although my Lovely Mum gave me cash for birthday to buy compost), I paid for my brown bin collection permit, we had a take away for my birthday tea, I bought a wee greenhouse and I had a dentist check up.  Total £263.45

Plus I paid £250 cash for the skip hire.

I'd like to get my spending down even more before I retire which is why I'm buying a few extra things here and there in preparation while I'm still getting a regular salary.

The huge declutter of the back room has begun.  My son and DIL managed to put all their boxes into the eaves and cupboards upstairs.  My friend took 3 full bags of stuff for school.  I've filled many other bags with books and textiles to be recycled or donated.  I've filled 3 black bags full of unrecyclable stuff and sorted out a ton of 'stuff' that seems to have multiplied since I brought it out of the upstairs cupboards.  It's getting harder to to dump/recycle things as there was a change in the law recently that I didn't know about.  It's taking me much longer than I hoped as it all needs to sorted/taken apart and taken to the right place!

I've set myself a deadline of the above room being empty by Friday!!! 😱