January round-up

Another lowish spending month, I did get some more 4ply yarn for my knitted patchwork blanket, and spent £27.70 on yarn for knitting socks for Christmas gifts, I was not sure if I should add to this list as the yarn will become gifts. I got a couple things for the garden, I've not spent a penny on clothes and never visited the sales. I did get 1 Christmas item and a couple of special books. it's the cheapest spend in Jan for 3 years, so a good start.

I have not purchased any cut flowers this month, I do like to see colour in the house, January is such a dull month, I had intended to pop to a garden center to find a flowering plant, but I have resisted any spending. This is a huge saving for me, I normally only buy from supermarket, but they still have a huge cost when you purchase them so often.

We have been eating from the freezer and cupboard, most of the Christmas stuff has gone, we have packed away some biscuits and sweets.  So less plastic has been brought into the house, we do not use stretch and seal, we do have some left, but, we did not purchase any last year.

I have had a good sort out again in the kitchen, and I have taken loads of china, which we never use to the charity shop, youngest daughter had some of our table serving dishes, we regularly had dinners and parties, where we used the china, but it was just taking up space in our tiny kitchen. I also was very pleased to not find any out of date items in the food cupboard, which was sorted.

The house had a huge purchase this month, we replaced our gas boiler, when we moved in 10 years ago, we were informed the boiler whilst working was not a great make, so we started a service plan, to ensure we did not get any breakdowns, it worked well other than 1 part needed replacing most years. We had been warned that getting spares was becoming an issue. We have been following prices and now there are great deals to be had, so after getting great discounts and £200 credited against our gas bill, checking we were not overpaying for the new boiler, we had it changed, we also had to replace some pipes, which by today's standard were not big enough. With 12 months full warranty on whole heating system, we can save on the service agreement, saving £287.64. Our gas pipes into the house has been renewed, the whole street has been done, so I feel pretty pleased with our gas supply. Plus with our new windows and doors, our house is really snug and warm.