>>>I guess I shall just have to put up with it
You don't have to put up with it.
Sadly, once an email address goes "public" (posted in a forum or whatever) then it will start to get spam emails.
Firstly, in this day and age having just one email address is not a good idea.
You need a number of different email addresses for different uses.
1) Have one email address JUST for family and close friends. Only give it to family and close friends, and NEVER use it for anything else. It will probably never get spam.
2) Have another email address for registering for official web sites (Tesco, Amazon, ebay, Currys or whatever). They will probably start sending you regular emails but you can look at them at your leisure as they are non important.
3) Have another email address for registering for forums and quizzes and so on, a sort of "throw away" address. If this starts to get spam then stop using it and create another.
4) If you do online banking have an email address JUST for that.
Creating new email is VERY easy with Google mail (gmail). It is free and you can have as many addresses as you like.
If one starts to get spam then just create a new one and stop using the old one.
I have about 10 email addresses that I use for different things.