Dusty's Frugal Fortnights

dustydigger

beanielou wrote: »

So why cant you do it through online banking :think:

I dont know.I will ask all about the topic when I go to the bank to fill in forms for a standing order. Perhaps the account is still not fully processed,and when it is options for transfers one off payments from the CA etc will appear on the page? We'll see!:)
Never got round to reading,supper and Mr D and his football kept my attention.He really enjoyed the matchplenty of thrills and spills,so I couldnt concentrate.
Oh wellI can never sleepso I'll do a bit reading then!:D

lonelyrat

When you go to the bank to fill in the Standing Order form you could ask them to set up a mandate on your Current Account so you can make one off payments to it yourself online.

They bank would just need your new Virgin account details. Basically all payments under a hundred thousand pounds are sent as faster payments so if you do ever do payments out of your current account online at the moment then they would be processed in the same way

I dislike phoning the bank too so do everything I can to avoid it!

dustydigger

Have been M.I.A. for posting on here over the weekend. Lots of visitors as usual,especially yesterday with Father's Day.11 of us plus the two babies,utter bedlam!.Mr Dusty was very pleased. I had advised kids to give straight cash and he made enough that he can pay off his new tablet in one go at Arg*s.
Need to start up my Birthday Fund again. 2 birthdays next month,but the tough month is September,with 4 birthdays in 10 ,husband,daughter and 2 granddaughters:eek:So I need to share out the burden over 6 frugal fortnights.
Not a lot of news,I am still in the midst of my Time Out fortnight,second week. Doing a little more housework,but only the minimum,as I recuperate from all the stress and hard work,trying to compress 4 or 5 years of housecleaning into 3 weeks!:rotfl: I really did a number on my poor feet,and I have had to spend quite a lot of time with my feet up. Those narrow metal stepladder rungs were a killer!But I am recovering fairly well.
Walked with my trolley this a.m. to Tesc*,10 mins each way,and then rested a while before going into town ,again with my trusty trolley. At Ald! the usual struggle to get any blue lid peanut butter,I nabbed 3 last week and 2 today to keep us stocked up. Why sell mixed trays,only 4 jars of each kind? Dont they get the point when there are no less than 5 or 6 trays with only orange or red lids,and all the customers are rifling through the trays looking for blue lids? The customers having to go off to the other shops and pay 40p a jar extra is not the way to ensure customer satisfaction.:D

Went to b&m,formerly Her*n's and used up my would be Xmas saving stamps for frozen veg and jars of beetroot.£11in stamps. I could have kept them and used them in the city at Xmas,but then bringing the stuff home would be a hassle,so I decided to use them now.Cut down the food spend a little.:)

I feel as if I am spending a fortune this fortnight. I couldnt do a Asd@ delivery at my usual time,last Monday,as I had a lot of stuff in the house,couldnt reach the £40 minimum spend.I have been trying to use up stuff in the freezer,and finally I have a bit space. GD3 took a bagful of her stuff I have been storing for her for 2 months,so today I stored mixed veg,broccoli,and carrot and swede mash for my consumption all this week. Also spent £12 at the butchers,shin of beef,4 lamb steaks and 4 links of sausage,all for Mr Dusty. Works out at about 8 meals,£1.50 per meal for the meat part,which is pretty normal for feeding him.Sometimes I yearn for someone who will eat burgers and chips,or a convenience meal at a quid a time. No such luck.:):)I rarely eat meat,much prefer fish,so thats another whole area of expense. We are so not frugal with our meals. I always feel a little guilty when I see people on MSE having change from £40 pw food budget for a couple:o:o.We easily spend twice that! Meat and two veg meals twice a day and 2 or 3 pieces of fruit each daily aint cheap.

Still have tinned stuff for me to use up,beans,peas,tinned fish,plus the freezer is full,and we have meals set up for the rest of this week,so apart from bread and milk the rest of the week shouldnt cost too much. Just as well,with only a £20 note still left in the household budget box out of £141.:eek:Then we will get back into our normal regime next Monday.

dustydigger

I am tryingto get some reading done,but what with Mr Dusty and his football,family,cooking etc finding time during the day is hard. I am way behindwhere I should be. This morning though woke up to go the loo at 4 am as usualand it was broad daylight and the birds were singing,and I couldnt get back to sleep,so I did a couple of hours reading then dozed off about 6.30 and felt exhausted all morning. After the Tesc* trek and the shopping this afternoon I really felt like dozing off,but first attempt was ruined at the last minute by a delivery for the neighbours,and half an hour later I was almost asleep when the neighbour came for his parcel.Gave up.:rotfl:hope it means a better sleep tonight but dont bank on it,I rarely get more than 5 hours a night,broken sleep at that:(

beanielou

Meat & two veg twice a day :eek:

dustydigger

I intend to target paperwork decluttering this week,as I wont be walking much. After two trips out today the feet are very tender.I have on my thickest socks and padded slippers to ease the discomfort,but am hobbling a bit. Recovering from knee operations entails a whole new posture,the feet take quite a while to adjust to my new stance.It took about 2 1/2 years for the first knee to fully stabilise and straighten so that my heel goes down first,after years of sort of teetering on tiptoes as the knees wouldnt straighten.The second op was18 months ago and is still a work in progress . Much less pain than before,but after a lot of movement,at night the legs stiffen up and can be very uncomfortable.Strangely enough walking a good distance is way easierand comfortable than standing up,cooking or washing up,or waiting for a bus.
But compared to the last few years before the op its marvellous. I'm getting there

dustydigger

I am mentally rearranging my finances,deciding what savings will be in which bank.More about it later.
Also have less than 3 weeks to sort out all the info on my family history website whose subscription runs out 8th July. Anything I email to myself now I can keep for good. Once the subscription ends I cant see any more info,so I need to sort it asap.
Think thats all for now,almost time to put on the plantain (they look like big bananas. I wrap them in foil and steam them for 2 hours.
At 7pm Mr Dusty will be glued to the England match,and perhaps I can FINALLY do a bit reading!:T

dustydigger

Busy busy morning. Helped Mr Dusty with the garden,so much debris from all the strong winds attacking the trees,and the grass has grown immensely since we cut it 2 weeks ago.:eek:
I tidied up the kitchen,cleaned benches,microwave,hob,washing machine,but ignored the cupboard doors,the splashback tiles over hob and the fridge!Mopped the floor first time in 2 weeks . Tidied the living room,amazing how much debris we produce in the evening !
Made the roasties,smelling lovely now,and am making pasties.Mr Dusty decided to pop to the big town at 12.15 giving me no warning,only 20mins before we should have eaten. Fortunately I hadnt put the pasties in yet,but the roasties wont be at their crisp best when eaten an hour late,and the broccoli is now looking decidedly sorry for itself. Grrr:(No problem actually with the broccoli,it will be slathered with peanut butter sauce!:rotfl: But I do like to put out hot food at its best,so not amused.

dustydigger

Also not amused at my new duel fuel monthly payment.I couldnt understand the huge increase,but on checking up our consumption,and our usage was about 12% up from last year.Ouch. Much of that wasnt the winter,though that was high. Nope,it was from what we laughingly called ''spring '' this year. March and April we used almost as much as in the depths of winter.The weather was truly horrible,so much snow and icy winds straight from Siberia!Add Mr Dusty's new bigger TV and his tablet /phone on the go constantly,and it doesnt make a pretty picture:eek:

Checked out Martin's cheap energy club,but not much to save,I was on a good tariff. I dont trust all those unknown energy providers,who dont have the OAPs Warm Home discounts anyway. My previous energy provider's quote is a little cheaper but I was very unhappy when I was with them. They rarely came to read the meter,gave estimates which were ridiculous,and hid the fact that they owed me hundreds of pounds,while still putting up the price by big amounts a month each year.Wasnt online back then and didnt know the details.Our payment went from£92 to £97 to £105 to £115,and then they intended to raise it to £124 the following year. They obviously wanted rid of me:):):)

Was so glad to leave them,and have been very happy with my present provider.My ''smart'' meter would be ''dumb'' once more,we would go back to having to send in meter readings when they didnt turn up to read the meter,or only tapped on the door once and were gone before me and my nasty knees could hobble to the door :mad: Not worth saving a few quid a month IMO.(MSE stalwarts faint in shock all over the place at my heresy:D:D)

What annoyed me most back then was that they owed us £700 when we left.they had never once told Mr D about it.The account had always been in Mr Dusty's name,though I paid from the household budget. I then insisted on changing the account into my name,and that was when I discovered this site,and Martin's great advice.I have trimmed our usage (well,I tried,cant help the weather and Mr Dusty refuses to turn down the heating) and even my new payment of £91 a month,is a whopping £24 less than I was paying 3 years ago with the Evil Ones,so I think I'll stick. Also every 6 months they adjust the payment according to actual usage now we have the smart meter,so if we have some better weather it may come down a little.

Great opportunity for me to TRY to introduce more frugality! I cut our gas consumption by a whopping 20% the last two years,will have to try again - weather permitting!

dustydigger

Woo-hoo! Finished book number 5 of the month!:j

I thoroughly enjoyed Ernest Cline's geeky Ready Player One. I was already way too old personally to be a gamer (end of the 80s saw me turning 40) but my sons were at that age and I still have fond memories of their pleasure in the new video gaming world.And I was quite amazed at how much of the 80s trivia I was conversant with and grasped from the story,especially the films and music.A most enjoyable read
No way am I going to reach my goal of 14 books this month,but possibly I can reach 10? Will try!
Mr Dusty is watching the THIRD footie match of the day,and I havent achieve much,except finishing the book. I promised myself to do at least SOME paper work so I am now going to at least sort through one file before supper,so as keep my promise.:)