Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

retiredinfrance

Yo-yos are amazing, Dusty. I don’t know how you cope. Look after yourself. X

retiredinfrance

Lol, Dusty- should have been you are amazing!

dustydigger

@retiredinfrance

Hey,yo-yo is very appropriate to my usual state of mind. 

dustydigger

 Sorry I am so erratic in turning up here. Mr D has my attention all morning ,then I make dinner,then I sleepoff dinner,then Mr D is back wanting my attention again,and there's another day gone! He's just gone upstairs so perhaps I can get something done before doing the spuds at 11 am.!

I'll post my budget,4 days late,but better than never. Then I will rant at asd@ George . Perhaps sneak in little quick posts as and when I can.

dustydigger

Dusty's Frugal Fortnight #20  Budget for  6th March to 19th March

Part is online,part cash

online income: £79  pension ,£250 added to bank from our Pension Credit.making £329 in total in bank account

Then £73 cash to HBB (Home Budget Box) 

Total income  for fortnight.-£402.

All bills paid online as follows(rounded up)

Charity DDs - £6

asd@ delivery charge - £6

Scottish Power - £217

Phone + broadband - £37

Asd@ food deliveries (estimate)  - £160

total online bills £426 ,so added £24 from bank buffer.

+No water bills this month again,we pay over 10 months of the year. That £36 last month and this helped enormously with all those birthdays! Still no letter from Northumbrian Water telling us new tariff.Very irritating as first payment is 1st April,part of my next FF budget on 20th March.

+ no kindle unlimited payment. this month I paid for 6 months at the old price of £7.99 last month,saving  £9. Every little helps.....

dustydigger

You never know what the weather will be each morning. Yesterday it snowed on several occasions,big swirling clots,looking rather like galaxies,but it never lay on the ground,and most of the day was so sunny,through the window it looked like a lovely summer day.

Today we woke to 2 inches,which is now melting,very wet and messy. Its 2 C now so it will soon be gone.I went out to the bin easily,no iciness at all

I worry for my DS1 when its icy. This week he had to do a circuit of inspections of heating installations in various locations on Skye  Monday to Wednesday,then he moves to Shetland the rest of the week. He always has his trusty shovel when he is out in the hills,can get stuck 2 or 3 times a day when the snow is on the go. He was hoping for good weather to get a good look at Skye this week,but who knows what it was like.

Mr Dusty is back downstairs,so my presence here may be intermittent

dustydigger

Morning all The now usual morning snow is already melting. Actually saw our first gritter truck of the winter putting salt down last night,and today it is a balmy one degree. It has been a pretty ice free winter here on NE coast,I suppose the salt in the air keeps ice away.

Mr Dusty is driving me mad,just surfing TV channels and cant find anything to interest him. I keep going off to the kitchen to ostensibly check the sirloin steak I'm doing in the slow cooker,really just to avoid screaming.

wanted to do do a few updates on things but the telly is intrusive,Mr Dusty is making constant comments and queries,and I cant concentrate at all!

I will just add my Boardgame challenge. Wont bother showing the whole long post about the history of this month's game,Cleudo,as I dont think people are interested,but I will post the challenge details,and my personal challenge. Hopefully can talk more about reading later,its a bit bedlam right now.

dustydigger

Here is the Cleudo challenge for March ;

The Challenge:
1. Read a book by Agatha Christie OR Read a book set during a war OR Read a book featuring and husband-and-wife team.

2. Read a book with a shade of red, green, yellow, purple, blue or white in the title OR Read a book set in a mansion/stately home OR Read a book in which a character is murdered via stabbing, shooting, strangling or being struck by a blunt object.

3. Read a book that is based on or has been adapted into a movie, play or TV series OR Read a book where a character has lost a fortune of some sort OR Read a book whose author’s last name initial is C, L, U, E, D or O.

------------------------------------

And my choices

It was Dusty in the Library with the paper knife!

Honest,I was only using it to opening uncut book pages!

1.Read a book featuring and husband-and-wife team : Delano Ames - Murder Maestro,Please!

2. Read a book with a shade of red in the title : John D MacDonald - The Scarlet Ruse

3. Read a book whose author’s last name initial is C : Judith Cutler - Drawing the Line ✔

dustydigger

My reading challenges for March

1. the boardgame challenge outlined above.

2. March of the Mammoths. Read 800 page plus doorstopper books. I chose Lord of the Rings,its been a long time since I read it. but I always love rereading it. around 1100 pages with the appendices. I have about 80 pages of the first book,Fellowship of the Ring left. I have been reading it about half an hour at bedtime,but my other mammoth was an omnibus edition of The Amber Chronicles,made up of 5 individual books. An old old favourite series,first read decades ago. I have about 100/800 left to read

hopefully today.

3. March Mystery Madness. Read crime fiction,. I have loads I would like to read,but the month is whizzing by,and I am concentrating on the mammoths.for now. I am rereading one of my Judge Dee ancient chinese detective stories ''The Chinese Maze Murders'' Great fun. Also reading a 1930s crime book,''Murder ,Maestro Please'' fun if very dated. It is doubling for a choice in the Boardgame challenge and the March Mystery challenge.

More reading done this month,between the cold weather and my back problems we have just been sitting huddled round the heat most of the time!

Muddy_Walker

How are you doing Dusty?