Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

dustydigger

Well,I've spent all day waiting for the phone to ring. It does say ''3 working days'' in the info. That would be  last Wednesday,today and tomorrow. Just my luck to have a long holiday in the way!

Cant concentrate on anything. House is the most untidy I've seen it in a long time.Think I'll go for a little walk,see if I can use up a bit energy and calm my nerves.

dustydigger

Whew! That blew the cobwebs away! 20 minutes in a keen wind,uphill the last wobbly stretch

5 minutes rest then I'm off to put the plantain on for Mr Dusty's supper.

I will have cauliflower rice and some of his fish soup

I will continue with Inspector Gamache on his summer holiday...........

dustydigger

Paid for my walk yesterday with a painful night,my shoulder protesting so I couldnt sleep. Much better this morning,though the knees are still a bit tender.Will do chair exercises from You Tube instead of walking.

D- Day with its thousands of deaths was barely mentioned yesterday with rehashes of the Jubilee weekend,and the antics in Westminster to the fore.. Slippery Jack got away with his shenanigans as usual! .

Already just waiting for my hospital phonecall,if there's nothing today I'll phone tomorrow,the wait is so stressful.

Asd@ delivery due. Under £50  for the first time in months. Well,£49.75 isnt perhaps exactly a lot under,but its still cool! :)Must go and clear off space to stack the delivery on,at the moment I have stuff all over the place. The level of tidyness in my house relates directly to my mental state.

Ouch,my shoulders are making typing a little difficult,I'll take a break. See you all later.

dustydigger

Wow,3 weeks running I got cooking oil from Asd@! Only thing not  right this week was I ordered diced swede,just something for me to make quickly for myself in the microwave,as Mr D doesnt eat swede nor cauliflower. They had none,sent whole raw swede,so I will have to cook after all .Could be a week's time they will still be sitting there.

I check regularly how my Scottish Power account is doing. I pay monthly direct debit,and will have only 2 more £106 payments,then September I will be joining everyone else in misery.Last year I was shocked when my payment went up from £90 to £106,and made efforts this year to cut down.Every month my usage has been £10-£20 a month less than last year.My credit balance is £544. I reckom my Apr-Jun bill will be around £240,so I should have a balance of at least £300 when I end my fixed tariff in August. Dont know what their policy is when people leave a fixed for a variable tariff,whether the balance will just continue in my account,or will I get a cheque?Anyone know?

Katiehound

dustydigger said:

  I should have a balance of at least £300 when I end my fixed tariff in August. Dont know what their policy is when people leave a fixed for a variable tariff,whether the balance will just continue in my account,or will I get a cheque?Anyone know?

as far as I am aware you will only get a refund if you request it unless of course you are changing suppliers.

Whenever I have changed tariff (sadly not this year) the debit or credit has carried forward because your account details stay the same.

joedenise

I'm with EDF and when my review came round I had a credit balance which they were going to repay me and then keep my payments the same but I told them to keep and and reduce the payments for the time being.  I will see how things stand at the next review.  I am keeping some money aside in the gas/elec line of YNAB in case I need to make an additional payment later in the year.

So it looks as though it depends who you are with what their policy is.

dustydigger

I have just put an empty envelope in my savings binder,called ''energy bills''.If they do give me cash it will go in there I am round about the average consumption figure,so am expecting to pay about £180 a month at first,but now it seems they intend to change the cap every three months. We are not going to have time to adjust to one tariff before its time for the next horrendous rise. Thank heavens we are are MSE folks,at least we can get some sort of grip on things.But for other folks its going to be very hard.

On YouTube I enjoy reading the videos of Frugal Queen in France. She recently had a great video called Get Ready For Rationing. great fun for wrinklies who have seen it all before,but she really  laid out the harsh realities for younger folks. Loved her acronym MILL - Make It Last Longer

dustydigger

Nearly broke my neck rushing to the phone 5 minutes ago,thinking it was the hospital. Nope just some foreign young man asking if I needed help setting up an IVA! I just grumped ''No! I am totally debt free ''and hung up. Well at least it was something related to MSE in a way

dustydigger

DD1s partner just brought me 10 fresh eggs - very fresh,still have the dirt on them! - and four lovely lamb steaks,fresh from some poor dear little lamb.

I'm off to put  steaks in the slow cooker. A couple of hours tonight,then a few hours in the morning to be ready just in time for lunch..

Its been a mentally exhausting and disappointing day. I'll close now and will open a book for the first time today. Unheard of to not read at some point of the day.

I'm about 60 pages into Louise Penny's A Rule Against Murder(aka The Murder Stone) Intriguing and I like the rather quirky prose

dustydigger

Interesting to see Martin Lewis in this week's  email talking about getting fixed tariff deals with your supplier if its under 35% price rise. He listed various companies doing deals,and needless to say Scottish Power wasn't among them. So far they offered me a fix,increasing my payment from £106 to first £327,thenfter frightening me to death they lowered that to £302,then £297. Its back up to £302 yesterday,£303 this morning ,a mere 285% rise.So no fixed tariff for me.Even by April on present predictions I will only be paying 200% of my present pay