Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

slm6002

annieb64 said:

Do teachers still read novels to children? 

My daughter is about to start her new high school, where they make a big point about telling parents that they do this, so I am thinking maybe its not that common.  Her primary school also read to them and worked through a few books a term

MrsCD

There's a big push on reading this year, my dd tells me. In the primary school where she teaches, all the teachers read to their classes.

dustydigger

Back in my youth our school designated the last 30 mins of the day as personal reading time. The whole junior school became a hushed place.

I also remember my year 5 teacher reading the Odyssey aloud to us,and the whole class taking turns in year 6 to read Black Beauty aloud. Not a dry eye in the place as we read the last page.........

Katiehound

Ha. never could read Black Beauty, only just started it, never got further, and don't intend to!!!
we had stories read aloud whilst we sewed! that was Yr 6 in new money.

dustydigger

Had all sorts of things pencilled in,but did none of them.

 DS2 has been remodelling his home for months,and finally we had a sort of second housewarming. The whole tribe,my 4 children,3 of their partners,4 of my 6 grandkids (the other two are now teenagers and wouldnt be seen dead at such an uncool gathering! ) plus  2 partners and 5 of my 6 great grandkids were all there and we had a great time. Finally met my youngest GGD2, who is 9 months old.

I think in future we will have most of our reunions at DS2 house,big rooms,plus a big garden with swings and slides etc for the kids,and a big deck where we could all spread out 20 of us in all!.My house is now far too small to fit us all in!The family tree has sprouted no less than 7 new ''twigs'' in the last 5 yeas!

Managed to walk the 10 mins walk home. Felt fine at the time,actually  walking is much kinder to my back than sitting here.

Had quite a few no spend days this week,only bought bead. . DD1s partner brought us 2 lamb shanks,and that fed Mr Dusty several meals. I made a corned beef pie today from a few slices of corned beef left over from a pack of corned beef I opened a couple of days ago,and DS1 gave us money for a chinese. Two chicken curries,two portions of fried rice,and (for Mr D)  a carton of chips in curry sauce. That will make up three very generous meals for each of us,so apart from bread I have bought nothing since our Tuesday home delivery.Cool.

£80 out of this fortnight's HBB goes in the ''in transit'' envelope,making a total of £120,but I only add it to a savings pot when there is £100 in one denomination. Only £80 in twenties,but shortly we should have enough. Not sure yet where to allocate it. Possibly to health and personal,to save for clothes,shoes and something put aside towards specs,which I may need if I EVER have my eye op.  Nearly 4 months gone aleady,but with record delayed operations who knows when I'll get it.

OK,am shattered,must go to bed. Back is not too bad unless I sit in a chair for more than 15 mins ,or attempt to twist my spine. Bad move,folks,bad move......

dustydigger

OK,another fortnight,another budget.Because of budgeting for 2 weeks at a time,the dates change,and now that my bills on the 15th now show up in the next budget,in theory that should free up a little cash here, but I no longer can cut my asd@ online bill down to the mid fifties range.Last week,despite ruthless cutting down,I couldnt get the bill below £61.99.This first delivery of this latest fortnight is £65.41,despite cutting out a lot ofkids sweets an some fruit. My son gave us a paw paw,and a big avocado,which must have saved us £2,which is good. I will use up some frozen fruit from the freezer,but it looks like I must lift my budget,up from  £120 to £130

Dusty's Frugal Fortnight #6   Budget for 25th July to 7th August

Part is online,part cash

online income: £79  pension ,£200 added to bank from our Pension Credit. Then £123 cash to HBB (Home Budget Box) .

Total income -£402.

All bills paid online as follows(rounded up)

Charity DDs - £11

Scottish Power -  £107

Broadband/phone -  £40

Kindle Unlimited - £8

Asd@ monthly delivery pass -  £6

Asd@ food deliveries  - £107

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

total £279

plus money from  bank buffer to make up the asd@ online bill,probably £20-£30 .

This clinches it,I need to deposit more in my online account to cover the rising costs of food,but also from september the Scottish Power payments will go haywire

Definitely looks like I need to put more in my CA online,which will naturally cut down on the nice lumps of cash I have so much enjoyed adding to the savings binder each fortnight. Like yesterday I had £80 to add.

dustydigger

Katiehound said:

Ha. never could read Black Beauty, only just started it, never got further, and don't intend to!!!
we had stories read aloud whilst we sewed! that was Yr 6 in new money.

. Black Beauty was quite a tough read,death and misery all round.

What an awful lot of misery there is in animal books! The killing of Bambi's mother. Old Yeller. Where the Red Fern Grows(boy AND dog die!). Steinbeck's The Red Pony.(it had such a sweet cover and started off so well ,I thought it was a nice juvenile tale in the National Velvet tradition.So the plot developments were a shocker)

Better stop there before I burst into tears. I have mostly avoided animal books

dustydigger

+ Reading. Very hit and miss month. A lot of the time I have been reading fluff or  light kindle unlimited stuff,agreeable,amiable,easy reading - but instantly forgetable. Or else a few classic short SF stories. I still have about 100 pages of the 3rd book on my Canadian challenge list unread,plus most of The Seven Little Australians,a victorian era childens' classic. They are on my laptop,and you know how difficult sitting at the computer has been. Thats why I have read so much kindle unlimited stuff on my phone.I hope to finish the Canadian challenge book,doing it in short bits,but the Aussie book may have to roll over to next month.

Just recieved a post on my reading group telling us about August's Canadian Challenge. I'll put it on here tomorrow. Its the last month for our Canadian Challege,very enjoyable. Its expelled a bit of my total ignorance about Canada. In September there will be the start of a completely new challenge,I know nothing about that yetBut in August we are off to the Yukon.

That Aussie family story was for a challenge where I chose to read a childrens classic each month. The August read is #2 in the Nancy Drew series. We never had Nancy Drew in our  school or public library back in the 50s or 60s. Sheesh,our school was so snobby poor old Enid Blyton was verboten. Not enough high vocabulary,complex characterization,oiginality or whatever Someone brought a huge bagful of her books,Secret Seven,Famous Five etc and put them in the bookcase in the corridor of our fuddy duddy grammar school,and you should have seen the mad rush for these books! Unless you were from a well to do family who would buy such books,it was almost impossible to get them. So here you had 11-12 year olds who should have read these at 7 or 8 eagerly devouring the books. I read a few,just to see what they were like,but as I was already reading  things like King Solomons Mines,Treasure Island etc I found them a little dull. I wanted to be off on exotic adventures or off to fantasy worlds,or other planets.Some kids peddling around following petty criminals and the like was much too tame for me.

Fast forward 60 years and I am now filling in gaps in childrens lit. I have read the first 5 books in the Famous Five stories,and a few other random Blyton books. Better late than never.

weenancyinAmerica

Book #1 in the Nancy Drew series has been rewritten at least 5 times - I have that many variations. Was originally very racist and was changed through the years. I don't know how many changes book 2 has had.

annieb64

The only new books I had as a child were the annual Sunday School prizes. We got a bible the first year we attended then could choose a book. I think there was some kind of system in place so regular attenders got a more valuable book.

I still have my bible and a couple of Chalet School books with the book plate saying "  presented to .......for good attendance"

The rest of my books were cast offs from older cousins or bought from jumble sales. It was a great day when a library opened in the village. That was when I was about nine.