Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

dustydigger

Paspatur said:

Dusty, sorry if you thought I was insinuating you had too much money. I was interested in your numbers for my best friend who works 5 days a week for £350 net wages and pays full rent and single person council tax. He is worried that when he retires at 66 (in 2 years) that his £185.15 full state pension plus rubbish company pension (maybe £73 a week) would be all he had but looks like he may get some help with rent and council tax at least

No ,I didnt mean you,its no problem.! We have had quite big rises the last few years because of the ''triple lock'' and supposedly this year we should have got an even bigger rise than we did,in line with last years earnings rise,only Boris took fright and cancelled it for this year! In 2018 my budget was around £360 a fortnight,now is £400.Thats a big improvement. But I still remember one awful year when we got a princely 80p rise.It caused an outcry and major reforms.

Its so sad that wages have lagged so much,its put millions of people in real difficulty and its going to be a nightmare for so many if this govt doesnt do something about the massive energy price rises.

For many years some pensioners were dirt poor,at the very bottom of the heap,then for a while things have been much better, whereas real wages have dropped,and people are definitely worse off in real terms.We sem to be heading in the direction of the US,where minimum wage in real terms has declined steadily. People need 2 or 3 jobs to lead even a basic life. Meanwhile the rich are getting richer at a incredible rate.

dustydigger

CapricornLass said:

Bliss, isn't it, having a computer that works?  However, sometimes its the programmes that  are running that are the problem, not the laptop and some of those programmes are only visible in the background, if you know what I mean.  When my son looked at my laptop, there were two programmes running in the background that interfered with each other, and slowed down the laptop performance to the point of stopping altogether.  I'm very lucky in having one son who has built several computers from scratch, and the other who is a programmer by trade, and who could not only identify the problem for me but also have the skllls to fix it.  Otherwise I would have been like you and forking out for a new laptop.

But not being able to replace the battery is annoying,

My son studied forensic computing in college,but even he could'nt do anything with it. Everytime you turned on it was say firefox was already running,we should close down and restart. Drove me bonkers.

dustydigger

@Wraithlady

Yes I use Gutenberg quite a lot for old titles,but most books I want to read are not on there. I actually do better with Gutenberg Canada and Australia,which sometimes have different titles.

Another site I use a lot is www.fadedpage.com,which has lots of vintage crime and older fiction. I am working my way through all of Patricia Wentworth's crime novels.

And for classic science fiction I use luminist archives. But all of these are for decades old books. Kindle Unlimited can supply me with modern stuff,even if its junk. Sometimes when the brain needs a rest,light fluff is just the job! Kindle has masses of that!

otb666

@dustydigger I am sorry you felt reproached for being too well off, I was just trying to clarify your income as I find it helpful for me to keep an eye on my budgets and see how everyone is managing.  I think more or less every ones in very similar positions money wise on MSE and therefore we all worry about our younger family members when we remember the 70s and 80s.  I will butt out now but wish you well.

dustydigger

No problems,otb666. No need for any butting out........hmm,did that sound a little odd to you?  I think we are all a bit on edge and sensitive these days,sorry if I seemed a bit bristly. Bristly? My choice of vocabularly is a little weird tonight.

I'm off to bed now after a long stressful day and lots of pain. Hate using the strong pain meds,as they sometimes make me hallucinate,but hopefully I can go off to sleep quickly.

Done a lot of typing here today,and my hand is curling up,and I seem to have aches all over the place.....sigh........

dustydigger

Very late this year changing my times on my thermostat to summer settings.,cutting down 30 minutes off my morning settings. But its always a nightmare,the instructions are so complicated,and the numbers so small I literally use a magnifying glass to read the tiny letters. Did something wrong this time and have given up for now. Will try again later when - if? - my brain clears! Good luck with that..........

That has messed up my morning,its already 10am  and I've done nothing yet. Must mop kitchen floor,hoover sitting room,clean glass TV stand (it collects dust like nobody's business). Take most people only a few minutes,but I have to do it in short sessions,because of my arthritis and PA(pernicious anaemia).Then start dinner preps about 10.45.

Mr D is very disconsolate because he has no bus pass or bank card till new ones arrive,could be up to 10 days.He was fancying sausages. Fussy as ever,he only likes the beef sausages from a certain butcher ,two miles away. Five quid return without his bus pass! .Mr Dusty has FINALLY left the room,so I can hoover and get at the telly

luvchocolate

I can't understand my timer for heating and hot water. I have water coming on twice a day for an hour...my daily treat is a bath. 
I set heating on constant then use thermostat to turn up and down. Heating been off since first week in March 

dustydigger

Mine is REALLY complicated. It has a sort of flow chart with instructions looping back ,I think I pressed an arrow after pressing set,instead of doing the two buttons simultaneously,so it copied wrong stuff.Chaos ensued :pWe'll see what happens in the morning!

dustydigger

May have to abandon MSE for tomorrow,I have quite a number of books to read for challenges on Library Thingwhere I run a group and am a poster on others. I also run a group on a science fiction book site and havent been on there for about 10 days.

one of my challenges is not going well,it seems! Just a little challenge,and usually I read 14 to 16 books a month,but this month is a bit of a disaster,and I am a bit behind in this little challenge.

1. Read a book with a red (50% or more) cover: Anthony Horowitz - Magpie Murders

2. Read a book that features an orphan, adoptee or foster child : Johanna Spyri - Heidi ✔

3. Read a book set in the Victorian era : Philip Pullman - Shadow in the North

Enjoyed my umpteenth reread of Heidi,and am over halfway through Magpie Murders,but havent even acquired Shadow in the North yet,never mind have read it!. I have other books in progress,including Shirley Jackson We Have Always Lived in the Castle,H P Lovecraft The Rats in the Walls, and have made inroads today in a crime novel,but its not much of a showing

dustydigger

Been away from MSE for 2 days,feels like weeks.Hands were too painful to use computer,and eyes were too blurred to read much. I need an eye op to remove a pocket of fluid from my eye,and basically I am left with only one usable eye,which is quite short sighted,so cant make out TV headlines or subtitles from my usual chair across the room,about 10 ft away from TV. So Mr Dusty and I are fighting for the chair nearest the TV I can read books but for only short periods or I get eyestrain. So my fave hobbies of reading and using a computer are a bit impacted at the moment. No idea when I will get the op. I live 8 miles from the regional eye infirmary,but covid has had a disastrous effect on waiting lists,so its in the lap of the gods when I will get treatment.

A lot of the time I just listen to music,or watch You Tube videos about budgeting/saving. Good fun,Americans carry it to the extreme as ever,but after several hours I am going bonkers. Then I change to watching people cook. I always want to try out some recipes,but since Mr D is so locked in to his particular kind of meals which take lots of prep at times,I just cant get up the energy health or time to prepare elaborate things for myself.But I get the feeling as this year progresses I will definitely be batch cooking for myself!