Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

dustydigger

Just been doing my grocery list for delivery on Tuesday. . Last month my weekly deliveries added up to £270,though Mr D was still doing shopping in town  so I probably spent over £320. Was quite pleased with first 3 weeks of this month,£190 spent on Asd@ deliveries. We are now getting more things delivered,such as meat and fish,but that is balanced. I have given up alcohol so no expensive bottles of whiskey!(reminds me,I need to go to the giving up/cutting down thread,to update my tally for the month,21 days. Makes 38 days in a row.Cool. Good for my liver,my pernicious anaemia,and of course my purse.

This weeks derlivery is £76 But it does include nearly £12 for salmon and £7 for braising beef.And I stocked up on flour,condiments,dried pulses, and other store cupboard items,so I am actually quite pleased with that.£266 in total,and Mr Dusty didnt do much random shopping so thats a plus

Was very pleased to be given a lovely piece of lamb earlier in the month,and we had a chinese takeaway from my son,and we eked that out to 3 meals for 2 of us,Thats about the only frugal living I achieved this month

pelirocco

otb666 said:

@dustydigger So you get approx 14490 pa  1207pm with no rent house maintenance or council tax.to pay.  Help with NHS, glasses/dental costs Free TV License (If and when over 75) and Warm Home Discount.  
Myself I have a budget of £600 bills £600 food
£600 everything else.including dentist/glasses house maintenance/ insurances (which you dont have)
So you are better off on bills than me and we are the same on food budget
I have found it good to pass the food buying onto my extravagant husband as this shows them whats available for our budget Also had a lifetime of doing it now his turn, This has worked out very well for us albeit after some big mistakes

It's not a competition  ,your post doesn't come across very well

Broomstick

DD, does your library provide access to free audiobooks?  I use ours a lot, especially since I suspended my Audible membership.  There's also Librivox which is a free, volunteer run audio book service for books in the public domain (so usually quite old ones).  Quite a lot of their books are recorded with different narrators for different chapters which I find really hard to follow, but some have single narrators.  Also the quality of readings are very variable but sometimes there's an absolute gem.  

dustydigger

@Broomstick.

Sorry to be a pain but I cant STAND audiobooks! I made a few attempts but cant bear having a strange voice intervening between me and the atmosphere of the book. Plus its hard to concentrate,my mind wanders. Then I think,what did he just say? Rewind. Gone too farback. Fast forward,gone too far forward.Back again. By now I've forgotten what I'm looking for! Drives me nuts. Also most books I like to read are older SF,they are just not available in audio. Also I dont want graphic sex or language. I can somewhat skim over it in book form,but not in audio,so cant really read any modern crime books

dustydigger

Our local team,Sunderland,finally achieved promotion to the championship.,after disastrous years. Never saw any of the family yesterday,suppose they were all watching the match. As usual hordes of fans went down to Wembley.They filled up all their section of seatings,and had to have extra seats opened up.

Not a football fan,but its nice that after 4 years of humiliation and failure,the Black Cats finally had something to cheer about.

Well thats it for now,my hand's killing me and I am in the middle of making dinner. Salmon - surprise surprise -  for Mr D.No idea what I'll have........

dustydigger

Hmm,just realized I am acting as if its right at the end of the month,and there are still 9 days to go in the month! Its been a rotten month healthwise,I suppose these 22 days have seemed unending!

Broomstick

@dustydigger.   Oh well, each to their own!  Fingers crossed that your eye appointment comes through quicker than expected.

Bluegreen143

I don’t like audiobooks much either, like you @dustydigger my mind wanders and I miss bits. 

My 6yo son adores audiobooks, probably because he can’t read yet (he’s bilingual and learning to read is a bit delayed because he’s learning in his second language rather than English first) so we do play kids’ books in the car while we’re driving now. I love to see him embracing childhood classics (he loves Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl) and I now see the value of audiobooks - but I just don’t enjoy them myself!

Florenceem

annieb64 said:

Dustydigger-I pay for Kindle unlimited too. I read very fast so get through a lot of books . It was brilliant during the lockdowns so have kept it on. Most of our local charity shops seem to charge £1.99 a book and the library doesn't seem to have had any new stock for ages.

Still prefer a "real" book if it's nonfiction. 

I am blessed that a local charity shop sells unsold paperback and hard backs for 20p.

London_1

First shelf I look at when in a charity shop is the bookshelves, often find ones that the library don't stock in there When I was touring the US a few years ago I came home with a stack from their 'thrift shops '
I actually had to buy a big soft grip to get them home with I bought it in Wallmart for $5 in 2007 and I still use it when I go on holiday today its great with lots of side pockets to stash toiletries etc in.

 As its made from a soft material it doesn't weigh much either as a suitcase would

Another bargain bought accidently. When we were in Washington waiting to go through customs to come home my friend said 'it will cost a fortune to pay for that extra luggage' but I said 'I dont care those books are coming home with me'

We got to the counter and how lucky was I the weighing thing had malfunctioned, and the lass on the counter said "What's in the grip?" and I said 'books I haven't read yet' .Obviously a book lover, she said "go on through ma'am glad you enjoyed your trip" I marched through beaming, and my friend said "you jammy begger"  

JackieO xxx