Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

dustydigger

Hi,people,I'm still alive! Shivering still a little,but on the mend. Waterworks still dodgy,ear infection still making hearing difficult because ear is full of glue,My arthritic right hand,is pretty curled up. Thats how I gauge  my arthritic status. Last week I was boasting to you that my hands were pretty straight. Spoke too soon! .But little pain,so if I pace myself with my posts I should be able to talk to you.

But compared to how miserable I was a couple of days ago I am ten times better.I hate it when my stupid immune system attacks me,crazy isnt it.?

dustydigger

Asd@ delivery this morning.Couldnt get the bill down below £60.65,but couldnt,till Asd@ told me the birthday card I ordered for Mr Dusty was unavailable,so that brought the bill down to £58.15. Will have pull myself together,get changed and go to the cornershop for a card,very expensive and probably dull........sigh..........

No more stocking up for the moment,nowhere to put anything,so it will be one used,one replaced.

Glad I finished stocking up on bottled water,now the Buxton  pack of 4 1.5 L bottles is no longer available. All that is left is the  expensive Volvic,single 1.5 L bottles only, 85p each.

Sittingroom is pretty cold. North facing,we have always called it The Morgue,claiming you could store dead bodies there. Now we will have to start rationing the heating. Scottish Power finally told me the new prices,and my new DD is to be £238pm. I used 1035 total KW Sept 2021,and expect to be over 700 this month,but despite cutting back I will be paying £238pm. Bonkers.

beanielou

Take care of you  xx

My sitting room is frozen

dustydigger

Morning,folks.

Brrr,its a cold one,6C. Went out to the bin and am now in the freezing morgue known as the sitting room. My hands are like blocks of ice,but will try to wait a little longer befoe putting on the heating.Mr Dusty is adamant that he must cut the hedges today,but they are very wet,so it could be a while. Naturally I will have got the house warm,and he will have the windows open and let all the heat out

I got out yesterday afternoon to get Mr Dusty a card at last. Thought I would try to go for a little walk round the block,but I was so dizzy,and couldnt stand the glare of the light on my dodgy eyes. Didnt matter anyway,after wobbling up to the shop in bright sun,when I came out there was a scattering of  rain drops,and by time I got home about 3 mins later it was drizzling and after that torents of rain for hours,so good luck with walking even if I felt good.

My symptoms are always many and varied. Shivers have almost gone,but during the night I had intermittent leg and toe cramps,didnt sleep till 1.30 am,and woke at 4.20.Bones are all aching .and the water infection has caused soreness down below,its a nuisance. Just got some new ointment,very good stuff (should be,at £13 for a very small jar!) so in a few days should be improvement.But the cystitis  has me going to loo every 10 or 15 minute Already told Mr D that I wont be going to the church,struggling in and out of vehicles,but will pop across the road for a little while when they all come there for a do after the service.For now just keeping hydrated is the best thing.

.................................

 oh boy,Mr D couldnt remembe where he stored the battery for the cordless clippers,and has dragged everything out of the cupboard under the stairs - mower,hoover,boxes of shoes,books etc then standing helplessly saying its not there. So I had to wade in,and found it in 2 secs flat....sigh.......

 It was the Kryton Factor test again trying to see how the battery fitted in. Then it had to be charged up,and he waited only 4,I kid you not,4 mins and hoped it was charged. Fortunately the front hedge is only 8ft long,so there was enough charge to finish the work,took about 5 miutes max. Naturally he left the front door open,and since it was blowing one of those nice northeast freezing cold breezes,the sittingroom is now an icebox.

He wanted footie fixtures on teletext,and we repeated the process again and again,me saying I had shown everything - thee times! - him saying I was wrong. So he has gone off in the huff to look at his own telly,because of course he will be able to find them easily. Good luck with that. Stomped off leaving all the mowers etc all over the sittingroom floor for me to put away.All this hassle has meant I havent started the dinner yet,its going to be 1 pm,thats not going to go down well either!

So just put spuds on,they have to parboil,then be roasted. Got to do the fish next,already defrosted,but I'm an hour behind schedule. SNAFU.

beanielou

Reading that makes me feel lucky to live on my own!!

dustydigger

Oh boy,praise the Lord,its the last day of September,we will all be happy to leave this month behind,surely hoping for something better.....oh wait!  our energy bills are  going up humongously once again,arent they? Average gone from £1200, to £1900,now to £2500 a year . And we are relieved its not £3550. We have a crazy woman in No 10,whose desire to make millionaires even richer backfired (she thought that because bankers and speculators would be happy getting more cash,but surprise,the grasping selfish ********* saw it as a glorious chance to short the pound and make billions trashing our currency and economy),and as a side effect almost sunk the pension fund industry,so the Bank of England had to subsidise them to the sum of.......wait for it.....£65bn.Imagine if they hadnt intervened.

The most spectacular failure of any government ever,I think.That woman has only been in power since 6th. The shape of things to come were indicated when she shook hands with the queen,and her Majesty  died 2 days later. Not the most auspicious start,was it.

ouch,sorry for the black humour.I personally have had a bad week,still suffering from water infection. Had horrible cramps in feet at night. running to loo every half hour,with little results. Ear infection is improving,not too bad an outbreak of arthritis after all,but I still get the shivers sporadically,and feel so weak,def need my B12 jab.

back hurting from sitting at computer so will take a rest. I am compiling my reading list for Spooky October,I'll tell you about it later.

later,gators.

dustydigger

OK,hello October. Where is time going,the fortnights seem to be whizzing by at accelerated speed as I do my frugal fortnight videos.Mr D is the same,he is adamant that this is NOT the fortnight we collect our pension,I had to check back,and I did my budget late,on  28th Sep, Wednesday  because of the Queen's funeral etc. Today I have to do my asd@ delivery list,how can it be a week since the last one?One out,one in on items now to keep costs down. How depressing that on 6th Aug my energy DD was £106,now its £238!.

Its been a hectic few days with birthdays 19th,23rd,28th,29th. People have been in and out ,I wished we had a revolving door. Mr Dusty's birthday in particular,everyone came at different times starting at 10 am,till 6pm to see him. He got quite a nice little pile of cash,I had better be nice to him,something trickle down.......oh look,lots of flying pigs,swooping in formation......Hmm,trickle down is a bit of an unfortunate turn of phrase in these fraught economic disaster times!

So whats been going on for me this week? Thanks to Fizz's advice I checked out Debenham's and got 3 tops that fitted. Still have a parcel to return for Bonmarche(huh,no free returns,and the nearest shop is an hour's busride away if I wanted to hand it in for free) and one that I can hand in free at asd@George,when I can pull myself together.

Healthwise I am slowly recovering from the water infection,but still very uncomfortable down below. Head is covered in a rash,ear is full of glue,and am lethargic, but thank heavens cramps have gone away.They ae VERY nasty Waiting (im)patiently for my B12 jab 10th Oct

Eyebrows were raised when I declined to go to the church for the christening,but I get very uncomfortable sitting in one position for a long times so didnt fancy a church service. I have agreed to call in at the reception,its straight across the road from our house. I'll get a few nibbles,see our littl'un in her fancy frock. She is now in the terrible twos.so we are a little uncertain how things will go. She says she's not afraid of some priest,she'll put her tongue out to him instead of crying like some wimpy kids do. 

dustydigger

Mr Dusty is already dressed and ready to go! By 10.10am. DD1 is coming at 12 50. All I happened to say was that he should get ready in plenty of time,because numerous times he has not been ready when a lift arrived,or the person giving the lift arrives early and h'es caught on the hop. So naturally he has to be aggravating and gets ready hours early.......sigh........ I've told him I am not giving him anything to eat during the morning because he is sure to spill something on his suit. He was disconcerted,wasnt I going to make him lunch as usual. No I'm not,my son has spent a small fortune catering this thing,so he has to go and eat with everyone else,as I am NOT cooking today. I'm hoping for leftovers to cover supper!

My Mrs Scrooge persona at her finest

Off now to iron my clothes. Wearing new trousers and a peachy coloured blouse with a frill. Much lower neck than I normally wear,so wearing my long pearl necklace hanging down to fill the gap! Dont be surprised if I chicken out at the last minute and wear a different top!

dustydigger

OK,that was quick,trousers needed only a swoosh over,blouse had a lot of synthetic stuff,so creases just smoothed away in a flash. But still,5 mins ironing has got my back aching,so I am resting now,talking to all you frugal folks.

Cant keep my mind away from this govt's antics.Bank of England could support the pension funds to the sum of £65 billion pounds.All this mess because they wanted to hand out 3 bn to the richest people. Currency trashed,economy trashed. I'm sure there are loads of forumites who lived through Maggie Thatcher's brutal times. At one point 40000 people a month were losing their homes. And they didnt have an energy crisis like us. Yet people still couldnt find enough money to pay their mortgages. What are they going to do it the nightmare scenarios of today?

I still have vivid memories of some fraught family members. This town was a mining town,no less than 3 pits,employing at least 15000 men. They were enticed into buying NCB houses for a very reasonable amount,aroumd £9000 (!!!). Then the mortgage,around £100 a month began to rise and rise and rise,till they were paying £200 a month.Very tough,lots of pennypinching. Then she closes down the mines,and the steelworks,and the shipyards..Utter devastation which we have never recovered from. . Many many people lost those homes they so proudly signed up to buy. This time wages have been whittled away so much that husband and wife have to work full time just to scrape by. When their mortgage goes up ,added to those high energy billswhich have doubled in a year,plus the food and petrol prices,people are going to really really suffer. Its heartbreaking.

dustydigger

On more cheerful note

30/27 alcohol free days in September! Was a close call last week in the wake of govt shenanigans tonot order a bottle of the grouse. Wont be a gold star 31/31 month in October but if I manage 28 days I will be happy.