Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

dustydigger

Well,I managed to drag myself to the do,too many people,possibly 80 people there. I sat in the corner at a table with family members,and never budged. I was worn out just getting ready and walking over to the pub! The littl'un looked gorgeous in her pretty dress,but was very subdued and clung to her parents all the time. How odd to have my eldest granddaughter,age 32,and the youngest,age 2, side by side.Of course GD1 twins were here there and everywhere. I have a great pic of them, looking angelic,and very spiffy in black trousers,white shirts,and cute bowties.Looks can be very misleading. Also had 4 other grandkids there,and 4 great gandkidso we were quite a tribe. It was fun,but I wasnt up to scratch,so I came away after 90 mins,and Mr D stayed on a little while longer,but by 4 o'clock we were home and dozing off! .

dustydigger

Just sorted my asd@ order. Starting for Xmas now,ordered a bottle of spirits for one person,and got a special offer of 3 trays of 24 pepsi maxcans for £20,usually between £8 to £9.50. One is for use now,the other two will be Xmas and New Year. Every week I'll get someone a bottle. I have been saving all year at Iceland. Cant physically go but you can save money on their website for as little or much as you wish. I now have over £60 saved,another couple of weeks and I will have enough to buy everyone;s sweets and selection boxes. Other years I would have built up savings at Tesc* and saved an awful lot of money. But you can only save in shop,and of course they closed the branch in town end of March. I'm still sulking about that!.You would think in this day and age ,like at Iceland you would be able to save online.

Anyhoo,the bill came to £75,but £33 of that was for Xmas,so that was actually a very trimmed down normal budget,so I'm pleased with it.

dustydigger

So,new fortnight,new budget,with a whopping monthly increase of £130 to find for my energy costs.Ouch. Good job I increased my amount to back each fortnight by £50 to £250,and built up a bank buffer. I think we are getting £67 taken off our bil,probably at the end of the month.or the money goes into the bank,still no real solid info from Scottish Power. In fact they have temporarily suspended everything on their website due to millions of people wanting to give their meter readings,so I cant do my normal daily look at my consumption etc.Very annoying.

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

Dusty's Frugal Fortnight #11 : 3rd Oct - 16th Oct

part is online,part cash;

online income for fortnight : £79  pension ,£250 sent to bank from our Pension Credit,total £329.

Then £73 cash to HBB (Home Budget Box) .

Total income -£402.

All bills paid online as follows(rounded up)

Charity DDs - £3

Gas /electric - £238

broadband and phone £37

Water rates - £37

Asd@ monthly delivery pass -  £6

Asd@ food deliveries  - £130(estimate)

total - £451

the short fall to online budget will be corrected from bank buffer - £132

I used to save lots of cash from my £123 HBB every fortnight,often £70 or more would go in the ''in transit'' envelope in my savings binder,and whenever I had £100 in a single notes denomination it would go to the next goal.Now its  taken 6 weeks to . reach a £100 goal,but happy to add £100 to my Xmas savings envelope,to make a total of £600. Have drained all the birthday portion of this envelope,spent £140 this month on birthdays and christening! Eek!But I had saved for it,so no panic.3 more birthdays the rest of this year,I will cover them from the remains in the HBB box end of each fortnight. May take quite a while before I have another £100 to go in a sinking funds envelope,but everything is fully covered for now,so no sweat!

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

So thats the finances for this fortnight.Its annoying I cant get into Scottish Power and see just what the situation is.Now off to the kitchen to do the spuds. I have the fish ready ,so not much work.Just as well,my shoulders are killing me after this typing......sigh......

Mr Dusty went to town to get our ''pay'',we never know these days what is going to be in there. The last time they gave us money,£326 somehow things went wrong,we never did find that money,so these days Mr Dusty is always nervous and anxious about what money we have,how much he should give me etc. Sad mental decline in someone who was an accountant by profession,now finds working with figures quite difficult. Oh well,it is what it is,off to the kitchen ....I should get a banner made with that on.......

Floss

Dusty, can you get your "pay" paid direct into the bank? 

dustydigger

Dusty, can you get your "pay" paid direct into the bank? 

Of course my personal pension automatically goes into my account. Mr D likes to go and get our pension credit ,which is for a couple of course,in cash,and pays in £250 to my account on the way back,then gives me my cash segment when he gets home. The rest is his,and he looks after the family back in Africa from his share,and buys himself shirts,shoes and coats,plus the occasional tech he cant understand .He doesnt go out anywhere.So why does he need so many shirts?

  Spends about a fiver a week on the pools online,and nearly always makes  a (tiny) profit,but he supports his family and saves up for a trip home every 2 or 3 years. At the moment his daughter is undergoing cancer treatment,and thats where his money goes,medical care in the third world is really poor,you pay for everything.

Thank heavens for Gordon Brown,back in the day he rescued pensioners from real penury,making very generous increases,and giving us bus passes.Its a bit disconcerting to see just how many people seem to resent what we get,young people saying its unfair that we get help and they dont.Its true that some pensioners have good private pensioners,own their own homes etc,but there are literally millions who have to live carefully . Never mind,young'uns,give the tories time and they will start taking benefits away from us. Already this year Boris broke the triple lock promise,and gave us 2% rise,when the inflation rate  was at 8% . Wonder if we will get it this coming year. Its over 10% now!

beanielou

A lot of time for Gordon Brown.
A fellow Fifer 

Fife was in the news today as Dunfermline got the first official visit from King Charles & his Consort.
Dunfermline is now officially a city.
The auld grey toun no longer 

Floss

dustydigger said: 
 

 ... Already this year Boris broke the triple lock promise,and gave us 2% rise,when the inflation rate  was at 8% . Wonder if we will get it this coming year. Its over 10% now!

Ah thanks, that makes sense. Also I understand that the triple lock is back in place again for you.

tooldle

Horses for courses, although always worth remembering the net contributors are people too. We have our own ups and downs, difficulties and disabilities. I'm a firm believer in the need for a welfare state, but even I at times find it hard to stomach the actions of some. With less than 20% of tax payers being net contributors, there are a lot of people, dependent upon a few turning to, and paying the tax.
Youngsters are perhaps more likely to be net contributors until such time as they live independently and/or have families of their own. This may or may not skew their perspective. I've a colleague who is now just over a year short of retirement. Conversations in the office can get difficult at times when said colleagues proclaims how sick they are of paying for everyone else.
It is a fine line to tread. Those in receipt of benefits need to receive a workable income and those who provide the finances to cover these costs need to feel something positive, rather than negative. Should the negative feelings win out at the ballot  box then we are all in trouble in my opinion. We are all children in need of education in our younger years, some of us will work lower waged jobs through the mid period of life, and most of us become elderly with pensions needs in later life. All groups need the tax payer to keep up those contributions. 

Crazycatlady2

I enjoy learning about your fortnightly method of budgeting. I’m concider if it as for example this week I get carers allowance, tax credits and hubbys wages nothing next week then following week child benefit and my sons DLA then nothing week after and we start again 😂 I’m always in a muddke as Direct debits are monthly etc so I never know what exactly is available or spoken for at any point. I’ll think on it some more x 

dustydigger

@tooldle

economics is a very difficult complicated thing. They do say that if you have 3 economists in a room,at least 5 different theories will be posited! lol.

Like Japan,most of the western nations are now becoming post boomer societies,too few tax payers to support the oldiesas society demographics change. Most families today have only 1 or 2 kids,or even none.! I seem to remember articles warning of future difficulties analysing the situation and possible solutions as long as 30 years ago. Of course with our short term and adversarial political system nothing has been done.I would be interested in how societies like Norway,Denmark,Germany etc are coping.

I can surely see why young people are annoyed about the situation,but getting nasty with old people doesnt help one bit.Knotty problems indeed.

One of the most practical solutions in the short term of course is to encourage immigration,bring in an influx of young people who will work and pay tax and thus support us wrinklies.

hmm,whats that you say? We have cut down the flow of immigrants to a trickle,and left a huge community of 28,now 27 countries who could have helped supply us with tax paying folks Oh boy,you couldnt make it up.........