Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

dustydigger

@London_1 Glad you did so well,Jackie.

I cant really afford many books,and all my bookcases are double stacked,and I have various boxes too,and at the moment am trying to downsize my library. I want to let go of any books that are vert tatty,especially if I can access them online . I have stacks of books hiding behind my couch which are all to be got rid of. Because of covid I havent been to any charity shops for a long while.,and I must pull myself together and start ''unhauling'' as they say on BookTube.End of July we are doing a complete makeover of my living room and hallway (more about that in another post )and all the furniture and those hundreds of books need to be gone by then.

@florenceem Wow,20p a book!  Our shops in my town want books in mint condition and charge between £1 and £3.

I always ask for Amazon vouchers for Xmas,and once those run out,no books for me! I do buy  complete works of classic authors and genres. All Virginia Woolf for £1.50.  50 classic novels for £0.99 and that sort of thing on kindle. And the last few months I have a Kindle Unlimited subscription,£7.99 a month. I am trying to get back into reading crime fiction. So many books today are infected bythje dark conflicted characters,downbeat endings and just generally rather uncomfortable reading experience. At least on KU I can find more oldfashioned or traditional reads,with happy endings.Life is miserable enough without inflicting grim harsh books on myself The KU subscription is my only indulgence really,and I am really enjoying using it. Normally I read between 12 to 18 books a month. Thats why I am so annoyed with this stupid eye situation,I am way behind in my reading. Just finished a crime novel and it took me no less than 10 days,which is ridiculous for me.Also completed a very complex science fiction novel ,a Hugo award winner,and I have been on and off with it the whole of this month.Hardly dare look at my May TBR,I am so far behind.Looks like I will be doing a rollover to next month(budgeting vibes to the fore here lol) and will make my TBR only about 10 books long,no sense in stressing

I read mostly science fiction,a teeny bit fantasy,vintage crime,some YA books,and children's classics.For some reason I dont like historical novels,and have little patience with chick lit and romance - unless there are vampires or other supernatural beings involved. I would love to hear what people are reading,feel free to comment any time

dustydigger

That was a long post,has done in my hand,so I'm going to take an hour off before actually posting about my day.Got distracted talking about books

Going to read some You Tube video posts on some of my fave channels.

Cant really enjoy using the computer for YT,pictures are small,sound tinny. BUt unfortunately YT is incorporated on my telly,and I spend far too much time on it!

annieb64

I mainly read crime fiction although do also read history but not historical fiction. I also prefer the more traditional crime fiction not too much sex or violence.  

dreaming

I am in a very similar position @dustydigger. I am an avid reader and member of 2 book groups but also have an eye problem which may need operating on. Have also been diagnosed with another condition (they found the eye problem when investigating the other thing) which can affect my balance and speech as well as vision so I am quite frustrated at the moment. I have just about managed to read the book for one of the groups which will meet tomorrow and spoke to another member to pass on my thoughts but it has taken me the best part of a month to read instead of zipping though it in a couple of days. I am obviously not up to driving and there is no direct bus to either group (even if I felt ok to go out on my own) so I feel as if I am in my own personal lockdown, which would be ok if I could either be in the garden (which I can on a good day, weather permitting) or reading (which is hard for more than about 20 minutes at a time). My daughter is brilliant but works full-time in a different town to me and has taken lots of annual leave to take me to hospital appointments, and my brother is very kind and will help out but also has a busy life as he is still working at the age of 73. I don't get on with audio books either as I find some of the narrators irritating, or just "the wrong voice" for the book, so I find myself falling down the Youtube wormhole, and I have also found the attraction of binge-watching on Netflix (watching the Lincoln Lawyer at the moment) but it's not the same as a really good book. So 2 of my favourite pastimes have been taken away for the time being - reading books, then talking about books, but I have to say I am having fantastic service from the NHS so have a lot to be grateful for.

weenancyinAmerica

The first time I visited England, I came home with two suitcases of books. At that time, you didn't have to worry about the weight unless it went over seventy pounds. One suitcase weighted 68 pounds and the other weighted 69 pounds. When I got to customs in New York, the man looked at my customs declaration ($500 for books, $20 for everything else I had bought), lifted one suitcase and said "It's either books or bricks, and I'll believe you it's books" - and didn't have me open the bags. When I went out to the curb, the taxi driver who was to take me to the other terminal looked at the suitcases which the airline had plastered with "heavy" signs, said to me, "They can't be that heavy", grabbed one and flipped over the top of it. I did learn to have the books shipped home after that. The next trip I had 40 boxes shipped home, mostly from Hay-on-Wye. I was doing background research for several authors and was gathering material on the home front in World War II. Takes up two walls in my bedroom.

dustydigger

Been a bit of a topsy turvy day,always seemed to be running to catch up..

Mr D lost his bus pass and bank card last week,and he has been moping round the house being a major bored irritation to himself and me,as he never goes for a walk.He usually goes to town though 4 or 5 days a week. Its about a 10 minute walk to the shopping centre from the bus station,and he does shopping for fruit,veg,bread and fish or meat in various shops

and then humps the sometimes heavy bag 10 minutes back to the bus station to come home. All in all he gets 30-50 mins walking several times a week,keeps him pretty fit for an octogenarian.

However,now Tesc* has closed down and I am doing almost all my shopping  online at Asd@,he goes out much less frequently,and of course this week he spent lots of time just sleeping. Even his beloved football has almost  ended. So we have had little to do but irritate each other and nag! So I was delighted when today both new cards arrived. YAY.Then he went off upstairs with his bank card to put it in a folder,and when he came down demanded where I had put the bus pass. He had given it to me,what had I done with it. Row ensures but I tell him I am not ripping apart the furniture looking for a bus pass I was supposed to have mislaid unless he checked upstairs. Sure enough it was up there.Tomorrow he can have a nice wander round the town,which of course also gives me some peace. Cool.Two years of covid keeping us like siamese twins is pretty dire.....

He decided he wanted a takeaway for supper.and I reluctantly agreed to go halves,£10 each. £10 less savings.So instead of making something for dinner and supper I just decided to make beef quarter pounders.fiddled around making onions and melting cheese,toasting buns,all that fiddly stuff,and then he hardly ate  anything and said he doesnt want burgers anymore. . Storing everything away so that in a few weeks he perhaps will have one for supper one night....one less meal that he will eat.....sigh........

Went for HbA1c test this afternoon (diabetic sugar level test) Results will certainly be awful,bad health led me to junk food when I couldnt drag myself to find something healthy.

Anyhoo,,I left home early, intending to get to the docs 10 mins early,just sit on the seatoutside  looking at the flowers,and perhaps read on my kindle for 10 mins.Peace and quiet. Bliss. Bus stop just across the road from home,but no seats in the shelter,and no bus came for  over 15 mins,so my knees were giving me hell. Arrived at docs exactly on time,so no sitting admiring flowers. Was surprised to see no less than 5 people queueing up to check in. No one on the desk,someone had collapsed in the washroom. Another 10 minutes standing .Sadly I got the only nurse I dislike,most of them are brilliant with needles,this one really rammed the needle home..

Came on here tonight,doing one post and resting my hand,rinse and repeat.Phoned in the takeaway,and had the young boy killing himself laughing when I told him to leave out the prawn crackers. I never knew a bag was about 400 calories! I would just nibble away .So I sternly told the boy he was not to lead me into temptation,keep the darn things away.He thought it was hilarious,and it was my first laugh of the day.

So I'm off to dish up the chicken curry fried rice and chips. I actually divide it into 3 parts,we will eat  3 meals.It is still a little bit too much. How on earth do people eat whole portions themseves.

Supper then early to bed to rest aching hands and knees Goodnight people!

dustydigger

FINALLY programmed my boiler settings correctly. On Sunday I slept in and  missed seeing if it turned off at the earlier time. Monday Mr Dusty was down first and turned it off before seeing the new time worked. Yesterday I found it was still on old time so yesterday evening started all over again,its very complicated,and today it actually turned off as required!

OK,all you hardy frugal MSE folks turned yours off weeks ago and are horrified. But both Mr D and I like at least to remove the chill from our north facing bathroom before our usual morning bath. I of course cant get in and out of the bath,because of knee replacements,I have to sit on a board and just pour water over my back. No nice snuggling down in the warm water. So cold bathrooms are a no-no.But I have cut it down! As for the rest of the day we never had the heating on,3 days running.  Last month we used 1480 KW in all,this month we are on 750KW,with a week to go in the month. Still insanely high by our dear frugalistas who sit wrapped in blankets but quite a drop for us. My family have been protesting for years at our spendthrift ways,but Mr D,even after being in UK for decades, hates being cold. And of course  my severe arthritis is always much worse in cold or damp,so we overindulge in warm bathrooms and a cozy warm house. So sue us.

dustydigger

gratitudes today?

reached my target of 25/25 alcohol free days this month. 44 days in a row.Hope to complete the whole month and get a gold star!

==========================

I saw the lady who used to do the credit union  pre covid. It has not revived postcovid,client deposits are sporadic,irregular. Its not worth her taking a measly amount of cash 15 miles away to bank it. She has promised to send me an account closure form.  The account balance - £600 - will go to energy bill rises,a very nice help with the bills..I am opening a new savings envelope to cover the probably £70 a month rise in price. I was relieved to find that my old tariff ends 6 August,not June as I had thought. Two extra months to do a little savings before I go on to the variable tariff.

Oh dear cant say I was too happy at Martin's newsletter telling us the Oct rise would take us up to an average of £2800,over £230 per month. That is still £60 a month below the £292 Scottish Power want for their DD tariff.. The govts £200 loan and this £600 bank balance will help a lot

==========================

I actually got a bottle of cooking oil in this week/s delivery,the first in about 6 weeks.I have been using beef dripping for some frying,and the roasties,but if the food gets a bit too cold it can congeal.Yuck.I will hoard this bottle carefully,because probably next week we will be back to the new normal i.e. not available

==========================

a minor thing,but I am happy to have finished two more of my  TBR books for this month. Hoping to manage getting in to double figures after all .Have read 82 books so far this year,out of an original plan to read 150. Not looking so easy now but I'll still try

dustydigger

 There's always something. Just got a phone call from the docs. I had a diabetes test yesterday and the receptionist told me it nwas ''abnormal'' What the hell does that mean? Got to hope it just means my sugar level is very high,and I may have to go onto medication - which I avoided for 5 years,but the covid business plus the thyroid and pernicious anaemia  have diverted me from watching my diabetes.Too much comfort eating and junk food I suppose Looks like trouble,but I am not amused with the term ''abnormal.'' Talk about frightening the life out of patients!

And damn,I have had 2 chinese takeaways and quite a few biscuits since yesterday's test. Results could be even higher. I have to go in tomorrow morning for a repeat test,and then an appointment with the nurse next Tuesday.Not looking good. I rarely hear good things about metformin. Colour me depressed.

Floss

DD my brother is on Metformin, he seems OK on it.

Maybe an email to the Practice Manager would be appropriate to highlight the impact of being told your results were "abnormal". I'm sure there is a nicer way to say it!