Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

dustydigger

Good morning people! Wow,thanks to all you folks for your birthday good wishes. I'm overwhelmed Thank you very much. Had a great time last night. We were TWENTY at the meal,from 1 year old to 83 yrs old. Stuffed ourselves of course,and Mr Dusty went to bed at 9pm. I decided to watch my youtube regular videos I had missed ,and at 10 pm said to myself,I'll go to bed when this video ends in 10 mins. Woke up it was 11.25pm! . Remembered  I hadnt set up my ''What are we reading in February?'' threads on my two SF sites,sorted that,and  finally went to bed at midnight. Feel shattered this morning,but the vertigo is thankfully receding.

 Discovered my DILs mother has been suffering vertigo badly for over 6 weeks.much worse than my attack. She has been put on a list for an appointment with a vertigo clinic,but good luck with that, waiting lists for attention are long.

This morning got a message from family africa. They want to start radiotherapy  on my stepdaughter at once,lasting 25 days.. Easy come,easy go,I have contributed £50 from dosh I got  for my birthday towards expenses money for travel to hospital,phone calls,etc etc etc.,while Mr Dusty will pay for the treatment and main expenses. Its been a long worrying expensive year for us all over her illness,just so glad we can help. Without cash people in the 3rd world just have to die,its as brutal as that.

We have to be thankful here for our dear NHS.What a shame that it is being so badly treated by the govt. But I'll leave that ,if I rant my blood pressure will skyrocket

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About the carpet shampooer. I ordered a new one,plus a rubber broom,(brilliant idea,Wee Nancy,thank you!)and a new dust pan and brush set,my old dust pan was cracked and the brush is so old! Whole lot came to £248.I remember paying £250 for my last shampooer 8 years ago,so not unhappy about it.

As for hiring one,no one would be available,(or happy about) doing a marathon session. With our own machine we can do one room at a time when we are up to it,and of course repeatedly use it.Much more cost effectiv in long run/ I had been using mine for 8 years,still was in good nick,used multiple times over the years.Would have lasted my lifetime if not for Mr D   Sad that 2022 was such an horrific year on all fronts,I wasnt up to using it,and in my brain fog didnt even notice or care,then it got broken.!

The  old machine is seriously damaged . Mr D dropped a heavy lawnmower from a height on it when trying to put away the mower away for the winter in October. Smashed the water tanks.. Could have replaced those in theory (not in stock in around 10 spares stores I googled though,its an old model),but one of the mooring for clipping in the water tank got sheared off,the tank would just slide off the machine,full of water and shampoo EEK. Que sera,sera.New one coming tomorrow

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OK asd@ delivery came,actually had every item for once,no substitutes. Most unusual. The things are all over the bench,though I did put the frozen stuff away. Off to put all the stuff away,then do potatoes and salmon.

Not yet had a moment to sort out slimming and exercise regimes for the two of us. We start on Monday. Oh joy.

tooldle

Happy Birthday for yesterday Dusty.
Smaller plates might be the easiest approach to weight loss, until you have time to organize a regime. 
Keep your eye on the prize. Lots of stories in our local media of people losing 5-10 stone. Maybe an idea for a new thread?

dustydigger

Hi folks,another frugal fortnight starting,I'll post the budget soon.

Dull quiet week last week,after the birthday mayhem So a dull quick update.

+health. Steady improvement with the vertigo,fairly easy moving about,but still queasy getting up each morning,as my head seems to think I'm on a boat in choppy waves!

OK,started intermittent fasting today,will eat 12 - 8pm. Felt a little sickly working this morning,but I'll soon get used to it. Mr Dusty however is not being compliant. All I can do is reduce the sugar,in his cereal,and use artificial sweetener in his tea. Will only give him one main meal a day,sandwiches for supper.We'll see how it goes,I suppose he has cut his intake by a few hundred calories a day,will possibly lose 1 lb a month.

I was happy losing 1 lb a month,now I put on 2 lb in January. I am back to the weight I was Jan 2022,when I was confidently expecting to lose s stone in that year. Did lose 7 lbs,but its all gone on. Reading up on losing weight with thyroid problems,it seems it can be a tough task. AddAdd metformin for diabetes is not good either.

I am eyeing up Dr Berg's advice on,YouTube,but it looks hard!I like Dr Berg's info and advice,probably because he is so pedantic and boring! No attempts at charisma,he just quietly gives us info. He is one of the few that knows the difficulties involved,so I find him quite comforting.

check out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5bUCdu3UxU

I will take it slowly,and we'll see.

dustydigger

Dusty's Frugal Fortnight #18  Budget for  6th February to 22nd  February

Part is online,part cash

online income: £79  pension ,£250 added to bank from our Pension Credit.making £329 in total in bank account

Then £73 cash to HBB (Home Budget Box) 

Total income  for fortnight.-£402.

All bills paid online as follows(rounded up)

Water Rates - £36

Charity DDs - £6

Kindle Unlimited - £8

asd@ delivery charge - £6

Scottish Power - £217

Phone + broadband - £37

life insurance - £20

Asd@ food deliveries (estimate)  - £150

total online bills - £ 480.added from bank buffer £150 .The way the dates line up,this is a big fortnight for bills,it pretty much has all the  months online bills packed together.EEK!. No sweat,though,since many months I have £80 or more to add to the buffer. I dont do a zero sum budget,its a lot of work,my income is comfortable enough its unnecessary. Every so oftenI usedput some of the money saved each fortnight from the HBB cash box into the bank.Not lately though,all this cost of living and the £67 pm cash has padded out the account.  Cool!

....sigh....Mr Dusty has come down with all his bet selections for me to put on. He can no longer calculate complicated odds,I have to work them out and put on th bets on line. . tiny bets,just for fun really,but it takes up my time.

So bye for now.

tooldle

Is this your Dr Berg? https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Eric_Berg

dustydigger

tooldle said:

Is this your Dr Berg? https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Eric_Berg

Yep,I've heard all the hate stuff,and I only followed his opinions on thyroid after finding lots of other similar info elsewhere. He has put  stuff that I find helpful into a short simple video. I find nothing contraversial about intermittent fasting,thousands of sources accept that.. He advises on taking selenium and the like,but is a major enthusiast  for IF,as,once again,are huge numbers of docs and nutrionists. The Diabetic Society in UK has gone totally gung ho on IF and have hundreds of thousands of followers.

I am not going to him for any snake oil products,mainly just the simple little diagram that acts as a summary of things that I find useful

If you think the video is bad or misleading I can go back and remove it? All I know is that when I followed all his advice a few years ago I lost weight. Thats good enough for me.I have researched dozens,maybe a hundred sources of health info,and somehow this quiet way of putting over the info appeals to me.

Sorry,no more time I have to go wash my filthy head,I didnt dare do it when getting up I am too stiff and get dizzy .I will wash my hair,then its time for making dinner,then Mr Dusty has something he wants me to help him with after dinner. I need to phone the surgery in the afternoon to ask about test results,you are held up for at least 15 mins before getting through 

Then perhaps I will FINALLY get round to putting together the new carpet shampooer. The recycling bin was full to the brim,no where to put all the packing,but they emptied the bins this morning,I canunpack it and cut up the packing and get it in the bin.

Maybe I can get back on in the evening and talk. Ciao

tooldle

Debunking claims not supported by Science and 'Hate' are not the same thing. 
Advice from the Diabetes Society is supported by Science. 
I watched the video until the first pop up at 54 seconds, offering 10% discount on products. This man makes a lot of money. The delivery technique clearly works on folks.  

MrsCD

I stopped watching him when I found out his profits go to Scientology. I agree some of his advice is the same good advice as others give out, but once I saw the video by his son, it changed my opinion.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.😊

dustydigger

I dont have popups so I havent seen his adverts,and I dont watch any of his videos except this thyroid stuff And it was an early video,long ago before everyone got corrupted by monetization!   In the area of You Tube I watch daily,books and music reaction videos are rife ,and I assume its the same throughout the whole site.

 There are so many book tube videos that in the past were sincere and enjoyable,but now everyone has a Patreon,and numerous accounts on Instagram .Twitter etc etc etc. I have one favourite person in particular who talks excellently about crime fiction. Then he got monetized a while ago,and now has a patreon ,and people are giving him money each month. He is an obviously intelligent person,an excellent reviewer,and an avid reader,with a full time job which I assume is well paid. He used to read at least 24,even 28 books a month. Now he has to do so much stuff to please his patrons etc,and the number of books he reads has gone down a bit.Now he does rambling videos on extraneous stuff,so I have somewhat less enthusiasm for watching him.

Its everywhere. I remember way back 2012 watching so enjoyable blogs (the most common thing at the time) about diet,home care,decluttering etc.They were fun,informative and enjoyable. Then one by one they started to mention they were ''affliated'' to certain companies,and then they all started being on YouTube.

Its the same with debt confession videos. I used to enjoy watching people with huge debts setting out plans to get out of debt by careful budgeting and streamlining their lives.,with often amazing results. Now,though still in debt,repaying the debt is not their main focus anymore. And they all have Etsy shops,and various social media accounts,and I have pretty much given up on watching them. They now have quite a tidy income from the tube,even up to a couple of thousand a month! One bloke lost his job,but is now full time on YT,living comfortably on £3000 a month,and having holidays every few months. Now we are swamped with adverts every couple of minutes. Its totally ruined my enjoyment of You Tube.

 I can of course see what they are up to. You can pay £4.99 a month (possibly £5.99) and become add free. I dont know if I'll get to the point of leaving You Tube entirely  or giving in and paying to remove adds.Not so long ago the ads were only before and after the video.Then perhaps in around the middle mark Now you can have 6 or more  ad breaks within a 20 min video. So annoying.Good old Google,squeezing money out of us every which way.

sorry I wont be around much at the moment. We sent money to Africa,for radiotherapy for my stepdaughter.Mr Dusty is so anxious and unsettled at the moment. He just wants me nearby,explaining things to him,sorting out mistakes he makes,and basically just keeping him company ,and for comfort. So reading and being on the net are sporadic and in snatches.

Muddy_Walker

Hope hope things go well for stepdaughter- must be a huge worry not being there and having to sort out Mr Dusty on things he could do.
I rarely watch YouTube or listen to podcasts as I really can’t be bothered with the adverts….FB is less used these days down to adverts whereas I used it to keep up with friends and family. I dislike influencers intently - so busy selling themselves as a product or gaining money for things that I mainly have no interest in. Unfortunately they influence our younger generation who are trying to be the same thinking that is “right” and “the way to go” and not having a clue about consequences……
I’ll get off my soap box now! 

it was me who suggested J Dugas - glad you enjoyed it!