Friday 6 January 2023

A Top Up & a Palaver....

Today I popped to Sainsbugs for 2 pints of milk to tide us over the weekend until the next shopping trip. As usual, I got tempted with bargain prices on the Nectar App and succumbed to kitchen roll at £1.50 instead of £2, G's cornflakes 82p instead of £1.09 (I'm sure I paid £1.50 last time 🤔) the usual 2 boxes of paracetamol, and 1 pint of milk. They had no 2 pint bottles so I put one back as it would be far too expensive and we have some long life milk in the cupboard if we need it. Somehow a bag of oven chips leapt into my trolley as well as they were on offer 😁 The total cost was £6.16 so I used £5.00 worth of Nectar points and used £1.16 of the cash from the refund on Tuesday, meaning that no actual cash has been spent from this week's housekeeping budget thankfully, and I still have a bit of cash left from the refund.....




I'm happy to count week 1 as a success!

Funds:    

Iceland vouchers (won) £100              
Morrisons voucher (G's gift from work) £50/ £42.86 spent
Nectar points  £11.75/ £5.00 spent
Boots points £7.28

One of the bonuses of collecting Nectar points is that extra points still accumulate even as you spend them.  I got bonus points on the kitchen roll, cornflakes and milk today but I'll not count them yet until I get close to spending the points I began with, IYSWIM Confusing or what? 😜

In other news:

Thanks so much for all the well wishes for my daughter.  After the bout of vomiting abated she phoned the surgery again to ask advice.  After an extended time in a queue, the receptionist took details and said someone would call her back.  Several hours later another receptionist called her back and asked exactly the same questions as the first and told her to carry on taking the antibiotics but with a drink of milk.  DD explained that she wasn't happy to carry on and requested an alternative.  The next day (4th Jan) she got a call asking how she was 'getting on' with the antibiotics!  Once again she explained the vomiting and therefore not taking them and the receptionist (once again) took all the details.  The next evening (5th Jan)  she got a text letting her know that a prescription for Clarithromycin  was awaiting collection at the pharmacy.  At no point has a clinician spoken to her let alone listened to her chest to confirm pleurisy.  I am seriously considering buying a stethescope ! I already have a blood pressure monitor, a pulse and oxygen level tester, so a stethescope is natural progression in the 'diagnose thyself ' situation we are now finding ourselves in 😨  I just hope the new pills help with DD's breathing problems.  G and I are still keeping our distance as all 4 members of the family are still coughing and suffering sore throats after almost 2 weeks......

Thanks for popping in and stay safe wherever in the world you happen to be x

14 comments:

  1. Similar situation here - DH has been left to Google for more information after this morning's GP visit. He was told he had an appointment with the doctor and has waited 4 days but it turned out to be a nurse who has been no help at all. A strep throat was not confirmed - she said it was viral but no swab test taken - she couldn't tell him anymore and gave him an anti fungal spray. Hope your daughter gets better soon.
    The actual prices on the Scan shop are never very accurate!

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    1. Why is medical help such a struggle to get these days? It's all blamed on the pandemic but the NHS was in trouble long before then. I hope your hubby feels better soon. Illness isn't nice when no help is forthcoming.

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  2. I had to ring the GP today I have been given an appointment in 3 weeks time. I'm trying to diagnose myself(inflamed bursar) or at the very worst a hip replacement! Who knows when we have to wait so long. I've already put it off for a month hoping it would go away. Our health service is in a dreadful situation .......gettting worse by the day. I hope the second medication works.

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    1. 3 weeks is far too long to wait when you are in pain, Tania, I do feel for you. Thank you for your good wishes for my daughter. I desperately hope it works too as she has asthma anyway ever since childhood. Fingers crossed 🤞

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  3. Harvey is finally over his cold after almost three weeks. I am slowly feeling a bit better each day. I am looking forward to hitting the three week mark and hopefully being over this.

    You did very well with your purchases.

    God bless.

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    1. Go glad that you re both feeling a bit better, Jackie, it's been a long haul for you x

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  4. You might like to take a look at info on vitamin c as a natural antibiotic just put "vitamin c antibiotic" in your search engine and see what you think. Since my boys were very young we've often used alternative
    remedies (we had a friend who was knowledgable about such things) and made good use of those we felt like trying. In our family this one is a tried and true easy back up for antibiotics. Apparently it works best when the Vit C is a manufactured one (all supermarkets make 1g vitamin c soluble tablets cheaply and easily available). I do hope your daughter makes a good recovery, I had pleurisy when younger and remember how painful it was - I wished breathing was an option not a necessity at the time. I hope this year is a good one you all. Elaine

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment, Elaine, I'm always happy to consider alternatives whenever possible. I'll do as you suggest and Google it.
      Happy new year Elaine!

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  5. We have spent under £25 this week on food, which for us is a huge savings, I'm hoping next week will be even lass. PS we are using hubby's Co-op gift card, so no money has yet been spent.

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    1. Brilliant, Marlene! Using gift cards is so satisfying isn't it. I'm hoping to make our Iceland ones stretch quite a way. Well done girl!

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  6. Well done on a successful first week on your 2023 challenge. It does get confusing with points, vouchers and cash doesn't it. This is the reason I literally just have my cash stash and any vouchers that come my way this year. I will just recount the money and vouchers at the end of every month and see what I have available.

    The NHS is pretty much broken and all the top doctors and consultants are saying the same. There are literally no hospital beds available, we now have wards-in-corridors and people being treated for days in the ambulances parked outside. There were 16 hour waits just for triage in our local hospital last week. I really feel for your daughter, I hope she improves soon.

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    1. Yes, Sue, the NHS is a total shambles. Last weekend my brother-in-law fell down again but in the kitchen this time, banging his head on the cooker and knocking himself out in the process. My sis phoned for an ambulance. 12 hours later it still hadn't arrived so they resorted to crawling around on the floor until they could get him up by pulling on the furniture. His head was very bruised but no help ever came. They are both 83 It's a sorry state of affairs, isn't it.
      Thank you for asking about my daughter. She says that her breathing is much easier this morning so the new antibiotics must be working (fingers crossed)
      Take care Sue x

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  7. I do hope your daughter is feeling better soon with the new antibiotics.
    So many horrid bugs about right now. D has been unwell for several weeks now but fortunately was able to see a doctor yesterday and get antibiotics. So sorry to hear about your BIL and sister, hope they will be ok after his fall. Take care all of you x

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  8. I thought I commented on this post, but, maybe my comment didn't go through or I only thought I commented! I'm sorry your daughter got the run around with the doctor's office; hopefully, she's feeling much better, now.

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It's OK.....

  Angie 💓 xx