Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

Viv I love Horncastle having a moseying around all the shops and the lovely chippie in the square. We even went they for a weeks holiday when our son was younger at the golf club, he was busy fishing and we had fabulous hot weather. In the evenings the rabbits came out to play on the field(we took our touring van)
Cheerful glad the permanent marker pen worked.
I've had to frog the fron of the aran sweater, silly silly me used 4mm needles instead of 4.5mm cos it's double knit and that's what is normally used, but this pattern states 4.5mm the rib is almost reknitted.
It has been the most beautiful day here sunshine from dawn til dusk.

Catch you all tomorrow...........

Trying once more again, Folks, If not will consult DS tomorrow evening.

Ginger Ice Cream Serves 8

250ml full cream milk, whole egg plus 2 yolks, 3 tbsp. syrup from bottle of preserved stem ginger, 250ml whipping cream, 5-6 nuggets of preserved stem ginger, finely chopped, 2 tbsp. soft brown sugar.

Bring the milk to the boil and pour it very slowly onto the egg and the egg yolks, beating hard all the time. Return to the pan and stir over a very low heat until the custard thickens. The moment it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, put the base of the pan in a bowl of iced water and stir the ginger syrup into the custard. Pour the custard into a freezerproof container and freeze for 30-40 minutes or until the custard has set solid round the edges.

Whip the cream until it is stiff. Turn the frozen custard into a bowl, stir up well and quickly stir in the ginger pieces and whipped cream. Taste and add sugar cautiously. Return to the freezer and freeze for an hour, then give it another gentle stir so that the ginger pieces do not sink to the bottom. Freeze until hard.

Viv x

Evening all

Well my YS finds in the little co!p were not as good as last week but still OK - I think several folk know about this time of day there as it seemed like a lot of people were hovering! However I picked up 6 large brown rolls for 59p which will do nicely to fit HM beefburgers in (Jamie O or SlWorld - not sure which to do yet) that I can make with the reduced mince from L!dil earlier in the week!

Coming on here must be saving me money and calories cos I switch tv off - laptop warms me up so I switch fire off and cant eat for fear of spillage onto laptop - win win ;)

Any advice on how to stop spending money this weekend when I am visiting very poor son over the weekend?? Am gonna take a cake (HM!) and some veg from veg box (I have a veg box delivery every fortnight) but I used to take him to the supermarket and buy him loads of tins etc so he didnt have to carry them. But I dont feel inclined now because he is now living with girlfriend - who only seems to work now and then and I am not into subsiding her when her parents are v rich. Am I being mean??
What do you think folks?

Lynplatinum, I'm a great big grown up daughter of 50 and have lived away from my parents since I was 16. Always at least 1 hour away, sometimes 400 miles away, sometimes in the opposite hemisphere. And, when I visit them every 6-8 weeks or so, I am sometimes in the supermarket with Mum helping her do her own shopping, and she will keep trying to pay for the 1-2 bits I am picking up for myself for the start of the week (I typically return from visiting them on a Sunday evening and will usually be buying bread and perhaps something else to take home).

It's lovely that she wants to do it, but I won't let her; I have a job and can and do pay my own bills. It's too easy for grown children to scrounge off their parents, and it's a bad habit to allow yourself to get into, so I would try and stand firm about taking your son supermarketing. If he's an adult without disabilities which mean he cannot carry things, he should be carrying things; he's in the prime of youth and strength. He can use also a back-pack or get a wally-trolley or his g/f can carry stuff as well.

If they find heavy or bulky things impossible (I'm car-less and just get a few things at a time) they can also consider online grocery shopping.

I have lived long enough to see the outcome of over-extended parental caring, and it ain't pretty. Tends to produce lazy adults with a whiny attitude that the world owes them a living. People who have their everyday costs of living covered for them as young adults tend to end up in middle age expencting to be bailed out of their debts and have their mortgage arrears paid off by their aging pensioner parents.

Sorry if that seems a bit harsh and judgemental, but it's something I've seen a lot of. We offspring need to stand firm against overly-extended parenting, because it's too easy to accept generosity and dependence costs us a lot more than the money saved, and we pay the price for decades to come in poor character and poor decision-making. And parents need to exercise some tough love; I'd say take a cake as a gift and let them get their own groceries.

Well as a Mum and a Granny I can see both sides of looking after your grown up children.I have a very poor and penniless grandson at Uni whom I make a 'Ben Box' up for when ever we go to see him during term time.It usually consists of cans of anything I see which may help streeetch his grant out a bit and even if its only beans it means he gets some sort of food inside him.

There is little or no part-time work where he is during the winter ,hopefully now the better weather is coming and the 'tourist' season will start he may be able to get something.I also try to get him the essentials like toothpaste and soap and loo rolls if I see anything on offer.

Last year when Tesco's did huge bags of pasta for a couple of quid I bought three and gave one to him and kept the other two in store for him to take another back after the Christmas vacation.

It was all pretty long-dated .My two DDs one is fairly affluent, and the other always struggles a bit as she has three more growing lads at home who eat on an almost continual basis (15,13, 11)and are growing like weeds bless them.I often pop a few odds and ends her way as I am there every day after school looking after the three boys as both her and her OH work full-time.

The odd jar of jam, or as I did last week some YS mince into the freezer won't break the bank, and one of her lads loves cheese so I get a big chunk now and again if I see they are running a bit low.

She is very good to me, and I often eat there, so any supplies I get for her is not a problem, and if things are tight by the third week of the month I will sometimes help out from my stores as I have more than enough in my cupboards to help her out.

My eldest though, bless her is the opposite, and I daren't say I need something or am running low as she will go out and buy bags full of bits and pieces for the fridge which I really don't need,but I do bake her cakes or biscuits in return.

I too had to stand on my own two feet at a young age, and can well remember being broke on lots of occassions but always managed (after being brought up by a very canny tiny little scots woman during rationing on buttons :)) to make a meal out of what I had in the cupboards.If you son is strong enough to stand on his own two feet I would just bake him a cake and let him manage with his GF.After all (god forbid) if you fell under a bus he would have to.

No shopping to get today as I am off to my U3A monthly meeting this afternoon.At the moment I only have two things on my shopping list and neither of them are urgent at all,so I am keeping my purse firmly shut :)
Gorgeous day today already looking nice and bright and its fairly mild as well.I saw my first lady bird yesterday which is always a good sing of the winter finally going
Hope you all have a good and frugal day
Cheers chums JackieO xxx