New To OS - Young Family

BappyBrunette

I have been reading and commenting on various parts of the forum, and OS seems to be a good place for me to settle

We are a young family (8 year old boy and 3 year old girl) I am determined to save some money in order to give them as good a childhood as I can.

I do have some immediate questions that I hope OSers can help with. We live in a (very old/rented) terraced cottage - with a multi log burner. What is the cheapest/most effiecient way of using it (only form of heating on ground floor?) Also is there an cheaper/os version of firelighters?

Also packed lunches. Eldest hates school meals, so I do a packed lunch for him, and for my three year old (preschool) I seem to spend a mini fortune on bits for them. Any tips/ideas/recipes much appreciated

CapricornLass

Re school lunches - are you able to bake at all, and will they eat it if you do? I was thinking that you might be able to do some basic sponge cake/fairy cakes/ginger cake that you can cut into portions, wrap and freeze, and then just take them out in the morning. They should be defrosted by lunch time, and it helps to keep the rest of the lunch box cool.
My sister used to make muffins for her kids.
Carrot sticks?
Hubby says that dry pine cones make very good firelighters, so you may be able to pick some up when you are out for a walk - just make sure you stuff a bag in your pocket.

When you say a multi log fire, do you mean its a multi-fuel stove and you just happen to burn logs on it, or is it just a log burner?

buildersdaughter

Welcome.

I have lived in many sorts of housing over my life, and it is difficult for anyone to advise, as individual houses have their own hot & cold spot, air flow etc.
Assuming you have insulated as much as possible - consider a door curtain & make 'sausages to keep draughts out - then I would definitely try this:
In cold weather run your burner as low as possible the whole time.I did this when we were working shifts (not sure how much you are at home in the day). Having spent lot on 'heating' and rarely getting the benefit of it, I finally tried my mother's advice. We were very cosy, and spent much less than we previously had on lighting the fire only when we were in. Can you also use the burner heat by putting a casserole to slow cook on the top?
It may not work for you, depending on timing and placement of the burner, also how 'slow' you can get it!
Are you losing heat up the stairs? or is the rising heat warming up the bedrooms?

Firelighters: orange peel (dried by the fire first). I use lavender stalks, but that may not be feasible.Newspaper (if you have them). Pine / fir cones.

I think you'd get more help if you were more specific about the 'bits'.
Little ones like 'dips' and you can make those (lidl soft cheese is great) and buy breadsticks. Ordinary sausages cooked at the same time as other stuff, and cut into small pieces.
HM pizza & HM popcorn.

Many of us do a weekly 'traybake' or flapjack (try dried fruit & choc chips in it) to be cut up for children.

Working_Mum

I have two old Scot's Pine trees in my garden and I collect the pine cones throughout the year and give them to my friends as kindling. I have a coal fire and use them myself but I get about 6 bin bags a year and don't light that many fires!! My friends are always grateful!

There is a thread on here called "Preparing for Winter" which you may get a few good ideas to help warm up your home.

The "Love Food Hate Waste" thread is really inspiring and I am always rustling something up which has been inspired by that thread!

I batch bake muffins, flapjacks and brownies for my kids - tend to cut them up and freeze them and bring them out a few at a time.

My daughter loves smoked mackerel pate - I make it and freeze in small pots and she has them with pita bread or toast when she gets in from school.

If you share what your son likes to eat I feel sure the collective wisdom here will post replies and share inspiration!

VfM4meplse

OP I think your motives are admirable.

BappyBrunette wrote: »

Also packed lunches. Eldest hates school meals, so I do a packed lunch for him

Is your eldest child refusing to eat a free school meal? Because the OS way would be to offer no choice. Go back 100 years and very many children here really were starving. Even if they weren't keen on the institution, they would look forward to school purely for the meal.

I've just noticed you're in Somerset: autumn is a brilliant time for foraging apples. Stored carefully they will last you until spring.

-taff

Tumble drier fluff, free papers from Lidl [grab a handful on your way out], envelopes and recyclable papers, when you drive about the place [or walk] look for bits of wood that people have left out to chuck away and take them, look on skips too, if you have the means to cut them up, take them away
Also look at the side of roads, soemtimes the council will cut trees down, if you can fit it in your car, take them away and cut them up ...
If you don't already, go to Lidl or Aldi for food shopping [ Aldi is cheaper] Most brands are good, there is usually a foreign week of some sort on in Lidl so you can get PSanish, Italian, Greek , Polish food very cheaply.

MandM90

Have you got one of those mechanical fans that sits atop the stove to push the air around the room? No electricity required so after the initial outlay it's free and will help the room feel much warmer. We pop our stove on, on the weekends, and only heat the living room. Once it gets too hot we open the door and let the heat flow further into the house. At night we go upstairs and pop on electric blankets. They work really well and cost very little to run!

Rather than 'bits' for packed lunches could you just send in, say, a pasta salad and a piece of fruit. Much cheaper than lots of packaged bits and bobs!!

PollyWollyDoodle

Just to add to the endorsement of the fan - I have one and it helps, the original version is expensive but Aldi have a version for (I think) £29.99 if you can still find it. Still a significant outlay, but well worth it.

I never use firelighters. Scrunch up a couple of sheets of (free) newspaper, lay some kindling over the top with some slightly bigger wood over that, and that should be enough to get your fire started. Pinecones, orange peel, old birthday cards etc, also come in handy. I get my kindling and small bits of wood from skips, Freecycle etc. Don't be too shy to ask when you see building work going on!

ancientofdays

We don't have an open fire or fuel burner at the moment but always have had one in the past. In addition to pine or fir cones, which are brilliant firelighters, the little metal things left if you have burned a tea light work well and any candle ends too small to light are good too. We also made our own firelighters with tightly rolled and coiled newspaper.

suki1964

Another wee freebie firefighter, if you do your own nails, save the cotton wool pads you take your polish off with

I also use loo roll inners, junk mail, any paper waste really. But our kindling is very very dry and doesnt take much to flame

If you have a multi fuel stove, I find smokeless or anthracite or both to be the most economical to burn. Its the only heating we have on so is lit for most of the day, every day in the winter. I get the fire started with lots of kindling, add a chuck of the coal scuttle of smokeless, when thats all red and flaming, I cover with a layer of anthracite and close the stove down, that it for the next 4/5 hours

As for the lunches, the bits and bobs are expensive and aren't really needed as part of a healthy diet. If you do the dairylea pots, then swap for own brand triangles and breadsticks along with carrot, mange tout, cucumber sticks. or find a small pot to squidge some in

If they like cheese strings, normal cheese is cheaper - both my grandkids now take ordinary cheese sticks

HM Humous is cheap and easy to make, you can vary the flavour to suit, Grandson likes his with red pepper

HM cakes/biscuits/mini quiches/mini pizza are all good lunch box fillers, esp if the kids get involved. Granddaughter was easily able to make jam tarts, biscuits, help with muffins and fairy cakes pre school and they both love putting their own toppings on HM pizza bases

If you do need to buy bits, I advise Lidl ( but we don't have Aldi ). Child size bottle water and drink cartons are a lot cheaper there