From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Well, did we have a full on day-out yesterday. 

We ended up changing our destination.  We were going to a historic site, which would have been free to access, but would have taken the best part of a couple of hours to get to.  But instead, we plumped for an event that was going on locally, which was ticketed entry (it cost us £37 to get in as a family), but it was a 10 minute car ride down the road.  We got there just before 9am and left just before 5pm, so it was a full on day-out, and I would say we didn't see all that was on offer, even after 8+hours of wandering around the site.  

Naturally the weather was all over the place - but it did stay dry.  We were allowed to leave the site and return to the car, so I had packed plenty of water and hot drinks that could be carried about in batches, so that no-one felt like the pack pony.  But interestingly - and this proves what y'all are saying, we had just got onto the site in the morning, and I almost immediately spotted a stand-pipe that was clearly labelled 'drinking water', so we could easily have re-filled our bottles if needed.  So you can bet that I will be looking out/asking in future at events - thanks Team!

We took a pack-up lunch and 'elevenses'.  I was glad that we did this because the food on site was quite pricey - although some of the stalls did have big queues.  It was interesting that the stalls selling burgers/sausages - from their own farm animals etc were doing a pretty consistent trade.  One thing I did notice was that the ice cream vans - there were a few, say at least 4 or 5 dotted about the site - rarely if ever had a queue.  The weather was nice enough for ice cream - particularly as the day wore on, but of course, the average price was £4.... which quickly went up to £5 per ice cream if you had any sort of chocolate flake near it........😬  It was the aerated, whipped up type icecream.....

I thought the trade stalls were quite quiet too.  For sure there were alot of them, and alot were selling the same type of stuff (think auto jumble, jumble, "antiques", second-hand, job-lot market sellers, posh clothing, crafts and gadgets/potions and lotions that you didn't know you needed), so perhaps the sales were spread thinly, or weren't happening.  

All in all we had a great time, and it's an event that DH had never been to, I had last been to as a tiny child, and of course, it was LG's first time.  I suspect we could leave it a year or two before we went again - the format is similar each year.  But listening to people as we walked around, many were expressing that the display was 'bigger' or 'this wasn't here last year' or whatever, so the event is clearly doing its best to evolve.

We thought we were going to be stuck in a Concert car-park exit delay.  But luckily, having joined the back of the queue, I noticed a bloke giving advice to someone in the queue up ahead, which made sense - even from remote arm waving - as to how the exit should work.  We withdrew from the queue and went to the far part of the car park - where it has to be said, a couple of drivers were soooooooo gracious and a) let us cut across (no impact to their place in the queue) and b) let us take a spot in front of them (only an impact up until the point of the exit gate as we went in different directions out of the site) - I made sure to thank them profusely.  So we got out of the car park in about 10 minutes - because we joined the correct queue, rather than 'a' queue.  

The event was another at which participants/traders/attendees could camp - and I did have tent/caravan/MoHo envy as we went around.  There were clearly communities formed in areas where folks 'did the rounds' of these type of events, and it just looked so cosy.  I'm sure had it been lashing down with rain and blowing a hoolie, I would have been grateful for our own roof, bricks and mortar 🤣

We're into the last week of the summer hols.  The weather is definitely changing and the light levels are already beginning to change at the start/end of each day 😕  I'm definitely keen to try to shoe-horn in activities this week though so that we've a summer of memories to hang on to.  I was emailing a friend over the weekend, and actually, listed out, we have done quite a bit more than I thought.  I think if we'd done a couple of extra activities and been somewhere a couple of times more, I would feel better about the holiday we'd given LG.  That said, we've done more in the school holidays than our own families ever did with us (both DH and I) when we were young.  So I'm possibly being a bit hard on myself.

We've sporadic rain forecast for today, so no point in doing a wash.  The weather is set to improve over the week, so I will plan accordingly.  

I'm grateful that there is still money left in the grocery budget, Although we are now short on bread, as we've whipped through what I had over the long weekend, and I hadn't bought any last week, as the freezer was full.  But if we could get to the new month with a few pounds left over, and the supplies bought for pack-up lunches for the first part of September, then I'd be happy with that.  Regrettably, I think £300 is going to be the 'new normal' for us - although it pains me to say it.

Right, LG is happily amusing themselves, using something they bought yesterday (with their own £1 coin - YAY!), so I will need to find another cup of coffee and then plan best use of the day.  

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Oh that sounds like a lovely day out! 😊

And yes, please do stop being so hard on yourself 😊 xx

carolbee

What a spiffing day out that sounds!

beanielou

Sounds like a good day out. 

Don’t be so hard on yourself. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks Cheery, carolbee and beanie. 

Thinking about it, whilst i know these events have to turn a profit - or at the very least break even, the origins of this particular event were very much in the desire of a small group of enthusiasts wanting to share their passion with other enthusiasts and the wider public.  The set up doesn't vary that much from year to year (partially because it couldn't actually grow exponentially without dilution of focus, and partly because what they do works, and they're pragmatic 'ain't broke, dunna attempt to gild it'  type folk), and people know what they're coming to see.  The 'basics' had all been done right; the car parking, the admission, the marshalling, the toilets (although there was a heavy reliance on the individual building site ones - yeuck! as it's a non-permanent site), the scheduling and the announcements/commentary.  The admission charges were heavily weighted to adults, with school aged children being charged a very nominal amount - but for our admission, our charge worked out to be just over £2 per adult, per hour.  I couldn't swim, go to the cinema, i watch live sport, attend a pop-concert or very little else for £2 an hour, so it seemed good value for money.  

LG and I walked into Greying Town this morning.  It was heaving with children being reluctantly dragged into the clothing sections of M&$, and clArk$ and sh0ez0ne....  Lawks I hope I've got everything I need for LG....🤔I hope I'm not relying too heavily on some things still fitting.....  I think we better have another trying on session, just in case a growth spurt has occurred.  Anyway, we didn't spend any money.  We went to the bank and LG popped some bagged up coppers into their account, and I shifted next month's bill money.  I had forgotten that the waste food diversion scheme operates out of a town centre location on a Tuesday, so we did have a look as we passed, but the pickings were very slim, and there was no way of telling whether the artisan style bread was still soft-ish, or indeed whether countless others had given it a quick squeeze to determine for themselves.......

We came home and had an early lunch as we'd missed 'elevenses'.  To be fair, we could have had a free cup of tea - possibly accompanied by a biscuit at the food waste diversion scheme, but we carried on walking around town.  

If I get my act together I could make a cake and a savoury bake for tea this afternoon as I have a pot of cottage cheese that needs using up.  I also need to get compiling my list for this week's shopping.  I thought of  a reason why we could do something other than go shopping on Thursday - can't think for the life of me what it was now though - doh!  It'll come to me......

Right, best shift a tail feather whilst I can remember what I plan to do!

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Another dreich start weatherwise.  The forecast keeps changing.  Don't know if I will get any washing done today.  The beebeecee seems to have changed it's mind about wall-to-wall sunshine for the latter half of the week too...... **sigh**

I'm going to go food shopping today though as we're all out of bread.  There was enough for DH's snap this morning, but we're on no-toast island (seriously, no biggy, we'll none of us starve).  I rather suspect that the £35 left in the food budget will disappear in a blink, although we've only 4 days of the month left.

Tea last night was courgette 'crustless quiche' (for want of a better description).  I used up 2 of the courgettes I got YS'd the other week.  They were the shonkier of the remainders, but grated up, you couldn't tell.  I also chopped up my last red onion, some mixed peppers and added a splodge of garlic.  Threw in the tub of cottage cheese and 6 of the (smaller) mixed weight eggs.  I did baked potatoes for DH and I (the Lamorna variety baked well), and defrosted some pasta for LG as they are no fan of baked tatties, unfortunately.  I also cooked up the last of the bag of broccoli and warmed through a tin of beans.  Everyone said it was good and there were clean plates all round.  There was also a small piece left over for lunch. 

I think tonight's tea will at least feature Madhur Jaffrey's courgette dalcha as I need to use up the last of the courgettes.  I need to double check if I need lemons in that case, and add them to my list.  

Other than shopping (which I'm praying will only involve spending August's remaining budget), I don't think there is any other 'MSE' activity to report today.  Depending on the weather, I will try to ensure we at least take our lunch out for a different view today.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Right, shopping done.

We managed to dodge the showers - hurrah.  But note to self - just the same as 'don't go to MrS past 9.30am on a Thursday', now I have to bear in mind 'Don't go to MrS too early on a Wednesday'.  None of the staffed checkouts were operational, and of the 'bigger' shop self serve, only 2 of the cash accepting ones were working ... so having manoeuvred in, we had to manoeuvre out... 🙄  Then a lass came to wait behind us in the queue with no more than 5 things in her arms (not too sure what was wrong with the basket S-S), and was clearly going to pay with her phone - so I said she could go ahead, as there was a CC till free.  Needless to say, the person behind her (with a trolley), steamed past us too, looking at us like we were stupid, and went to the cash till........ that wasn't working....... Karma was kind to us, and the lady at the till next to us (finally) finished up, and we positioned ourselves to put our stuff through next, before speedy shopper decided to do a 'U'ee and nab that till.  But super unimpressed with MrS, as not opening staffed tills, when hardly any of the SS tills are working, just shows what they think of their customers!

MrL had green boxes!  There were 4 - two of which held items useful to us.  Unfortunately, LG pestered for the one with strawberries - I was minded to go with the one that had grapes, as there was more utility in that box - the strawberries will do pud for one night 😕  I'm annoyed I went with the strawberry box now, as on getting home I have discovered there are 3 kiwi fruit in it - I'm not allergic to them, but I do feel nauseous if I eat them 😕 and no-one else eats them.  Plus I am not sure if a red pepper is a small romano (?) or a large chilli pepper. if it's the latter, we've no need of that 😕  Ho hum.  Still, the box is just about worth £1.50, but I will have to teach my child better, that the object of a £1.50 box is utility, and variety, not to pay £1.50 for something that costs £1.89 with a banana thrown in too........ 🤣

All together, in the two stores I spent £32.99.  The tomatoes in my green box are the vine ripened - possibly organic - and will be nice in a salad/sandwich.  There were 4 green boxes in total, and to be fair, no-one else had bought one even by the time we drove away from the store, but I don't know what it is about my make-up - it seemed unfair/greedy to get a second box, even though I would have used virtually all the contents......... is it just me??

Mm, have just tried a small slice of the pepper, and I "think" it is a romano - no burning sensation, anyway.  On my head be it if it turns out to be a scotch bonnet 🤣(it isn't.... 🤣).  So maybe just the kiwis that are of no use to us.  Will have to try to give them away.

Right, off to update siggie and get a cup of coffee.

Greying X

kayannie

I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever get a MrL box again! I had to be in town early yesterday for an appointment so popped in at 9.30 but no boxes at all. Today I went in at 10.30 to do my weekly shop, no boxes today either. It was the same story last week. I'm thinking that it could be that the holiday makers are getting to them before me!

Incidentally, I read on another thread of someone who takes 2/3 boxes when available. It's something I have never done as I think there are people who need them as much (or more so) than I do.  I got chatting to a friendly assistant in the store a while back & she said to take as many as I liked. I still haven't as I do think it a bit unfair.

KA

badmemory

It wouldn't occur to me to take more than one box, I just assumed one would be it & more would just seem a bit greedy.  Not that I have ever seen one of these boxes anyway.  Maybe why some shelves seem to be empty sometimes.

Greying_Pilgrim

I've only seen someone taking more than one box, once - and of course have no way of knowing if they had a family of 10 to feed, or were distributing the contents around a sheltered accommodation scheme, a house share or were just being greedy.  But like you kayannie - I always assume that there is someone else in need and who would use the contents fully; so just take one - if I can use the contents.  But I suppose we have all seen YS sections being hoovered up into single trolleys - and again, don't know if it's meeting a need or satisfying greed. The stores just want the money - they don't care who's money it is.   I was happy there were boxes for once, and that I'm able to use 95+% of the one I purchased.  

We just went to the PO to purchase a stamp to send a card.  Bumped into someone from where we used to live in the rental house - this is the SECOND person we've seen from that street to speak with TODAY.  Isn't it crazy how that sometimes happens.

Right, I best get currying and dal-ing, else we'll have nowt for tea!

Greying X