From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

badmemory

Well I would certainly say that dentists these days are definitely not the same as they were in my much younger days.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

badmemory - I concur!  My first dentist must have been to dentistry skool in Victorian times, he was a horrid, horrid man 😕 I don't think the dentists of today have improved over much.  The one I had first when I joined the current surgery was lovely, but he retired due to ill health, and there has been a series of locums since.  The one was very, very gruff - to the point of being rude, especially to a child.  And then another, who was OK, but had a very abrupt delivery manner - I have to say though, they stopped LG sucking their fingers with one rebuke!  LG burst into tears, but never sucked their fingers, ever again! I'm actually quite grateful to that dentist in an odd sort of way 😕

So we popped into Greying Town this morning.  LG popped a bag of pennies into their bank account.  There was one of the nice assistants on the counter (we're lucky with our branch, several of the staff are really nice), and LG went by themselves and felt all growed up.  LG remembered their manners too, and said 'please' and 'thank you' 😍

Then we went to M&$ and I bought some more of the tops that I saw the other day.  They are a good fit and are just the sort of thing for everyday wear.  It's quite an investment, but much overdue.

I popped into hB and bought not alot for around £7 😬 and stumbled upon some YS'd pears in M&$ that were actually a bargain - reduced from £1.25, to 25p for 4 pears!  They were in M&$ weekly 'fab 4' section, and I think they were marketed as pears for kid's lunch boxes, so I picked up 3 packets.  Anyway, they are not ripe yet, so I should be able to incorporate them into puds or crumbles.  I am also going to look up freezing pears, as I am sure that I have seen frozen pear chunks in the freezer section.  I would imagine perhaps the colour would go a little, and the texture may change a bit - but good still for crumble etc?  In total I spent £7.80 on food or food-like items, so will change siggie.  But we didn't have coffee out or anything (I will do it with LG one day!), so we did enjoy a little treat when we came home.  

Tea last night was  'buffet-style wraps.  I cooked up the last of the qu0rn fillets I had and sliced them.  I washed a head of lettuce, grated a couple of carrots, sliced up a cucumber and made a mayo/yoghurt/tahini dressing.  I also steamed one of the sweetcorn cobs I bought in MrL in the microwave.  LG has now decided they don't like corn on the cob (they used to love it 🙄), but DH and I both agreed that it was 29p well spent, as the sweetcorn was lovely - not too sweet, but nice and tasty.  It was easy to eat as well as I had sliced 1 cob up into 6 'disks'.  We had a icecream for pud.  The tea was supposed to combine with us doing a family activity that was to encourage LG to do a piece of homework that had been set by the new class teacher.  LG has a habit of either pitching in and doing something any auld how to get it done, or procrastinating and leaving everything until Monday morning, when they end up having 2 minutes to complete a half-hour piece of work.  Anyway, it was all a bit 'challege Anneka' and we sat down and did our own versions of the homework.  The results were mixed - for us all 😉 - but the homework has been done 😁 And I must admit, it was actually quite a nice way to spend a Friday night, and you'll have to imagine the scene of Fam. Greying all sat round with tongues stuck out in abject concentration.......🤣

Tea tonight will be something cooked, given the weather.  I'm leaning toward pizza and wedges or chips, but also need to get  a curry made (principally for the freezer) and also want to do something with my pear 'glut' 😁 (what a good situation to be in, eh?).

Right, it's taken longer to write this than I intended, so off to update siggie, and then think about summat for lunch.  DH is working 🙄(again), but is coming home for lunch, so I need to get my thinking cap on.  DH was going to take LG out to a local event this weekend, but it's probably not worth going for the afternoon now as the weather has turned (as forecast), and tomorrow is set to be worse, so that's probably a non-starter.

Ta for popping in.  Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Totally forgot to add.  Thank you redo.  On another thread that I was reading this morning (in the wee small hours) you mentioned the Land Registry alert system.  I had meant to sign up to that when we bought this house - as advised by our solicitor, but had forgotten due to the fandango with the broadband when we finally moved in, so I got onto it and registered.  

Greying X

kayannie

Greying -  Well done on bargain pears! If you cook them before freezing, they should keep without discolouring. 

I had a bargain this morning - I had to return a very large bag of mouldy bird peanuts to Bee&M (only bought them yesterday). While I was waiting at the till for my return to be credited, I spotted packs of 2 'ready to bake' baguettes, best before a date in October, reduced to 10p!

It's not surprising that the peanuts were mouldy, they're stacked up outside the store where the seagulls get busy with their beaks helping themselves, leaving small holes in the bags where the rain gets in. 

KA x

rtandon27

ooo - thanks redo and GP - I too forgot as there was just so much to do when we bought and moved in!  Within 6 months I'd health issues to focus on but now that we are in a quieter time in life, I've registered this one and a couple of others that could affect us should they undergo changes!  So quick and easy!  Love a frog that takes less than 5 minutes to swallow!

Greying_Pilgrim

oh kayannie - there were loads of these packs of pears - so I got a haul, but left plenty.  I did wonder whether to tap an old fella on the shoulder and tell him about them, as I'd seen him putting the 'loose weight' pears (I think they were conference pears though, and I know folks have preferences) into a brown paper bag.  They were sooo huge, and I don't suppose for one moment the price per lb/kg would have been cheap.  But I realise that sometimes I'm there with my "oh, look at these barginacious [insert item]" and folks are like, "no thanks, I buy these [insert item], it's what we know, and what we like" and start slowly backing away from me.......... 🤣

That's well rubbish about the mouldy peanuts 😕  Good job you spotted them, but a pesky return trip is a nuisance - although well done on the baguettes.  A good long date indeed!  

There were 2 other things I was going to mention whilst I was here, but then LG came wanting help to take something out of DH's 'online basket' that had been added in error.  Comes to summat when I am regarded as the "techie" in the family 😬

Anyhoo, one thing was that I was in Greying Town on Tuesday and I remembered that the food waste diversion scheme is on at a TC location, so I swung by.  Slightly disappointing, as all they had were  4-packs of (white) bread rolls.  Not my preference, so I left them for others.  At least I was using Shanks's pony, so no wasted travel. 

I'm not sure I can remember what the other thing was (other than I've still to update my siggie), but lunch has been munched.  Vegetable and lentil soup with a few twirls of pasta chucked in.  I used onion, celery, the broccoli stalk, a carrot, a sweet potato, water, a bit of all-purpose seasoning, turmeric, coriander and cumin.  Set it all off in the PC and cooked.  Then blitzed and then added the pasta.  Not too vegetal - even with the broccoli stalk and 3 clean bowls and an empty saucepan 😁.  Result.  I am just so pleased - and relieved that LG has taken to eating soup - particularly "made up using what we have" soups, rather than "to the letter, recipe followed" versions.  It makes such a difference to the food budget making soup.  

Right, I am going to update my siggie.  Greying X

greenbee

I've just done the LR thing too (also been meaning to for ages), and added my mum's house too, just in case. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Ooooooo - redo - You're an Influencer ! 😁  We learn so much from each other, and garner such support on these boards.  Such a FAB! place to be 😁

Greying X

redofromstart

The irony is that I only realised it was free and useful after we had paid off our mortgage....

beanielou

What's the benefit of the land registry thingy?  Thanks.