From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Oh Cheery - YES!  "and now we're in the hall, with the wireless on......"  🤣🤣🤣

All this in my navy blue kn1ckers!  The lads were allowed to wear shorts - which makes sense now as an adult, but seemed grossly unfair when we were little.  

Thanks for that.  

Greying X

badmemory

Music & movement way after my time.  However the best was playing pirates on the last day of term.  On a level with playing fizz buzz in maths on the last day of term.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning (when I started typing)/Good Afternoon (when I press post) MFW'rs

A great start to Monday morning (if we gloss over dealing with a grumpy small who had to carry in 3 metric tonnes of "stuff" to attend/participate in school today 🙄).

I have moved over the money from savings pots and paid off the HUGE (for us) cc bill and repaid hmrc the CTC overpayment.  

We were running very low on milk, so I picked up a 4-pinter from M&$ whilst in Greying Town.  At least they are the same price as the supermercados - I made the mistake of getting milk from our local c0-oP the other week 😱I also splashed out and bought a new (insulated) lunch bag from a chazzer.  It is an attractive design, our butty boxes fit in it, and it wasn't any dearer than our previous one which was bought from the bigcatbigcat shop and which has decided to shed it's insulated lining.  I did also purchase some Christmas cards from the chazzer too - although I am not sure how many I will actually be sending this year, what with one thing and another........ 😕

No wash put out again, as the weather is grey and dreich and there is hardly any breeze.  We were supposed to (according to the beebeecee) have wall to wall sunshine yesterday, followed by minus degree temperatures overnight.  Neither materialised.  I will have to consult the met office website to see when I can risk a wash this week.  

I made pizza for tea last night with roasted 'new' potatoes.  They were actually some of the 'small' potatoes that I got in... either MrL or MrAl a couple of weeks ago.  I left the skin on, sliced them in half and parboiled them, then tossed them into hot oil.  They didn't act like 'true' roast tatties, but they made a nice change from oven chips or wedges.  They tasted nice too - potatoey and sort of a sweet, nuttiness.  LG hoovered them up without comment so they must have been alright!  We had apple crumble and a ball of vanilla flavoured ice cream for pud.  The crumble used 3 of the apples I got from the food waste place last week.  I suspect they were bramleys, as raw they were 'quite tart', but cooked were absolutely sublime 🥰

Wandering hither and yon, I overheard (I didn't pry, folk were talking loudly) 2 conversations this morning, about money and along the theme of what we have been discussing here and over on RT's thread.  The one convo was about buying stuff for kids, and how this one particular family had grandparents that purchased the 'big ticket' items.  And the other conversation was centering around 'Christmas traditions'.  Naturally, the 'traditions' were relatively modern - although even traditions have to start somewhere, right? 🤭 But it was interesting how the (younger sounding) person responded that no, they didn't do X and they did Y, but not in the way society expected, and the (slightly older sounding) person responded that they wished they had never started X tradition and Y tradition, and in fact the household wouldn't do it, but their spouse had started it.  Whilst both these separate conversations result in folk being able to say "oh, you must contribute/join in/do it, as everyone else is doing it", I was somewhat relieved to hear people at least discussing these topics.  It isn't that folk have pots more money that us, and their kids get everything, it's perhaps that grandma and grandpa pay. Or someone chooses to do 'activities' popularised by social media to fit in/keep up/give their kids memories or whatever reason.  I suppose I wish people were a bit more honest to teachers/their friends/the boss about whether they could actually afford X Y or Z activity, it would help out those of us that don't have access to the bank of grandma and grandpa, or don't wish to start activities that we realise we can't sustain financially.  But perhaps refreshing that the topics are being aired.  

Right, best shuffle orf and do some more.  I've not even given any thought to tea and it's activity tonight, so I will have to have something prepped.  First night driving about on country roads in the dark - ugh, hate it.  

Greying X

beanielou

I loathe driving in the dark so much. You have my sympathies. 

Cheery_Daff

I do a lot of driving on country roads in the dark, it's not exactly fun. We get a lot of fog up here too - I prefer driving in fog to driving in snow (you at least have control of the car in the fog!) but I would prefer neither! 

Glad you overheard those conversations Greying 😊

Potatoes sound cheerful! 😊

rtandon27

Cheery_Daff said:

Have you heard Victoria Wood's Music & Movement song? It's certainly very evocative, and I don't even remember doing music and movement 😂...

That was really amusing Cheery...

...made even more so by the fact that I needed to turn on the transcript and read the 'sub-titles' in order to understand her!  Some things never change, reminded me of all those years ago when I had to turn them on for anything that was not on the beeb-London!

rtandon27

@Greying_Pilgrim - Wow - I'm well impressed that a 'live' person(s) was having that conversation - will wonders never cease!

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery_Daff said:

I do a lot of driving on country roads in the dark, it's not exactly fun. We get a lot of fog up here too - I prefer driving in fog to driving in snow (you at least have control of the car in the fog!) but I would prefer neither! 

Glad you overheard those conversations Greying 😊

Potatoes sound cheerful! 😊

I think it's the poor condition of the roads that make it so stressful.  And the fact that folk just expect to drive at 60mph and push through - or veer round a pot-hole on their side of the road 😕 Due to roadworks, the country lanes have become rat runs, and people tend to treat the routes like street-lit, normal camber, extra-wide carriageways - which they aren't 😕  I've been round your neck of the woods in the (daytime) fog Cheery 😱  

RT - The 'tone' of the first convo was slightly less heartening, simply because the impression was that it was the grandparents job to finance expensive stuff - but it was interesting that the conversation was being had at all (in public).  The second conversation - the two people were walking behind me, and I didn't want to appear to be listening, nor to trip over because I was looking over my shoulder to see who it was - was good to hear, as if I was right, and it was the "younger" of the two that wasn't getting caught up in the "must see/have/do" of Christmas, then perhaps there will be scope for young people to 'plough their own furrow' and not get caught up in 'keeping up with the.....' mentality.  Either the "slightly older sounding" person needed to have the "Martin Lewis Exchange of Christmas Presents" type conversation with their spouse, or they were secretly pleased to be doing all the things - and just wanted to moan about the cost of it all......... 

But they were both conversations I was surprised to hear, and didn't expect to hear, outside in public spaces.  

Greying X

FrugalHedonist

Hi Greying, I made this for tea last night and it was lovely so thought I would share it with you 
https://simple-veganista.com/smoky-lentil-quinoa-soup/

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks FH - that looks like a recipe that I would mostly have the ingredients for - except perhaps the Quinoa, but it's not like I never buy that, so it's definitely worth trying.  Thank you.

So I am busy baking.  I am making a St Delia of the copper-bottomed-pans Chunky Apple cake, using 2 of the 3 cooking apples that I have left from the food waste diversion scheme.  

I went to MrS and hB this morning.  I used the smart thing to shop with.  Not entirely won over - you can't pay with cash for one thing.  I did diligently remember to zap everything i put in my bags, but I could imagine it would be entirely feasible to miss to do it, and get into bother.  I certainly wouldn't do it if I was shopping with a small......  Also, I was using this technology for the first time.  Although it was simple enough to get started (once I had worked out how to 'free' a handset 🙄), I was unsure what to do when it came to pay.  I have to stay, I was stunned by the patronising and rude member of staff, who clearly thought I was an idiot and grudgingly pressed all the buttons for me - so I'm actually none the wiser about how to actually do it myself...... From what i could see, this system works best if you are not working from a list, or if you are just doing a very small shop.  Of the people I saw doing it (and there were plenty), all of them were without a list and/or just filling one small bag, holding the handset in their other hand.  I used the holder on the trolley, and so was much slower.  I only used the system as I was buying several items that were attractively priced.  I won't say I won't use it again, but I don't particularly like it.  It is marginally better than self scan, simply because it cuts out the 'putting in, taking out, putting in' nature of using a basket/trolley and then filling your bags.  

I did save a bit of money, but most of the things i bought were on my list anyway, and they just accrued addtional points (without being more expensive/cheaper than buying them in MrL).  I spent just over £25 on food and a bit on non-food in hB.  I shall amend my siggie just now.  

I had to do a small wash of activity wear this morning - no good in loading the machine, as the weather is dreich (again), but LG needs some stuff tomorrow, so needs must.  I'm hopeful it is drying.  We've had a (slightly) stronger breeze than forecast, but it's not really a drying day.  Nothing I have washed today is suitable to be tumble dried anyway, so fingers crossed it gets most of the way, and can be finished off with the dehu before tomorrow if necessary.

Ooof, I am getting serenaded by wafting notes of spice and warm apple....... thank heavens I didn't make a parkin!

Tea last night was 'dirty rice' using the leftover enchilada filling that I'd concocted for LG to take burritos to school for lunch when the canteen were celebrating the Mexican Day of the dead.  I topped the rice with a flaking of feta cheese.  Yoghurt and banana was for pud.

Right, better crack on.  Still tons to do, and not enough time to do it in!

Greying X