From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

badmemory

I will never use one of those things round the shop because I know that I will mess up.  I go with a list & know that if it isn't where I expect it to be I have been known to leave without it.  Thinking back to when I had a small, absolutely no way would I have used it.  It would be like painting a sign on my back saying come & get me.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good evening MFW'rs

I hate to think what our energy consumption is today 😬  But, I have made a cake (fingers crossed it's yummy deliciousness makes that worthwhile - we're depending on you St Delia!).  I have caved in and put the heating on.  it was feeling damp cold, and was just so miserable, plus the washing didn't totally dry (did well considering), but one thing that LG needs for tomorrow was dry, but 'cold' if you see what I mean.  Hopefully if it's benefitting from room temperature for a couple of hours, it will be comfortable to wear tomorrow.  Then I made a 'cooked tea'.  I decided to do sausages, and despite having some YS'd hot dog rolls, I decided to go down the 'sausage, yorkshires, mash, veg and gravy' route.  It's been yonks since we've bothered with that type of meal, so I knew that LG would likely help with the yorky batter (they did), so I've had the oven on cooking that too.  But, it was a really nice moment having LG cooking - I remember the first time they cooked yorkies, they were refusing to eat at school, and Wednesday's 'roast dinner' had become a battle ground.  LG's teacher expressed concern, so we did some cooking to try to get LG interested in eating what they had made.  It worked 😁 Although it took a while longer to get them to eat 'everything on their plate' in under 3 hours....... But I was minded of that tonight, when LG ate - in a timely fashion - everything on their plate (including gravy, which they're not mad keen on, but had asked for a little splodge).  

I have spent the credit note in that big box sports store with the crap returns policy.  I bought LG another bit of clothing for school.  They hadn't got what I wanted, so I had to spend more money than I intended, but if LG doesn't ruin this clothing in one fell swoop, it should be good for this academic year at least.  I shall try very hard not to have to rely on this big box sports store again in future, unless absolutely necessary, and we've tried on what we're going to buy, and ensured it's exactly what is required, unless we've scoured the whole store to check for hidden stock........😠

I can't think of anything else spiffy that I did today.  Seems to be a 'spend cash like it's going out of fashion' diary at the moment - particularly on stuff for LG.  Just when i think I am getting ahead, and have a bit of CHB to save (for upcoming events with club), another expense crops up 🙄

Today I am grateful for a wonderfully supportive chum and our interesting 'conversation' over the ether; bothering to make a 'roast dinner' - it was worth the effort, and every scrap got eaten and for pretty (and relatively quiet) fireworks going off locally.  

Ta for popping by.  Appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

The morning is whizzing and I've achieved nowt of note yet 🙄

LG has been packed off to school, weighed down with a kit bag, small sleigh, crampons and and a snorkel to cover all eventualities on their school trip 🙄  They did also have a piece of St Delia of the copper-bottomed-pas apple cake too.  Just for guinea pig tasting purposes...... 😘  As there were no nuts in it, it was a permissible addition to the lunch-box.

I have pegged out a wash of some of my stuff and some of LG's.  I'm glad I ignored the forecast, as we have enough breeze to aid drying and the sun is actually trying very hard to make an appearance, so hopefully the clothes will be reasonably dry and aired by this arvo.

I have just made up a batch of apple pie spice.  It entailed de-hulling about 400 green cardamon pods (slight exaggeration), and the kitchen now smells absolutely intoxicating 🥰 You watch now though - I'll not land on a gifted cooking apple for the rest of the year.......... 🤣

I have decided to make Ethiopian Lentil Wat for tea with rice.  I will use frozen BNS rather than sweet potato though as I have no SP's.  I need to dig around to see if we have any frozen broccoli or green beans - cauliflower at a push, as we seem to be light on the veg accompaniments recently.  

I forgot to mention last night that we had the last of the 'little' tatties I had bought as 'roast' again, but I used some of the 'Fandango' tatties for mash.  Weird 'n wacky name AND they tasted Yum!  🥰  They mashed beautifully smoothly and tasted of tattie - DH and LG agreed.  

I've just checked and we do have frozen broccoli, so I'll use some of that for tea.  We are out of green beans, so must put those on the shopping list.  I shall try to make a big vat of the Lentil Wat so that there is a clear - tea sized - portion made for another day.  I know that December is busy for many households for a wide variety of reasons, and ours is no exception (which is a change - when it was just me and DH, December was no busier than any other month really), with school stuff, club stuff and just general living.  So I keep on telling myself to get a whole host of 'heat 'n eat' stuff prepped now, so that December doesn't get stressier than it needs to.  We are 'lucky' in that we don't require much 'Christmas style food', and we don't (never have) host parties or whatever, so haven't got additional catering to consider.  In some ways I miss not having that, and in other ways, I don't.  We've never really been able to afford lots of parties - plus our acquaintances of the time ate like horses and drank like fishes, so it was always a budget buster.  But I sometimes miss the socialisation aspect - especially if we had a clutch of chums who were the equivalent of 'chosen family'.  You know, the sort that gather at the drop of a hat, bring their slippers and a 'pot-luck' dish, and who don't bring a can of fizzy pop and drink all your Cr1stal......

Anyhoo, must crack on.  I've been side-tracked and this won't be posted until after noon at this rate.

Greying X

Cherryfudge

Greying_Pilgrim said:

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.  

It took me a while to work it out: in the end a friend has to show me! FWIW, my observations over the past few months:

• Too bloomin' complicated till you get the hang of it, then pretty straightforward.
• I use the app and the home page confuses me, I'm forever jabbing the wrong bit and getting a section about how it works that I've already read.
• They do pay close attention to what you buy, so that's where you get discounts when using your card. A lot of them you have to opt into, and they don't seem to notice when you stop buying an item. Good for basic yogurt, though.
• I've yet to spend any of the accumulated points so not sure how that will feel: I don't have a fortune there.
• Agreed, a nightmare if you have small children with you. If LG is with you, you could make it their job to scan things and put them in your bag. Two people, one to hold the scanner and one to be the runner... otherwise I find I run short of hands.
• Easier at the till than scanning everything, though a couple of times I've been the person the system choses to be monitored.
• I end up spending more because things are on offer.

themadvix

I’ve been known to go round, collect everything in the basket and then just find a quiet corner to scan and bag in store - means I don’t forget to scan but still get the benefit of the cheaper prices.

Greying_Pilgrim

Ha ha Cherryfudge - MrS could do with you on their customer liaison team! 😁👍

It's funny what you say about a 'two person' job.  I did notice alot of 'sprightly seniors' were using system - but the majority approach was; one person  (perhaps following a list), selecting the items off the shelf and handing them to the other person, who was in charge of scanning, packing and trolley pushing.  Not necessarily at the same time 🤭 

Yes, I had seen that 'what u buy' determines what they put on offer.  Annoyingly the computer can't determine what you've bought YS'd and what you've bought proper price 🙄  For yonks it was offering me - either points or money off (can't remember) - on some curd cheese with pineapple that I'd bought YS'd and LG loathed it (as in spat out).  So, like, I ain't never gonna buy that again, and yet it was on for weeks.

I would use the system if the products were heavily discounted or I was shopping for one or two things, but I prefer to try to shop when it's relatively quiet and there are staffed tills open.  I think I do prefer it over self-scan, but not enough to ditch going through the staffed tills.  And I have to say, I wouldn't like to have someone mauling through my shopping to check I hadn't stolen anything.  It's bad enough when cashiers bounce your bananas, or launch your lettuce down the counter, without folks upending your carefully packed bags.  I know there are folk who think nowt of fleecing shops, but hopefully that would never be me.  But I do appreciate that it works for people and I am a luddite.  If I could go around (any) shop and purchase everything from that shop, and not worry about the cost, then I think I would be more likely to use the system.  I find it difficult to juggle the handset and my list, whilst pushing the trolley and I am concerned that I may inadvertently forget to scan something.  Although I did like that the display remains (no fading out like a computer screen), and you can clearly see what the last item was that you scanned, and how many you zapped, so that helps to keep on top of doing everything correctly.  

I walked over to the local PO to put some cash back into my bank account, following yesterday's MrS visit (another reason why I'm not a fan of the scanner shop).  

The St Delia apple cake is nice.  I would say that it would be in danger of being 'ordinary' if you didn't use tasty apples.  It is clear that it is an apple cake, but nothing amazing.  Interestingly LG asked me yesterday if there were almonds in it (there weren't, although St Delia suggests flaked almonds for decorating if you have them), as they thought they could smell almond.  I didn't even put almond extract in (haven't got any, anyway, but also didn't want to give anyone a reason to whang on about the school's nut policy 🙄 because there are several self-appointed lunch box police in LG's class 🙄).

Talking of apples, I had forgotten how much I love Egremont Russell apples - and that is one thing I miss from the food waste scheme - as they often gave away "interesting" apples at this time of year.  I happened to notice in M&$ yesterday that they were selling ER apples - under a 'heritage' label or some such.  I am quite sure that the number of (commercial) orchards with "interesting" apple varieties has dwindled to a mere handful, but was pleased to see the ER.  I can't recall what the pack price was - but I did spot that each individual apple was priced at something like 51.6p apiece.........

Right, Lentil Wat to make.

Greying X

badmemory

I did wonder if some of the wonky fruit & veg you can buy is because they aren't 100% sure which variety they are because many of them don't seem wonky at all.

Cherryfudge

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Ha ha Cherryfudge - MrS could do with you on their customer liaison team! 😁👍

Like you, I've had 'help' from an uncommunicative grump in that shop - but also from someone who was pleasant and useful.

I'm thinking a pre-(hand) written list and a shopping trolley are the way to go: that way you don't have to juggle the different bit of the app or the bags, and there's less risk of missing something. You can, of course, just put the items in your basket or trolley till after you've paid, take the trolley through the till and pack your bags afterwards, politely refusing any offers of help as you 'need to pack them in an order that works for me'.

EssexHebridean

On the odd occasion I go into Sainsbugs, I do tend to use the shop & scan, but I use it on my phone as that already has my list on it and I can't be doing with trying to juggle two gadgets at once! I do find it useful though and it can definitely be a timesaver UNLESS you have coupons to use, in which case doing things the traditional way through a manned till wins hands down! 

badmemory

The reason I like Aldi so much.  I go round & pretty much fill the trolley.  Dump it all on the till conveyer.  Take it off the other end & dump it back in the trolley doing a rough sort as I go.  Then go to the counter thing they have the length of the store & at my leisure pack my stuff exactly where I want it to be, including the bits in different bags for others.  Get home & that bag stays in the car, that lot goes in the freezer, that lot goes in the fridge & the rest waits until I have had a much needed coffee.  Job done.  So much easier than usual supermarkets.