From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Grey start with us, although the sunrise colours were glorious..... although red sky in the morning........ 😬

I've a workwear wash on, as there is supposed to be no rain (?) but a good breeze today and tomoz.  DH was having to work outside in the dark, in mud, in a rat-infested area last night 😬 so mud splattered trousers have gone in the wash for a pre-wash by themselves.  It all adds to the cost, but  🤢

I'm going into Greying Town today to do the money shuffle and purchase one or two bits and bobs.  DH is going to start painting this weekend, and having filled and sanded down the plaster in the hall needs to wipe down surfaces.  I forgot to pick up cloths yesterday from hB, so I will nip into the little hB or the equally small land of pound (or whatever it's called these days) to get a packet.  

Snap is packed, uniform ready.  

Probably pizza and wedges for tea.  

Can't think of owt else money related. So will shuffle orf.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Right, money shuffle completed.  

I did the printing out I needed to in the library.  It did cost me double as I folded my first version in the wrong place, and so had to print it again.  #shouldn'tbeleftunsupervised 🤣

The town centre was reasonably busy, but there wasn't really a 'festive' feeling. There were a couple of bottlenecks in places and it was lovely that people engaged in a good-natured "to-you-to-me-to-you" type of shuffle so that we could all get in or out and to where we needed to be.  

The washing has done well whilst i have been out.  Not bone dry, and the usual suspects of 'collars and cuffs' are still damp, but I'm further forward with laundering a chunk of uniform and work gear than I thought I would be, so I'll accept 'dry to the touch' at this time of year.  It's not quite as breezy now, but if it can stay out for another couple of hours, I possibly won't need the dehu on.

Right, I had better go and make some pizza dough and have a tidy up.  Someone asked me if they could borrow something that I had and I'm pretty sure I no longer have it.  In looking in various places I have found a couple of things I need, and it has given me the incentive to de-clutter a bit more. The down side of being ruthless in getting rid is that you can guarantee summat gets asked for about a year later........ And yet the other week I decluttered stuff that hadn't been used/looked at in 5 years........ 😬 #can'twin.

Greying X

Cherryfudge

I see another knitted blanket has been competed! Well done!

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks Cherryfudge - I enjoyed making no.5 - it was a lace repeat pattern and was interesting yet easy to memorise.  Have hit something of a knitting brick wall since.  The first pattern I tried was lovely, but definitely more appropriate to knit in natural fibre with good stitch definition, which is something you can't get with acrylic, so I frogged that.  Now i have started another pattern, which is proving mind-numbingly boring, the pattern repeat is too drawn out and impossible difficult to memorise, and it's not yielding an engaging pastime.

General clothing and 'rest of' school uniform wash is on the line.  It's grey and overcast, but we've a breeze again.  Possibly not as good as yesterday, but fingers crossed 'good enough'. 

DH and LG have gone shopping for DIY supplies.  Plus LG had some pocket money that was 'itching to be spent' 🙄We have had to have several conversations about 'shopping around', and how shops differ (greatly) in their prices charged, for the same thing.  We have also had to do disappointment limitation, as LG didn't understand that just because something is listed on a company website, doesn't mean it's available immediately for pick up in the local bricks and mortar store.  So DH has had to brave an actual 'bricks and mortar' shop that sells (amongst other things), toys, and we've had to navigate the 'maybe leave buying that one until after C'mas'............. conversations.  As it stands at this moment in time, if LG leaves the store with the item they said they were buying 5 minutes ago, they will have scratched their 'spend, spend, spend, my pocket money itch', and Santa's helper won't have to bother returning any wrapped gifts 😉To be fair to LG they aren't too bad with wanting to spend money all the time, and buy 'stuff'.  This is the first time in a while that they have asked.  And they're spending their own money - not relying on the bank of ma & pa.  

We had black olive pizza and wedges for tea last night with a MrS fakey c0rnettoey for pud.  It will probably be a curry of some description for tea tonight.  I forgot to get a swede in my shopping this week.  I did see some YS'd ones in the M&$ food-all yesterday - but they still wanted 42p for a small swede, that frankly had more wrinkles than me!

Right, the fam. have returned and the toy that was purchased was the one that was said it was going to be purchased.  Huzzah!

Ta for popping in.  Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

I've already had to count to 10 about 40 gazinty billion times this morning and it's not even 10.30am yet.......

Ho hum.  

1st day of Advent, and the calendar has been updated 😁  The Yule Tomte has started on his journey 😁  And as yet, no chocolate has been consumed!  (herein lies the problem.... possibly 🤔).

newgirly was talking about making lists on her thread.  I'm finding that I am increasingly dependent on lists - particularly shopping, it's amazing how many things get forgotten as they didn't make it onto the list - even if I've gone to the shop primarily to get said item 🙄I don't know whether life has always been this complicated, or whether modern life is just different. 

We had coconut lentils with rice for tea last night.  Technically it was  a vegan recipe, although I initially kept it as it was relatively 'low cost'.  It used brown lentils and you basically just cook them in a broth of curry spices, minced onion and garlic and them add in veg (i used frozen mixed veg) and coconut milk.  I don't think LG was entirely sold, but we had 3 clean plates. Pud was tinned peaches, chopped up banana and yoghurt.

I did also make a vat of tommie/bell pepper sauce yesterday, in readiness for 'ready meals' during December.  

Yesterday's washing did reasonably well on the line.  It got 1hr in front of the dehu when I brought it in, and then overnight on the airer.  It feels dry enough this morning, and means I am (momentarily) up to date with all the 'high use' items. 

Poor auld DH is getting thwarted in his DIY efforts.  LG is insistent on 'helping' ... which isn't.... and this morning the um [***Grossness warning ***] toilet has blocked..... again.  It's a design fault, the U bend is just so tight, 1 piece of single ply paper, and it blocks 🙄  It was on my list to ask the plumber about, but I was aware that I'd asked him about a couple of things, and he'd come to service the boiler, not offer free advice on every aspect of poor plumbing and heating fixes that litter this house.  Ideally we should change the toilet, but I'm not sure if it would be a straightforward swap.  I suspect there is an issue with where the pipe joins the soil stack - it's been bodged (I think) because to do it 'properly', would probably cost an amount of money.  Ho Hum.  Meanwhile DH is up to his oxters in.....................

I need to double check the weather report, but even if it stays dry, there is no breeze, so no laundry can be done.  But I would like to air a couple of items for LG's upcoming sleepover adventure.  No point in putting stuff out if it'll get wet tho.  

I'm doing a bit of hat knitting as a palate cleanser away from the boring blankie.  It is at least using up stash yarn, so that's a positive.  

Right, I am away to get another coffee and a piece of toast and fakey m*rmite.  This morning has been busy, but I have achieved precisely nowt, including feeding myself 🙄  LG and DH have been fed - just in case anyone is concerned for their welfare.  

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

badmemory

My sympathies on the loo blockage.  Mine hasn't blocked since the new one just over a year ago thankfully.  I don't know why the difference as the only change is the actual toilet bowl.

Greying_Pilgrim

I must admit badmemory, I've never seen a U bend like the one on ours, and coupled with a low water head (even if you use the 'full' flush), I just don't see how it's sufficient force to literally push any thing up a vertical - probably smallish bore/flattened pipe.  Either it's cheap mass produced tat (most likely), or it's cutting edge technology, saving the environment..... which is a load of rubbish, as if we would have been on a water meter this morning, it would have been swirling around like a mat on a helter skelter costing us ££'s 🙄  

Greying X

kayannie

We had a blockage in our outside waste pipe soon after moving here. OH got 'stuck in' (almost literally!) & by shoving a rod in & out the pipe & using the hose at full pressure, managed eventually to clear it.  If there's one thing worse than clearing your own blockage, it's clearing someone else's! And we're on a water meter!
KA x

greenbee

I'm spending a lot of time trying to get my drains and septic tank working properly, so you're not the only one... and I agree with @kayannie. When we moved in, we spent a lot of time clearing sink traps (stupid pop-up wastes that looked like they had dead mice in them, shower wastes clogged with hair, kitchen waste full of fat) and washing them outside with bleach, hot water, and in one case - the hose). 

Greying_Pilgrim

Eeeeuuuwwwwwww!  🤣 Our blocked lav is looking pretty pedestrian with it's propensity to block-uppedness in comparison with the sanitary ware of the nation🤣

Glad it's not just us, but I think our loo needs to go on the list of 'needs replacing'.  When we get the plumber back to change a rad.  I'll see what he thinks might be the solution.

DIY is not all it's cracked up to be. It may save you money, but your hair drops out with stress instead.  DH has got very little done today. Not his fault, but the vacuum cleaner has gone on strike (I'm not surprised), he has had a wrestling match with carpet covering - it's sooooo sticky it sticks to itself before it has time to stick to anything else 🙄 The paint he ordered came as an incomplete order 🙄so only half the paint has arrived.  LG's "help" hasn't been appreciated, (because at times they have not been helpful 🙁🙄) and we've spent the day getting niggly with each other 🙄

However, we did do the activity for Advent this afternoon.  LG and I cooked some biscuits - sweet and savoury.  The sweet ones were from the packet mix I got at around Halloween.  To be fair, the packet contents were easy enough to mix together, and you did only have to add a bit of butter and a splash of water.  But I couldn't help remembering - as LG was rolling the dough - of being at my friend's house as a child and we made biscuits in their kitchen.  My friend's dad came home and said, "oh no, not 'Morley biscuits'.  I thought they were named after someone, but he said no, they were 'grey biscuits mauled by kids before being being cooked'.  He was a bit of an auld grouch..... But we did lightly press down the balls of mix with a fork - I remember my friend's mum teaching me that 😁  We also made a small batch of N1gella's "cheesy feet biscuits", using a set of cutters that a very dear colleague from work gifted me - well over quarter of a century ago now.  It feels good to be using them again - and with LG.

Everything has come out of the oven smelling delish AND LG did the washing up!  (with some prompting, but still 👍).

I've finished the hat I was knitting, and I'm pleased that I got the magic loop technique to work for me again when it came to the decreases - as I loathe dpns.

Tea is going to be something "convenience".   I wouldn't have swapped the time spent with LG - they are becoming a good little cook!  But it has rather eaten into the afternoon.  But then I reckon it would only be right to have peanut butter cookies and ice cream for pud, wouldn't it?  So half the meal is made 😉

Right, I better push orf.  This week is stacking up to be a hectic one, plus DH is off for a couple of days, intent on finishing the decorating 🙄

Today I am grateful that things have been achieved.  Even if they have been a bit wobbly, homespun and artisanal.  DH will possibly require a beer in his hand to re-focus his lens to see the positive......... 🤣

Greying X