From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Fortune_Smiles

Good mood news Greying and fabulous to have some bonus money toward the windows.  You'll be warm and cosy in no time.

Fortune x

teapot2

Excellent news re the bonus, will be good to have a boost to the windows pot whatever the amount.  Another one who likes to have a couple of pouches of microwaveable rice or grains in reserve 'just in case'.

beanielou

Lovely news on bonus.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon MFW'rs

Thank you for all your lovely posts.  I hope no-one thinks I was dissing microwaveable pouches - they are a useful product, I just think I paired it with the wrong type of meal - and agree wholeheartedly with uses such as with a curry or fried rice type meals.  Definitely work for that; in addition to their convenience.  Thinking about it, I am not sure I bought them 'just before' Christmas, I'm pretty sure we [needle on the record]... moved house with them..........

I walked into Greying Town this morning.  Free exercise.  I had 2 cheques to bank, refunds from our former mobile provider.  I then bought some apples and honey from HB, so need to up my grocery spends by £4.19.  Walking out of town I had the most magical moment watching a little wren.  We were blessed at the rental house, having lots of little birds, including wrens, frequent the garden - and they always fully utilised the bushes and branches to navigate the garden 'undetected' (we had resident sparrowhawks too).  But this little wren was bouncing about, fully 'out in the open' on the tarmac of a parking space at the back of a house.  I don't know who initially was more startled, the bird or me seeing a wren at ground level.  It came within about 4 feet of me, and wasn't spooked as I crouched down to look at it.  I could literally see all it's feathers in such detail.  It was clearly well fed, not yet a 'bedraggled' parent, run ragged meeting the needs of an expanding brood, and was just so beautiful.  It was bouncing around, looking for food, and flitted away after about 10 seconds or so, but oh my, what an encounter.

I have a load of washing out on the line.  Was it on EH's thread that 'lengthening days' was mentioned?  I know Scott Mills was talking about it with a listener on R2 yesterday as well, but I would also like to mention my delight that with the lengthening days comes the sun's heightening position in the sky.  We don't get the sun in the back garden for more than a few hours each morning anyway, and it has been struggling to 'peep' over the fence, but this morning, there was more sunlight hitting the washing, along with a gentle breeze, so I am hopeful that by this afternoon I shall be able to bring in dry washing.  Fingers crossed!

Tea last night all got eaten......  Again, I don't think LG would rate 'Lemony Spinach Hotpot' amongst their favourite meals, but they did eat it all, so for that I am grateful.  Tea this evening will be (plant based) meatballs and pasta - definitely a meal on LG's 'favourites' list 😁

DH has been asked to work tomorrow morning.  Naturally it will mean some extra pay, which is not to be sniffed at, but LG loves spending time with their beloved papa, and will miss DH terribly........  It'll guarantee that the weekend will whizz, anyway.  

Right, can't think of anything else MSE related, so best shuffle orf.  Thanks for popping by, reading and joining with conversation.  Appreciated.  Muchly.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Well, in trying to work on my 'choose your response', I enjoyed a wonderful time with LG yesterday afternoon after school, making and baking a cake.  I recall that my late mother never used to let me help that much in the kitchen as it 'made everything take longer'.  And I realise that I have used that line with LG already.  So..... I set out to rectify things, and they have already helped with a bit of tea prep this week, and then we set about making chocolate cake yesterday afternoon.  I made sure that I played my part and prepped the other cake and crumble (to fill the oven), before school was out, so that I wasn't on a time constraint when it came to making cake with LG.

I would be lying if I claimed I didn't have to bite my lip - I did a couple of times....... BUT, I relaxed, and chose patience and getting the job done over micro-managing the how, and we had a lovely time.  LG 'got' how to break eggs.  I was able to demonstrate with their clenched fist how the object was to prise the shell (their fingers) apart, rather than to 'crush' the egg open - which results in egg 'everywhere' and shell in your cake mix! 🤣  3 out of 4 of the eggs were opened successfully, and we wiped up and de-shelled the mix with the one that wasn't...... But LG's excited whoop of delight at achieving the task, more than made up for that.  

The crumble (which made use of a couple of battered apples and some of the YS'd pears that are still pretty firm, and fit only for cooking really), was munched for tea with natural yoghurt, and the 2 cakes have been divvied up between the cake tin and the freezer, so that we have cake today and cake tomorrow - get us with our embarrassment of riches! 😁Dearest papa has been allocated a lump slice of cake to take to work this morning as a mid-morning treat snack.

It's been such a enjoyable experience - and heres hoping that it really starts to mark the (permanent) retirement of 'Shrieky' Greying.  Although I am aware that at present there aren't quite the same pressures, or 'noises off' going on in our lives that there were in the preceding years.  But i know that this is how I want our lives to be, so hopefully if I get into the swing of it, I will be better equipped to cope if/when some crisis or other crops up.  

I've put a whites wash on.  The weather is dry today, but no real breeze, so not exactly super conducive to drying.  Fingers crossed it will dry enough outside. 

Tea today will be pizza and wedges. I'll whip up 'something souped' for lunch, as DH should be back by then.  Last night's tea was a popular choice - clean plates all around.  There is one portion of crumble left to divvy up for dessert at some point.

I need to send a card to a relative that has suffered a medical episode.  I shall shop from home at first - see if I've a 'nice' generic card.  Otherwise we will pop to the local shop to see if they have something.  We'll get onto that soonest so that we can catch today's post.

LG chose to put some coins that DH gave them last night into their 'C4C' pot - so I need to amend the total for that.  We need the £30 by Tuesday evening, so hopefully I will have something of the grocery budget left at that point, and can allocate it over to 'C4C'.  Anything extra will be a bonus and will immediately go over to 'seed' the next tranche of saving in February (target £15).

I haven't been spotting birds this morning, but did watch a couple of squirrels making whoopee, chasing each other up, down and round and round a neighbouring garden's pergola - very funny 🤣  Free fun.

Ta for popping in.  Appreciated.

Greying X 

teapot2

Your baking afternoon with LG sounds so lovely.  I'm sure they will have enjoyed helping and being involved.  Reading your diary I'm always impressed by how many different types of food LG will eat or try.  The Tiny Humans in my family are sadly very limited in their tastes and will often gobble something up one day but insist two days later that they won't eat it.  The younger one is also often influenced by the elder's current refusal to try.
Making memories through joint baking/cooking is a lovely thing to do even when involving slight shudders at mess, time taken or spills. x

Cheery_Daff

What a lovely afternoon of baking! 😊😊 And what lovely memories. Love the way you are saving up for camping together with LG, what a lovely lesson for them to learn 😊😊

beanielou

For future reference Whistlefish do fantastic cards at a reasonable price & often have offers on. British made too. 

Greying_Pilgrim

teapot - I'm incredibly lucky with LG in that they started off eating 'everything' when we went through weaning, and I was certainly very lucky when pregnant that I didn't suffer morning sickness or heartburn (I know, how blessed, right?), so blithely went on eating what I'd always eaten, including curries and flavourful food. 

Naturally, when the 'no likey' started happening, I was at a loss, and the early part of school was difficult (LG's teacher even expressed concern that LG wasn't eating their free school lunch 🙁).  But lately LG has turned a corner, and whilst there are plenty of foods that they don't like, they are  a little more willing to 'eat some' and they have (thankfully) stopped taking all evening to eat their tea if they really do object to it.  At the moment, we haven't had the negative influence of peers with regard to (pack up) school lunches, although I do keep it pretty 'beige' and about the only 'leftover' food LG takes in, is pizza.  Funnily enough, asparagus got mentioned this morning for some reason - as it is definitely on LG's 'no-likey' list - as is avocado and (large amounts) of broccoli.  I suspect if LG had a sibling they would 'emulate' 😉too - although they didn't when their class teacher tried to get the kids who would eat all their veg (or whatever it was), to persuade LG to follow suit 🙄

Cheery - I'm glad that LG has taken to watching their pennies grow.  Whether our 'having to save up' for things will translate into them being a spendthrift (in protest) or a 'considered consumer' when they are adult, only time will tell 🤔  They certainly see us 'make do and mend', and seem happy that they have the basics, even if they don't have the 'bells and whistles' too.

Well, I managed to 'shop from home' and find a set of cards which would serve the purpose of letting a relative know that we were thinking of them, so LG chose one of the designs.  Whilst I deliberated over 'what' to write, LG wrote the envelope for me 🥰 so that is 'writing practice' done for the day 🤣  A stamp taken found in my purse, (will need to buy a new book in Feb as only 1 left). 

We just walked round to the PO to catch the post, and we were treated to THE most magical sight - and I am just so glad that LG was there to see it with me.  We only saw - and it was no more than 6 foot away from us - a goldcrest.  It was in the ivy that was spilling out from a tree/hedge at the back of the school.  The ivy was covered with berries, and the firecrest goldcrest was (presumably) looking for insects within it, as it was acting just like a hummingbird, and hovvering in front of the fruits.  It would then stop and land on a branch and hop about, but then it hovvered in front of the berry clusters again several times.  Again, it didn't seem overly bothered that we were there - which I was surprised about, as Firecrests goldcrests are usually quite shy birds.  We were able to watch it for almost a minute or so, before it flew off, right over our heads.  We were able to get a great view of it, and I was telling LG that i hadn't even seen a Firecrest goldcrest until I was in my mid 40's, and had only seen one 2 or 3 times since - as we were lucky enough to have a landing window at the rental house,  that overlooked the (overgrown) conifer hedge and very occasionally, you would walk up stairs to see something at eyelevel, and firecrests goldcrests had been one of the things I had been lucky enough to observe.  Then on our return we spotted the blackbird that has white feathers - a 'ring' around its eyes, and a broad white flash on it's right wing.  I had seen it several weeks ago, but I was pleased that LG got to see it.  Along with about 5 robins (one of which was very annoyed about something), and a squirrel, so we got our 'nature watch' quota for the day 😁

I can't record any of the above bird spots though, as we were 'out and about' none of these things were in our garden.  Although I forgot to mention that one time before we actually moved into this house, I was walking back to the rental house at dusk, and noticed a male black bird.  I though there was something 'odd' about it, and as I got close to it, I realised that it was really, all black - including it's beak.  I looked it up and found that it was a blackbird from mainland europe, as in their first year their beak remains black, whereas UK male blackbirds have the yellow beak from the get go apparently.  I don't think I've ever seen a bird like it before. 

Right, best get back to it.  More chores and soup making to accomplish!

Greying X  

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, what a lovely treat for you both! 😊😊 There's a blackbird with a white flash that frequents the outdoor space of a cafe not far from here - it appeared in the local newspaper once and we now refer to it as Celebrity Blackbird 😊 I'd quite forgotten about it so thank you for the reminder 😊