From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Bluegreen143

I also moved to a model of “only buying yarn for specific projects, and only good quality yarn from the independent yarn shop” a while ago Greying. 

I like it better than amassing a hoard of cheap materials. I try to only keep a max of two open projects on the go though I do have three just now. 

I actually don’t find it much more expensive to knit this way as I am buying materials so infrequently compared to when I was impulse buying and stashing before. And I enjoy projects more using good quality materials I’ve bought especially for them, rather than trying to make do with something not quite right. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Exactly Bluegreen, in general the stitch definition is usually better with the natural fibres, so your finished article is halfway to looking decent.  I've had some success with using acrylic yarns for baby blankets (requested by the charity), but I've frogged several efforts now because the patterns looked like nowt, and they wouldn't get any better as acrylic doesn't block.  

Cold start with us.  Heating is on.  

No washing today as there is no breeze forecast and temperatures will 'seem' even lower than they are.

Better go and prep snap.  LG is having a confidence wobble and doesn't really want to go to school 🙄

Can't think of anything MSE to add at the mo, so best shift-a-tail-feather.

Greying X

rtandon27

Hooray for small wins and baby steps!  I'm not a minimalist either, but I do like neat & tidy & organized so do small clean outs while I'm in each (flylady) zone.  I find little wins makes keeping a tidy house manageable.

Greying_Pilgrim

rtandon27 said:

......  I find little wins makes keeping a tidy house manageable.

I have yet to reach those dizzying heights when it comes to housework rt 😉🤣

Greying X

EssexHebridean

My car was reluctant to start yesterday too GP - a combination of not having been moved for a few weeks and it being really very chilly and damp, I think. She was absolutely fine when I got back in at the end of the day, at least. 

I hope you were able to tackle LG's crisis of confidence and buoy them up as they went out of the door! 

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim said:

rtandon27 said:

......  I find little wins makes keeping a tidy house manageable.

I have yet to reach those dizzying heights when it comes to housework rt 😉🤣

Greying X

🤣🤣🤣 - my version of house work is very much - if you can see it then it gets cleaned!  I made OH shift the bed during the holiday so that the multiplying dust bunnies could be coralled - can't see under the bed normally so they know it's a free for all most of the year!

Pollie

10 day's dust looks the same as 1 day's dust so nobody needs their duster in their hand every day.

Watty1

Just caught up and have googled portiere rods and concluded they wont work as the door is in a recess and goes from one side of the room to the other so nowhere to put a rod, but an image on line made me think !    The rod could go on the ceiling and in the tiny room (door sized in fact) part of the hallway - so it would not be in front of the door but say 6 inches way - which means I could use a curtain or blanket and stop the drafts.

Now there is a thought as the door is a huge one and I didn't want the expense of changing it so renovated it last summer.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Thankfully temps didn't fall as low as forecast with us overnight, although -3.5 is cold enough 🥶

I've pegged out a wash.  It was 50/50 as to whether to bother, but currently, there is a stronger breeze blowing than forecast, and we do have sun.  Whether that will be enough to overcome the prevailing coldness is anyone's guess, but the washing pile is growing at an alarming rate, so it's worth a try.

I'm plucking up the courage to go shopping just now.  It's not utterly vital, we're not without, but as the weather is pretty shonky for the next couple of days, I thought I would try today, and then at least I have tomorrow in hand if I can't get off the drive or something.  Although LG has club tonight, so it will be worth getting the car moving in prep for that, if nothing else.  I must remember that fees are due tonight too.

I shudder to think what energy we used yesterday, between heating, dehuing and cooking - but I added to the issue by using the cooker.  We had sausages, roast tatties and yorkies (so at least I did fill the oven), carrots and mashed tattie/swede with gravy.  I have to say, it were lush, and I sorta don't regret at bit of it! 🤣  I do love mashed tattie and swede. LG requested gravy (they're back to liking it 🙄), so I supervised, but allowed them to put their own gravy on their plate.  It was something we regularly had to do at primary school, and the custard.  We were served 'family style' on tables of 8, and the littlest kids were always seated furthest away from the canteen, and the amount of plates (which were ceramic in them days), that got dropped at 8 plates were heavy, and there was always mashed tattie to slip on on the parquet floor...... different times.

Right, best get shifting.  This list won't finish itself, and regrettably the car won't shift the ice without help, either 😕

Ta for popping in. 

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Right, shopping accomplished.  In the end I couldn't be R-said to go to MrAl, but got everything on my list from MrS, hB and MrL. I'll get the MrL specific things another time.   In total I spent £58.35, which sounds alot, but £13.50 of that was on 10kg of basmati from MrS.  They had various bags on n*ctar price offer, and whilst it wasn't the cheapest, I went for the Tr0phy brand, which I've had before and found perfectly acceptable - and on offer was £3.50 cheaper than the stuff I had been getting from MrL (which also is an acceptable product). So the rice money will  come from the bulk fund.  I don't think I have spent any of the bulk fund for quite a few months, so it's not critical that I've overspent it this month.  I don't think it's a "brilliant" saving, but our MrS had la1la brand red lentils on n*ctar price for £1.80/kg bag.  Not as good as the bigger bag offers (usually found at MrT), but better than nowt.  

MrS was quite quiet, I wondered if the slightly older customer demographic that usually shops in our store on a Thursday morning had decided to stay home.  They were right to - MrS hadn't gritted their carpark - in stark contrast to hB that had gritted the car park, gardening section and entry way to/from the store.  It looked like MrL had done it either yesterday, or perhaps overnight - it was slightly thin on the ground.  

The eggs I bought in MrS were white shelled.  It's interesting - in the US, they have predominantly white shelled eggs, and we're more likely to have brown shelled eggs.  MrL did go through a stage at one time selling them - 99p for 6 large FR.  But I've not seen them for ages.  I know it doesn't make a difference to the actual eggs, but it's summat quirky.  I assume it's the chicken breed that makes the difference.

I didn't buy any, but I'm pretty sure that the till operative in MrS mentioned to a customer that the boxes of mince pies were reduced to 30p today - they must have stocked tons of them to shift over Christmas - there were crates of them last week for 75p 🤭

The car started fine and I tried to drive about with the minimal 'stuff' blowing, lighting or playing.  

Greying X