From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

rtandon27

@Greying_Pilgrim - have a gander on g00gle for co-op explorer and it will tell you how to join in your area - some areas have colouring sheets as well - it's a co-op club for littlies

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks sweetie - and thanks to rosewoodspa for the original mench.

Greying X

rosewoodspa

I think each type of Co-Op is slightly different -  at ours once they are a registered member the child gets a special voucher in the holidays that can be scanned for the free fruit, and also a £1 voucher at Christmas and for birthdays.

rtandon27

That's really interesting @rosewoodspa - I was just chatting with a work colleague who lives in the city & he said that in order for both their kids to have the fruit, they had to have an adult each present with a co-op card each, so he made it a point to go for a family walk after dinner to pick up milk and get each child their fruit dessert.  That way he gets to make use of the milk discount coupon twice too, once on each card throughout the week.  So definitely different depending on where you are located.

Greying_Pilgrim

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I did happen to notice in our cO-0p that cooking bramleys (niche, I know) were 65 pence e.a.c.h.  I fully realise that bramleys have always been expensive - if they are sold by the lb/kilo you get about 1 or 2 in your bag, but 65 pence e.a.c.h...................😬

I have had a quick look on what i think is our area website, and can see no mention of children's benefits - but a neighbour along the way works at the local shop, so I shall pick their brains.  They are a single parent and know how to make a penny work the worth of 9, so I know they will know all the benefits available.

Greying X

edinburgher

Morrisons also offer free fruit for kids

Greying_Pilgrim

edinburgher said:

Morrisons also offer free fruit for kids

Thanks hun.  I "think" - and I may well be proved absolutely wrong, wrong, wrong - but given we wouldn't benefit overly much from cO-0p membership, that the free fruit from the other supermercados, is probably a better bet for us, despite the relative close proximity of the cO-0p to home. 

Black olive pizza and wilja wedges scoffed for tea.  Yoghurt and banana for pud.  

DH has been reminded that 'life is for living' and we're hopefully taking a 'sanger for wander' tomorrow.  

Work clothes wash is already on, and hopefully can be pegged out tomorrow a.m. first thing.  

Hopefully we will be back in time for the Calcutta Cup.  I hope it's a good, fair, injury free match and that the best performing side win.  C'mon Engerland.

We've just watched the RAF programme featuring the training at Coningsby - goodness how very sad 😢  I know the  Sqn Ldr was a friend of our own dear EH too.  Good that Mack & Cheese honoured his memory by getting their jet powered wings tho.  

No money spent today.  Nothing major achieved either tho.  😞

Ta for popping in.  Greying X

Grumpelstiltskin

GP  Talking about Bramley apples. I went in a farm shop that is no more than 4 miles from the original Bramley apple tree.

They had a cardboard box of Bramlys in big letters it said Produce of Northern Ireland. I honestly thought how many brain cells did they have, they could have put them in a plain box.

Greying_Pilgrim

Grumpelstiltskin said:

GP  Talking about Bramley apples. I went in a farm shop that is no more than 4 miles from the original Bramley apple tree.

They had a cardboard box of Bramlys in big letters it said Produce of Northern Ireland. I honestly thought how many brain cells did they have, they could have put them in a plain box.

Oh lawks Grumplestiltskin ..........  It's good that provenance is shown, but, oh.........  it's not good marketing optics, is it?  🫤😬

The "golden" apples in our cO-0p didn't have obvious provenance, so you're 'half' a step ahead of us........... (which isn't the point, I do realise 😉).

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Manky weather with us - it's as if we've moved complete continents since yesterday, we enjoyed such a lovely sunny day out....

I pegged out the washing (2 loads) before we set out - thank goodness for the outdoor light on the back of the house!  I made a pack-up for us all, with flasks of hot chocolate and coffee.  

Parking was £1.50 for 4 hrs (winter rates) at our destination - which i think is pretty spiffy, especially since there are also perfectly adequate public toilets available at the car park too.  There was a parkrun event going on, plenty of Tutus on show 😁 

After lots of walking and racing about we walked into the local town (which turned out to be a couple of miles), and 'did' the charity shops - some books bought, and about £3 spent I think.  We've visited this town before, but I took time to read some tourist interpretation boards yesterday, and there is tons of history and interest that we've not yet explored, so a return visit has already been bookmarked 😁  We'd done alot of activity and got lashings of fresh air, so we were ready for our snap with a lovely view.  

It was definitely the right decision to take a sanger for a wander.  Even DH agreed 😁

We watched the rugger - although I didn't see all the Wales vs Ireland match.  I thought the England vs Scotland match was reasonable - although not a convincing win by England.  The best bit by far was the long-range penalty kick by Fin Smith, and his dear Mum's reaction 😁👍

Tea - much to LG's despair - was veg curry, lentil dhal and rice.  Plus I cooked up a YS'd sun-blush tomato and garlic flat-bread - which was similar to a naan bread.  Everything got munched anyway.  

The clothes had dried really well whilst we were out.  I did put them on the airer overnight, and we had the heating on briefly, but tbh it wasn't really needed.  I am mostly up to date with the clothes washing now.  

Soup will definitely be made for lunch today.  I'm going to double check what we've got for meals for the last week of February, before i decide what will be for tea.  Suffice to say it won't be curry........  

Greying X