From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

EH - these blood oranges are literally red skinned - and the one I had at lunchtime was all scared and calloused, but inside, they are red flecked, but not all red flesh, iyswim.  But the juice is lovely and 'rounded' - not too sweet, not at all sour, but beautifully 'orange' tasting - and yes, I'm aware how daft I sound 🤣 

Because the £100 cash for February was from the January budget, plus £40 in vouchers, I guess that makes the average spend for the 2 months £170pm.  Gosh, I wish I could routinely attain that!  But i'd have to get more comfortable with having empty shelves in cupboards and the fridge, never, ever running out of steam to cook nice things to eat and employ military grade strategies to cook absolutely everything from scratch.  Whilst there's always room for improvement, I'm not sure I want to commit myself to that 365.........

Right, it's club night tonight, so I best get sorting out some nosh.  We all eat differently and at different times, but I've planned what we're going to have tonight to use things up - including the last of the FF dirty wilja tatties, which have been well worth the investment.  

Greying X

rtandon27

Well done you!  Mighty impressed that you fed 3 humans for under 150 for a month!!!

themadvix

I believe how red the blood oranges are relates to how cold it's been - if there's been a good cold spell they'll be redder (I think - this is remembering from the note in our veg box several years back). But EH, it sounds like you're cutting them up - I find because the skin is thinner than a normal orange I can peel it as I would a satsuma and eat the segments one by one - much less messy!

Greying_Pilgrim

themadvix said:

.....But EH, it sounds like you're cutting them up - I find because the skin is thinner than a normal orange I can peel it as I would a satsuma and eat the segments one by one - much less messy!....

That's exactly what I did this lunchtime tmv.  I like to eat oranges like that anyway, but these certainly peeled relatively easily.  That's interesting about the skin colour - but at least if the skin is red, you know that they are likely to have some red inside.  I think the issue has been around oranges that look more 'conventional' and then having red pigment in the flesh.  We have had them once before (since having LG), and I'm pretty sure they were a bit dubious, but once tasted, liked them.  They'll get to try them again now, anyhow.  

Greying X

badmemory

Well I for one am enjoying reading about a fruit that is tasting as it should.  Far too many I have had recently taste of not very much at all.

themadvix

I can’t say I’ve seen red skinned ones - the ones I get in my box are always orange and sometimes have orange insides - the sweetness is the only way to know it’s a blood orange!

Greying_Pilgrim

I don't know if this pic will fully illustrate the difference between today's blood oranges and a 'typical' easy peeler, but here goes.....



Greying X

themadvix

Oh wow, they are indeed very red!

Bluegreen143

Huge well done on your amazing work with the grocery budget this month Greying. I’m seriously in awe that you’ve achieved it! I know you can’t do it every month, but so worth doing even just this month to boost those savings coffers. 

On the topic of fruit for school snacks. One of my favourite parenting successes ever was when I successfully switched my DS to only taking fruit to school rather than home baked snacks. Saved so much time and after the first week, he stopped moaning about it and has been fine ever since! It was inspired by a fellow mum, who has four kids. I asked her what she sent for morning snack as I was feeling in a rut of baking flapjacks every week. She confessed that none of her four had ever taken anything but fruit and I felt so liberated after she told me that 🤣. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Bluegreen - I'm ashamed to admit that the bought snacks have just become habit 😬  I do always try to ensure that LG has some fruit as part of their snack or lunch, and do sometimes include cherry tomatoes, cucumber or salad leaves - depending on what we've got.  So it's not like they don't get 'good stuff'.  I must admit, I am a bit annoyed with the school, as they started the policy of mid-morning snack in R & Yr1, with free fruit, which then got cut off.  But the staff - and the children themselves - then had built up an expectation of a snack at 10 (or whatever time), so the onus is on the parents to provide something.  Plus, I researched into various bars and snacks and wheedled out the nut filled or sugar filled ones, and yet some little 'know it all/know nowt' gave LG a lecture about 'that snack being filled with sugar' 🙄- which of course was nonsense, but it stuck with LG - so I'm ashamed to admit that I carried on putting the bar in the snap bag anyway 🫤  

Anyhoo, the good thing is that during this month of making do/ekeing out, I have been encouraged by LG's willingness to eat 'all the things' (well, nearly), and have just popped pieces of fruit or whatever in randomly for snack.  We've gone all week without a cereal bar this week........  👍  And thanks to yesterday's green box, LG will have a banana for snack today and there is orange for 'pud' at lunchtime, as well as tomatoes in sangers 😁Co-incidently, LG and I were talking about cherry tomatoes/tomatoes in general, yesterday morning for some reason, and then there were cherry toms (Piccolo) in the box I chose.  LG tried one yesterday tea time, and declared them delish - YAY!

As an adult, it's beholden on me to work with LG's enthusiasm to eat 'good things' and provide them - certainly over convenience crap, even though we don't routinely buy as much processed crap as some households.  That's not the point - it's up to me to do better! 

Greying X