From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

elsien

badmemory said:

I wonder if the homework is being set in the hopes of keeping them off certain sites that frankly are not very healthy for young children.

That's the families job though, not the schools. And there are better ways of doing it than piling on homework at a young age such as teaching internet safety at the appropriate age level. 

kayannie

Greying_Pilgrim said:

kayannie - the MrS boxes are more miss than hit - even when they are there, at our local store.  How is your husband doing?  Recovering well I hope?

Greying X

GP -  He's doing ok, thanks. He had a check up early last week at the big hospital where he had the stent fitted & his heart is recovering well. At the end of the week he went to rehab at a localish hospital where he was given step up exercises to do & he performed well. He may have to have another stent in a few months, depending on how the heart recovers. 

I've come down with a hacking cough which I probably picked up at one of the hospitals.

I've taken on a very neglected allotment & he's done a bit of digging there but I don't want him to do too much too soon. It's within walking distance of home but steep hills in between. I'm starting to wonder if I've taken on a bit too much, as we're both OLD!!!

KA

Greying_Pilgrim

kayannie - that's great to hear that your hubby is recovering.  Not so good about your cough - although I suspect you are probably right about where you picked it up from 🫤 Good luck with the allotment - softly, softly and don't forget, greenbee and themadvix could offer advice on 'no dig' gardening - might be a thought for the first year - get you 'cultivating' but not exhaust you or hubby in the process.  

Well, on this, St Patrick's day, the luck of someone is shining down on me.  I had to run an errand and in doing so passed MrAl and MrL.  I figured I would pop into MrAl to see if they had any of the EE tatties - specifically the 'Melody' variety, they did!  Not all in the bag are super duper baking size, but one definitely was, so I was pleased with that.  I also picked up a bag of EE carrots and a pack of macaroni, £3 on the nose spent.  I then popped over to MrL and....... there were boxes!  I think there were 6.  2 had stuff that I could use in either box, 2 were borderline useful and 2 wouldn't have been worth the spend for me.  So I bought a box.  I have already enjoyed the avocado from the box for a late breakfast - avocado toast, go me!  It felt squishy, but was actually spot on perfect ripe, and had a small stone (it wasn't the hugest avocado), so it made a nice portion.  I also have a sweet potato that is literally the size of LG's head, some more brocolli, and some bell peppers amongst other goodies.  I will literally have a use, or make a use for every item, there will be no waste.  I have another iceberg lettuce 🫤 but it's not as battered/bashed as the MrS box one was, so we will use it.  

£4.50 spent on groceries this morning.  Off to update siggie.

Greying X

badmemory

elsien said:

badmemory said:

I wonder if the homework is being set in the hopes of keeping them off certain sites that frankly are not very healthy for young children.

That's the families job though, not the schools. And there are better ways of doing it than piling on homework at a young age such as teaching internet safety at the appropriate age level. 

I completely agree with you, but some families seem not to be doing such a good job of that.  And if the parents are not bothering toilet training there must be a lot more that is being ignored.  Unfortunately, as is usual, it is those that "comply" that seem to suffer.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

We went to club after school.  So much better to be driving in the light.  LG did well again, especially as there has been something of a hiatus, due to circumstances beyond our control.  

DH was at home when we got back.  He's doing training for several days this week, so is on 'college' hours.  As it's a formal training he's eligible for refreshments, so there will be a slight saving on a couple of rounds of sangers this week.  Not earth shattering savings, but it all adds up. We didn't know today, so sandwiches were already made.  

Tea was sweet potato and black bean stew with basmati rice.  I also served it with the two broccoli heads that were in today's box.  The broccoli was a bit battered, but cooked up lovely - we had a generous portion each.  So nice to see LG eating it 😁  The sweet potato was 3/4 of the mahoosive one I got today.  It has made enough stew (with the addition of a tin of tomatoes, and 2 of black beans, as well as a sofrito), for tea, one more meal portion for all 3 of us, and a lunch size/one person's tea size portion.  In addition today I made a tomato/vegetable pasta sauce, utilising the 3 bell peppers from the box.  It made 3 tubs - which make a base for (for example), a batch of lentil bolognese for the 3 of us, or a stew base.  There was also a couple of ladlefuls left over that went into tonight's sweet potato and black bean stew.  There is a lump of sweet potato left, which I'm going to make something else with.  The broccoli stalks will also be utilised in a soup of some sort.  

I had a easy peeler out of one box or another for pud, everyone else is going to argue over the remaining apple crumble with some yoghurt 😁

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

I'm formulating my plan to have another 'lean spend' on groceries month, to help bolster up the windows fund and a replacement car fund.  Both of these are our priority, and it's immaterial why these pots aren't where they should be, I mean for 'replacement windows', you could easily swap 'mortgage payments' or house deposit, as if this house (or any other) had had better windows, the asking price would probably have been higher, so, swings and roundabouts.  We hadn't been in a position to save anything for these pots, and now that we are, we're trying to play catch up when things are going well beyond economical repair.  I am cutting myself a tiny bit of slack, as you can't catch up 4 years in 18 months with other bills rising at the same time.  

My plan is;  to try to do the 'lean' month in May.  There is only one week of school holiday in May, April has 2.  What I shall aim to spend is 'half' my usual spend, so £150.  But I shall aim to have some of this £150 already 'in hand'.  So, vouchers - whatever I can save.  I'm notionally counting on about £10, if it's more, then YAY!  I am going to aim to finish March with as much of my budget intact as I can manage, but I'm aiming for £50, and will be disappointed if it's less than £20 - If I can at least manage £20, well then that is the 'overspend' of the bulk budget clawed back within the month at least IYSWIM.  If I could do similar in April (a big stretch), then I could save - not all - but a large portion of my May grocery budget.  By the time we're in to May, we will have been living with the new D/D levels, so the new outgoings level will be confirmed.  

The object of the exercise is just to bolster funds, not to go all sack cloth and ashes, and if it in anyway means LG is going without, then of course, I shall abandon my endeavours.  

I've done a freezer audit, and whilst there are 'options', the freezer is far from full for this month, the next and the one after that.......  I do have a load of red lentils in the cupboard to be going on with though 🤣

Activity wear is washed and out on the line.  We're dry and sunny here, although the start of the morning was very cold.  

Greying X

LotsOfTea

I think you need to give yourself a massive pat on the back for how much you've managed to save towards your new windows in such a short time. It's a big old chunk of money and you've done it without losing the important things - being able to spend time together as a family and having good food (I'd happily live in your house seeing your daily menu). I think you're showing LG the right way to thrive in their future grown-up life. They'll know how to feed themselves well, how to save for important things and how to set goals and work towards them. All the life skills!

I look forward to hearing about all your red lentil recipes! 😁

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks LotsOfTea - i actually forsee alot of dhal in our future, but do have quite a collection of red lentil (especially) recipes gathered over the years.  

DH has had a bad day at college 🙄

Thank heavens I thought to pick up a box of fish fingers when I was in MrS recently - we're having a HM 'Chippy Tea', as there was some frantic searching for documentation when DH got home and it's got a bit late.

I did make Spiced Sweet Potato chocolate cake with the remaining chunk of sweet potato from the green box.  I won't decorate it, but I'm hopeful it will be nice as a 'tin cake' - plus I wanted the option to freeze a slab if necessary.  I shall be honest, and say that when making the cake, I couldn't really see what the sweet potato adds (other than novelty value), to the cake, over a conventional chocolate sponge, but you've got to try these things, and at least i had a sweet potato big enough to accomodate 2 different recipes.  

LG has had a reasonable day at school, and has been inspired by the schools music service's array of instruments to take up........  We'll see how that goes.  I'm not against music, but have never set my heart on LG learning an instrument.  Personally, I would love to be able to play the piano, but don't want to foist that on LG.

The clothes dried well, a couple of items have now been put on the airer.  Everything else has been put away.  

Right, best push off.  It'll be time to dish up soon. 

Ta for popping in.  Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Verdict on the Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake - OK.  I don't think - much like courgette, beetroot, swede or carrot cake - the addition of a vegetable really makes much difference to the taste.  The one thing I noticed about this cake - and bear in mind that mine was never going to be 'fudgey', as a) I purposely didn't do the ganache topping, and b) I only used granulated sugar in the cake, not the light brown sugar listed in the recipe - was that the actual sponge itself was light and almost silky smooth.  It had a very good texture indeed.  LG and DH gave it the thumbs up - we had it with natural yoghurt.  I have kept some slices for tomorrow, and frozen half the cake.  I'm not too sure how it will keep, so would prefer to freeze it in slices, rather than have it go dry in the tin.  

I think it's worthy of 'keeper' status.  It's nice to have something 'different' than curry or soup to do with a SP, and technically you're getting your kiddo to munch a bit more veg 😁

Fish fingers, chips and mushy peas were eaten - no great shakes, but didn't bust the bank balance either.  Funnily enough, when I went out to get the clothes off the line, the local chipper must have fired up the fryer - I was tempted to just throw in the towel, but I suspect I would have regretted the expense....... I did cut up the lemon out of yesterday's box and DH and I had 1/4 each to squeeze on our fish fingers.  Right poncey 😁  Actually (and typically) it was a very nice lemon.  I have half left.

I forgot to mention earlier that I was looking out the window and spotted 'that' bird, which I've seen before and couldn't work out what it was.  I idly mentioned it to LG who ran off to grab their 'junior bird spotter' binoculars - by which time the bird had flown off....... Anyhoo, luckily, the bird re-appeared in the silver birch tree before LG had skipped off again, in boredom.  They immediately announced that the bird was green - which i knew, a lovely light olive tone.  They handed the binoc's to me, and I saw that it had a blaze through the eye.  I looked up 'Chiff Chaff' on a whim - and THAT is what it was 😁  I am amazed, because although we have heard chiff chaffs - both here and on our various walks, they usually are hidden high up in trees, heard but not seen.  This means that in our surrounds, the chiff chaffs are relatively fearless, as they regularly mingle on the hedges with the sparrows and bramblings, which is where i first spotted them.  I'd assumed by it's shape it was some sort of warbler - naturally, you start to look into these things, and I discover that a chiff chaff is also known as a leaf warbler.  Thank heavens for the endlessly fascinating and endlessly entertaining wildlife "TV" in our back garden 😁

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, lovely Greying! I only discovered the chiff chaff fairly recently too. I heard a really loud bird when I'd parked near work one morning, got the Merlin app out, and there it was! I've never knowingly seen one though,will have to keep an eye out 😊