From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

redo - do you manage to store the shallots as is?  like in a shed or garage or something.  I gave up buying them because I always got the ones with pithy centres.  

So errand accomplished.  

I called in MrL on the way back.  There were a couple of boxes, but neither appealed to me.  I am now pondering if I am an overly fussy wotnot, as the box that was full of yellowed broccoli went whilst I was in the queue 🤔  The one full of green tatties remained tho...... I spent £5.24 on some fruit, cordial and crisps.  The store was out of the oven chips I buy, for the umpteenth week running, so I didn't buy any of those.  I have updated my siggie.  

Greying X

rtandon27

@Greying_Pilgrim - I saw a ut00b video the other day on how to make a green goddess style pasta sauce out of slightly yellowing broccoli.  We'd stopped buying broccoli as it was going to yellow within a day of buying, but I"m guessing now that if we were slightly more creative with it's use instead of just steaming it, we could have saved ourselves some pennies!

Greying_Pilgrim

Thing is rt - I thought that yellowed broccoli was (increasingly) bitter, the yellower it becomes?  This was all over limey green/Chartreuse, so I wasn't going to risk it (especially as there was rather a lot of it).  I think if' I'd bought some brocolli and it was turning, I would try to use it (have in the past), but I think I draw the line at buying it like that in the first place, even discounted.  The local food waste diversion scheme had a hard time getting folk to take away yellow broccoli when I used to go to the open table events.  

How are you, anyway?  Feeling better?  

Greying X

rtandon27

Ah - ISWYM - all over yellow rather than it's flowering yellow!  If the broccoli is mostly yellow, it's best to discard it. 

redofromstart

GP they are in a cotton bag in a cool dark cupboard in the kitchen, same as my potatoes and onions. I check through for any soft ones and use those first.  Old pillow cases work. 

I've only seen the MrL offers at the moment but it's spring onions rather than shallots this time and green beans rather than broccoli. 

Greying_Pilgrim

redo - it was the MrAl advertorial I saw - Broccoli, potatoes, carrots, garlic, cucumber and spring onions.  Not earth shattering, but helpful - ish.  From the 15th - 19th iirc.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

We've had a good weekend - pretty much, as it turns out, for just the investment of some petrol, otherwise it's been relatively inexpensive, not necessarily by design, but just the way things turned out.  

Friday night we had potatoes cut into chunky cubes (skin left on), and drizzled with oil and baked in the oven along with black olive pizza.  We had an ice-cream for pud.  

Yesterday we went to a touristy place.  We set out early in the morning and arrived there at about 9.  We found a free parking space - and thank you to the MSE'r* (or perhaps spouse of an MSE'r), who saw me frantically scanning lamp-posts for parking restrictions and took the trouble to let me know we'd remained in the free on-street parking bit, which was a welcome confirmation 👍 The weather was lovely, but the breeze, oh my goodness, it was COLD 🥶 We tried to walk one way and it didn't let up.  We walked another, and still the breeze came at us.  We spent time looking around, and then we found a nice place to eat our picnic.  It was a bit early, but we munched it up anyway.  There was a very well renown Gelateria near by, and the plan had been to indulge (it's not a cheap option), but honestly, the last thing we felt like was an iced dessert.  We left just after midday.  Despite the coldness, it was starting to get busier, so we decided to be on our way.  

Tea yesterday was lemony spinach hot-pot, lentil dhal and basmati rice.  

Today we went to hook-up with relatives.  LG got gifted some preloved toys, and we had a nice generational catch-up.  None of us is getting any younger.  We left some clothes LG had outgrown for another younger member of the family, so the re-circling of useable stuff was in full swing.  We didn't spend any money today, other than petrol to get us there.  LG and DH have been out for a cycle ride - took a flask of water and some biscuits for a wander 😁  Tea tonight was wraps, with sliced up qu0rn filets, cheese, the tomato chilli Chayote mix I made the other week, shredded carrot, garlic sauce and lettuce.  The chayote dish was lovely, but a little too liquidy really for wraps, BUT if you just had the vegetables, they made a nice topping for the qu0rn.  LG is still enamoured with a 'boofay', and remembered to put vegetables in their wrap, in addition to the cheese and qu0rn.  

So a very low spend weekend (not intentionally), but fun was still had.  I managed to get DH's work gear washed and dried yesterday too.  

Ta for popping in.  Greying X

* - I'm not sure if it was an MSE'r/spouse of, from on here, but they certainly knew the value of a free car parking space contributing to an affordable day out 😉👍

kayannie

If I see someone parking in the costly car park which I walk through on the way to the shops, I will (if they look the approachable sort who might appreciate saving their money!) point out the free car park just round the corner. It always amazes me how often they say they can't be bothered to move & carry on buying a ticket! 
They probably think I'm just a weird old woman!
KA

Greying_Pilgrim

Dearest kayannie - when i'm next in your neck of t'woods, or indeed any stomping ground of any other dear MSE'rs, I shall be taking all the moneysaving help I can get 😁👍Ironically (but perhaps unsurprisingly), the area with the costed parking also had costed *ahem* 'conveniences'..... all of which, despite needing to be paid for to access, were all out of order 🙄 Yes, for sure, they'd probably been vandalised/wrecked by blessed humans, and no, I don't know what the solution is - especially as it is no longer a 'penny a go'.......  

Lots of itty bitty things to complete today, in all different directions.  Activity after school.  I shall most likely make plant balls and tommie sauce in the SC, with pasta to accompany.  I shall endeavour to steam some veg to go with too.

Can't think of anything else MSE to add.  I will spend a bit of dosh today, but it's budgeted for, and I don't think I will be spending anything from the grocery budget.

Greying X

Staffordia

We have free parking here and I always help out the tourist who is either frantically looking for the payment machine or trying to decipher the information board.