From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim · 22 May at 4:47AM

Morning MFW'rs

Tea last night was a bit of a mish-mash, and was sausage casserole and rice. NOT warm weather food, by any stretch of the imagination! But I found that in trying to make "salad", I kept on coming up against "haven't got this" and "haven't got that" and hadn't got any realistic substitutes either. So I gave up, and used what I had. We had a warm main, and then all had an ice-cream for dessert, so it evened out! 😁 I made the casserole from scratch; onion, celery, garlic and carrot all pureed. Put in a pan with oil, then i added in a tub of HM tommie sauce. I added in a tin of haricot and a tin of black beans, plus a tub of leftover cooked green lentils. Cooked it all together, added various herbs and spices and then added in a punnet of qu0rn cocktail sausages chopped up. Cooked it some more and then served over rice. There was a small portion of rice and 1 and a half tubs of casserole left over, and they went in the freezer - for 'dirty rice' another day.

Shopping day today, and probably my usual targets of milk, cheese, eggs and bread will pretty much take up what monies I have left - gulp! Whilst no-one wants wall-to-wall rain - particularly not during the BH/school hols - it will make menu planning a little easier IF the weather turns a little cooler.

'Everyday clothes' wash is on.

Club tonight, so we will all be eating at different times. A small contribution to participate in an activity is required, but this is covered by CHB.

Can't think of anything MSE-wise to add, so I'll push orf.

Ta for popping by. Greying X

Watty1 · 22 May at 7:30AM

Interesting on the coffee. I regularly stop at the church for a coffee on a Saturday £2.50 for a coffee and a piece of cake. Then additional coffees or teas are free and you can have as many top ups as you like. (I think cake is an extra 50 p if you want another slice). For me I am supporting the church and the church ladies, having a nice break from the house, might even find someone to chat to so sociable.

having said that, cafe spending is "my weakness" I do love a nice cafe! When I am really minding my budget that is where I can save money just by not going, but, I do go to church because, well, i don't want to deprive myself!

Greying_Pilgrim · 22 May at 7:51AM

I agree with what you've written Watty - and very often the Church fete, or a local coffee morning, or rummage sale or carol concert or whatever has the best cakes and they use mugs! £2 for just a drink seemed a bit expensive to me is all.

Right, school run dun. Onward!

Greying X

Bluegreen143 · 22 May at 8:08AM

We are admittedly not frugal in general (have swung too far the other way and trying to rein it back a bit!) but I generally find cafe spending (eating out in general) not great value for money and it's one area I'm happy to miss out on (thank goodness as I'm rubbish in other areas!!).

I don't see it as depriving us or the kids, they are familiar with cafes, we sometimes eat out for extended family events etc too and tbh they usual prefer homemade picnic food anyway. We did have dinner out this week to celebrate a payrise I've been awarded and it felt very special because it's something we never do just as a foursome. If we ate out regularly it wouldn't have been a big deal.

I have however very recently started a bad habit of buying a cake (from my personal spending pot) each week while Bambi is at gymnastics and I have to wait in the cafe. Think I need to pare this back, even if it's not much money it's not a good habit for my waistline!

Greying_Pilgrim · 22 May at 9:47AM

Bluegreen - I concur absolutely. Eating out is very often a disappointment - which adds to the reasons why we rarely indulge. And LG definitely prefers HM food, picnic or otherwise - which is high praise for me, but does tend to put them on the wrong side of the line when classmates are discussing whether Mccdy's is better than the K fried chucken joint etc etc. Personally, I'm not really bothered by any fast food nor takeaway - and living in an area that is not well served by good takeaway joints is a blessing, not a curse in my book 🤭

Back from shopping. Oh my. How miserable my 3 bags of shopping looks. Ho hum.

I went to MrL and MrS. No boxes in either today.

I spent £10 and some change in MrS - the change covered the cost of the TV mag, so will be taken out of non-food spends. The £10 was covered by my nectar points. As you can imagine, it bought nowt ☹️In MrL I spent £6.57, which included the lettuce in the PoTW. There were very few YS'd things - and of those the vast majority were only 20% discount. There wasn't anything that I needed enough to warrant purchasing YS'd. Total expenditure on food was £17.31 - of which £10 was in nectar points. I'm very close to the wire. Perhaps enough for some more milk next week 🫤 The daft thing is, the cupboards are full - but you can bet your bottom dollar, I'll be missing "something" for each dish I come up with 🙄 First world problemos. And it isn't like I didn't know it was going to be a long shot to get by with £150 ish spend on groceries.

Greying X

rtandon27 · 22 May at 8:03PM

On the subject of coffees, I met up with @Karmacat today after a good long time, we had a stroll along the Embankment and ended up at a café at Somerset house. We had a tea, a latte & slightly mean piece of lemon cake - I almost fainted at the 12 pounds!!!!! (It was a special occasion though so I was not going to be tight, but ouch ouch ouch - that's 40 coffee pods - a two month's supply)

We too support the local church events, but at ours, the tea and coffee & biscuits are 'free' with a pay as you can donation box, which works in our diverse middle of town community. They always end up with more than was spent - very loaves & fishes style. OH usually puts a fiver in the tin when we go, but we also take biscuits or cake to contribute. We also do the various potlucks and usually take something that serves 8 - carrot or zucchini cake (think cheaper wartime recipes), or a savory quiche when surplus eggs can be found on 0li0. I once went 'all out' and made 4 dozen rice Krispy squares with surplus American marshmallows and cheap own-brand puffed rice - not a single crumb was left!