From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon MFW'rs

Well, we're back from our little pootle out to the 'homespun' event.  I prepped the picnic this morning, put my clothes on, was ready to set off, when DH announced, 'Oh, are you coming?  I didn't think it would be your thing.  I thought it was just going to be LG and me'. ☹️  He was genuinely affronted that I wanted to accompany them ☹️  Even though I had found out about the event, and I had suggested we go ☹️

☹️

Do divorce lawyers work on Sundays?  ☹️

Anyhoo, we got to our destination, and we weren't the first, but there didn't look to be many cars in the car park... however, luckily a whole bunch of the enthusiasts/exhibitors had turned up, so we immediately got stuck into looking around.  DH found himself nattering to a very interesting old chap, but LG started to get ants in their pants, so we wandered on, and of course, we were invited to have a closer look at an exhibit, and LG was invited to 'have go, see how it all works' which is just so plain lovely, and a common denominator of 'enthusiasts', I've found 😁  The weather started hotting up, and we found a sliver of shade for elevenses and then went around a tiny speck of a museum, which was interesting.  More exhibitors were arriving all the time, so we did another lap of the showground and then I walked back to the car for our picnic.  I'm glad we'd got it, as whilst we were pretty much in a minority having it (although many of the exhibitors were having picnics), the two food options for visitors were exceptionally meat heavy, which is fine, but not for us.  We did one last lap, to make sure we'd seen everything and then we came back to the car.  I spotted a sparrowhawk - I think by it's size it was female.  

Coming home we spotted a plume of smoke and it's obvious a bit of heathland had gone up in smoke.  Hopefully it will burn out and extinguish, but it's been so dry, I'm not surprised.  It didn't look like it was an area terrbly accessible to fire crews.  Fingers crossed it was just land (bad enough), and no property was endangered.

Anyway, we only spent £10 to get in.  Other than the food trucks,  there was nothing else to spend money on (am I tight to admit I found that mildly refreshing?).  A nice little trip out, and something a little different.  Probably not for repeating in the short term, but enjoyable.  And people are kind - especially to LG - and I love that people are willing to trust LG with their treasured possessions.

I've no idea what to make for tea.  I'm pondering whether to go on domestic strike, blooming spouses ☹️

Greying X

rtandon27

Must be the moon or the heat GP!  Something is in the air when it comes to spouses being annoying.  My OH had to be cajoled into making breakfast, making the bed, putting out the rubbish - meanwhile, I was busting my butt doing my share of the chores & the gardening.  Words were had.  I almost packed my bags and got a a train to 'anywhere but here' for the remainder of our staycation!

KajiKita

Mr GP’s head needs a wobble! 🙄

Come over here and you can have one of my HM scones with clotted cream and plum jam with a brew and we can enjoy the breeze and bird song together. 😊👒🌺

(I think you should tell him that his response was really quite upsetting for you.)

Hugs x

KK

Greying_Pilgrim

rt is there room on your train seat for another?  I don't take up much room 😁 Hope your OH has now done his bit and that you're on an even keel again.

KK - how could I resist HM scones and clotted cream and plum jam.  Heavens!  Bliss! 

I DID tell DH that his words and actions had wounded, and what was the blessed point of us having 'family' time off if DH was just going to do his own thing (with or without LG - as there have been other DIY activities mentioned 🙄).  Had I known it was going to be like this, I would have booked a week away with LG earlier this holiday, and he could have done what he liked  this week coming up - with LG.  I love my child, but I am not a lone parent.  We're supposed to be in this together.  I realise some parents who work have to do 'one week with ma' and 'one week with pa' - so it's not unfeasible, and I know some families have to do that.  But currently DH hadn't negotiated to do our holidays like that.  

Anyway, words have been spoken, DH claims that he hadn't the intention of going elsewhere.  He did apologise, but has raised the issue of doing DIY tomorrow......... 🙄  Can you buy train-tickets online on a Sunday...... 😉🤔😂

Off to dream about afternoon tea, in the garden........  😁, with fab company and puss cats 😁

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

So DH is going to do DIY today 🙄

When he gets ideas in his head, there is just no point in trying to dissuade him.  At best he then does everything with a pout, and I've not determined an alternative activity for us to do today, so may as well let him get on with it, in the hope that he'll manage to contain it to one day and then we'll do something tomorrow.  But his track record is to run into difficulties, so I've not much hope really.

Grump over.  

Tea last night was veggie hot dogs and oven chips.  Not a brilliant meal.  The veggie sausages were the... I'm not sure how to describe them.  They are more like they have been made out of stuffing mix than soya, if you see what I mean, YS'd in MrL.  And the rolls were YS'd in MrL too.  But in reality those type of sausages (or burgers) are just too much with bread baps/rolls, and the hot dog rolls were made for very long sausages.  Hey ho.  They all got eaten and it was a relatively cheap meal.  Pud was ice cream cones, using tub ice cream and waffle cones.  Again, it is something that has engaged LG, and they even got the kitchen roll divvied up for us to all wrap around our cones, in case of melting .  I filled them differently this time, so was able to pop a little in the cone and then place a ball of ice cream on top, so the icecream lasted longer, without being an excessively large portion.  As it happened, there wasn't an ice-cream van at yesterday's event (they probably would have sold a ton if there had been), so it was nice to be able to shoe-horn in a little treat at the end of the day.

It's going to be el scorchio here today ☹️ And then we've rain forecast for much of the rest of the week ☹️

Another jiggle of the freezer space may be in order today.  We're lucky to have plenty of food, but not many ready meals - and just to repeat myself, it's salad weather again, and I'm not brilliant at conjuring up meals in this type of weather.  Although having said that, whilst I've not so much as a lettuce leaf in the house, I do have a range of things in, which could let me do some sort of riff on a lentil/feta salad.  I will think on.  

At least I could nab another nsd today - after yesterdays low-spend and Saturday's nsd - it's a reasonable start to our holiday 😂  Not actually my intention to penny-pinch, but at least I won't feel guilty if we splurge later in the week.  Interesting that someone was talking on.... a radio show, or something.  Mentioning that a 'standard' day out with kids was costing £100.  I for sure can see that, and not even going to the 'top-notch' theme parks or events.  Just a meals or drinks out, admission to 'somewhere' and travel costs.  DH's colleague had taken their kiddo out towards the start of the holiday, I think it was just the 2 of them, and by their own admission they'd not filled the day, but had spent nearly £100.  Naturally, you can make some fantastic memories whether you spend £100 or £1 - but I still worry a little about affordability.   I do try very hard to conjure up days/experiences that has something that we all enjoy, or something/one thing that will engage LG.  And I am lucky that LG is sometimes enraptured by the 'little things', be it just having a picnic or going to a NT/EH place (and if we go with a chum, then all the better).  It hasn't always got to be star-spangled and whizz-pop with them.  

Right, the washing machine is bleeping, so I best go peg out.  Ta for being here.  Appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

So DH did manage to contain the DIY to one day (we think/hope - final checks in daylight needed today).  He spent something like 16 hrs of the day on it 🙄 Not helped by the fact that he couldn't leave clearing up until today, as heavy rain was forecast overnight ☹️  Either the ground has soaked up everything, or we just had heavy dew, as only the cars have obvious moisture on them this morning.  

He has saved us an awful lot of money, and I know that the job has been done properly and thoroughly 👍 But he's so predictable eating into family time 😠 Don't let it ever be said that I wouldn't book a 2 week trip to Tenner-ee-fee if I could - he just wouldn't be able to do these projects then.  Mind, there's no way we could afford to get trades in and go away on a package holiday, so swings and blessed roundabouts. 

Tea last night ended up being omlette, potato salad, tomato salad and the last of the runner beans, steamed.  Not exactly as I planned, as I thought we would all need to eat tea at different times - and it was broiling hot by the time tea time came around ☹️ But I had eggs to use up by the 28th, so I made omlettes for us all.  I had the last of the red and yellow cherry tomatoes to use from the MrL box.  The reds wouldn't have lasted much longer, but the salad dressing perked them up slightly, and it was a good use of them.  I made potato salad by boiling up a few of the MrL 'maris peer' tatties from the big bag, and then letting them cool thoroughly before putting them into seasoned mayo.  I used up the last of the mayo from the jar too.  Everyone had a clutch of steamed beans on their plate and we raised a 'thank you' to our rellies for feeding us! 😁I was surprised with LG's reaction to tea.  I handed over their plate and they said 'ooh yummy' (a la Mrs Tiggywinkle - iykyk), which I wasn't expecting (they are sometimes sniffy about omlette),  and absolutely clean plates came back to the kitchen 😱  I'm sure that eating outside on a 'picnic' plate probably helped, but I'll take all the 'meals without moans' I can get!  We all eventually - at differing times - had yoghurt and tinned fruit cocktail for pud.  So a nsd and meals all from stores with a couple of 'use ups' - I'll take that, any day of the week, holiday time or no. 

At the moment today is undecided.  I half didn't dare plan anything, as I thought there was a strong possibility DH wouldn't have finished.  But I'm pondering whether if all else fails we could go to a NT place - use one of our vouchers and just go somewhere a bit different/we haven't been to in a while, take a picnic too.  

I've already done the money shuffle in readiness for next month's DD's going out, as I didn't want to forget to move money about later in the week.  

I'm not sure about tea tonight.  Currently we have wall-to-wall sunshine 🤔 which isn't what was forecast, so I'm not sure if I've got to pull out another meal on the salady-spectrum, or whether I could get away with Betty's hotpot........

I think I hear stirring from upstairs, so DH is probably getting up.  I can't think of anything else MSE to add.

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

badmemory

I was just wondering.  You say the eggs were getting near date.  Do you actually keep to that date, meaning if that date passes the eggs are history.

Greying_Pilgrim

badmemory said:

I was just wondering.  You say the eggs were getting near date.  Do you actually keep to that date, meaning if that date passes the eggs are history.

No sweetie - if they've gone past the date, I do the float test.  I certainly don't bin them wully-nully.  Just trying to keep things moving over.  I have another box of eggs - their BB is in September, so I'm just using 'oldest' first.  With (notionally) being on holiday, I could see that the eggs could be overlooked, and perhaps pass over into being unuseable (and perhaps not).  We buy supermercado eggs now, and I've noticed that they are shorter dated these days - does that mean they've been in storage for ages before being put out on the shopfloor?  Or does it mean producers have got legislated into putting a BB date that is - actually - WELL before the expiry of said egg?  The only 'bad' egg I have yet had (it was black inside 🤢) was actually 'in' date and from that well known shop that's not just, but sparkly just......... So actually BB dates can be treated with a speck of salt for all manner of reasons.

My comment about 'near dated' is more about keeping my rotation, than looking for stuff to bin.  I certainly use stuff where I can, and whilst I don't absolutely ignore dates (depending on what the item is and how it's presented - fresh, tinned, frozen etc), I use common-sense and my nose.  We actually throw very little food away - it's more likely to be a small bit of 'leftover' something that got shoved to the back of the fridge for too long, than it is bought eggs or milk or whatever.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Oh, and just to add - the tea I was planning last night would have used lentils, brown rice and feta - all things that have long dates still.  But when I thought we were going to be eating at separate times, I thought it would be better to do omlettes and salads, as the salads were prep ahead and the omlettes could be cooked on demand. 

Greying X 

Greying_Pilgrim

Phew, it's been hot today, then rainy, then sunny, then rainy......... 

We popped out to a NT place to use a voucher.  We went to a place we've not been for quite a few years.  We ate our picnic lunch first (time had marched on and it wasn't one of our local properties so we arrived at lunchtime).  Thankfully we picked a covered spot, as about 10 minutes in to munching, the heavens opened.  Then - shower over - we toured the veg patch.  Lovely pumpkins ripening up 🥰 and beef steak tommies still on the vine in the greenhouse 🥰  I was a little surprised the tomatoes hadn't ripened more, given the heat we've had, but they did look fine specimens.  There were plenty of roses in the garden - alot were the same types, planted in blocks (I don't know how authentic that was), but the one plus point was that the gardeners/volunteers had taken the trouble to put the variety labels in full view, so you knew what they were.  Several had the most gorgeous scent, so it was nice to put a name to a fragrance, particularly if we were looking for roses for the garden.

The lure of the 'play time' exhibits was too strong for LG so they dragged their beloved papa off to investigate the lawn terrace,  whilst I toured the house.  There were plenty of volunteers - almost one in every room, and they were clearly very knowledgeable about the house, and the artifacts within each room.  

On exiting the house I found LG and DH easily enough, and LG pleaded with me to have a game of tennis, as there was all the equipment set up for visitors to use.  We were in full sun, but had a go.  Apparently I impressed LG by being able to pick up a tennis ball with the racket and actually doing some return shots!  Good job they are easily pleased!  As Steffi Graf I am not! 😂  Anyhoo, some other kiddos began loitering, looking longingly at the court, and I could see another set of grey clouds gathering, so we vacated the court and headed for home.

It was a good visit, and most of the guides were lovely and friendly.  I'm glad we chose to go a little bit further afield.  

Although we were on the outskirts of a city, and could have gone looking for world foods stores (there are several large ones), DH doesn't particularly like driving in that city, so we came away, but called in at the metropolitan town along the way, and I went to the store there to stock up on whole spices and some powdered spices.  In total I spent £18.32, which I'll put against the bulk fund (busted that again, although it's at least a year, possibly longer, since I last went, so per month the spend is quite small).  I did also call into MrAl and picked up £12 38 worth of bits for LG's lunch box.  I bought in bulk - the first part of the Autumn term is nearly 8 weeks long 🙄 so I have stuff for a good few weeks at least.  I will put the £12.38 against my August grocery budget, although in reality, none of the stuff should be touched until September.  

It was frozen HM pizza and oven chips for tea.  Not very original, but time was ticking by the time we got home, due to taking a diversion to avoid a road closure.  

Better amend my siggie figgies, and then pootle off to Bedfordshire.  

Ta for popping in.  Greying X