From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Cheery_Daff

We booked a stay in a purple hotel a while back for a gig a friend was doing. One band member became ill,   and the gig was postponed for an unknown date.  We'd booked a flexible room so postponed our stay till a random date 2 months later - and got a partial refund as the room was cheaper 😂 when we changed it again once the actual be date was know,  we got another refund as it was cheaper again! 😂

Hope the homework gets done 😬

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks chums!  I shall bear that in mind and aim to do better in future! 

So clothes are folded, and some have been put away and some are on folk's beds ready for them to put them away 😉

Homework is still ongoing.  DH and I have had to tag-team, as DH has endless patience, whereas I'm better at ideas generation, or prompting, or at seeing what needs to be done.  But we wouldn't have got this far without DH's endless patience........  The daft thing is, LG wastes so much time whanging on about how unfair everything is (think Kevin & Perry), that if they just knuckled down, they'd have it knocked out in about half an hour (which is still too long in my humble opinion, but it beats 1 hr+ 🙄).

Greying X

beanielou

Lodge of travel & purple one are definitely dynamic pricing. 

Greying_Pilgrim

beanie - is there a 'sweet spot' for booking?  I just looked up the lodge for travellers, and I could book any date up to August 2026 in advance for the particular venue I was looking at.  

Greying X

badmemory

The problem in schools is the same at it has always been.  A class can pretty much only go at the speed of the slowest.  The larger the class the more of the slower ones you get.  Hence the homework & the slower ones falling even further behind.  This situation must be getting worse now as schools can no longer afford to employ the TAs that used to help deal with them.

Greying_Pilgrim

On a 'sort of' money saving vibe;

We do now have rain here, and I am so glad I was able to do the clothes washing that I managed yesterday.  It is dry, put away (mostly), and at least we all have enough clothes of the right colour/size/organisational logo for at least the next week.  YAY!

I am glad that DH listened to me and went out with LG yesterday.  The event is running again today, but spectatoring in this type of weather is no fun at all.  On an allied note, the outdoor event in the nearby market town won't be much fun in the rain either ☹️ Parking fee and petrol saved, if nowt else. 

Apropos of nothing, I noticed that MrS own brand (not St St), onions have gone up by 10p a kilo.  They are in my smartyprices, but I noticed the full price had changed.  

tmv's mention of Sweetcorn dhansak reminds me I am all but out of garam masala.  I could not find the 100g (or any size for that matter), bags when I went to the world foods shop the other week.  Must rectify that, as I use quite a bit of it.  

I am all out of soda crystals too, which are pivotal to the workwear wash, so I must put those on my non-food list. 

It's turning into a tomato soup-for-lunch type of day, over egg sandwiches.  Will put thinking cap on as to how the eggs could otherwise be used today/in the next day or two.

Greying X

beanielou

Greying_Pilgrim said:

beanie - is there a 'sweet spot' for booking?  I just looked up the lodge for travellers, and I could book any date up to August 2026 in advance for the particular venue I was looking at.  

Greying X

No idea sorry. I only know about the dynamic pricing as my DS had to use them short term when he moved. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks beanie 👍

Soup made and munched.  It was tomato and pepper in the end, which used up the 2 red and 1 yellow bell peppers I had in the recent MrL boxes.  I served it with some of the YS'd white baps I got in MrL in the summer hols.  I don't know what it is about tomato soup and white bread, but I always prefer to serve them together.  Normally we eat wholemeal bread or baps.  And it isn't even as if I had a childhood tradition of tinned tommie soup and white bread.  We didn't have tinned soup much, and if we did it was more likely to be 'minestrone'.  

I'm not anti-white bread, at all, we just prefer wholemeal is all - but it was interesting that DH tore his bap up into pieces and made a 'bridge' 🙄across his soup plate 🙄 It was only when we were half way through the meal that I noticed that this 'bridge' had in fact operated as a dam, and he'd been able to eat one side of his soup without affecting the other side 😱  Makes me wonder what the white bread is doing inside me now 🫤 Ah well, there was plenty of soluble fibre in the soup 😉

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Cold start with us, and the front windows are covered in condensation 😢 Autumn is here ☹️  I must admit, I am scared about getting new windows.  I am scared that despite better technology, the orientation/position of the house is such that the windows will still get cold, and with moist, warm air from just 'living', we will have the same problem ☹️  Interestingly, the front window (lower) is a faux bay window.  There is no wall, it is supported by a bracket (for want of  a better word).  It's a feature of many of the houses locally.  I think it causes an issue, as there is no insulation, above or below.  I noticed a house nearish-by that had sold, is being gutted (it really is, and it would have cost a pretty penny to begin with......) and it looks to me like the faux bay window has been removed and an conventional 'flat' window has been put in, instead.  I am wondering if that would improve things for us - or perhaps we would open up the way to leaks and problems.  The orientation of the other house is different, although the changed window is on the 'coldest side'  NW-ish (I think).  I can't tell if it's a load of builders in 'flipping' a property, someone has the builders in to make the house 'how they want', or whether it's someone re-doing the house for themselves.  EDIT:  I've just managed to find pics from when the house sold previously, and the front was indeed a 'box' bay window - far more sticky out than our faux bay window,  I wonder why they took it back to flat???

We wouldn't lose any space (inside or out), if the window was changed to 'flat' rather than faux bay.  I just don't know if it could be done.  A question for the installers I guess.  Must be brave and pick up the phone.....

A sheet wash is on.  Today is likely to be dry and there is supposed to be a reasonable breeze, although at the moment it is still.  I will do a towel wash once the sheets are done.

Tea last night was fish fingers, chips and beans for DH & LG.  I had a fish finger bap, as a) there weren't many oven chips and b) I'm only had one bap (MrL ones aren't that big) at lunchtime, so I wasn't gorging on bread so much.  I'm hoping tea tonight will be mung bean curry.  I have soaked the beans overnight - jury is out as to whether you're supposed to.  Many recipes say no (especially if using a PrC to cook them), but Ayurvedic based recipes seem to think that soaking enhances the digestability of the beans.  I remembered to do it last night, so soaked they are.  I don't know if I'll use my original recipe for mung bean curry (Mugg), or a recipe off a site I stumbled on yesterday.  I liked the look of the Veggie Mexican Casserole (casserole in the US sense, not UK 'stew'), and wondered if I could convert it to a SC recipe, much in the vein of 'Ranch house surprise'.  

Right, best get some snap on the go.  Uniform is set, but LG needs to put all their gnomework books in their bag - bet LG wishes they had some Norbert Norbots to help wif spullins..... 😁

Have a great day - ta for popping in.  

Greying X

themadvix

Go for it with  the windows GP, you never know - there are seemingly good tradesmen out there, even if you have to ring them up cold. My asbestos guy (fingers crossed - although I think there's less room for manoeuvre with something like that) seems to be a good one and he was found by a search. You won't know until you try. And the right tradesman for you will be happy to talk through the options and will have local knowledge.