From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

rt - I concur, the last pineapple we had was out of a box - delish, and what's the culinary term??? on point?? 

badmemory - I had always assumed our kitchen was too cold to 'ripen' stuff at home, but no, hard, hard, hard.... squishy, discoloured and inedible.....

Well, today has been pretty spiffy.  LG helped me with the weeding in the garden - for far longer than I thought they would stay engaged.  It helped that a couple of robins came to visit when they saw we were finding worms, although the one actually plucked a spider off the gravel board - and turned it in its beak a couple of times, and then just swallowed it!  I couldn't help but think of the nursery song, "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly......."  It must have wriggled and wiggled and tiggled inside it....... 🤣

I made pea soup for lunch - interestingly, when LG asked what we were having, and I said, they groaned......  We waited and waited and DH didn't come home, but finally he texted and said he was held up with a task that was taking longer than anticipated, so we were best off to start our lunch.  When LG dug into the soup, they declared it delish!  Trouble is, you can't rename pea soup, can you - it's colour gives it away 😁  

When DH finally came home, LG said, "I'll dish up your soup Dad", - well, of course, by then, it needed to be re-heated, and LG was telling their dad that they were doing it, and then running into me to ask how to do it 🤣  Still, between the two of them, a bowl of hot soup was dished up, some bread was buttered and a cup of tea made 😁

I got the washing in just after 3pm.  It wasn't bone dry, but it'd done alot better than I expected, so it's on the airer now.  Yesterday's load was dry and I folded that and put it away.  

DH rang the car insurance people.  They offered to knock a measly £20 off their renewal price (he was just ringing to lapse the policy at renewal and get my NCD), but of course, got put through to 'retentions'.  I'll save something along the lines of £150 going with the new insurer - no brainer.  But at least the CSA did change the policy off auto-renew, so the money shouldn't be ring-fenced, or taken off DH's cc.  We never check auto-renewal - these companies do what they want.  

Tea - because DH had eaten lunch so late - didn't have to be too complicated, so I plumped for 'dirty' rice and an omlette.  The rice I used was a mix of brown rice, and some white basmati from the freezer.  The 'sauce' was onion, celery, garlic with the last of the mushrooms chopped up, and cooked together.  I then added a small pot of HM tommie sauce, a tin of black-eyed beans, some of the MrL pepper paste and some herbs.  Mixed together and an omlette popped on top.  Clean plates all round.  I think the pepper paste is OK, it did taste of red pepper, but it also was a wee bit salty.  In the sauce it didn't matter, but something to be aware of, especially if adding seasoning at the end of a dish.  

So money saved, and quite a bit achieved today.  A good day.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Sounds like a great day! Love your story about LG and the soup, I can just imagine 🥰

KajiKita

Agree with Cheery, a very positive day. 😊

Could you call pea soup, Shrek soup (if LG is a fan of Shrek, that is)? 🤔 

KK

beanielou

A good day indeed. 

Baileys_Babe

I was very pleased to fully dry a load outside today, their was less of a breeze than forecast but it did manage to spend a few hours with the sun shining on it ☀️ 

rtandon27

Could you make it sound fancy and call it Potage A Pois Vert or Potage A Pois Jaune or Potage A Pois Casse?  Sometimes renaming a dish with a foreign name suddenly makes it desireable! (Ask me how I know this 🤣)

Greying_Pilgrim

Ha ha - all your suggestions noted 😁 I must admit, I was surprised that LG tried the soup (although, it's not like I haven't made it before, plus LG has eaten it before), but to go from a soup definitely being on the 'no likey' list to, "oh this is really nice mum", was a little turn up for the books, I must admit.  Shrek soup 🤣 Yes, Vichyssoise, definitely sounds better than it's actual components, doesn't it? 🤣

Is the moon going to look a bit spiffy tonight?  We just noticed it through the trees at the back of the house, and it looks bigger and with a reddish, gold glow.   

baileys_babe - it's good when you get a load dry by natural means doesn't it.  We didn't really have any sunshine until after 4pm - it didn't last long, and it didn't hit any part of the back garden anyway ☹️

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

We've the definition of Autumn's 'mists and mellow fruitfulness' here today.  I've got a workwear wash on, but I'm not hopeful it'll dry in any way, shape or form 🫤  Still, we're lucky that there is only one item that doesn't have a dupe, and if it doesn't dry, it's not the end of the world to do without it for a day.  Having said that, it's 'most likely item to dry' out of the wash, so fingers crossed.

Definitely a soup for lunch kinda day!  

I've sorted out the car insurance.  I still don't see why our previous insurer wanted to charge so much.  I almost feel 'de-insured'.  They only wanted us if we would pay through the nose.  Clearly 'no claims' means absolutely nothing.  Very odd.  I mean, if all the new quotes had come in at around the same high figure, well then I would say, 'OK, things have changed - suck it up, buttercup'.  But they didn't, and the renewal amount was in the minority at that price.  Anyhoo, done and dusted now.

The moon was very bright last night - it had just come up above the trees and I could see it from LG's room.  But it wasn't a full moon.  Most odd that it was so bright.  Still, there was no cloud so it was just more visible i guess.  

Um, can't think of anything else MSE at the mo. Oh, other than I need to double check - given the recent flurry of insurance activity - that the 'monthly budgeted amount' is proportionate going forward.  This has been the first 'full' year of saving for insurances - after some years of 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' type payments, when we were in the rental.  I've mentioned on ed's thread how getting back on a more even keel has helped to calm my money worries - a little.  When we were renting, circumstances were such that despite trying to budget, we were always in danger of sinking - which became worse, the more costs rose.  Although we were lucky, and I acknowledge, that rental costs didn't hike too much whilst we were tenants (we were good tenants).  There is no way we could afford to rent the same property now - there was considerable tenant 'churn' after we left, and the rent was raised each time.  It is now a 4 figure sum to rent that house on a monthly basis, before CT and all services are even considered.  

At least now we have budget pots, and generally we can add a viable contribution to them regularly.   Could we do better?  Yes, probably.  Do we still go without?  Yes, sometimes by choice, sometimes not.  Are we very grateful for the position we are in? H*ll yeah.

Greying X

beanielou

Any decision yet on the windows? 

Greying_Pilgrim

beanielou said:

Any decision yet on the windows? 

I need to get onto the company again - the secretary was supposed to be contacting me to set up an appt for the survey, and they haven't.  

Greying X