From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Cherryfudge

Ha, I've just noticed my typo above! That was meant to be 'gold' foil, no wonder the security guard for the cabbages went via the golf course.

I rather fancy a plate of curly fries now.

Greying_Pilgrim

Cherryfudge said:

Ha, I've just noticed my typo above! That was meant to be 'gold' foil, no wonder the security guard for the cabbages went via the golf course.

I rather fancy a plate of curly fries now.

I just thought you were operating at J. Bond-esque style double-bluff-ness 😉🤣

Tea munched. We had potato and chickpea curry.  I did open another tin of tatties, as the curry was slightly light on them.  I think I de-frosted, and then over-cooked (to be safe) the rice, as it was slightly crunchy ☹️ but still edible.  

Pud will depend on what the troops want, but there is the option of jelly and raspberry ripple icecream if they want - which will finish several things up.  We have had the heating on since 4pm, which isn't ideal, but it has been cold all day here.  Our fault for not getting out and about, but I was the only one not having a PJ day today, so......

Ta for popping in.  Appreciated.

Greying X

redofromstart

I've got a thermal top, two
jumpers and a cardigan on and have also had the central heating and the wood burner on since 4pm so it is clearly cold. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Wonderful to *see* you redo - ta for popping in.  We had the heating on until 9pm, and then I switched it off, as I thought we were all going to turn in, in various stages, but apparently 2 of our number stayed up watching films for another hour and a half 🙄

Well, I've had to eat my words ref washing bed linen today.  Let's just say that circumstances, sod's law or karma (pick your favoured reason to blame), doesn't care that line drying conditions aren't ideal, and that a bed linen set has had to go in the machine this morning ☹️  Everyone is ok, no-one has been scalded, scolded or harmed in anyway.  All is good.  If push comes to shove, the launderette is open today, although we have duplicate sets of everything, so it should be ok - although I want to avoid anything having that 'musty' aroma, that sometimes happens if stuff has been just too damp to dry inside.  We'll sort it, no worries.  

I think it is the weather, but it's starting to feel very 'twixmas' and not christmassy.  I was surprised to see last night that one of the houses locally that has been lit up like a beacon with flashing lights since the first weekend in Advent, was deathly dark.  Perhaps they had switched them off early, last night, or perhaps they are going away for the rest of the hols, it was just so odd to see dark, where for seemingly a long time, there had been (alot of) light.  

I must get out for a walk today - on my own or with company.  Although it is such a dreich day ☹️

I shall probably rely heavy on soup providing lunch.  I'm so glad my family are accepting of soup as a meal.  LG was the one who needed indoctrinating showing the way, and I'm so glad they took to it.  I think I was reading Frugaldom's (new 2026) thread on the OS board, and she was talking about 'what' had helped/worked on her journey to live a rich life with spending very little actual, physical cash, and I'm sure it was her that wrote that seeing soup as a meal, was a good thing in terms of reducing grocery spends.  I heartily concur - and I think that the soups that are made from 'food waste items/olio/YS'd bits/5p veg/HG gifts' are all the more 'tasty' for conjouring something hearty and delicious out of 'nothing'.  Much like some of the knitting vlogs I watch, wax lyrical about 'sweater weather', I'm definitely most comfortable in 'soup season' 😁

I was thinking of making crustless quiche for tea, as I have eggs and some cottage cheese to use up.  It's not LG's favourite, so I'm pondering how to either gussy it up, or have something to go with that they do like...... I'm sure we'll manage something between us.  

Right, so I forsee expenditure either on running the dehu, or a launderette visit today,  but apart from that, we should manage a no spend/low spend day.  We certainly need no grocery shopping.  

Ta for popping in, it's so lovely to see you, even if sometimes I feel i have absolutely no wisdom to impart on your threads - you all seem so 'on it' whereas I'm celebrating a day that has windspeeds capable of drying a tea towel in a few hours.....................................

Greying X

Sunshine_girl2

Oh GP I love hearing about your wind speeds and hanging your washing out . Living in a flat non of that happens here apart from summer when I use my parents washing line . 

As a child I was brought up on soup was a meal it usually had pasta added to it as my dad is from the Mediterranean so pasta featured heavily . Even today he makes a fab soup with all his leftovers but he adds rice and noodles as well as pasta obviously not all at the same time ! . 

Hope you have a lovely day it’s dry here but grey skies . 

Greying_Pilgrim

Sunshine_girl2 - can LG come to tea with your dad?  they LOVE soup with pasta in it 😁  It's actually how we morphed into soup eating, by way of pasta with pasta sauce into sort of minestrone, and now, to soups 'beyond'.  But yes, pasta and rice feature regularly in our soups - as do tatties, either in chunks, or as a thickener.  Although the instant and 'cup' soups certainly have their place, and I am not knocking them (have a box of tommie packet soups in the cupboard!), I do think it's easier to make HM soups into a meal - even if it's a smooth soup. Although I would be the first to say that my version of tomato veg soup that used up the day before's tommie soup, was a bit too thin....... 🫤

Sounds like we've the same weather - very grey, but yes, dry and a very gentle breeze.  I don't know enough about these things, but I'm sure that the air is too damp for the laundry to dry that much - the breeze isn't there to drive the water out, but there's no spare capacity in the air to draw out the moisture from the fabric either.  I'm pretty sure that's how a Norwegian chap explained how they get washing dry (or not), in the frozen bits of northernmost Norway in the winter.  At least the temperature has climbed a little, and it's not currently as cold as it was yesterday afternoon/evening.  

Greying X

in_need_of_direction

You’ve just transported me back to childhood where, very occasionally, we would have home made soup served with chunks of boiled potatoes. It was such a treat

rtandon27

Homemade soup is a luxury! Full of goodness for the body and love for the spirit! As a kid my Gran would make chicken noodle soup and I'd kick up a fuss while everyone else had first and seconds. Now I long for a bowl of that soup as none other tastes the same!

Greying_Pilgrim

inod and rt - food and/or soup evoking recherche du temps perdu..... inod - your boiled potatoes with soup put me in mind of 'boil in the bag cod in parsley sauce', that mum started buying for some reason.  More sauce than fish, it needed the accompaniment of floofy, floury tatties to soak up the sauce........  haven't thought of that in more years than I *care to divulge* 😉🤣

Greying X

Watty1

I'm laughing at the soup as a meal - when I was a child my mum hit on a great MSE meal - oxtail soup.  Oxtails being very cheap (I'm not sure one would even get them now?).  Anyway she made this huge pot of oxtail soup and we ate it every night until it was gone - relief that after 5 nights of this there would be no more - when another batch was made.  I think we lived on it for a few months:)  It never did us any harm and it is now a family memory my sister and I laugh over.  Once or twice a week we had something else and then another batch would appea.