From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

So the chazzer clothes didn't fit ☹️ I'm not overly surprised, M&$ have gone the way of all clothing manufacturers and they make clothes for people that are a tubular measure from head to toe, no addition for shoulders, chesticles, waist, hips - and gussets clearly went out of the window when we all started wearing thongs......  (no, I don't......) 🙄 Still, they can be returned, and I can get a refund, so all is not lost.  

DH has found a u-toob vid on how to change the pull cord for the mower......  

I practiced what I was whanging on about earlier, about having a soup and pud night - even though we're not quite into January.  I decided to make leek and potato.  I put some onion, celery, garlic, potatoes and the stalk of the broccoli head that we got from the waste diversion, yesterday, into the PrC and boiled them up with some water and a stock cube.  I then blitzed it all, to form a soup base.  I then chopped 2 potatoes up into small dice, and finely shredded the leek from the waste diversion and added them to the pot, along with the remainder of the broccoli, which I made sure was in tiny florets.  I heated that up again, and let it simmer until it was all cooked.  I added salt and pepper, and the remainder of the herby cream cheese.  It was thick, creamy and nicely chunky.  It made 3 full bowls, and I served it with the 6 pre-sliced wholemeal baps that I got YS'd in h3r0n before Christmas for 33p.  Pud will be for the 2 that want it, and will be the remainder of the crumble with natural yoghurt.  

I managed quite a bit of 'use up' today, in the food stakes - which always pleases me, and yes, I am pleased that the fam. support me with these mad-cap notions.  

I haven't thought what we might have for tea tomorrow - I've changed my mind about my original thought, and am slightly, everso slightly put off doing something 'special' after Christmas Eve's issues. Pizza could be an option, although it could be for Friday night too 🤔  Anyway, don't get me wrong, we will not be going hungry - it's just about making a choice is all, we've still plenty in, and have plenty of potentially nice dishes that we could all enjoy.  

DH was home earlish tonight - due to little traffic.  I'm hopeful that he can be home early-ish tomorrow too.  We're not going out anywhere, or doing anything special to celebrate.  We haven't for many years, but that's ok, I've never really liked the 'enforced jollity/partying' required for NYE.  

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

kayannie

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Ha ha - dearest inod - I've just been reading an article on the beebeecee news site about food "trendz" for 2026 🙄 and I regret that thee and me are in a minority, as foods are going to get even spicier, albeit with fruit as an accompaniment - apparently "Fricy" is the word that will be on every influencers lips......... 🙄  And apparently cabbage is about to attain hero status - so watch the price of those skyrocket beyond conventional folks pockets ☹️ It happened with PSB, with Brussels sprouts, and now it's savoy's turn in the spotlight 🙄How come these once frugal foods, never come back down in price, when they "fall out of favour"?  Oysters, Ox-cheeks, corned beef, lamb shanks, ox-tail.......... Colcannon will be served in an egg cup for €15/£15 a shot..... 🙄

Greying X

GP - I'm slowly catching up with you!  In my late teens, I worked in the offices of a family butcher ( I didn't stay long & stopped eating meat soon after!). There were certain cuts of meat that people only bought to feed to their pets, such as breast of lamb & ox cheek. My old boss would be gob smacked to see these & other cuts being treated as gourmet foods. I remember (with horror!) people buying pigs trotters for stewing & brains to serve on toast!
I'll carry on catching up with you now. KA x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

kayannie - I suspect a load of traders/farmers/fisherfolk and hunters would be gobsmacked over what is now chi-chi and only affordable to the affluent ☹️

So we may venture over to the market town across the way today.  I'm in no rush though, as we've had a cold start, and places are icy ☹️ I thought the food waste venue might be open, but I think they may have changed their opening hours, and it seems like they may have been in town yesterday ☹️  Never mind - I just thought they might have something a little different - although in reality it was possibly bread, sprouts, parsnips, carrots, potatoes 😁👍  All good food, and I'm not moaning, I would just have had a look had they been open.  I agree with tmv that places have inventory to pass along at this time of year.

I may pick up a couple of bits from MrL - or equivalent today, simply because I'm assuming stores will be closed tomorrow - which is perfectly fine, and I will only pick up milk, and maybe some olive spread today - otherwise we have sufficient food. DH is at home tomorrow, and even if stores are open, I don't want to be spending time shopping on NYD - I shall be supervising him fixing the mower......... 🤣 [Joshing!]  I'm going to try to be a little less 'storecupboard' orientated in 2026.  Not to the extent where fridges and cupboards are bare all the time and I shop daily for what we eat, but I have got a tiny bit too much on the side of siege mentality, since c'vid and I need to concentrate much more on 'churn' of goods.  We're not too bad, and I would guess that we've not much in the cupboards that is outdated, but things like flour etc don't store too well in our cupboards, which are old and shonky and somehow susceptible to damp and mould ☹️  When they are crammed full of stuff, there is even less room for air to move around.  I work hard to get things at a good price, and to have variety, so it makes sense to store it correctly and use it up in a timely manner.

Right, I can't think of anything else to add.  I've had my second cup of coffee, so best think about shuffling orf.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon MFW'rs

Well, the trip to the market town across the way was 50% successful.  LG didn't get what they were after, but neither did they spend their money recklessly "just" to spend either, so that was a win.  However, we bought a digital radio 'for the house', and some smoke alarms - it's all glamour round here I tell ya 🤣

I did get some food bits - a little more than I'd proposed, but we found a pack of qu0rn cocktail sausages in h3r0n f00ds for 69p, which cemented our choice of 'sausage' pizza for tea 👍and there was some Grahams kefir yoghurt for 39p each - either plain or strawberry, but the strawberry was still dated up to the 4th Jan, so we got a couple of pots of that 😁  We went to hB to see if they had some apples, and we got the last 2 bags, and there were some YS'd blueberries, and I decided to pick up some walnuts and dates whilst we were there.  Not needed for today, but will be in our January shop, so....   We called into the MrL, and I was only going to get bread, olive spread and milk - which I did, but we also came across some 50% YS'd cheese and onion rolls (think sausage rolls), some 50% YS'd falafel and I picked up some pistachio choc ices for a 'posh pud'.  We were lucky - I looked out at the food waste centre when we got to town, and couldn't see any activity; but when we came back to the car at the end of our shopping, I noticed there were some tables and boxes out.  There wasn't much left (unless you were into doughnuts....), but I did take some chestnut mushrooms, some baking tatties and some mini salad potatoes.  All useful stuff. 

We came home and had a nice quick lunch of a cheese sanger, a cheese and onion roll and some of the wheel shaped crisps.  We then walked to the PO and bought some stamps, and LG has made a start on their 'Thank you' letters to friends and fam. - which is good.  I've made dough for pizza (I'm just trying to emulate tmv really 😉☺️), got the tommie sauce out of the freezer and will decide which tatties to use, and whether to have wedges,  or chunks, or ........ dunno - we'll have summat.  

I don't keep detailed spreadsheets of every penny, but Fam. Greying have had a good year.  We've bought a new (to us) car, eventually had the new windows and door fitted to the house. We've enjoyed several 'staying away from home' holidays together and had some wonderful day trips/visits.  Memories have been made.  And I still remain slightly chuffed at what LG and I achieved together in the summer hols.   The phrase "Mum I'm bored" was uttered, but not toooooo often 😉  I was reading on ed's thread his comment that DD1 was enjoying P6, which is great news.  LG, is still wibbly wobbly about school, although I think it's true to say that their fears about this year at school haven't materialised, certainly with regard to their teacher.  I think they thought that because of an issue, some time ago, that the teacher wouldn't like them.  However, that hasn't been the case, and if anything, I think the teacher has been supportive of LG - and they can recognise a (mostly) well-behaved child, who is (mostly) dilligent about their work etc, as well as being polite/well mannered under normal circumstances.  I do wish LG could find some 'out of school' activity that would engage them again.  I appreciate we got as far as LG wanted to go with a previous activity, but since then, there has been nothing, and I do think - because friendship groups at school aren't that robust - LG could do with doing some sort of activity that perhaps throws them in with a different mix of people, and challenges them a little.  DH's health hasn't been great, and he has definitely 'slowed up', and this doesn't bode well for the future - we still have a 'young' kid to parent.  Getting the towbar fitted to the car is certainly going to be spending priority #1 for 2026 as far as I'm concerned, even if I end up just throwing mine & LG's bikes on the carrier!

Fingers crossed DH will be joining us sooner, rather than later, but work hadn't indicated they'd be closing much earlier today.  

However you're spending the next few hours, I hope you enjoy yourself and get to spend the time how you prefer.  All the very best for 2026, and if I don't manage to make it back here tonight - see you all the other side, to do all this, all over again!

Thank you for your support in 2025.  It has been greatly appreciated by me.  Greying 😁👍 X

**Edit** - I forgot to say, I spent £15.63 on food items today, and 85p on the TV listings guide.  The radio and smoke alarms are 'one off' purchases that don't get allocated to any specific budget.  We've waited long enough to replace the radio - the aerial on our old one snapped off umpteen years ago.......  I will, however, amend my grocery budget siggie figgie.  

themadvix

Happy New Year Family Greying!

I hope your dough emulation is more successful than mine - my second batch is very wet for some reason - I must have added too much liquid some how. I am persevering though - wetter than normal pizza dough is how the experts make them super thin. Suspect they might be hotter I make a super mess! 😂

Blackcats

Happy new year Family Greying.  Thank you for inspiring me by sharing tales of your day today washing, cooking, schooling and adventuring underpinned by your strong family values.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Thank you for all your kind wishes for me & the Fam.  Super appreciated, as you can imagine 🤗

I retired to bed at 10.30pm - party animal I ain't (never really was).  I was awoken by fireworks, presumably at midnight.  To be fair, they weren't too loud - they were the 'pop' type, rather than any thunderous 'bang' -  there weren't too many of them and didn't go on for too long.  Still unsettling for kiddies and pets, I'm sure, but better than in previous years, in different homes/places.  

I will be making Hoppin John later.  Currently debating whether to slow cooker it - although I shall be honest and say I'm not well-versed in slow cooker rice.... maybe not the time to louse it up? 🤔But I'm going to use smoked tofu today, and SC would help the smokey flavours in the dish.  Ah well - nice enough dilemma to start the new year with.  

DH did manage to get away half an hour early yesterday 🫤  Other sections of the workplace had been allowed to finish even earlier 🫤  The delights of senior managers being off at the same time - which is never allowed with shop-floor staff....... 🙄

I did Detroit style sausage pizza for tea, and ended up using the waste reclaim salad tatties.  I left them in their skins, par boiled them and then put them in to roast/bake with the pizza.  I seasoned them with garlic powder, onion powder and greek seasoning when they were cooked - and they got munched.  Even LG expressed delight with them - which given they don't particularly 'like' jacket potatoes, is progress, although having said that, the skins were quite thin, so..... We had the pistachio ice-creams from MrL for pud.  They were ok, but I don't think I've found a 'new favourite'.  

I'm hopeful that I won't have to go shopping for food this week.  We've just finished the 'old' milk this morning, and I think we have everything else to last us until next week.  

LG is loving having their beloved papa at home a bit more - they are currently watching an animated film on.... BBC? about a Yeti 😁  Lovely to hear their joint laughter.  

Right. I've finished coffee cup #2, so better find something constructive to get up to.

Greying X

in_need_of_direction

What a lovely summary of 2025 with strong focus on the positives.

Baileys_Babe

Happy New Year Greying and family 🤗

Greying_Pilgrim

Well, I'm not too sure I have done anything too constructive since I was last here.  But DH has renewed the smoke alarms throughout the house.  I know there's no guarantee they can save you, but I would rather have them fitted and working, than not.  Did I mention, that the first pack I picked up, were a battery 'brand' and a double pack of alarms was £15.  I was thinking of getting them, when LG came across some 'unbranded' ones - which were literally the same as the branded ones, same shape, size, colour, everything - but were £4 each.......  So naturally, I got some of those.  

We had a 'picky lunch'.  We had 3 of the YS'd cheese and onion 'sausage' rolls from yesterday, there is one left in the freezer for someone's lunch at some point.  We used up the last of the 'opened' cracker packets.  I was going to use the box of savoury crackers I have left, but the opened packets yielded enough for everyone.  I finished off the smoked cheese - and we all had pieces of it (I thought I was the only one that liked it), and opened the hummous.  I also sliced up an apple and we all had some slices.  

I'm going to cook up a PrC batch of rice - there is room to store the extra back in the freezer, and I found it useful to have to make quick meals etc.  I must get the black eye beans out too.  

*Edit* - KajiKita has just reminded me, that whilst I bought 2 tins of butter beans from farmf00ds the other day - 50p each, I saw that bee&Em had an offer on for 2 tins for 90p.  I realise not everyone has those shops nearby, but I wish I had hung on to save myself 10p, as I was going to bee&Em anyway.

Greying X