From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

peb

I nearly put the washing out today but I don't know if I'll be back before dark and undo the couple of hours it would get.

I thought of you when I. Lidl as they had two veg boxes which looked decent for a family.   No good for me, both had a five pack of Nana's in  which I can't eat , a cauliflower (just bought one) and potatoes plus plenty more.

rtandon27

@Greying_Pilgrim - I thought of you this morning when I folded up the drying rack and moved the dehu to get to the back door.  I was hopeful, but our weather gods were temperamental and by the time I went upstairs to sort laundry, the heavens opened!  Instead, I ended up doing a power tidy of the house and wiped down the outside of the front door which was quite mucky.  The weather gods are now having a laugh as a sunbeam has just hit the garden, just as I need to get ready to go see the physio!  Oh well, tomorrow is another day & there is no shortage of laundry in this house!

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks peb!  I'm with you on having bought X and then come across a waste box stuffed with perfectly good specimens of said item!  Ah well, we can feel all warm and fuzzy and remember that we've been community minded and left the boxes for others 😇  I must admit, had I been able to spend a few minutes longer at the waste station, I probably could have thought of good uses for a few more items, but hey, them's the breaks - maybe another time.  

rt - I've just got the washing in, and it had dried better than recent loads, but not as well as I'd hoped.  I think there was less breeze than forecast, but more sun - but of course, we don't get enough sun in the back garden at this time of year to be useful ☹️  So I have had to roll the dehu out ☹️  I've put it on for 2hrs, and I'll review at that point.  

I did pop out to our MrS.  It was an extra trip I didn't want to make, but there you are.  There was none of the lowest cost newspapers - with the vouchers - in MrS, I wonder why not 🤔........  So I nipped to hB and got the last stardaily.  We now have weekend options and options for half-term, which is always nice, isn't it.  

I need to amend my siggie figgie - I spent £10.10 in this trip - £8.70 food, £1.40 nf.

Greying X  

edinburgher

Boo! I've just checked and there doesn't seem to be a Scottish flavour of the NT offer What went in your mushroom and olive pasta (besides the obvious)? I have a large punnet of mushrooms from Mr S that I have no real plans for, and our house is mostly made of olives...

Greying_Pilgrim

edinburgher said:

Boo! I've just checked and there doesn't seem to be a Scottish flavour of the NT offer What went in your mushroom and olive pasta (besides the obvious)? I have a large punnet of mushrooms from Mr S that I have no real plans for, and our house is mostly made of olives...

I noticed that Scottish NT weren't participating ☹️  Daft suggestion, but do more of the Scottish NT properties have to close in winter - due to inclement weather - icy paths, car parks, unaffordable heating bills etc?  Genuine query, I'm not taking the proverbial.

ed - I will have made up the pasta sauce as I went along 🤣 But it would have been something along the lines of;  onions, garlic, celery, mushrooms, HM tommie sauce and the black olives.  HM tommie sauce is onion, celery, garlic, carrots, mixed peppers, chppped tommies.  All cooked for 10 mins in the PrC and then blitzed with a stick blender - herbs and spices added according to what I have - but mixed herbs or italian seasoning would suffice (paprika is nice too).  Quantities are always eye-balled and depend on whether I'm making a batch, or for 1 portion.  Is that any help what-so-ever?  My olives are always the MrL spanish black olives.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good evening MFW'rs

The washing isn't bone-dry, but I refuse to put the dehu on any longer.  It should dry overnight.

I'm pretty sure I am up-to-date with my siggie figgies.  

Today has been a really strange day. 

Unassociated with today, do you find it really strange (to deal with), when you've been saying something is happening/is right, and no-one is listening to you, or it's a case of you're living with it/next door to it but it doesn't affect anyone else in the street, so they're 'not boffered', or you get told by someone who 'helicopters in on the holidays' that you - as a 24/7 observer is wrong.......... Yeah.  That.

I had confirmation today that something that i said had been happening/was an issue...... 6....7.....8? years ago, was indeed, an issue 🙄  It's too close to something that I identified as an issue (separate case), um...... 17, 18 years ago, but I was told 'no, there's nothing wrong'.  But there was, and a minor distanced-relative spilled the beans some 15 years later....   

There is no advantage to me being 'right', it's just a case of outcomes might have been different, or maybe you didn't have to live next to an X house, or see people being uncared for or abused or whatever.  Nobody wants to be right, you just want to see 'grandad' (or whoever) treated right, or cared for.  You want to see inheritances/houses go to the people who deserve it - not the people who muscled in 'towards the end' with an agenda.  Thankfully that wasn't something that involved my family members, but it happens.  

I remember feeling euphoria when the circumstances at our previous owned property changed.  Unless you've experienced it, the pressures of "anti social" (broadest meaning) neighbours, are just so impactful on every part of your day.    It took us a couple of days to realise that yes, we could.use.our.own.garden.   I have the pictures of LG in our garden on that day.......................

Someone told me - without telling me - I was right about something.  I'm annoyed, because outcomes maybe could have been different if people had been just a little more open and honest a little while ago.  Being an adult sucks.  But we will move on.  All that matters is Fam. Greying. 

Black olive Detroit-style pizza (HM) and oven chips for tea.  Apple crumble (made from free apples) with yoghurt for pud. 

I'm sorry I'm so grumpy.   I never seek to be right, but hate it when I encounter a brick wall of 'not my department', or 'i work, i haven't the time', or 'Algernon is upset, it's not a cognitive issue'..........

I'm just getting things out - please don't feel the need to supply answers, there are none.  It's done.  Let's all move on in the direction we choose.........

Greying X

Blackcats

I completely get what you mean.   A consolation for you is the knowledge that you have good instincts so it's ok to act on them for Family Greying. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

I can't think what to type this morning - I'm struggling for MSE/MFW content.  

Lunch will probably be soup.  We have sunshine, but temps wise it's still in single figures.  I haven't put a wash on - the breeze isn't very strong and I think we'd be struggling with drying again, especially as intermittent showers were forecast.  I appreciate I may have shot myself in the foot tho 🙄 DH's workwear is dry, but i need to sew a button on before i put the clothes away.

LG and DH have gone out shopping for bits for bikes, or cars or something.  DH has chased up the car tow bar firms he'd approached with follow-up queries and has received satisfactory replies.  It's now just a case of choosing a firm.  It's a case of time-served, been around for donkeys years, one-man and his dog, known entity or a 'relatively' new kid on the block that is much more of a organisational, industrial unit workshop, "flow" set up. At the end of the day, who is going to do a tidy, correct, 'craftsmanship' job?  There is something like £50 difference in price.  I think I'll leave DH to make the decision - I can see pros and cons to either set up.  sole traders can sometimes do perfect work, because their name is attached to it, sometimes complacency can set in as we get older.  Sometimes bigger outfits can be sloppy, or cut corners to make a profit, or sometimes they can do perfect work because they've focused on one or two areas, and are good at it, and have everything set out/the correct tools for the job.  

Tea tonight is probably going to be a qu0rn bake thing in the SC.  We were given a couple of bottles of wine at Christmas time, and I'm wondering whether to use it in a fricasse style dish.  One red, one white, and the red was just about drinkable.  

Right, I really can't think of anything to add - and it's gone past midday now, so good afternoon MFW'rs! 😁

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Right, I "cheated" and we all had cup soup for lunch.  It was just like a 'twixmas' lunch - cup soup, crackers, cheese, a cheese & onion 'sausage' roll and some crisps.  Probably the nutritional value of a cardboard box, but it's emptied some packets and boxes, and fed us, so.......

Change of plan for tea, as LG has been invited over to a chum's house and has been offered tea there as well.  So I only need cater for DH and I...... Watney's party seven it is! 🤣

Greying X

Jellytotts

Hope you save the tin to wear skating 😁

I have a lone spicy sausage that needs to go on a pizza - I may have engineered that there was just enough for a pizza when I portioned everything out.  I’ve been hankering after a pizza for a few weeks now.  Will be a yoghurt and GF flour base and there’s a few sad cherry toms and an onion that can join the sausage.  Might even go mad and open a tin of pineapple.  Oh the decadence!