From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

DH chose to start mending the fence half-way thru the afternoon 🤔 I managed to wrangle the washing in - something like 5 minutes before it poured with rain 😱 I don't think we were supposed to have rain, but it went really cold(er) all of a sudden, and the wind got up. I was pleased that I'd managed to get so much washed and mostly dried. I need to check the forecast to see when i can get DH's workwear done. DH got wet and didn't finish up until nearly 6pm 🫤 I hope he doesn't go down with a chill 🫤

Anyhoo, I decided on a curry plate for tea. I used the bag of parsnips from the green box to make Parsnip Curry in the pressure cooker. It was a recipe from 0live magazine, but unfortunately the link is now behind a paywall. I used some lentil dhal out of the freezer and boiled up some rice. I also shredded up some of the YS'd brussels sprouts and steamed them in the microwave. Pud was l/o crumble with yoghurt for DH and LG and I had yoghurt and a banana. I had to trim two of the parsnips - they had started to go mushy around their 'collar', but as a green box item, they were perfectly acceptable. There is a large portion of curry left over for another day, and there was a small pot of leftover rice too.

Ta for popping by. Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

DH's workwear wash is on the line. It's cold, overcast but breezy with us, so there may be a bit of drying occurin' - although rain is forecast, so who knows. There is only one of the items that is 'needed' for tomorrow - everything else has a dupe, so I've that on my side at least.

Tea will be fish fingers, chips/wedges and mushy peas - and I may have to incorporate a smidge of shredded sprouts, as the few that are left, are starting to yellow ☹️ Not unsurprising, as they were YS'd, but ☹️ Lunch will likely be soup (the only plus side of the colder weather), and that is likely to be based on some sort of veg mix I think.

I haven't got many 'ready' meals in the freezer as I enter into April with another tight food budget. I don't know why I do these challenges with myself (well, I do, but….), as I'm not feeling the love for the penny-pinching it is going to involve - primarily because of rising prices. Not related to the food budget, but I've totted up the DD amounts each month going forward, and we're already at +£72 - although that is in part due to making the decision to re-join the NT. But even +£57 - as has been said elsewhere - has to be found from somewhere. I was so pleased (at the time) that we had been able to lower our household bills by going metered for water, and changing the household insurance and my car insurance providers. We made savings, not doubt. By that seems to be gobbled up so quickly by rises elsewhere. I'm sure it had been everthus, I'm just voicing it out-loud, as sometimes that enables me to accept the situation better (it is what it is, everyone else is in the same boat etc etc), or come up with some ways of cutting corners elsewhere.

DH is back to mending fence panels - and is moaning that his 'time' could have bought replacement panels 🙄 The panels are beyond on their last legs, we need to be buying replacements. Why we are dragging our feet is because whoever put the concrete posts in, must have done it on a Friday afternoon, and none of the panel 'gaps' are the uniform 6 feet. It is unlikely to be a case of 'lift out…slot in' ☹️I forsee alot of shims/planing in our future ☹️

Anyway, I'm fast descending into 'Grumpy Greying' so I'll shuffle orf.

Ta for stopping by. Greying X

KajiKita

Mr KK may be a chippy by trade but he loathes fencing jobs, won’t touch them! 😂 So I am sending sympathies to Mr GP.

I know exactly what you mean by as fast as you find savings, increases absorb them. Have you ever considered doing things to earn some funds? I’m thinking of things like surveys, FBMP, V1nted etc. They could help support the fun and memories fund.

KK

Greying_Pilgrim

You're right KK - but I'm afraid I won't do surveys - for privacy and getting 'screened out' at the last moment reasons. With the re-selling, I don't know 'what' we could sell. Certainly in terms of clothes - DH and I wear ours to destruction, and LG's are pretty well used too. My PJ bottoms are a case in point. I got them around the time I had LG - they are a holey embarassment, and fit only for rags now.

I am not saying 'no', I just don't know how we could make this work - other than finding a 'cash for rags' place I guess?

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon MFW'rs

I brought the washing in, just as it started to rain. I have signed up for the GC thread on 'Old Style' and was just typing out my post, with the intention of getting the washing in when I'd finished - as the computer had said rain was the way - and I looked up to see the first few spots on the window. I'm so please I caught it in time, as the washing had dried well, it had got to that stage of feeling slightly 'cold damp', rather than damp. Not bone dry, but good enough to not require the dehu, so I'll take that as a win.

Lunch has been munched - pea and rice soup. I made the 'base' from onions, garlic, celery and carrot and a few peas, half a stock cube and some water. Cooked that up together in the PrC for 10 minutes and then blitzed it with the stick blender. I then added some more frozen peas and some l/o frozen rice, and then brought the temp. back up to ensure the peas and the rice were cooked thru. I added mint sauce, salt, pepper and some greek seasoning. It made 3 big bowlfuls, and LG declared it 'delish and 10/10' - which is high praise indeed considering they used to turn their nose up at pea soup.

Thinking about surveys and things, whilst I do guard our family privacy, I do also think that I'm not the 'type' of consumer that research companies want. Partly because I'm not an average/typical consumer, and partly because I think our views are somewhat 'old-fashioned' compared to our parental contemporaries - who are significantly younger that DH and I. I'm most certainly not trying to cast shade, but one example is that we didn't really bother with 'soft play' with LG - whereas parents from nursery/anti-natal classes tended to go quite frequently. The one upside was that LG didn't go down with quite as many bugs and illnesses as their chums, but a downside was that one time when we went with a chum was that LG was a little lot behind the curve as to what to actually do, whilst their playmate was diving into the ball pit, and running headlong into the sponge rollers with gleeful abandon. There must have been a beebeecee programme on recently - because there was an article on the news website - talking about parents experiences of the rising cost of 'days out'. I have to say, a 'lunch' of over £50, and a dinner of over…… was it £170? wasn't that surprising, but I don't know when DH and I have ever been able to consider that type of expenditure. We did spend in the region of £80 on a lunch last year, but that was for a special occasion, not a weekly occurence. But we were in the minority visiting that restaurant for the first time, everyone else knew precisely where everything was, what was on the menu etc……. As I say, we're not typical consumers, and are of little use to the marketing team.

I'm hoping taking up a place on the GC challenge will help out with April's grocery budget. I know there are several MSE'rs on there who are aiming for a similar target, even if their own circumstances are slightly different - ie an adult couple, or more (but younger) kiddies etc. Mind, it is only a challenge I've set myself, I'm not the least competitive. Any penny saved is a good thing, I'm not trying to come way, way, way under budget - just stick to a modest budget, and still eat well/nutritiously/interestingly etc.

Greying X

Watty1

I guess survey companies want a cross section of views not the echo chamber of asking people with the same opinions the same questions and getting the same answers. You might be surprised (I only do the professional body ones and am often screened out but those pay around £1 a min if I do get through the screen)

KajiKita

Tbh, the reason I suggested surveys to you GP is because you have LG. The best paying surveys on the apps I go on seem to want parents of children at home, which completely excludes me but would include you 😊

What are your concerns about privacy? I haven’t seen anything particularly identifiable in the questions I have been asked and if anything does come up that you don’t want to answer you can just close down the survey.

KK

peb

I saw that article about eating out too. I wondered if they were taking advantage of the TV programme as they had "sides" (I hate that term) and didn't go for the options at pizza express to make it less expensive

It's definitely expensive taking a family out put there are ways to make it less so - for example pizza express are doing some sort of £5 deal, no issues with just having water at the table, so two pizzas to share would be £10 -

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81942032#Comment_81942032

I haven't ever eaten at that pizza chain peb so wasn't sure how it was structured, but one thing that struck me - and I hope I'm not being unfair - was that there seemed to be alot of food ordered to the table (I only saw the costed list, not the programme), and I wondered if more than a bite or two was taken from the children's meals. I'm not being critical - after all, one minute the message is children eat too much of the wrong sorts of things, and the next they aren't getting nutritional balanced meals (over the course of a day or week). It's one thing if all those different pizzas and dishes were ordered and eaten (or even doggy-bagged home, to be eaten later/the next day), but quite another if they were ordered and the food got left, simply because only a bite or two was desired, or there was too much variety. Weren't the kids aged something like 8 & 6?

Yes, I totally agree that there are savvy ways to eat - and I think more people than ever have discount cards, vouchers or stack deals - but that then begs the question what was the programme trying to highlight? As an infrequent (an understatement) user of restaurants, might I look at the headline figure, and say 'eating out simply isn't for us?' Whereas if I listen to the advice and guidance of lovely MSE'rs, I might say 'with this deal, we could enjoy pizza out for £10', just like you say. My personal beef isn't actually with food places, it's the increase in 'annual passes' for museums and attractions. I get that if you live locally, or it fills a particular interest, then an annual pass is vfm. But I wish there was a 'one off' price, and an annual pass price. We currently have 3 passes to use before October - one we will not entertain going back - far too dry and dusty - and the other two we would like to revisit (at least one has a new item to see), but of course the distance away may now become an issue with rising fuel prices/possible fuel shortages. OK, so it'll be a sunk cost in those circumstances, but I would have preferred to have had the choice of lower cost for one visit, or pay slightly more to visit multiple times.

KajiKita - I just don't like companies knowing my inside leg measurement - more especially when they've gathered the data, and then screen you out before payment, or reward. And as I say, yes we are parents, we have a kid, but I don't think we are representative of the type of consumers companies want to entertain. Not my cup of tea I'm afraid. There is enough data mining done as it is - and in my experience, MrS still can't offer me discounts on stuff I actually buy….. 🤣

Greying X

teapot2

I often think I'm not the desired demographic for some surveys either - a carless, currently without a pet, vegetarian. aged 70+ widow with no children who last holidayed abroad years ago and doesn't subscribe to any streaming services!! [not keen on the term widow] however, I regularly get P1nec0ne surveys for instance which pay £3 a go, and I mostly disagree with the need for the product they are asking about and mark that I definitely won't be buying it but that doesn't seem to deter them from inviting me to the next one😄.

I enjoy Pr0lific surveys mostly, though avoid a lot of the AI ones or those that say they include personally identifiable info being provided and despite that I'm at over £70 cleared this month which helps with my savings even after putting some in the 'tax pot'. Each to their own though GP