From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

VintageHistorian

I could understand it if there's some severe sensory processing issue going on, but even then I think taking £200 out of the McDonald's budget and spending it on some intense therapy for the child would be a better longterm investment.

themadvix

In agreement about the £400 at McD’s - and also such click baity articles. There was one in the times the other day about how the middle class are being squeezed - one example was the couple who couldn’t afford to employ a nanny anymore - and not for childcare while they were at work, but for evenings and weekends! Why did they bother having said poor child??

edinburgher

I will confess to feeding my children McDonald's, we'd struggle to spend £400 tho! I *think* that would be IRO of 13-15x what we typically spend for a family of 4, probably more! 😉

themadvix

Ed, I’m pretty sure no one here is suggesting that the occasional McD’s isn’t normal or acceptable - we are not judging that (or you!). £400/month though and complaining that he couldn’t afford it?! Definitely not in the category of good parenting/budgeting or even living in the real world.

Not sure when you’re off GP, but have a fantastic holiday and I hope you have good weather (forecast here is meant to be lovely for this week - hope it is where you are too!)

beanielou

Happy holidays.

Baileys_Babe

Have a lovely holiday family Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Hey, thanks for thinking of us 😁

We are in the van, did a top up shop in MrL today, but we did OK for sandwiches and tea with 'brought from home' stuff in the purple hotel yesterday, and lunch today. Note to self tho, if you're going to pack frozen HM pizza for tea in a purple hotel, do NOT pack mushroom pizza. It took forever to defrost and was far too watery - which doesn't happen so much if it has a little blitz in the micro-warvey. LG's black olive pizza defrosted perfick.

We are having a mix of paid for fun (annual museum passes) and free fun (wandering about hither and yon). We have made the first use of our NT membership to get into a car park.

The weather has been top notch, with today being even warmer than yesterday. We've seen plenty of bluebells, the oilseed is yellow in the fields, and today, I saw the first swallows of 2026 - and possibly a house martin this evening.

I spent £18.17 in MrL, but that did include some ice-creams and a bottle of red wine. I have updated my siggie figgie. There were some green boxes in MrL. One didn't have alot in it. One was full of tatties, and had we been on our way home, I may have thought about purchasing the third one; but as it was, I let it alone.

We had lentil bolognese and pasta for tea, using frozen bolognese transported from home. It had defrosted, but was still cold - by the time I came to cook it, it had totally defrosted, but had been in the fridge for 1 hr+ by that time. I was quite impressed. The cool bag hadn't been placed in quite the optimum position in the car, but the lentil bolognese was 'double' cool bagged, so that is certainly one thing to bear in mind for future, although it probably would not have worked in summer temperatures.

Our travel mugs are coming into their own, and I haven't yet filled an 'additional' flask for top ups. The mugs are providing 'sufficient' hot beverages, and I'm still impressed at how hot the liquid is initially, and how - even if you've had sips from the cup - the drink is still very warm, 7+ hrs later. An excellent investment - even DH said that today. Plus, I filled LG's cup with milk yesterday before we left home, and it kept cold for hot drinks in the purpley hotel, and for our 'flasks' today.

Lots of itty bitty money saving today - basically it boils down to using annual passes, and being satisfied with simplicity - which extended to a pack up made from stuff brought from home. Not everyone's idea of fun, I'm quite sure, but it suits us for the time being. Plus we get to travel vicariously by watching race across the world (although since when did that include profanity? I thought it was supposed to be a family show), and then we joined Ben in China.

Ta for popping by. Greying X

peb

I'm so pleased you made it and that the weather is holding up nicely.

My Mr penguin cook bags usually work nicely but that's a "straight too' the holiday cottage rather than with a detour to a purple hotel

Greying_Pilgrim

Too right peb, it's not ideal to do it the way round we did it this time, with a purpley hotel stop first. But we'd planned to make this museum visit/purple hotel stay at the end of our last holiday in October half-term, and had bailed, in favour of heading straight home. Location-wise, and incorporating visits, it worked well. But I think we are on the cusp of the weather being too warm to risk relying on coolbags. We certainly can't entertain it if we were doing a summer trip. So I think I need to re-jig my thought processes of getting everything planned and visits dovetailing. Perhaps sometimes we just need to go to A, visit around A, and then return home. Rather than travel to A, via X,Y, and Z, taking in B,C, and D whilst we're based in A, and taking in U,V and W on the way home…… Having said that, we've all woken up and there has been no ill effects.

The purple hotel did do in-house catering, and it seems like they have had a menu re-vamp, but the evening meals did seem a bit costly - but that's probably because i have no idea of eating out prices. I'm afraid I thought £15 for a pizza quite costly - but accept it's probably me with the problem, not the catering industry and rising service sector costs.

We're going to have a gentle day today. Maybe a bit of walking, maybe a pootle into a nearby market town, with it's very own Waitflower…….🥰

Ta for popping by. Greying X

Blackcats

sounds like you are creating exactly the right sort of holiday to suit you all with the extra bonus of good weather. Keep enjoying yourselves and having fun.