From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Paspatur - I think 'purpose' is most likely the key, plus if you offer kids to be transported around, or get their under their own steam power, I suspect the vast majority will plump for the former!  LG would always plump for the car firstly, but out of cycling or walking they would plump for cycling first.  But sometimes it is easier to walk - no worries about parking, no worries about where to leave bikes, no awkward crossing of fast roads trying to drag a bike too......  If I could get LG to walk somewhere without having to cajole though - that would be an achievement.......

I hope LG wouldn't feature in obesity stats, but interestingly it is getting increasingly difficult to get clothes to fit.  The cut of clothing now seems so 'tight'.  There is no such thing as gussets anymore, and any type of trousers might as well be two pipes sewn together.  Depending on the retailer, LG is already in clothing for the year above, and now that is tipping into 2 years above.  Clothing seems to concentrate only on height, rather than a corresponding growth in girth, or shoulders, or thigh muscles or trunk, everything grows on a body, it isn't just about height.  I suspect that the shaping is determined by computers trying to get the maximum pattern pieces out of a bolt of fabric, but not all humans are tall and cylindrical in shape!  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Well, we have lovely sunny-sunshine here today, a good stiff breeze and there (currently) isn't a cloud in the sky.  I have taken a gamble and set a load of washing on the line. Rain is in the forecast later, so I may not get any further forward, but we'll see.  

I'm just off shopping in a minute.  That is if LG shift's a tail feather.  Anyone else suffer from family members who dawdle to the extent of preventing you getting out the door on time?  I thought once we'd passed the stage of needing to pack the kitchen sink in order to go out the door to buy a book of stamps from the post office, things would improve.  But no, they've got worse!  Hope this is a stage!

We had a curry plate last night, made up of curries out of the freezer.  I have to say the swede and lentil jungle curry was lush even second time around, and the swede had changed in the freezing process (in a good way) to the extent that LG reckoned it was like eating apple pie - and it was, it tasted appley.......

I'm hoping to do falafel wraps tonight, but that might change.  I do have the wraps, but we'll see if I can get reasonably priced salad stuff to go in them. 

I am going to do a bit of non-food household shopping today.  It will alter each month, but at the moment, I am aiming to spend £250 a month in total on; food, non-food and bulk shopping - £215/25/10 split.  But that may have to be adapted, as I haven't done it like this before, so I am not 100% sure if I'm in the ballpark for spending that little/that much on each section IYSWIM.  

Can't think of owt else MSE to record at the mo, so best get going.

Ta for joining me on my travails.

Greying X

teapot2

Morning GP, I can confirm that dawdling is definitely a thing with tiny and no longer quite so tiny humans in my family at least.  Even when its an outing that they are excited about or its their favourite club or whatever, there is never any hurry to get out the door and much procrastination with putting on footwear, gloves and coats etc 🙄

Greying_Pilgrim

Ha ha teapot2 - I soooooo feel your pain! 🤣

So back from shopping.  I spent an excruciating amount of money 😬  I will be back later to tot up what i spent and where it is to be allocated.  

But, I noticed a couple of things.  

1) MrL have their offer back on veggie stuff - including the cold-ron Tofu for £1.75, which is a reasonable price.  I'm pretty sure it is a regularish offer, but I just noticed it.

2) MrS did have the savoy cabbages in their Easter veg offer (n*ctar membership req'd 🙁) so I got a lovely cabbage and I also picked up a bag of their tatties for 15p and 2 x parsnips (stick yours for 65p MrM/19p with a morri Kard). The potatoes were billed as 'white all-rounders' and were Scottish in origin. 

I will now require a gazinty million recipes for the use of swedes, tatties, cabbage, carrots.........

I still managed to forget washing up liquid 🙄

Our MrL was very quiet, but the person on the till was telling me after about 10am things would ramp up and it would likely be their second busiest shopping day of the year.  MrS was heaving - and the person at the till was moaning that 'the shops are only shut for one day'.....🤔  I would have explored my n*ctar offers, but it was just too busy.  

At the moment, it is still dry here (touches wood....), and breezy, so the washing remains out on the line.  

Right, off to do me maffs and adding up.......

Greying X

kayannie

Do you have the L!DL app on your phone? It's not something I bothered with until recently, but it does have weekly offers & occasionally freebies. Last week they were giving away their own brand of yoghurt - several options to choose from so I obviously (!!) went for the best deal which was their own version of the ones with a separate corner of jammy fruit. 6 in the pack which retailed at about £1.95! Just checked latest offers & they have the same offer on this week. They provide a nice free pudd for the next few days!
KA

Greying_Pilgrim

Hi kayannie - logically it would be a good decision to have the MrL app on my phone, but I'm unsure if the app will take up much memory/power on the phone?  My phone is old and cronky, and yes, will need replacing, but I would have a MrL card, but am reluctant to have app based things on my phone.  Am I a luddite - yes.  Am I potentially shooting myself in the foot?  Yes.  But I am not keen to move to needing to have my phone with me at all times to function.  I know my thinking is wrong/against the grain/old-fashioned etc etc, but that's how I feel.  I do like to hear about when folks make these loyalty methods (card/app or whatever), work for them 😁👍

So I have collected my receipts and done some working out.  I am just going to add most of my food spend (today) to March's grocery total.  For sure, some of it won't be eaten until April, but much the same as the YS'd sausages I bought last week, the money has been spent in March.  So in effect, I think I will have spent something like 5 weeks equivalent grocery money in March 🙁 but onwards and upwards for April.  My non food household expenditure ended up being less than i thought, but given I forgot washing up liquid AND rubber gloves, it's just as well there is some budget left!  So the food expenditure was £30.38 (clearly which won't be consumed in the 3 days left of March, but still), and the non food household expenditure was £12.94.  I haven't counted any alcohol expenditure this week (normally I would), because we will be on holiday, so may have a glass or bottle more than we would normally, so I'm treating it as a holiday/entertainment expense - given that the 'pre-child' version of us would have popped to the pub at least once during this weekend, and I think it would be easy to spend £20+ now for a couple of real ales and some crisps, which is what we used to have as a treat.  I suspect I would faint at the prices at the bar nowadays.

I saw on an online weather site that rain was predicted to start just before noon, so I got the washing in.  Sure enough, 11.59am, the first drops started.  I am so glad I spotted it, I knew I was on borrowed time, and it had clouded over from this morning's lovely blue skies and sunshine, but the washing had dried really well in the breeze for 4hrs or so.  Sure, it's not bone dry, and has gone onto the airer, but it's good enough to come in the house, and can be put away tomorrow.   

Greying X

EssexHebridean

Kayannie Lil's clearly like you more than they do me - I don't seem to get free stuff unless it's on the scratchcard, or when they were doing the spin to win thing. Oh and of course the free loaf thanks to the spend threshold - that's a monthly treat I would be quite disappointed to miss out on!  I've actually hit the level for a free pack of biscuits this month - so must remember to select something tomorrow when I shop that we can set aside for holiday treats!  As a rule though the app is worthwhile I think


We don't include alcohol in our grocery budget at all as standard, sometimes during the summer months in particular Al's in particular might have a nice beer or two we will buy some of, but other than that it's not a "routine" purchase for us - when we do buy we tend to buy direct from the brewery as in fact we have for this weekend - and in larger quantities as if they are delivering to us we always feel we should make it worth their while!  I have been debating about the idea of some form of bulk fund - but at the moment I'm going to work on the "roundabouts and swings" basis I think - there will be some months where more stocking up is required, and those will be higher spend - there will be others when we then reap the benefits of that stocking up and so those months should be lower spend...lowER - rather than "low" as we all used to be able to achieve though, sadly! 

kayannie

kayannie said:

Do you have the L!DL app on your phone? It's not something I bothered with until recently, but it does have weekly offers & occasionally freebies. Last week they were giving away their own brand of yoghurt - several options to choose from so I obviously (!!) went for the best deal which was their own version of the ones with a separate corner of jammy fruit. 6 in the pack which retailed at about £1.95! Just checked latest offers & they have the same offer on this week. They provide a nice free pudd for the next few days!
KA

I realised today that the price of the freebie 6 packs of yoghurt were actually £2.99, so even more of a bargain! KA

badmemory

You would think the shops were closed for days wouldn't you.  It took me over 30 minutes to get out of the supermarket carpark this lunch time, running a fairly close second to the Friday before Xmas.  A holiday & payday all together usually means chaos.

Greying_Pilgrim

EH - we count alcohol in the grocery budget as we 99.9% 'drink at home' these days - and I should add, relatively modestly.  We don't have a takeaway/entertainment/eating out/pub budget because we just don't do those things anymore.  DH has never been a big drinker - certainly not since we've been together, the last time he was "drunk" (my emphasis) was when I was pregnant with LG, and we went out with friends who were seasoned drinkers, and he tried to match the guy with real ale pints........ 🤣  I have never been so glad I was on corporation pop! 🤣  When I met up with a school mum last summer term - at a pub that had a 'good' play area for kids, I stood a round of drinks - 3 soft drinks for the kids and a wine for her and I was slightly aghast that the bill was in double figures and that the cost of the wine she requested (and I was happy to pay for) was more than I am used to paying for a bottle.......  But I accept, I'm a luddite, and I don't live my life like most folk do 🙁 

kayannie - Bravo!  I am so glad you are getting the 'wins' from the loyalty programme.  Interestingly there was an article on Yah00 detailing why supermarkets are shifting everyone to digital loyalty programmes, for the associated data harvesting.  The thrust of the article was that old folks were being excluded - the age of 75 was mentioned - so I know my place 🤣 At this moment in time, I wish loyalty cards were as 'eligible' as the digital apps, but I'm a luddite on this issue, I realise that.  

badmemory  - yeah, the till operative in MrL today reckoned that today was the second busiest to the last 'easiest' day before Christmas.  I accept if you're having folks around or are going off for the weekend, you needed to stock up today, but  I am old enough to remember shops closing for the 'whole' of Christmas, or the 'whole' of Easter - and we lived in the countryside, and went shopping to the local market town weekly, so had to 'stock up'.  Times have changed, people live differently - but we just about timed things right today in terms of not being too delayed, despite LG's propensity to lolly gag!

Tea this evening was 'plant balls' from the freezer (bought not made), HM tommie sauce and pasta, with a bag of the 15p green beans from MrL.  The green beans were lovely, steamed in the microwave.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

a little car to pootle about in
inclusive, price based offers - helps us all
that I managed to get DH's work clothes the best part dried - total bonus given the weather forecast

Thanks for popping in.  Always appreciated, always.

Greying X