From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim said:

...I am officially a boring auld fart!...

This did make me laugh GP as we used the same term last night for our inability to stay awake past 12:30!

I don't think you are a boring auld fart in the slightest - more a Mom of a young child who is keeping it all together!

Sleep is a priority!!!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MSE'rs

Aw Pollie - thank you so very much for your kind words.  You have no idea what your support means - and also the MSE'r who pm'ed me - you know who you are 😉 sooooo supportive.  I can't let y'all down now can I?  I've got to do this for me/Family Greying and y'all 🙂

Well, today.  What's occurred?  

Um, I have partially dried a load of washing.  It didn't dry as much as I hoped, as the wind dropped, and without blazing sunshine (ain't gonna happen in a north-facing garden in winter.....) it dried as much as it was gonna, before the weather started to show signs that rain was on the way 🙁  I retrieved the washing, and put it on the airer. 

LG went out cycling with their daddy, a flask of HM hot chocolate and a couple of chocolate biccies accompanied, making a coffee stop at the cafe in the park unnecessary.  

Lunch was minestrone soup using a tin of beans, a medley of chopped veg and the 'bits' out of the bottom of a few pasta bags.  A substantial, filling lunch for pennies.  

DH has finished LG's room decoration - so mission accomplished.  DH will now be returning to work for a rest..... 🤣

LG completed more thank you cards, so they can join the others and be popped in the post tomorrow.  It's important to thank people for their thoughtfulness and generosity.  

We heard from a couple of family members from my late parental's side of the fam. today.  Good to hear that they are doing well and had a good time over the festive period.  None of us is getting any younger.

Tea this evening was Hoppin John.  Served with broccoli (rather than collard greens), and of course, ours was a veggie version, without the smoked ham hock.  Again, this is a dish for pennies as the beans were dried, the rice bought in bulk, the tomato sauce HM (again in bulk).  Pudding will be a MrL version of an almond mAgn*m.  

I'm hopeful to complete some banking tomorrow which may see me able to amend the windows saving total. And from today's activities, I think I can legitimately put £2 into LG's trip pot.  Lunch was pennies - I didn't even use anymore bread than I would on a school lunch/work day, there were no "extras", we didn't have lunch 'out', plus had I had to go to the launderette, I would have spent a minimum of £1 - but probably £2 getting the washing dry (6 minutes for £1), so given that the washing was.... 80%(?) dry, and lunch was thrifty, I reckon £2 is a fair reflection of savings, and therefore I can think of no-one better than LG to benefit.  

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

my virtual tribe
some of my 'blood' tribe
that being honest in a safe space doesn't hurt......

Ta for poppin in, you have made the difference......

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MSE'rs!

Well, it's a bit lot soggy with us - how about you?

We walked into Greying Town first thing, it was raining lightly (although heavier than forecast), and popped into the bank and the building society.  The mahooosive visa bill has now been paid, last month's wages moved to the relevant account and LG deposited the cash that they had so kindly been gifted by rellies for Chrimbo.  By the time we came to walk home, it was pouring 🙁  We got soaked.  But we wouldn't have been any better driving or catching the bus, as walking from the carpark/walking to the bus stop would still have seen us get wet, so the bonus is we didn't spend anything on transport and got just as wet.

At this moment in time, I am not going to move anything from last month's wages into the windows savings pot.  We are having an issue with our water supplier who seem to have done nothing but mess up our bill since we bought the house, so we may yet have to pay the balance of this year's bill and start with a fresh DD in April.  We have our EF still in place, we are something like a month in hand with the money for bills - including annual savings for 'big bills' so I will wait until the end of the month to see exactly what - if anything (there should be something) - I can sweep across. Technically speaking, the challenge will start with January's wages, but who is not going to see if there is any spare money available from the 'treading water' months?  It would have been a bonus amount anyway.   We're currently solvent - that's the key thing, and with the exception of the water bill - up to date with all invoices and bills. 

I picked up some apples, some dried herbs and the TV mag - wish I hadn't bothered with the mag, as it got wet in my bag on the walk home.......  😕

LG needs to write 1 final thank you card today, and then we can draw a line under Christmas 2023 - they have done very well and relatives have been very kind.  Final day of the school holidays, so all back to normal from tomorrow.  

Can't think of anything else MSE-related, so i shall shuffle orf. 

Ta for supporting me.  Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Right I was wracking my brains as to how to come up with any 'Coins for Camping' today, as the groceries were all 'proper price' (albeit probably the lowest price I could find), nothing was YS'd or on offer.  Then my gaze fell upon the shrapnel that has accumulated in my purse, and I remembered that at the old house, we used to bag up small change (not every single penny, but when a purse de-change was needed), and when we had collected the requisite £1 or £5 (depending on what coin we'd collected), I used to deposit it in LG's account (the building society would take any number of bags of coins for kiddies accounts). 

So I ransacked my purse, found the old part-filled bags that we'd brought from the old house, and the upshot is we have £6 in filled bags, and some partially filled bags that will keep for another day.  Buoyed up by that, I emptied a 'piggy bank' that had been sort of pushed to the side, but contained some coins and in amongst everything, there was 2 x £1 coins.  I figured we didn't know we had those, so they can go in the 'coins for camping' jar.  I will take the other coins to the PO this afternoon (if it EVER stops raining....) and deposit them into my account, and then withdraw £6 to put in the 'C4C' jar.  Technically, by the end of the day, we could be up to £10 - whoop!  I'll take that - I'm a firm believer in making hay, so would much prefer to 'get ahead' and get the money saved, so that we have it.  

I have put the 2 x £1 straight in the jar, and will amend my signature further after the money has been deposited later.

Also, LG 'helped' (🤔) with the counting - so free maths lesson chucked in as well..... 🤣

Greying X

northwalesd

Ooh that's a nice surprise and a bloomin' good start 😀 

rtandon27

oooo - what a lovely 'find' for LG's camping fund!  It's amazing how quickly loose change adds up!

I'm well impressed that you WALKED to an actual bricks and mortar BANK!!! 

The only time I set foot in a bank is when a collection has been taken up at the office and I need to put the cash in my account to cover any expenses that have gone on my card. These days so many people transfer the change to me via Paypal that the small bit of cash in hand is given straight to OH for his in pocket money & then he transfers the amount from his account to mine.

Given the dire weather in our neck of the woods prohibiting any outside ventures today, our banking was done online this morning with a tiny tilly tidy to round out this month's mortgage payment and transfers to the credit card to cover our xmas group lunch from mid-December.

Tomorrow we will venture out, as I'd like to investigate the savings interest at the local building society, which while it might be pittance, would still be at least double the pittance we are currently receiving!

Greying_Pilgrim

Hello northwalesd and RT 👋

Yes, it did feel strangely exciting to 'find' that money today - felt like quite a big 'win' - probably because I didn't think I'd accrue anything at all today. 

Now we have got the incentive to corral any pennies and tuppences, and see what we can add to the total.  We did venture out to the PO - although it hasn't stopped raining.  We had walked halfway and then discovered that the footpath was flooded and there was no way around, so we had to go around the long way 🙁  We deposited LG's thank you letter in the post box and joined the counter queue.  Luckily you CAN deposit bagged cash into your bank account through the PO (don't know if there is a limit on the no. of bags), so I am now able to transfer another £6 into the 'C4C' fund 🙂 

RT - we are lucky with having a bricks and mortar bank in Greying Town, but I don't suppose it will last for much longer.  

Greying X

beanielou

Not so long ago we had 5 banks in the shire. 

Now none & a part time PO. Bah. 

Paspatur

Greying it is so good to have you back. Proper honest budgeting and frugalling. I stopped reading some threads about wanting to be debt or mortgage free and spending xx on candles, chocolate, coffees,cat toys, clothes etc. Good luck with the pounds for panes and the coins for camping. Sure you will smash it xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MSE'rs

Ha ha - my dearest Paspatur - if tales of scrabbling down the back of the couch for ha'pennies and '50 ways to cook a lentil (singular)' are your kind of thing, then you have come to the right place 🤣 Thanks for your support👍

Anyhow, tonight's news is that I may very well have created a MSE'r Monster....... I explained to LG what I was doing with the 'C4C' jar - and what it was to try to achieve/how they would benefit (they really, really wunna go on the camping trip), and they were interested - helped me count the pennies, came with me to the PO in the rain (without too much complaining 🤔), etc etc.  When DH came home, LG excitedly told daddy what we had been doing, and how he 'mustn't touch' the money in the jar, as it was for a specific purpose and there was £10 in the jar......... DH was suitably impressed, and on fishing around in his jacket pocket, came across a pound coin that he duly gave to LG to be added to the jar..... LG was delighted, but then wanted to copy daddy, and fished out their coin purse, and got a £2 coin out, and added it to the jar........ 🤣I did try to point out that this was a marathon, not a sprint, and whilst it was super spiffy that we'd added £9 to the jar in one day, it couldn't be like this every day.........  But LG was adamant that they wanted to add their £2.  And to be fair, the coin purse had been taken to town earlier, and nothing was bought, so they are exercising prioritisation of what they want to spend their money on I guess......

Tea was suitably frugal.  It was baked potatoes for the adults (DH had the remnants of the sloppy joe/savoury mince mix with some cheese and I just had cheese), and LG had some lentil bolognese with a portion of pasta.  Dessert was greek yoghurt.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

managing to engage LG in a project that might just impart some 'life lessons' (although it is early days.....)
that we managed to achieve our tasks despite the weather
we've had a good family time together over the holiday period.  Memories made.

Ta for popping in - I greatly appreciate the support.

Greying X