From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Well, the daft thing was Paspatur that they appeared to use frozen lobster tails in the end, anyway - the very thing that was deemed too faffy at the beginning at the fine dining establishment!  Ironically, they just 'kissed' the lobster tail over the barbecue coals there.  Perhaps barbecuing would have been a better approach?  The bread was something good in it's own right, I thought, possibly too crafted to be simply a 'carrier'.... 

Beans cooked and cooled.  2.3kg cooked weight from a 1kg dry weight bag.  

The active wear has already dried on the line and has been brought in so that I can shift other stuff around. It is soooooo nice to see that the majority of the garden now gets sunlight for a much larger portion of the day.  I would still say that the breeze is the key to line-drying in this particular garden, but it just adds to the feel-good factor when the sun shines.  Our garden isn't huge, but we're blessed to have outdoor space and I spent a little while just lost in my thoughts in the sunshine, with all manner of bird, animal and insect life swirling around as I stayed still.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I had seen your post mumtoomany - I did miss it initially, as we just seemed to jump to a new page, and I didn't realise your post was there.  Yes, indeed, I have got bargains from FF in the past.  It's less convenient to get to for me, but if I am in the vicinity of the store, I always try to call in for a look.  I remember getting a load of organic pinto beans from there for 19p a can........  they would have been much nearer £2 a tin in any supermercado.  The RKB's I got in MrL today were 35p a tin, but I know sometimes quality varies between brands 😉  Ta for popping in and mentioning FF anyway, as there are bargains to be had from there, I agree.

Greying X  

Greying_Pilgrim

Good morning MFW'rs

Lovely weather with us today - 2 loads of washing out on the line.  Got it up and running quickly this morn as it's predominantly work wear and slightly heavier fabrics involved.  There is a nice breeze and the sun is weak, but in the background, so very nice.  Such a relief to be able to peg out.

I've started prepping the 'boiled' part of the ingredients for a 'Never Fail Fruitcake' recipe.  And yes, I can see the irony of ME linking to a site named 'gransnet' 🙄but I actually got the recipe originally (in it's ounces format) from MSE, so........  I add spices to my version tho.  Pineapple and allspice are a marriage made in heaven 😁I do, however, only have 1 more tin of the MrL bargainacious pineapple left 🙁  i happened to mention to DH, in front of DH and poor old LG - when asked if they wanted pineapple for snap today - replied, "only a little bit please mum, as I know it's so costly to buy now......"  Said with such conviction, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry 😢 So I just replied that we had been able to enjoy pineapple because of the special offer, but we would certainly keep having pineapple in the future, no worries 😁

Had nice moment with a couple of other parents on the school run this morning.  There was a bit of banter, and then someone said something very funny and we, all 3, absolutely roared with laughter.  Ain't it nice when that happens 😁

Hopefully we will be going adventurising tomoz, so I will need to do mucho prep today so that we have summat to munch whilst out, tea won't be a faff when we arrive home and I process YS'd stuff I got yesterday.  At the mo it is OK, but needs chopping and cooking, so will get onto that. 

No major money moves at the mo.  Just trying hard to do the day-to-day frugalness, to corral the pennies together.  

Can't think of owt MSE to add, so best get on with my stirring, chopping and mixing.

Greying X
 

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, that cake looks very tasty 😊 Bless LG for thinking of the pineapple being expensive. It'll stand them in good stead being aware of when something is a treat 😊 Glad you will still have it occasionally though! 

Your weather sounds rather like ours today, and I have washing on the line too 😊 In my case the basket was almost empty 😱 So I gave myself a treat and have washed my dressing gown 😁 Doesnt get washed that often, I only use it for an hour before bed usually, but I've been sitting outside with a cuppa in the mornings lately and it had got a bit of grubbing from the swing seat. Blowing merrily on the line too 😊

Also thought of you this morning when I spotted a dunnock going back and forth into the bush by our front door with a whole series of twigs and beakfuls of moss 😊😊 So special to watch them building nests, back and forth, ever so busy. Made me feel like I should be doing something productive, so I am out clearing the weeds out of the greenhouse 😊😊

Greying_Pilgrim

Siggie amended accordingly, but £5.19 expenditure on apples, grapes, sugar and sultanas just made across HB and MrS.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

**Waves** to Cheery - 😁  yeah, I just hope i didn't phrase it badly about the pineapple in front of LG.  I mean I don't want them worrying about money or poverty or lack of food or anything, but neither do I want them to believe that they can just buy whatever they want at anytime.  They're doing well with focussing on saving for their trip, and I want them to have more of a mindset of 'saving for what you want', but not that 'everything' is unaffordable, because that simply isn't true.  I thought I was doing quite well stretching the pineapple out, not overloading us 'just because it was cheap'.  I do try to rotate what tinned fruit we have, otherwise we would always be having peach slices 'because they are the least expensive'.... 😉

A bit of sun and washing flapping in the breeze makes all the difference - not too sure it would encourage me to weed, but you're a better woman that me, my dear! 👍

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Ha, it was the industrious dunnock that encouraged me to weed! And the fact that I want a little cosy garden room to sit in 😁

kayannie

I make a similar cake although mine has coconut in too. No idea where I got the recipe from but it always turns out well - problem is that it's very moreish & doesn't last long! I stocked up on tinned pineapple from Mr T a while ago, so need to check if they're still in stock. I almost didn't see them as they were on the bottom shelf, away from the more expensive variety.There are 8 rings in the tin so I use half(chopped up) & freeze the rest. 

I think you are doing the right thing by making LG aware of budgeting - it'll hold him in good stead for the future. 

KA

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Well, we had our day out adventurising yesterday 😁

In hindsight, it was a bit too far to go in a  day trip.  Not so much due to actual mileage, but more accessibility - you either had to get through several cities with convoluted roundabout/gyratory systems (which we ended up seeing a bit more than we intended of 😕), or you had to go the long route involving mountain routes, fog and errant sheep 😕.  my original plan, to  have done this last weekend (thanks Storm Kathleen for axing that idea), was to travel, visit, stopover, visit somewhere else and then come home.  

However, we ended up having a lovely time.  We got to do the activity with LG which was time limited to the Easter holidays (albeit not LG's Easter holidays), and had a nice time exploring a historical residence.  I did laugh when we were eating our picnic lunch outside on the (provided - YAY!) picnic tables - there was us and about 3 other doughty familial groups, wrapped up in 3 coats each, knitted bonnets, scarves, muffs and car blankets........ (not quite, but you get the picture... 🤣).

Anyhoo, it was a day out - the first for a long time, and we saw so much throughout the day - vintage vehicles of all description, lots of birds and we saw the first new-born lambs (we've seen) this year, which considering they were in a high level location, stuck out in the middle of nowhere must have made them a doughty breed!

We did notice that the state of the roads was dire with potholes.  Even T0ny B1ackburn had been talking about it on his radio show earlier in the morning.  It wasn't one particular council that was at fault, as we travelled through several.  DH was constantly worrying about damaging the car.  

Oh, one unexpected upturn of our visit was a pootle around the little market town after we'd finished at the venue.  We came across the town library, tucked away on a back lane.  So we popped in for a look!  OK, so we couldn't have loaned anything, but oh my, WHAT a gem!  The children's section was superb.  There was such a lot of lovely books.  I don't know if the library in Greying Town has a similar selection, but it was just all set out beautifully, and was so welcoming, bright and vibrant.  There were 2 (very friendly) librarians, one other adult and then a ma & her son popped in.  I know it was just under an hour from closing time, but I hope they had been super busy throughout the day, we all know libraries are an increasingly easy target to close for cash-strapped councils 😕

One wash has just finished and I shall be putting on another just now, as there is a drying window of opportunity this morning.  

Tea tonight should be a curry plate.  We had burger baps and oven chips last night, using the last of the YS'd 'thin bagels' I had picked up in MrL.  Not the most nutritious tea, but our lunch had been a bit more balanced, and tea had to be something quick and easy by the time we got home.

Right, washing to attend to and homework.......

Ta for popping by.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Glad you got your day out Greying! Lovely to be all wrapped up having a picnic 😊

beanielou

Sounds like a lovely day out was had.