From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery_Daff said:

What a wonderful day indeed! Those days truly need soaking up to get you through the slightly worse times. It sounds like you have properly stowed it away in your mind. What a lovely list of things to happen! So glad your ongoing issue is getting sorted out xx

With the ongoing issue, something has happened that has taken the pressure off behaviours impacting us on a regular basis, and this will lead to a mindset shift (certainly in my mind, and i hope in time, in LG's). This latest development will help in just moving on and leaving the 'issue' behind.  

We have just had a wonderful time watching small birds flock into the garden.  There must be greenfly (I am assuming) on a "thug" of a rose that is in the garden.  First of all a whole load of house sparrows descended (very funny as some of the new growth is very green and 'boingy'), then came the hedge sparrows, then a robin came and everyone left.  Then when it was quiet, a blue t1t came.  DH thought a (female) hedge sparrow was a wren, but the next thing we heard a wren singing, and it popped up on the fence and then hopped along the all wall/ground, finding (seemingly minute) things to eat.  Just wonderful, and it was so good to see and hear LG being interested in watching the various birds.  

We had savoury vegetable rice and omlette for tea.  I seasoned the rice with rice vinegar, sugar and salt and nigella seeds (along the lines of japanese sushi rice), before adding in the stir-fried veg mix.  I sliced up a spring onion and scattered it over the omlette.  LG didn't enjoy the rice, and claimed it was hot like it had pepper or chili in it - despite it not, and despite them eating flatbreads with nigella seed like they were going out of fashion when I used to make them for DH and I, and plain for LG. 🙄  Anyway, it was all munched eventually.  Yoghurt for pud.

I am very grateful for help and support today, and the many forms it can take.

Thank you.  Greying X

beanielou

Always good to get help & support.

Greying_Pilgrim

Small amount of grocery and household non-food spends to report. £4 on veggie plant balls and veggie sausages from MrA and £1.89 on kitchen roll from HB.  Have really smashed non-food budget for this month 😕

Greying X

rtandon27

Oh GP - I have such a laugh for you!  I was so taken with your suggestion of Mac & Cheese Soup that I passed along an internet recipe link to OH.  His only comment in the most incredulous voice was "WHAT ARE YOU? SIX?" 🤣🤣🤣  I'm not sure how to explain to him just how much I'd enjoy it for dinner one night!

Greying_Pilgrim

Aw, rtandon - I feel you pain!  Thing is, your hubbie could gussie it up and make it totally decadent, or make it cheap and cheerful.  I had to be mindful I was shoe-horning veg in, so it was more like a soup than mac 'n cheese, although that is where the inspo came from, but in blending the veg base, it made a very creamy stock, so actually was a fun experiment.  It was a dreich day, and it so hit the spot. 

Culinary prowess, making a wonderfully warming, comforting soup on a dreich day (and let's face it, we've had us fill of those 🙁) tell yer hubster that's a love language, in action, right there 😉😁👍

A load of washing in the machine as the BeeBeeCee have changed their minds with the weather forecast (again 🙄) and apparently it's now going to stay dry with us today.... apparently cloudy too, but as I type, the sun is shining....... #consulttheseaweedinstead

LG has club tonight, so I may pop into somewhere to do some YS shopping.  Don't have a list/needs in mind yet, and have to be careful as the budget is running down, and I've to remember I've to keep us fed for at least another week.  So more thought required.

We were wondering why the combi boiler was firing up when we used the cold tap.  Have looked it up and discovered the plumber has left a 'dead leg' of pipe (somewhere) and air is trapped in the system and is tricking the boiler into thinking hot water has been drawn.  **sigh**.  I wouldn't mind so much if we hadn't paid through the nose for - what can only be described as an 'adequate' job.  I certainly won't use that firm again.  I don't suppose they care, they are trading on their name (garnered by a previous generation), and probably do just enough to get the work coming in.  In the meantime, we can try to locate this 'dead leg' and try to do some of the things suggested to get the airlock out.  In the longer term, we will need to get a plumber in to get rid of the dead leg, otherwise it will keep happening, and as you can appreciate, everytime the boiler kicks in, it uses gas........🙄

Right, the spin cycle has just ended.  Best shift-a-tail-feather.

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

greenbee

Getting decent trades seems to be a nightmare. I've been lucky with the heating engineer who came out to do my pressurised hot water tank service (the expansion vessel needed repressurising) and then serviced the boiler. And with the electricians (after the first one let me down). The decorator was recommended by EVERYONE in the road (this was about the only house he hadn't done), he confirmed that my neighbour was the person to go to for flooring, and then also recommended a builder. The plumbers annoy me (and seem expensive for small jobs, reasonable for big ones), but they work closely with the electricians, which will be important once I get round to the whole solar/heat pump thing. 

I hope you can find someone to sort out the plumbing problems soon. 

rtandon27

Awww GP - if only the hubby understood the concept of a love language - he is best described a meat, potato and two veg kinda man, who thinks the good old days of traditional roles was the pinnacle of civilization, and would not be out of place typecast as Grug's older cousin (as in Croods)...

...and then he met me 🤣🤣🤣

How very vexing about the plumber!  I too despaired with finding a trustworthy plumber/boiler server person for our 100 year old house & my kindly elderly neighbour told me about BGas homecare "insurance" - we took it out and for slightly more than the cost of one boiler service per year, we have reliable & trustworthy service on call at our convenience rather than theirs!  Means I can schedule them for a day when working from home and they actually show up when they say they are going to!  We've had the boiler service for this year and are about to do a call out for an electrical socket that scarily sparked and now won't work!  We pay monthly rather than annually, but did do the calculations compared to all the call-outs we'd had over the previous 2 years and it ended up being less!!!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Not alot been happening here - certainly not moneywise/mortgagewise/DIY project wise.

Went shopping today.  Should be the last time before the end of the month, but have spent (almost) up to the hilt with the grocery budget, and have ended up going over on the household non-food budget too.  I've 72p in hand for the food budget and have gone over with non-food by £4.23 at the mo.  

I have altered my siggie, but don't know whether to feel elated that (thus far) I have managed to stay in budget, or whether to cry because there is virtually nothing left over to sweep into the 'C4C' pot 😢.  Although on my traipsing about from hither to yon, I have found a pound this week, so that has all gone into the 'C4C' pot. 

Our local MrAl has gone over to (some) self-serve tills.  I'm not a fan (because I can never get them to work properly, I realise they are a boon to some folk), but reluctantly used them - needless to say, they are not popular in that store, but if the store management refuse to open more tills, there is little choice.  I did actually think MrAl were doing away with those type of tills due to increased shoplifting, but these had so much security around them 🙁It occured to me actually, in 'Ye Olden Days' you had to be careful with security gates if you wore a pacemaker (I remember the signs in the library when the gates were first introduced, many moons ago).  I suppose things have improved, and that is no longer an issue - I think our small MrAl now has at least 3 security gates to navigate - to enter/exit the store, if you use the self-service area.

 I seemed to get quite a bit of veg for my money today.  Nothing had obviously gone up in price 'overnight'.  One item had gone up in MrAl since I last bought some, but that is pushing on for 6 weeks ago, so not such a surprise.  Now that MrS price match MrAl, I have less reason to shop there.  There were - surprise, surprise - no £1.50 boxes in MrL.  Although the sign is still up, I wonder if they've given up (unofficially) doing it, and just bump up the donations to the food waste diversion instead. 

I didn't put on a wash today as the BeeBeeCee said we would have pouring rain for much of the day.  I was momentarily blinded just now, by the pavement splitting sunshine we are having here 🙄

In wildlife news, yesterday was definitely a day of two halves.  In the morning, prior to school, LG and i spotted a male sparrowhawk sitting on a branch in the garden across the road.  Watching it launch itself off down the street was amazing.  Then when I went out later in the morning, I spotted a (dead) chick on the car windscreen 🙁 It was very young, no feathers 🙁 Too young to fly out from the nest, and in an odd spot.  However as I was 'clearing it away' I found another - even smaller - chick in the front garden, again deceased.  I assume that a nest had been raided - possibly by magpies (we have lots here), and the prey had been dropped in flight.  Then at tea time, I had just said to LG, "have you told dad what we saw this morning?" and I noticed a flash in the back garden.  LG had just regaled the detail of the sparrowhawk, when they spotted that the sparrowhawk was back - in our garden this time!  Unfortunately, he was being very, very persistent around next-doors hedge, and we know that robins are nesting there.........  This time he flew off empty-beaked/clawed, but........

Oh, the latest school trip cost has come in.  A tenner to find out of CHB, from down the back of the sofa or from (wait for it.......) "savings from my grocery budget" 🤣🤣🤣  I think we know how well THAT is going...... 🤣

I don't think I said.  The uniform change that was mooted (for additional branded items) has been shelved.  I guess enough people said "Non".  The new broom has been able to tinker sufficiently around the edges to feel they have made a point, but luckily it won't adversely affect us, adding no additional costs, over and above normal uniform replacement.  

Tea this evening will be a buddha-bowl.  Most likely the protein will be feta, but we'll see.

Right, can't think of anything else that meets the MSE brief, so best push orf.

Ta for popping by.  Appreciated.

Greying X

kayannie

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Good Morning MFW'rs

Not alot been happening here - certainly not moneywise/mortgagewise/DIY project wise.

Went shopping today.  Should be the last time before the end of the month, but have spent (almost) up to the hilt with the grocery budget, and have ended up going over on the household non-food budget too.  I've 72p in hand for the food budget and have gone over with non-food by £4.23 at the mo.  

I have altered my siggie, but don't know whether to feel elated that (thus far) I have managed to stay in budget, or whether to cry because there is virtually nothing left over to sweep into the 'C4C' pot 😢.  Although on my traipsing about from hither to yon, I have found a pound this week, so that has all gone into the 'C4C' pot. 

Our local MrAl has gone over to (some) self-serve tills.  I'm not a fan (because I can never get them to work properly, I realise they are a boon to some folk), but reluctantly used them - needless to say, they are not popular in that store, but if the store management refuse to open more tills, there is little choice.  I did actually think MrAl were doing away with those type of tills due to increased shoplifting, but these had so much security around them 🙁It occured to me actually, in 'Ye Olden Days' you had to be careful with security gates if you wore a pacemaker (I remember the signs in the library when the gates were first introduced, many moons ago).  I suppose things have improved, and that is no longer an issue - I think our small MrAl now has at least 3 security gates to navigate - to enter/exit the store, if you use the self-service area.

 I seemed to get quite a bit of veg for my money today.  Nothing had obviously gone up in price 'overnight'.  One item had gone up in MrAl since I last bought some, but that is pushing on for 6 weeks ago, so not such a surprise.  Now that MrS price match MrAl, I have less reason to shop there.  There were - surprise, surprise - no £1.50 boxes in MrL.  Although the sign is still up, I wonder if they've given up (unofficially) doing it, and just bump up the donations to the food waste diversion instead. 

I didn't put on a wash today as the BeeBeeCee said we would have pouring rain for much of the day.  I was momentarily blinded just now, by the pavement splitting sunshine we are having here 🙄

In wildlife news, yesterday was definitely a day of two halves.  In the morning, prior to school, LG and i spotted a male sparrowhawk sitting on a branch in the garden across the road.  Watching it launch itself off down the street was amazing.  Then when I went out later in the morning, I spotted a (dead) chick on the car windscreen 🙁 It was very young, no feathers 🙁 Too young to fly out from the nest, and in an odd spot.  However as I was 'clearing it away' I found another - even smaller - chick in the front garden, again deceased.  I assume that a nest had been raided - possibly by magpies (we have lots here), and the prey had been dropped in flight.  Then at tea time, I had just said to LG, "have you told dad what we saw this morning?" and I noticed a flash in the back garden.  LG had just regaled the detail of the sparrowhawk, when they spotted that the sparrowhawk was back - in our garden this time!  Unfortunately, he was being very, very persistent around next-doors hedge, and we know that robins are nesting there.........  This time he flew off empty-beaked/clawed, but........

Oh, the latest school trip cost has come in.  A tenner to find out of CHB, from down the back of the sofa or from (wait for it.......) "savings from my grocery budget" 🤣🤣🤣  I think we know how well THAT is going...... 🤣

I don't think I said.  The uniform change that was mooted (for additional branded items) has been shelved.  I guess enough people said "Non".  The new broom has been able to tinker sufficiently around the edges to feel they have made a point, but luckily it won't adversely affect us, adding no additional costs, over and above normal uniform replacement.  

Tea this evening will be a buddha-bowl.  Most likely the protein will be feta, but we'll see.

Right, can't think of anything else that meets the MSE brief, so best push orf.

Ta for popping by.  Appreciated.

Greying X

The day we collected the keys to our house, there was a dead sparrowhawk in our garden. We think he must have flown into a window, but since then I've spotted one on next door's patio - again dead. As we're in a very windy location, the neighbours have erected a see-through plastic windbreak & the birds just don't realise it's there. Many of our neighbours have erected these wind-breaks & I dread to think of the fate of many more birds. 

On a happier note, I've just been watching our resident blackbird & his wife feeding their babies, who are as big as their parents! If I wasn't keeping them supplied with mealworms, I'm not sure how they'd be finding enough food for their growing family!

I went food shopping yesterday & our A!di has gone over to self service tills in the last week. There were no manned tills open & many people were struggling to use the self service. One assistant was helping with problems but I wonder how many more have been made redundant!  I was shopping in a more distant town yesterday & went into F foods for the 1st time. I didn't buy much, but was pleased to see some items cheaper - sugar £1 instead of £1.09, tinned chick peas & lentils 39p instead of the 49p I usually pay in A!di.

I did get a £1.50 box from L!DL, but left the completely rotten bag of pears behind. What is the sense in putting those in the box in the first place!

KA

debtfreewannabe321

I think you deserve a big well done on staying within the grocery budget even if by pennies. I went all out to smash mine this month *oops* 
I used to live opposite Mr Al in my old house (well kinda one row was in between us staring at it) and when they introduced self serve tills almost everyone boycotted them, we all stood quietly affirming our protest in the queue even when a staff member was trying to coerce us over one older lady said, 'dear why don't you just get on a till and the queue will be halved?' She refused to though, think she felt embarrassed and wandered off to find a manager. About six months after they were put in they disappeared again. I only use if I have to as I think they take away people's jobs and I say that as the staff ask me to use them....i'm like one day maybe you will thank those of us who refuse to use them when you still have this job (or maybe not maybe they hate it there lol). 
We have baby blackbirds here too, I think blackbirds are some of the best birdy parents they literally feed their young till the young are bigger than them!