From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

AnniMag

GP I have been reading your thread and would like to suggest that you look at the Lidl app.

The offers you see as you shop are a small part of the app.It is based on your monthly spend and has offers when you reach a spend target. When you have spent £50 you get a coupon for any item from the instore bakery [most msers seem to go for the sourdough loaf which is the most expensive item]. You get another coupon at £100 this month it is for their Crownfield cereal again your choice £150 spend coupon is for ice cream. If you spend £250 it is 20% off your next shop.

At the moment they have a promotion where you get a free piece of fruit each time you shop. you use the coupon to spin the wheel to see what you have won. I got a 500grm box of green grapes after my last shop. You need to activate the coupon on the app before you shop and have 7 days to use the coupon.
I rarely exceed £150 spend in Lidl each month and last month saved £14 on the app. I cook from scratch and buy mainly fresh food and store cupboard items. They have recently started adding coupons on things you buy so one of my coupons this week 15% off cucumber  so that saved me 15p. I look on it as a bit of fun but was astonished to find the app had saved me £132 last year by far the best loyalty app. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Not alot been happening here - certainly not reverse mortgage-wise anyhoo.

A little bit of spending and money shuffling has occurred tho.  so best record it.

I did do some shopping yesterday for food items.  A big chunk went on a box of salt, but we were out, so needs must.  I spent in total £10.95 across 3 shops.  So will update siggie.

Tea last night was a veggie version of Harira soup with wraps.  We ate light as LG's club had a social event on that involved the "necessary" (😉) consumption of chips...........  

'C4C' is now paid up in full.  May was a wash-out in terms of saving, although £2 was eventually scraped together from a bet wager 😱 (they said I could... and I did 😉) and £1 worth of tuppences saved and banked.  The balance was paid from the very dregs of CHB.  I was minded to continue on with the 'C4C' jar (for any 'extras that are needed - think we've got most of the 'kit' though in reality), although I am a bit put off by our May experience - and school have yet again (🙄) sent out the begging bowl - using the 'Silver Smart1e' ruse (if you've school-age kiddos, grandkids or family members you may well be aware of this fund-raising 'stunt'.  Wrong on soooooooo many levels.....).  So whilst we don't seem to have much 'spare' change anyway, we've this expectation looming over us - and yes, the obvious answer is that it is 'voluntary', but of course, LG wants to eat the sweets, and feels honour bound to take in some funds 🙄 And just don't get me started on 'the class that raises the most gets a further prize' 🙄

Right, siggie amendment and chores to attend to.

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

badmemory

Is this alongside the rule that many seem to have now about the sweet stuff in lunch boxes.  I would say incredible but unfortunately that isn't true.  Nothing like a bit of blackmail.

Greying_Pilgrim

Ach!  Don't get me started on the contents of lunchboxes, or school lunch times in general badmemory - I bet in France, lunchtime assistants don't "hurry, hurry, hurry" the kids to wolf down their midday meal........

How sad that David Wilkie has passed away.  I remember meeting him and having a picture taken with him at school (everyone did).  He was an ambassador for a charity or initiative or something that we were raising funds for with a sponsored walk or run or something (details lost in the midst of time).

Lentil dhal, rice and omlette for tea.  DH and I will polish off the last of the courgette dalcha, which LG is not keen on - LG will have plain dhal.  

Shopping list starting to be compiled.  Can't see how I can keep in budget - although I have noticed one or two things that we still have in stock, so they can be used before buying more.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning MFW'rs

Shopping day today (how exciting my life, eh? 😂).

I have my list, but I have now got to add eggs as I thought I would have enough to stretch, but made the rookie error of cracking multiple eggs into the same bowl for omlettes last night, and the last egg I cracked looked 'odd',  Although it was a fresh egg (and still had over a fortnight bb date on it), the yolk had a darker bit to it (not just a blood spot), and when I beat the eggs, it was a distinctive 'lump' - almost as though it was semi cooked.  There was no bad smell, but it was just too weird to contemplate, so that was a load of eggs wasted right there 🙄  mea culpa, but bah!  I erred on the side of caution, as I did not want to risk food poisoning. And even if it wasn't bad - who wants lumps in an omlette? 🤮

Otherwise, tea was uneventful and was munched without issue.  Greek Yoghurt and banana for pud.

Right, need to shift a tail feather and get some snap made.  And double check the weather report to see if there is the faintest possibility of getting anything pegged out today.  Sorry I've nowt more spiffy to report.

Ta for popping in.  Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Well, back from the shopping.

£30.22 spent 😣 Which takes me the best part of £15 over budget already, and we've 8 days of May still to run 🙁Anyone else not feeling the benefit of prices rising 'slower' than they were........

Ho blessed hum.  

Next week's meal plan is dependent on me making lots of attractive to eat nosh out of fresh air and enthusiasm.  Wish me luck..... 😂

Greying X

badmemory

I stopped believing their figures when they said inflation was coming down.  About the only thing I know that hasn't gone shooting up is milk.  There will soon be a shortage because the farmers will decide it isn't worth producing it & I can't say I would blame them.

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim said:

...Shopping day today (how exciting my life, eh? 😂)...

I adore shopping day...

Greying_Pilgrim said:

...Anyone else not feeling the benefit of prices rising 'slower' than they were....

...not so much the price increases which means less and less can be bought with the grocery budget & more pennies get shuffled from pot to pot!

These days I'm all about cheap is good and free is better!  We were very thankful to our veg box providers who kindly gave us spring onions and radishes that were not quite good enough for the boxes, but perfectly edible!  OH demolishes spring onions in his breakfast omelets & I love radishes, especially in a quick kimchi! Pennies saved help us breathe a sigh of relief when the income stretches to the bills (just).

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Not alot to report.

£5 spend on Friday on '3 for £5' Qu0rn products in MrA.  I hadn't intended to purchase them as such, but since MrA is seemingly intent on not stocking their shelves it was the only option to purchase something that could be made into a meal in the absence of anything else.....  £5 added to grocery budget-busting and a bag of faux meatballs was used for tea on Friday night, in a red wine tommie sauce and served with boiled basmati.  My only saving grace for spending £5 on Friday was that I had walked into Greying town, then walked out to MrA and then walked home in a big circular loop.  So transport costs nil, and exercise steps = 'quite alot'.

Saturday we went out on an adventure 😁  We took part in a family activity, which was extremely good VFM and we certainly hope to do it again.  We had taken a pack-up lunch, but indulged in cake 'n coffee - this wasn't such great VFM, unfortunately. On our adventure we heard a very vocal bird, and as I downloaded the m3rl1n app on the go (hot tip - download it before you go anywhere, I've not done it right, although it did function), and I now know that we we heard a Reed Warbler.  We didn't see it (par for the course apparently), but gosh it's vocal for such a little thing.  

Yesterday LG and DH went out for a pootle by bike.  They came across an event that was going on in the park.  Part of it was ticketed, part was free - luckily, the free portion was of greater interest to them, and so they got a couple of hours entertainment for free 😁  Unfortunately returning home, LG fell off their bike 🙄 A grazed knee and bruised pride and a waterlogged hi-vis top (from all the shock-induced tears), were the result, but a clean up and first aid helped, and the most mahoosive plaster from the box applied to said knee, meant that all was well in the end.

I've been extremely lucky and managed to get quite a bit of washing washed - and dried, amongst the downpours - over the past couple of days, so I'm not as behind as I was.  Although DH didn't tell me he was down to his last 2 pairs of socks on Saturday 🙄 so thankfully I managed to get socks washed and mostly dried yesterday.  I've not totally caught up, but I am getting there.

Tea was HM pizza and oven chips on Saturday night and Freezer curry and dhal, served with boiled basmati yesterday.

Can't think of anything else MSE relevant.

Ta for popping in - appreciated.

Greying X

rtandon27

Washing - it's never ending isn't it GP! 

I'm determined not to run the dehumidifier as it's the end of May, so my last load has taken three days to completely dry - a mixture of nights in the summer house & blasts of warmth in the sun when it deigns to grace us with it's presence!  Some of it however is my work cloths which I really don't want fading in the sunshine, so has been on the pole we rigged up inside said summer house for just such an occasion!

The smalls as you call them GP, were running low, so I plonked them on the airer and out in the sun for a blast earlier this morning.  As if on cue, the very odd husband of the next door couple came out to do his (several times daily) pace up and down the garden and stopped to check out said underpinnings.  The man irritates me to no end (for many other reasons) especially given that what I had put out were utilitarian M&S knickers of the cotton variety and not a lace-filled fantasy to be drawn up between any of them!  I try and be patient with his oddities as she did warn us before we bought the place that he was slightly mad (understatement of the decade), but I do wonder at what point, I advise him (or her) that his behavior is inappropriate and offensive?

Hey ho - on a brighter note, I've had a visit from the lovely soft black cat who has added us to it's rounds, still not brave enough to come and be petted, but has become brave enough to make sun-basking nests amongst the daisies, rosemary bush and portion of the lawn that is partaking in no-mow May!  I've named it Minky and it's not yet objected, at the very least perking up it's ears when called. 😻