From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

greenbee

I don't go to the tip for the same reason as redo - punctures. I have two garden waste bins, and until this week have had a permanent backlog. That'll happen again when pruning starts up again I expect. And I do compost a lot (there are several builders' bags of shredded prunings waiting for more grass clippings so they can be composted). 

Cherryfudge

We have yet another variation on the system: we can pay per annum which amounts to about three seasons as green bin collections stop over winter. No discounts for starting later in the year!

If the bin collectors found garden waste in a landfill bin (though ours I believe goes to incineration which in turn powers something or other), I think they would refuse to collect, so it's not a question of having an alternative to a green bin apart from home composting. I've got two home compost bins but we get lots of twiggy bits that wouldn't compost, so we opt in to the green bin: it's about £45 a year.

I dread to think how many systems are on the go country-wide! I do like the idea of buying a set of stickers that you can 'spend' per collection, which enables people to have more control over how much they use the service, including possibly making one payment do more than a year.

Cheery_Daff

At our old house we didn't have an automatic green bin collection - but you could buy green bags (from the libraries and other places) then once you'd filled, ring them to collect. So you could just buy a roll of 10, and either have them collected all at once, or over the space of 5 years I suppose 😂 Camt remember the cost but it wasn't much.

Anyway, Greying! Please do pop back in, I know we've all derailed your thread talking about green waste collections but do just come back and talk about whatever else you like too! I know it's your kitchen table and you don't need permission 😂 (just didn't want you to think you had to join in or reply to us all 😂) 

🥰

redofromstart

I'm making a pineapple based fruit cake and thought of you GP, never would have tried it if you hadn't said.

beanielou

redofromstart said:

I'm making a pineapple based fruit cake and thought of you GP, never would have tried it if you hadn't said.

Ooh. I used to make a fantastic pineapple upside down cake. 

kayannie

redofromstart said:

I'm making a pineapple based fruit cake and thought of you GP, never would have tried it if you hadn't said.

I make a tropical fruit cake using pineapple, cherries & coconut. I use half of the cheapest tin of pineapple from Tesc@ & freeze the other half tin for the next time I make the cake. It is absolutely delicious & a family favourite. KA

Greying_Pilgrim

Hello MFW'rs,

Interesting to hear all the chat about green waste collections and charges/no extra charges.  

I'm just playing 'catch-up' with life, this end of term seems a little more 'full-on' than most, and we've some extra 'admin' to do, so time has run away.

Nothing particularly interesting otherwise.  I don't think I have anything MSE-wise to report.  redo thank you for adding in the pineapple tin size - appreciated.  

We did watch the footy - although LG fell asleep inside 5 minutes as they had spent the day outdoors with their beloved papa, and i think the 'fresh-air' did 'em in. 

Here's looking forward to the Women's Euros qualifiers and competition...... 😉

We're one club down this week and that is that for this term.  Two more sessions and then that is extra-curricular activities done for this academic year.  No further monies to be spent on clubs, as they are paid up, but an extra activity has popped up and it will cost £5 - which will be met from CHB.  

Right, I'm flagging, so will wend my way up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire just now.  Need to get a loaf out of the freezer first for snap etc tomorrow.

Ta for popping by.  I will catch up with everyone's comments just now.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon MFW'rs

Went shopping to MrL and did a quick spin around MrS and HB yesterday.  Total spend in 2 days is £54.32.

I didn't get anything on offer in MrS.  Everything that I bought is what we needed, but I bought it from there as it was the same price as I pay anyway, and there were extra points attached to the product.  I think I have finally breached the £10 barrier in n3ctar points - and have only done that because I got a gazinty-billion points for a purchase from a linked partner 🙄  

MrL was relatively quiet today.  I plumped for a bag of scottish tatties.  I thought I had done the 'sniff test' but when I got them home, one had gone really 'juiced' and the liquid had split onto several others.  I sorted through them, threw away 4 in total that were either 'gone' or had blight patches and washed the tatties that were tainted with the smell.  I'm sure any gardeners amongst you are well aware of the smell of blighty tubers 🤢 Talking about smell, I am not quite sure what had died and crept under the checkout in MrL, but goodness that was 🤢 How on earth the assistant on the till was dealing with it, I have no idea.  Definitely someTHING rotting.......... 🤢

No green boxes, no YS'd items, other than a jar of honeyed tahini which was 30% off.  I have at least got a few salady-type bits as a nod to the warmer weather.  But I couldn't get over the 'shrinkflation' of the cucumbers in MrL, 89p ea, but all shorter than the width of the box they were packed in - by quite some margin.  And no, they were not all baby marrows to compensate.......  One thing I have noticed is that MrL have finally started stocking 2 types of malt vinegar (distilled and malt) separately, rather than in mixed cases - HURRAH!  There are separate spaces on the shelf and separate price labels.  MrS have been doing this for some time, so it is a case of catch-up for MrL.  Long over-due.  

One more out-of-school session for LG to attend and then that is us done for this week and this term.  The camping trip is in a couple of weeks time.  LG has done very well and received an award unexpectedly.  This particular activity has not been plain sailing, mostly because of the impact of other children, but then perhaps an award 'hard won' is sweeter in the savouring?  Who knows.  This is the end of the first phase, so I am hopeful LG will stick at it, and carry on with the activity.  DH and I want them to and will try to find the money so that they can fully participate.  Although the organisers are pretty spiffy about making a £ do the work of 10, and are extremely hot on accessibility and equality of opportunity for all - so in the grand scheme of things, the money we need to find each month is relatively modest, for what we will probably receive in return. 

Interestingly LG got 'poverty shamed' at school recently.  The rationale that the other child used to deduce that LG  was from a 'poor' family, was our non-participation in an out-of-school-hours event 🙄 I did speak to a member of the school leadership team, and they did agree with me that 'riches' aren't denoted by money alone, and did (apparently) speak to the individual about several matters that they had pontificated on (read - there's only one way of doing that, and it is my/my family's way of doing it - you don't do it like that, so therefore you are wrong... 🙄) But I don't know whether the kid will change.  Gareth is right, there is alot of anger out there, not just about winning and losing, but across the board, and kids aren't immune, they seem to be so critical of each other, and so competitive - usually based around 'consumer' matters.  'I've got, you haven't', 'We're going, you're not', 'My [insert object] cost £000's, yours is a hand-me down.....'  Gawd, it's never ending.  Mind, the school don't help on that - as they allow the kids to show off what they've bought/been given/might be getting, and don't find the time to showcase the kids that are doing acts of kindness/fundraising/befriending or whatever.  I don't remember it being this hard when I was at school.  There were haves/have nots, for sure.  But I don't remember the kids taking on each other so much.  Someone going to their Aunty's for a week's holiday in the summer was luckier than you, as at best you were going on a Sunday school (day trip), with the elderly congregation members....... 😁 No-one rammed '6 weeks in Florida' down your throat, as no-one ever went that far away! 🤣

I must remember to submit my energy meter readings - I always remember a few days before or several weeks after! 🤣

The car is being repaired, so we will have a big William for that winging our way just now.  Ouch.  But at least we have a repairs budget line, and fingers crossed the quote/assessment will be accurate.  The person doing the work is time served/experienced, so......

Can't think of owt else MSE related, so will push orf to update my siggie.

Ta for popping in.  Appreciated.  Greying X

beanielou

Well done to lg for the award. 

Some kids are just the pits. I always remember when my DS was at school someone being really mean to him because we were skint & the amount of kids that were mean to him because I was disabled well. In some ways nothing has changed since I was at school 50 years ago. 

Rant over. Apologies. 

rtandon27

GP - could you set a monthly reminder in your (new fancy) phone?  I often put in reminders for things that I'd ordinarily forget, such as booking doctor's appts at 8:30am whilst I'm on the train commuting & trying to catch a few extra zzzzzz's!