From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

dfw321 - that's awful.  No wonder folk are eschewing fitness activities.  

kayannie - regrettably you ain't the only one to remember 😉 Although my memory is clearer of 1976 and getting sunburn on holiday at the Kent coast 🙁  And then again in 1979 being out all day long on a school camping trip and getting so sunburnt (sun block was an expensive luxury and we were not sunaware), that the skin literally peeled off the back of my legs in sheets when I got home 🙁

Urgh.  £58 spent. On what???  I did spend £10 on a new flask - which I am now not sure about.  It is modelled more on a water bottle (no cups), and whilst it claims to keep contents hot for 12hrs, it only has a plastic lid, and I can't see how the vacuum is formed, so the lid is very hot, when you have filled it.  I'm testing it currently with plain water, and will return it if it does not work.  Everything I purchased for LG is either 'building block basics' type clothing or will be kept for impending 'adventurising' and then will revert to be being used at home daily.  There is nothing that is an indulgence or 'disposable' item that will be only used once.  But still £48 on clothing......  I also spent £7.83 on food in MrS.  Will add it to my grocery total.  I got some Lebanese flatbreads for 20p YS'd, they have gone in the freezer, and 2 punnets of cottage cheese with pineapple Ys'd to 25p each.  They are a Polish product and the container is modelled on a certain type of yoghurt that is cornered.  The picture showed pineapple chunks, but the pineapple was much more of a 'jam' type substance.  I must admit, i wasn't overly keen on the cottage cheese - I suspect UK cottage cheese differs to perhaps european..... curd cheese?  This was much more distinctive curds and whey.  I think proper price the cottage cheese was over £1 per punnet.  I'm glad I only spent 25p.  I wasn't overly keen, but did eat mine.  LG asked for one, but took a couple of spoonfuls (hoovering up most of the pineapple), and then declared they didn't actually like it 🙄

We have sunshine here now.  And once the overnight rain stopped, the forecast morning rain didn't materialise 🙄

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon MFW'rs

More money spent - arrghhhh!  The child clothing piggly bank is now well and truly empty, save for 3 buttons, a quarter inch washer and some fluff 🙁  And no, dear reader, I still do not have all that is needed for September 🙁 Mind, it hasn't helped having to get 'ordinary' clothes alongside uniform.  At least LG is still happy with generic/supermarket clothing.  Heaven knows where we would be if I had grown a label-conscious child.....

It did help that MrT had 25% off clothing - several more 'building block' items of clothing were bought from there.  

I also have the winter coats bought - school and outdoor adventuring.  The brands were reasonable (everyday performance recreational/outdoorsy wear), and the coat for school had 20% off.  Both were bought 'too big' (but not silly big), so if looked after, should do a couple of years.  Which actually would make them good value for money.  

Whilst I was over the 'right' side of town, I called into fArm F00ds.  I dropped on some bottled passata for 69p.  560g, Mutt1 brand, organic tomato passata for 69p..........  As it was BB 31/8/24, I resisted the urge to clear the shelf and limited myself to 6 bottles 😁

I did buy some other specks of food from MrT and FF, so I will tot up my receipts and amend my total. 

MrT was very busy - especially in the clothing section, alot of parents all with the same mission.  I did count my lucky stars that I was only shopping for one.....  The YS'd section in the produce aisle was full, and there were additional crates at the back of the store.  Not surprising when the store had had an operative knock tuppence off most things 🙄Bags of tatties were then stacked on top of bagged salad and punnets of soft fruit......   

For sure I can't think of anything else MSE - don't think i am a very good example at the mo 🙁  

Greying X

themadvix

That last comment is definitely not true Greying - I haven't seen you frittering *at all*. Sometimes we all have periods where spending is necessary - and that's where you're at currently. And that was an absolute bargain for the passata!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Thanks tmv - you're kind (and right), I'm not frittering, but even I am startled at the totals at the checkout for 'needed' stuff.  We're unable to pass on some of the used clothing (think building blocks), even though it's not worn into holes, it's just been grown out of.  And I've tried to hang on until the end of term to eke out use, without compromising comfort too much.  As DH said, how on earth would we have managed this time last year? Which is true - and believe me, I do appreciate that at least we have some savings now, so our budget pots are just being used.  And I'd be the first to say that we had a good run with charity shop finds for the first part of LG's childhood, they have had some good quality clothes and shoes for literally pennies - compared to the original retail price.  I remember a dear, dear MSE'r who snagged 3 pairs of shoes for LG off their local FB.  They were 'THE' brand that we're all supposed to have our children shod in, and they snagged them for <£15.  I still have the pictures of LG in various places racing round in those shoes.......  I think my favourite memory was the open gardens day at Penny Brohn Centre......   

Right, pulling myself outta Nostalgia Way.......

Shopping this morning.  Mostly the weekly basics.  I haven't yet checked PoTW though. 

Right, off to finish the shopping list.  

Ta for popping by.  Appreciated.

Greying X

Cherryfudge

I remember the summer with all the ladybirds - was that 1976?

I was born in 1963 and I had no idea that was a hot spell. It's always remembered for starting with an extreme winter, at the end of which I arrived (though for some reason my birth doesn't usually make it into the reports). So thanks for the info!

Greying_Pilgrim

Cherryfudge - I had to look up the ladybirds fact, but yes, you are right, 1976. I remember my parents talking about the winter of '63 and snowdrifts as high as hedges (in rural Wales).

Shopping done.  £46.28 over 3 different shops.  Not a huge amount for our money, but I got some YS'd baps in MrL - white bread, but we don't have them all the time, so it was worth 20p (60% off).  I also picked up a punnet of red grapes for £1 in HB - they don't always have their £1 punnets, but I try and grab one when they do.  I also got 2 avocados for 99p - hopefully they will ripen, and a YS'd cheese and onion quiche for 79p.  I wouldn't have paid £1.95 for it, but 79p was OK, and it's gone straight in the freezer for tea for another day.  

Off to update my siggie.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

Black Olive pizza for tea ...............sorry to mess wif yer head RT..... 😞  We also enjoyed some HG tatties, courtesy of a super generous chum who knows that Fam. Greying lurfs us a bit of tattie goodness 😁  LG enjoyed some 'little person sized ones' 😁 Clean plates all round!

Lots of hand sewing today 🙄  I am not a fan of hand sewing, but did have to thank past self for assembling a plethora of different coloured threads that came in super useful.  

Today I am grateful for;

generous friends
Volunteers giving up incredible amounts of time
make-do, mend, use-up and re-purpose... amazing where it can get ya, & what it can give ya.....

Ta for popping by.  Appreciated.  

Greying 

redofromstart

My mum always says that the reason my Grandma hoarded tins (mostly of pineapple, even though nobody liked it!) was due to a nasty Lancashire winter where they got snowed in and couldn't get food.  Might have been 1963 - the year, not the number of tins.  63 tins wasn't far off though.  Tins of pineapple remains a family joke for hoarding.  I currently have 3.

I do think one of the tastiest treats has to be home grown new pots drowned in butter.  Not sure if we have enough left for one last meal but I must check tomorrow.

Greying_Pilgrim

redo - a quick goggle yields that the winter of '52 was bad too - not too sure of the location of the worst hit areas of that one tho......  My tinned fruit count is similar to yours, although I record 2 pineapple, one peach and one mandarins (in juice!!!).  The mandarins were a bargain from FF - 39p for in juice mandarins, haven't seen them that cheap in the longest time.  Unfortunately I got the last tin off the shelf (and it wasn't bashed!).  

Greying X

Cherryfudge

redofromstart said:

My mum always says that the reason my Grandma hoarded tins (mostly of pineapple, even though nobody liked it!) was due to a nasty Lancashire winter where they got snowed in and couldn't get food.  Might have been 1963 - the year, not the number of tins.  63 tins wasn't far off though.  Tins of pineapple remains a family joke for hoarding.  I currently have 3.

Tins of mandarins are the ones that never seem to be eaten here.

I've always understood the 1962-63 winter was tough across the land, but I can confirm it was snowy in Lancashire: my parents lived there and Mum always told me the ambulance drove through a blizzard to get her to hospital when I was born, right at the end of the winter.

I must say, 1963 tins would have taken some doing, but I bet there's a children's story in there somewhere, along the lines of Margaret Mahy's 'Jam' where the family lives off the fruit of their plum tree for a year...