The Friendly Frugaleers- Autumn is on its way !

[QuiteCleanBanditlovesdresses]

Hi Frugaleers
Sorry lame thread title

I vote we all use the word whackadoodle in all further posts from here on in.

Where's laska?

And definitely creme. Shall I message you think fluffy?

I’m also not a fan of silicone bakeware. I get irritated trying to wash stuff that flops around.

LSD today. Met friends in the botanic gardens in Durham (which were really lovely and not at all busy). It was about £10 entry for our family plus some cake that DH paid for, about £15 I think. We were there all day and DS seemed to enjoy it too. Going to a farm with a play area and cafe tomorrow and then on to see one of DHs great aunts, who I’ve never met as she was too elderly to travel to our wedding. But she’s lovely and sends cards for any and every occasion so it’ll be fab to meet her at last crossing fingers that DS doesn’t have a meltdown. We’ll take some nice flowers and maybe a cake from the farm shop.

Yea actually a hand held mixer might be much better

Dm is a legend. She’s made lunches for dh and I for tomorrow. And fruit pots.

Tomorrow should be a nsd.

Yay.

I am exhausted. Busy day doing nothing. Haha.

Hi everyone.
Been a busy couple of days, I have been sorting, decluttering, throwing and charity shop dropping! But I think my home will be properly sorted before I go back to work.

Had a long chat with dp about how all the stuff makes me feel down and he has said he will tackle the cupboard and living room on Tuesday, he has a day off, so I'm hoping he will stick to his word.

Scandi, your friend is strange!
Cag, don't forget storage for all the flour and freeze it first for a couple of days to kill any flour mite eggs.

If anyone has tips on how to declutter fast, that would be great!

Em she certainly is!

Black bin bag curvy. I'm not bad on clutter but dh keeps things.

You can get hand mixers on stands, much cheaper but no dough hook. I want one for mayo but my 43yo hand mixer refuses to die and I cant buy one until it's broken.

Curvy
I had the same chat with DH but along the lines of he sorts his shit out or we divorce .
I just couldnt live like that anymore.
We have a strict Tues/Fri cleaning rota .

Fluffy, yes I will walk round tomorrow with black bags, thank you.
I can be ruthless and just get rid and its better doing it without the dc's.
My dp, otoh, just has stuff from, well I don't really know! He is also a collector, sigh.

Quite, it is like he is a beacon for a clean surface and has to put stuff on it!
And of course the kids follow suit.
My kitchen is almost done and I do clean the cupboards out and cull cups, water bottles and stuff on a regular basis, so that isn't really an issue and I line the top of the cupboards with baking parchment so I can just replace with new, saves so much time and no sticky mess!
But today I threw away 2 black bags of stuff that had gathered in the store cupboard and the best thing is, is that dp didn't even notice, it was just useless tat, ffs!

I can't bear the thought of beastie eggs in my flour. I have had weevils in my flour and lentils before and I wanted to burn my house down.... but I still think I'd rather know they were in there ready to hatch. I have been monitoring my current bag of flour since I got it and so far its been fine..... now I've said that I'm going to get an infestation.

Weevils
Is this a thing ?
Ive baked for a million years and have never had them !
Mind you I bake lots so maybe they dont have time to make baby Weevils #hopeful

Curvy
My DH collects leaflets -everywhere we fucking go and leaves them on the side,with all the other leaflets
I try to stop him and just bin them straight away.
It was also his lack of effort as regards household stuff,cos you know he is a MAN and existing was quite enough effort.
After years of trying everything,I gave him a final ultimatum .
I have a feeling I wouldnt get on with Scandis friend

Yes quite and born the eggs are already in the flour, and freezing kills them. My lovely late nan always used to freeze flour, but she did buy massive bags, I bake a lot to as I'm vegan so it is easier and loads cheaper.
I had weevils once, in a previous place and swore from then on I would always freeze my flour. I have airtight storage too, you know just in case.

Quite, dp does a fair bit around the house but will clean around the clutter! I feel your pain with the leaflets my dp and my youngest love to collect them! But it goes straight in the recycling.
Yes I think I wouldn't either, her friend would probably think I was doing my 2ds's a disservice, with all their chores

What the actual fuck, she is definitely a total whackadoodle! She is going to be the MIL from hell :o I think I'd have to start asking if she's ok and telling her that I'm concerned about her mental state, complete with patronizing head tilt.

BTW it's a rental yes but it is social housing, and the rules are that we can decorate however we want, put shelves up etc without asking permission. Any structural changes (taking cupboards out etc) we do need permission for. In our private rental we weren't allowed to do anything at all.

I think supermarkets vary by area, I am perfectly happy with our local Tesco and delivery, but you couldn't pay me to shop in Lidl as our local one is horrendous, awful staff, mouldy food.

Thank you for the thoughts on baking stuff. I agree on getting stuff gradually (also on the light bowls as I really struggle even to lift our frying pan). We have a magimix food processor which has a load of attachments, need to investigate this! Our (actually my mum's or more likely my nan's first) old hand held mixer thingy sadly died recently. Not that we used it for much other than whipped/butter cream. Could get a hand one, theoretically there is room on the counter for a big one.

I will write out all your recommendations and look for recipes that use the basic stuff, so I don't end up spending money on rarer ingredients that I won't need again.

Also... freezing flour?! How does that work, do you put the bag straight in or what? Does it need to defrost first, can you measure a scoop straight from the freezer or...?

Cag, what I do is, put the flour, still in its wrapper in a plastic bag and leave it in the freezer for at least a couple of days, then get it out and leave for half an hour, then decant it into my containers. But apparently you can use flour straight from the freezer, I ever have though.

*never

I’ve had weevils twice. It’s bloody unpleasant

Cag my tip for looking for a mixer, whether handheld or stand is to buy one with the biggest motor you can afford

If you've got a magimix you should be able to do cakes in that & pastry.

Green & Blacks dark choc is on green jinn, 50p off and it's already a £1.50 in sains.

Saturday spends
£10 parking
£8 hobbycraft
£16 McDonald's

Yesterday
NSD

Spent yesterday afternoon with my brother, parents, DP and my kids. My dad was talking to my DP as if he was my brother My dad is very deaf, but as far as I know nothing wrong with his sight. My mum really seems to have no filter with what she says to people nowadays so quite stressful and worrrying all round.

On the rare occasions that we bake, I insist on new bags of flour just in case

Love I used to do that but now I put my flour in plastic bags and seal them tight so that if they do develop weevils it would hopefully be contained. I check my flour very thoroughly before using it #totallyparanoidaboutweevils.

Hoping for a low spend day today, need bread and some salad - will go to Aldi. Meeting friend for lunch but it’s her turn to pay.

We had weevils once gross

We've got he dentist this morning. I HATE the dentist.

I do pastry in the Magimix. Ours was a wedding present and we love it!

Today's challenge is a flat tyre. I'm hoping there's enough air in it to get us to a tyre place.

Scandi my ds helped to put the shopping away without being asked yesterday. I think your friend is about to become a classic story to be often-told in our house.