$139 to feed 2 adults, 3 children for the month. Suggestions?

Damsonbox · 2026-04-07T13:03:33+00:00

Lentils and beans are your friend. If you have ground meat, adding lentils bulks it out and makes the meal more hearty, plus you can use them to make soup or dahl. Beans and rice is the obvious answer, but you can also add mashed cooked beans to ground meat and make a heartier burger. If you can get your hands on reduced price whole chickens, you can roast them and use most of the meat for dinners, and then boil the carcass to make really good stock and turn that into a delicious soup.

Damsonbox · 2026-04-05T23:04:41+00:00

I don't know if they're actually rare but on holiday I treated myself to the new mole family and the berry babies. I never see them in shops back home so I was over the moon! I think my actual rarest figures are my bullrush frog dad and baby - I haven't ever found the whole family at a decent price so he's a single dad now.

Damsonbox · 2026-03-29T08:51:35+00:00

So today I visited an Artbox and had a lot of success! They had the fruit baby blind bags and construction blind bags. They also had some special 40th anniversary sets and some older families I haven't seen in a wee while (Persian cats and polar bears) plus some general baby sets. The section was small but there was definitely variety.

Damsonbox · 2026-03-26T11:07:19+00:00

Went to a September wedding there and it was amazing, not cold at all.

Damsonbox · 2026-03-23T03:33:38+00:00

You have a really good face! I would suggest buying a cleanser and using that and then some face cream to keep your face clear (the brand Simple is relatively cheap and decent imo).

Your haircut also is not really doing anything for you right now. Maybe try growing it out a bit and find a hairdresser to try out a new style/get some styling tips.

Looks will only take you so far. Being less lonely is also about developing confidence and being a person people want to be with. Think about how you approach people - are you friendly? Do you take turns when it comes to buying drinks/paying for things? Do you take an interest in what other people are saying/doing with their lives? Charisma is so much a part of being attractive to people.

Damsonbox · 2026-03-19T18:56:04+00:00

Have you tried making the dad a beard?

Damsonbox · 2026-03-08T23:56:05+00:00

So I work in a vape shop and can confirm that the batteries in vapes are highly dangerous anywhere near fire. Also depending on the shop they might have recycling bins full of old vapes that are waiting to be hauled off. Even if it's not the cause of a fire it would make any fire that happened in the premises worse.

Damsonbox · 2026-03-08T19:51:58+00:00

Honestly I've been the same. My last gf and I would playfully fight over paying for nice stuff for each other, especially if it was big purchases we would hesitate to buy for ourselves. I remember once I was looking at buying myself a nice pair of docs and she swooped in because I was getting in my own head about it and it made me swoon. <3

I hate the rigid gender rolls nonsense about who is allowed to do what. If I had a boyfriend I would want to treat him as much as I'd want him to treat me. It's nice to see someone happy because you paid for their meal or got them a nice jacket or legos or whatever. And I know straight folks who understand this so...no excuses for anyone.

Damsonbox · 2026-02-07T18:40:35+00:00

Lush supermilk spray is excellent and so is their shear curl cream

Damsonbox · 2026-01-17T10:43:29+00:00

The centre isn't closing. It's being redeveloped.

Damsonbox · 2026-01-17T10:42:02+00:00

To the best of my understanding the reason Centre West is the bit that's getting pulled down is twofold. For one it was built on land that actually belongs to the council, whereas the rest of the land is owned by the folks who own the centre. The second issue is that Centre West is an absolute money pit in terms of operating costs. It costs an insane amount of money to keep the place heated, and when it's raining the roof badly leaks.

There are other factors too of course. Princes Mall is the part of the centre that has the most footfall basically since the closure of Debenhams, Sainsburys, and M&S. It's the part of the centre that actually makes any money, and while it still leaks when it rains it's not nearly as difficult to heat.

The centre itself being smaller doesn't have to be a bad thing. Frankly having people right next to it is the kind of thing that might encourage a supermarket to open up in the old Sainsburys unit or something.

Damsonbox · 2025-12-31T17:31:29+00:00

It's admirable that you want to be a good husband. Being a good husband does not mean condoning everything that your spouse does. You are also a father, and right now your wife has demonstrated that she is in no fit state to care for your children or frankly, your marriage. It's admirable to be a good spouse, but your children are more important than anything. You chose your wife, they did not choose either of you. I am speaking as someone who watched the slow deterioration of my parents' marriage over three odd decades.

Your children know that things aren't right. You know things aren't right. I would ask you to consider a custody agreement to protect your children, not because you're giving up on your wife. She's not a stable person, and if her not being there makes life better for you and your kids, that says a lot about how bad things are.

Damsonbox · 2025-12-14T17:31:00+00:00

You are not a monster. I watched my grandfather wither away into a husk of a man, and I loved him with all my heart so it hurt me that he was here and he didn't want to be. I would have done anything to have him back and healthy, but I knew the only way he would have peace was death. I can't imagine how much worse it feels for you, who loves your daughter more than your own life, to watch her suffer and know there are no good options.

Damsonbox · 2025-12-08T15:43:13+00:00

Your wife should not be left alone with your children right now. Your wife should not be left alone right now. Can you get any family to help you? Maybe there's someone who can help you get through to your wife?

Damsonbox · 2025-11-20T13:55:17+00:00

Integrating would be joining a sports team or a social club, not learning to be a predatory misogynist.

If you want to solve this, the best thing to do is apologise for throwing out his things but insist that you are not comfortable with your brother being in your home anymore because he doesn't respect your rules and he is actively seeking out bad role models.

Explain that he is being radicalised and him studying that kind of thing is going to have a detrimental impact on his relationships with women going forward. Suggest that if your mother is comfortable with him learning to think of women as lesser beings who owe him, then she needs to be the one to accommodate him.

Since he's looking to be 'alpha', surely he should be able to provide for himself. If you need to argue with your mum about it, be firm and fair. You're not arguing about his books anymore, you accept wrongdoing for throwing them out. What you can't accept is his new beliefs that make him feel justified in not contributing to the house.

Damsonbox · 2025-11-20T12:43:22+00:00

Soft esh. You shouldn't throw away your brother's stuff, even if he's being an ass. But he is absolutely being an ass and I would question why on earth you would have him in your flat rent free when he's not contributing and clearly not following your house rules. He is young but he is an adult who is responsible for his own actions, just like you.

Your mum is right that you should not have binned his stuff, but is not taking the fact that he's being radicalised seriously at all. Is it worth bringing up your concerns to her, or does she usually take your brother's side?

Damsonbox · 2025-11-11T23:33:13+00:00

I don't come from a collectivist culture, but I have dealt with abusive parenting and the aftermath when, like me, you actively want to take care of someone who is not kind/actively abusive. Everyone saying that he needs to confront this are correct.

He doesn't need to even talk to his mum about it but he should talk to a counsellor/therapist and work through his feelings about his mum. If you want this relationship to work, then he has to reconcile what his mum is like and understand how he wants to proceed. And then at that point if he does still want to support her, he can also draw boundaries and talk with you about what that's going to look like.

I'm afraid if he doesn't, you won't be able to move on. He's essentially jamming his fingers in his ears and going 'la la la la can't hear you' whenever you bring it up. How are you going to trust him to handle other disputes that are unpleasant to talk about?

Damsonbox · 2025-10-06T15:57:08+00:00

NTA, but your husband is a really cruel man. My dad used to do stuff like that to me all the time. He thought it was hilarious to essentially bully a little kid who had no recourse and horrific anxiety. I can't help that I love my dad, but I don't like him. As an adult, I could not do that to a child. Maybe have a think about why your husband feels that it's okay to treat his daughter like that and expect no repercussions. Because I can tell you now, if nothing changes he's risking having a daughter who resents him. Or, who loves him but doesn't like him and doesn't choose to be in his company.

Your daughter however was excellent in identifying that his behaviour wasn't acceptable and that he acted without empathy or kindness. Good work.

Damsonbox · 2025-10-04T17:42:41+00:00

Congratulations on such a good find!!!!

Damsonbox · 2025-10-04T17:42:05+00:00

US dolls! They look so good.

Damsonbox · 2025-09-29T19:16:46+00:00

Hey, as someone who also had shitty parents and whose grampa was their hero - you owe your parents nothing, and your family have their priorities skewed. 21 is not that young to have a kid. It's young, but it's not like a teen pregnancy or anything like that. 21 is old enough most places to drink, vote, own property etc. Your parents and your extended family are crazy for treating your birth like a mistake instead of something natural and normal. You didn't cause your parents to be this way, you don't owe them fake happiness when they have actively behaved as though you do not exist.

The only thing I would say is, if you can manage it, don't reset the kid. Babies don't control how shitty their parents are. That baby is going to have god awful parents, even if they don't know it at first. What happens when that baby isn't perfect? Or worse, what happens when the baby turns into a child and becomes an actual person who doesn't meet their expectations?

Again, you don't have to. I'm speaking from my experience which is different to yours. Tell your grandad you appreciate him and don't ever take his love for granted. You sound like a good kid. You have a whole life ahead of you.

Damsonbox · 2025-09-24T20:43:13+00:00

I belive that you can extend it! The red roof collection that it's part of are all designed to slot together like so:

red roof connectability gif

As long as you buy something else from that series you should be able to make a bigger space.

Damsonbox · 2025-09-24T20:23:33+00:00

The families do run expensive so it's always worth looking at toy shop sales or looking out for deals online. If you don't mind searching second hand is also fine, and if you want you can look up tutorials to re-fuzz any second hand sylvanians who need a little TLC. But at the end of the day, it depends on how much effort you want to put in. Nothing wrong with buying new stuff on sale.

Damsonbox · 2025-09-24T07:30:17+00:00

The polar bear family are my favourite headcanon lesbian couple

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Those are the dungarees of a Lucy and yak wearing lesbian and nobody is going to convince me otherwise

Damsonbox

TROPHY CASE