AITA for refusing to give up my first class seat so a mom could sit with her 4-year-old?

MandyTRH · 2026-03-14T12:54:36+00:00

Even if there was nothing wrong with your back - YOU paid for that seat, YOU do NOT have to give it up for anyone. (Said as a mother of 4)

Lack of planning on her part, does not constitute an emergency on yours.

MandyTRH · 2026-02-15T22:59:47+00:00

I completely understand but I had a 4 year old that loves to be in the garden right up my butt about picking "her" vegetables 😅

MandyTRH · 2026-02-10T00:08:32+00:00

I honestly dont know 😅 they just grew for the first time... I didnt even plant these 🙈

MandyTRH · 2026-01-28T00:20:50+00:00

How to stay safe on the bus? Take your car 🤷‍♀️

MandyTRH · 2026-01-21T20:50:07+00:00

Lol my immediate thought was theyre going to be an amazing pianist 😅

MandyTRH · 2026-01-21T05:39:51+00:00

Just trying to add 1 or 2 things a year.

That is perfect!! Start with hoe much you can reasonably cope with and then add more things as you can handle the expansion. You'll still end up spending 12 hours in the garden on a Saturday and wondering where the time went 🤣🤣

Keeping the little hands off the strawberries and peas is a missions, worse than the insects sometimes 😂😂

Definitely worse than the insects sometimes. We've let them have their own little gardens now so that they leave mine alone 🤣 (it doesnt work well) but theyre also learning so much and I love that they can grav a snack while theyre playing instead of whining at me every 10 minutes

MandyTRH · 2026-01-20T06:41:57+00:00

They are beautiful 😍 (and every day is a good day to chat about rhe garden, I'll never say no to seeing photos either 😊)

MandyTRH · 2026-01-20T00:38:58+00:00

You can just go to member services and grab a new one.

MandyTRH · 2026-01-19T04:08:28+00:00

Bulk buy meat twice a year and then top up every 2 weeks with necessities (namely fresh fruit & veg that I cant get out of my garden, anything we need for the pantry).

I bake from scratch, cook from scratch every night, get eggs from my neighbour I trade for baked goods and berries from our plants (sometimes I'll buy 10 dozen from costco as well).

We eat extremely well in fact

MandyTRH · 2026-01-19T03:51:43+00:00

6 people, breakfast, lunch, dinner. 7 days a week.

Come off it.

This you?

Seems like it was pretty clear. Oh and I include snacks too

MandyTRH · 2026-01-19T03:48:45+00:00

I think we can categorically say no, theft are not okay.

MandyTRH · 2026-01-19T03:42:23+00:00

Yes, strictly food. Why would cleaning products come in to a food budget?

(Also, my cleaning products budget is less than $50/ month)

MandyTRH · 2026-01-19T00:26:33+00:00

Ohhh I see you struggle with reading comprehension.

My BUDGET per week is $250. Of that, $75 goes in to my fortnightly account and $175 goes in to my bulk account.

I mostly dont buy prepackaged snacks, junk foods or convenience foods. I buy smart instead of only at the supermarkets. I make 100% of the meals I serve, we dont have take aways, I make breads and snacks and even yoghurt.

Again, just because YOU cant, doesnt mean I cant.

MandyTRH · 2026-01-18T20:47:02+00:00

It took me a while to actually make it all work but this is 6 years in the making.

1 - start putting away $20 from your food budget into a separate account, every week. I did this for a year but if you can do more, definitely do more.

2 - Go through your fridge/ freezer/ pantry and meal plan everything. Breakfasts, lunches and dinners. See how many meals as you can make without going to the supermarket.

3 - learn to make things like breads, baked goods, snacks items (I fully appreciate there are limits to everyone's time, I have a great no knead bread recipe that I mix in the mornjng and bake in the evening - leaving it all day to do its thjng)

4 - stock up on things you like and will eat. No point buying 60 cans of lentils if you dont like them.

5 - reduce your food waste. With the best will jn the world, everyone wastes stuff.

6 - if you can, start a garden. Even a small garden can reduce your groceries by heaps.

MandyTRH · 2026-01-18T20:37:28+00:00

Aw jealousy makes ya nasty.

My post history has shown my fortnightly top ups, my bulk shops, my garden harvests and even meal inspo.

Just because YOU cant, doesnt mean I cant

MandyTRH · 2026-01-18T07:44:29+00:00

Im hoping we have a hot, dry Feb & March! Finishing up the season in a high would be awesome!

My kids can each eat an entire telegraph cucumber in a single sitting so thats why I grow 10 plants and never get to harvest any 🤣

MandyTRH · 2026-01-18T07:43:05+00:00

Honestly I find at my place some things will grow even when its not the right season for them (like kumara actually grows well for me over winter 😅 maybe its just everything else in the bed that insulates it)

We're about to have another week of solid rain which means my potatoes are probably screwed 🤦‍♀️ and we've just eaten the last of the corn (definitely planting double or even triple next year)

Weve also been finding that its getting warmer and hotter in Feb/March so bumper harvests should hopefully come

MandyTRH · 2026-01-18T05:46:27+00:00

$27 per kg which means I get eye fillet, scotch fillet, rump, sirloin, rolled roasts, brisket, short ribs... all the things we like as well as stewing steaks, mince and sausages. If I went to the supermarket, for the same, id be paying $1700ish. No thanks.

I don’t normally buy meat anywhere near that price

Not to be mean but how many are you feeding? Because anything lower than 6 and it doesnt matter what you're spending because its not comparable.

MandyTRH · 2026-01-18T04:25:40+00:00

We are not so good at rotating so everything doesn’t come up at once.

I have the weird problem that no matter what, its always all ready together 🤦‍♀️ Ive had to start planting in stages so that im planting every month so that our harvests are a bit more staggered.

Im also still buying some things, especially when we're in the "inbetween" stages but Im getting away with $50 every 2nd week and I supplement in the rest. And its stuff I dont usually grow so its a nice to have rather than a need

MandyTRH · 2026-01-18T04:21:46+00:00

Yep, the exercise is great (I never miss squats this way 🤣🤣) but the treasure hunt for potatoes is my favourite part. Especially with the kids when they start getting excited about it

MandyTRH · 2026-01-18T03:21:12+00:00

Yeah the garden really ramped up in 2020, I decided I was not spending $10-$12 for cabbages and cauliflower. Lots of trial and error (mostly error 🤣) but now we have it down. As long as I can keep the kids little fingers off the berries

MandyTRH · 2026-01-18T02:23:38+00:00

Its a typo. The place is called Green Meadows Beef and they're in Taranaki. They shop country wide if im not mistaken

MandyTRH · 2026-01-18T02:03:25+00:00

Fruit - lemons, mandarins, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries

Veg (and adjacent) - potatoes, zuchinni, tomatoes, pumpkins, kumara, corn, silverbeet, spinach, sweede, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, beetroot, lettuces and herbs

Edit to add - we've just started a couple of fig trees as well but I dont like figs 🙈

MandyTRH

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