Our eldest boy Jude has just started his first year at the 'big school', leaving primary school far behind him. (Although for the record, so far, he's also managed to leave his blazer, phone, bus pass, school bag, gym socks and towel far behind him too, but that's a whole other post!)
He now does Gaelic football after school on a Friday, and afterwards he catches the public bus home with two friends. Before this, it has swiftly become the modus operandi for the three boyos to pop into Tescos to purchase, and subsequently eat, their own weight in sweets. After which he then arrives home and tucks into his waiting dinner. As you do.
Last Friday evening between mouthfuls of fish fingers he marveled aloud at how far he and his pals had been able to make their pooled money stretch that week.
'Really? What did you get?' I asked him, naively assuming they'd had a bar of chocolate or a packet of crisps each.
'Well', he said, clearly delighted with himself, 'We bought a bottle of lemonade between us for 17p. Imagine, a whole 2 litres for only 17p!!' He shook his head in wonder. 'There was so much we couldn't even drink it all!'
'Oh yes indeed, that WAS good value', I agreed, banishing all thoughts of their inevitable communal backwash out of my mind.
'We bought a box of doughnuts between us too...there were 18 in it, so that was 6 each, and after that we shared a HUMUNGUS bag of sweets between us!'
I looked at him aghast as he efficiently shoveled another forkful of ketchup and chips into his mouth.
'Did you really eat all that? Just there now before you came in?'
'Yes', he said beaming with pride, 'we did! Every single bit. But don't worry, I'm still hungry for my dinner. But do you know what the very best part was?'
Emmmm, let me think,.. the sheer, unadulterated gluttony of it all? (No, I didn't say that- I just speechlessly raised an eyebrow instead.)
'The best part was that it cost us just 71p each. That's £2.13 alotogether!! For all that! Can you believe it? Wasn't that brilliant?'
He sat back, shaking his head, clearly reliving the highlights all over again.
'And then we were talking about it on the bus, and I know everybody always says about quality over quantity, but we all think that we'd definitely rather have it the other way round....Is there anything for afters?'
( I've joined up on this post with the fab Sarah Miles at Hello Wall for her Monday Club link. Check out them all here.)
Emma, this is simply boys. Our Ronan took that a step further. He bought lollies and sweets in multipacks and sold them in school, made a profit - bought a dinner ticket of kids who didn't like dinners and had a dinner as well as having eaten his lunch at break!!!
ReplyDeleteThere's a wee bit of maths and exonomics there too - they bought big and saved - wonder if he learned that lesson from the enormous cereal shop lol
That is amazing!! Go Ronan- he'll be a CEO someday! As for the maths and economics - you've definitely got a point there- he clearly can't resist a bargain, just like his ma :-)
DeleteAlso at Mary's knew me by name I had up bring that many forgotten things to the school for him!!!
ReplyDeleteThank God I'm not alone on this one- he's desperate altogether!
DeleteHe would get on with my eldest who is 11 and has just discovered that you can get value Jaffa cakes from the local shop for 50p - 2 packets of them. And he still eats his dinner and is permanently as thin as a rake :-0
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness - they're totally on the same wavelength! I am soooo not mentioning Jaffa cakes to him or he'll be sourcing them next!
DeleteLOL!!! Well sure why wouldn't he? I did the same myself-in Rathmore during the day I managed to it: a choc chip muffin & hot chocolate for brekkie, a can of coke, crisps & choc bar for break (2 hours later), a further pack of crisps, bar of choc & gravy chip for lunch (2 hours after that) and then a snack at home, followed by dinner! Still managed to stay like a beanpole but in uni, it was a different story!
ReplyDeleteNever mind being impressed with his tummy capacity I am just impressed with the maths, the ability to spot a bargain and to have a whole conversation about it on the bus...very thrifty!
ReplyDeleteVery very true! Together they could run the world...maybe ... As long as they get paid in doughnuts ;-)
DeleteLove this. The logic (and stomach) of youth....
ReplyDeleteI know! To him it makes perfect sense and means plenty of doughnuts- what's not to love!?
ReplyDeleteI'm very impressed by his economic skills, you've raised him well. We'll blame the glutinous streak on his father.
ReplyDeleteHaha! That sounds like a plan to me!
DeleteLMAO That is such a boy thing!! I have 5 boys and 1 girl here and yep with the boys I am always amazed at just how much they can fit into their little stomachs!! But at least he was being frugal, you gotta love that at least lol
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear its not just my greedy boys....and you definitely have a point about the frugality aspect!
ReplyDeleteAll impressive and hilarious.
ReplyDeleteThough I'd imagine that there's a lot of belching going on.