Shop like a pauper, eat like a Queen

Thursday night was shopping night. I don't go every Thursday, it's two weeks since I last went to the supermarket. I only go when I am really low on food, when the fridge is bare and there is not much left in the cupboards and freezer. I don't have a designated shopping day, it could be any day, though I do avoid supermarkets at the weekends, can't stand playing dodgems with my trolley around the aisles. I don't stockpile food in case a war might break out, or we have the freakiest storms ever recorded in history, because the chances of that happening are minute. I keep enough in to feed me and the cats for 3 - 4 weeks, and even then with portion control, it could be stretched to 6. 

So, what did I get last night? Lots of yellow stickers. I timed it right, 7.30pm on the dot, everything that was about to go out of date had a 90% reduction. I was in heaven, ha ha. There was plenty for everyone, a few of us gathered around the trolley, people were sharing in a civilized manner. Here are a few of the items. 

Salad leaves x 2

Mushrooms whole, also sliced, also stuffed.

Butternut squash and sweet potato x 2

Brussel sprouts x 2

Broccoli.

Potatoes.

Swede.

Melon x 2

I had to laugh, I got two bags of spinach for 10p each, and had two vouchers for 25p off a bag. So they paid me 30p to take the two bags away. I even found some reduced items in the freezer cabinet, which is most unusual, they must have over ordered the party food, I picked out two boxes of onion bhajis for 50p. I see Tesco are buying in Brussel sprouts from Morocco, why I do not know. Not that we need to eat them at this time of the year, but they were there so I had them. I exercised huge amounts of self control, the only sweet treat I picked up was a packet of five donuts for 30p. Other bargains were, cauliflower 10p, half a cucumber 3p, houmous 10p, stuffed mushrooms 25p.

Mind you, not everything is rosy at Tesco. They have put up the price of Value soya milk from 59p to 75p. A massive hike. I will have to be looking for an alternative for my breakfast cereal when I have finished the two cartons I have in the cupboard. Will probably start eating more porridge for breakfast. Also, they have changed the recipe of Value peanut butter, and now put it in a plastic jar instead of glass. The new version has palm oil in it, and a cheap one I tried once before from another store had this in, it was horrible. We shouldn't be buying food with palm oil in anyway, though I suspect that they try and sneak it in a lot of things hoping we won't notice. I'm going to look into the cost of making my own peanut butter.

While I am at it, another annoying trick is the way that pack sizes are getting smaller but the price is staying the same. I noticed it with cheese. It used to be 400grm, then it went to 380grm, then 350grm, and now it's 310grm, for the same price. I could not bring myself to buy it, even though I love cheese. I must try and cut down anyway. I opted for a pack of sliced Edam cheese for £1.30 and will use it sparingly. I'm afraid cheese is becoming a treat nowadays.

Pictured below is my lunch today. Two stuffed mushrooms 25p, and 5p for salad leaves and houmous. A meal fit for a Queen I would say, ha ha.

I gave away four cloth bags last night, to happy smiley ladies. My total shop was £21.71, after three vouchers for 25p each were taken off. I paid £3.10 for the yellow stickers, total real price of these items is £31, so a good saving there. My fridge is filled with green loveliness. It's salad and veg all the way now, oh and a few nuts, I splashed out on some nuts.

While I am here, I'll tell you about my new washing up system. As you know I am not a fan of housework, and my usual way of dealing with the dirty pots issue is to pile them up and do them all in one go, in a bowl of water, every three days or so. Well I am at the stage now of being utterly sick of seeing them, and sick of having to stand at the sink for an hour clearing them all away. So, what I do now is, every time I have used a pot, or a pan, or a plate, or a piece of cutlery, I scrub it under a dripping tap with a brush, and put it on the draining board rack to dry. Cutlery will be dried immediately with a tea towel and put back in the drawer.

My tap has a spray attachment on the end so I can reduce the flow to stop splashing, very useful. I use hardly any oil in my cooking, and now I have run out of toasted sesame seed oil it will be even less, so my plates do not get greasy. From time to time I will have to boil some water on the gas stove, (cheaper than boiling a kettle), and give the pans a good scrub. Now that it's summer I will be eating a lot of salads, so these leave very little residue on the plates, and no cooking required so no dirty pans. And I will have a kitchen that is free of clutter  :o)) This will be good for the planet also. Using less water, less washing up liquid, and less energy to heat the water. I can catch the water in a bowl and put it on the veg beds so it gets used again, and everyone wins.

My bill from Anglia Water arrived this week, £35 for the period 12th December to 17th June. A big chunk of it is for standing charges, and some of it is for sewerage services. There will be another bill arriving shortly, for about the same amount, from Severn Trent, they make a charge for removal of surface water through the drains. For single people a water meter is the way to go.

The weekend starts here, as they used to say on Ready Steady Go on a Friday night, remember that? If you are not a teenager of the sixties you won't know what I am talking about. Have a good weekend.
Toodle pip.