Shopping with Rachel and Rebecca

So this receipt is from when Rachel and Rebecca came over and quizzed me for hours, and then took me shopping. (They know how to show a girl a good time.) This is kind of my monthly shop(not weekly, I don't have time to shop every week, and besides I would spend far too much money on stuff I don't need), were I would get all my staples like breakfast cereal, tinned goods, tea, coffee, sugar etc. And then washing goods, and household cleaners. Then there are things like deoderant, shaving, shower gels and shampoos etc. Basically everything that doesn't come from the farmers market, or delivered by a man.

I must say, it is rather bizarre going to the supermarket being flanked by two young ladies. It's not the fact that to an outsider we seem so dim, it obviously takes three of us to push a trolley around the supermarket, but the seemingly unsupermarket like questions that we seem to be discussing, that raises an eyebrow or two. But hey, I've never been the shy and retiring type, so it doesn't much bother me.

Anyway, you know what I bought, and why. You were there, but here's the receipt to remind you. Oh by the way, anytime you fancy babysitting, let me know. You where both very good at occupying small ginger children. Although we have yet to test you on the slightly larger variety.

Receipts Four

26th Sept had a bit of a hankering for pastry. Bought myself some courgettes and creme fraiche (see receipt) and took them home. Fried up the courgette with some chicken, a bit of garlic, and added a little lemon zest and fresh parsley. Squidge it all together with some creme fraiche. Roll out puff pastry nice and thin. Slop courgette/chicken mix down the centre of pastry. Cut ribbons in sides of pastry and curl over courgette/chicken mix, meeting in middle. Egg wash over top. Bang in oven. Cook till nice and golden brown. Feed to husband with new potatoes and broccoli. Makes two chicken breasts go further. Two meals for two people, rather than one. Pastry is dirt cheap. Get's you loads of brownie points with husband. Job Done.

Tip:- Use low fat creme fraiche in cooking. I use it in everything I need a creamy addition for. (Soup, curry, etc.) For some reason, the full fat stuff goes really runny when it warms up. The low fat stuff stays thick. And there's less fat, so you can feel self righteous, or just have twice as much.

A Handy Jack.

So, I told you about my car crash, but did I tell you about the gas leak?





No? Ok, here goes. Bear in mind that my husband is virtually on the other side of the planet, being smoozed by loads of Chinese business men and women, life in Haddon Drive continues its roller coaster journey with great vigour.





I woke up early on Monday morning for a change, and decided to have a shower before the children woke up. When I came out of the bathroom I could smell gas upstairs, so I knew it must be pretty bad downstairs. After opening every possible window I could, I then started to panic a bit. What do I do now? Alex isn't here, I can't ring the gas board, we don't have any money to get them involved. Maybe I should just switch it off and Alex will sort it out when he gets back. The kids were eating their breakfast by this time, complaining that they were very cold, and why were the windows open? I couldn't leave the gas off all week, they would freeze, and have no hot food. Then I thought I could ring Frank (Alex's dad) as he would know what to do. The phone rang and rang, then it went to answer phone. Shit. Now what do I do? I put the phone down without leaving a message. I need to speak to someone now, not later.



Then it dawned on me, what if he was still in Spain? Alex had told me the week before that his mum and dad had taken Nonna to their apartment in Spain for a holiday. I had no idea if they where back yet. I didn't know what to do. Ordinarily I would phone the gas board and let them sort it out, and then stump up the cash afterwards. But we have no way of doing that. How can you get someone to do some work for you that you have no way to pay them for. I don't have any credit cards, nothing for emergencies, no stash of cash in my mattress or nest egg for a rainy day in the bank. I suppose if the worst comes to the worst, I could phone my mum but what could she do? She's 200 miles away, and to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't want my dad to know that I can't look after myself at the age of 37.



Luckily, with all this running through my mind, only a couple of short (although that's not what it felt like) minutes later, the phone rang. It was Frank. Thank God. I was so relieved I burst into tears, and started sobbing hysterically down the phone to him. He said he would send Jack round to have a look and told me to switch it off. It all seemed so very simple now. Within a couple of minutes it was all sorted out. As it happened, Jack couldn't come over until the next day so we had a very cold day and night, but he came the next morning and fixed it in no time. A very simple problem. A connection behind the cooker had come loose.



I felt like a bit of a moron. I had got hysterical over such a small thing, but the fact of the matter is, that when something like this happens, it is the amount of readies that you have in your pocket that colours how you deal with things. If I had a credit card, or a wad of cash in the bank, would I have stressed so much? I doubt it. I would have done what everybody else does, and in fact what my neighbour did only a few weeks ago when they had a gas leak, phone the gas board, let them do their thing, then moan about how much it costs afterwards. Luckily, and I really do mean it, I have a fantastic father-in-law that is a builder and has an army of workers of all descriptions at his beck and call to do his bidding. Actually, I only need the one. His name is Jack, he is Polish and he fixes everything. If I wasn't married (and neither was Jack) I would marry him.

Receipts Three

So, more recepts from Waitrose. I think I shopped there so much, because I was waiting to do my big shop with Rachel and it just put me all over the place. I didn't have anything at home, so I kept shopping at the most expensive shop in the world!

Anyway, some more bits and bobs. Looks like the kids had a pizza for tea one night. Usually I make my own pizza bases and then add stuff to them, but I must have been in a rush, as I bought ready made pizza base, and some garlic bread. Ah I remember, the kids and I made fridge cake, so we bought mixed dried friut, butter, digestives and chocolate. Some other lunch stuff for Willow and Oscar and a recipe card holder for me. I bought this because I thought it was really good value. There is one in the Phoenix Cards catalogue that I love. It's a box and you put little cards in it, but it was £15. I bit pricey. This one from Waitrose is a ringbound book that you can stand up, so you don't have to take the cards out and they will keep clean. You get 60 in there, and also it takes an A4 sheet folded in half, so if I print reciped off the internet, which I do quite regularly, I can put them in there too! A bargain!

The other receipt was for a potato peeler which I bought as a present for my daughter. An odd gift for a seven year old you might think, but no, not really. You see she is a very helpful sort of child and likes to help out in the kitchen. She has recently discovered how easy it is to cook a roast dinner, and likes to peel the vegetables. My potato peeler unfortunately she finds very difficult to peel with, so I bought her a little novelty Y shaped peeler she can use when she helps mummy in the kitchen.

Food Snobs

My daughter does ballet. In fact it would be fair to say she loves ballet, and would do it ALL the time if at all possible. Her best friend is also in her class, which helps a lot. So suffice to say that I spend a lot of time waiting around while she is in her lesson, with all the other mums in the same boat.
We were chatting away one day last week when the conversation turned to food and cooking and then to shopping. One of the mums mentioned that she shopped at Sainsburys, which I do, but where as I had gone up in the quality of supermarkets, (from Tesco) she pointed out very loudly that before she had children she used to shop at Waitrose all the time, and now she had to slum it at Sainsburys. Another mum made a joke about Asda, and then the first mum announced quite loudly that she wouldn't ever dream of setting foot in that shop and if you ever found her in there, you would know things were really dire indeed.
Now, don't get me wrong, I shop in Sainsburys too, but not because I'm slumming it. There are many reasons.
1. I used to shop at Tesco Kings Meadow. Huge shop, lots of choice, great value. But got disillusioned with the staff as they were unhelpful and rude.
2. I used to shop online with Tesco until they moved the store they used to get my shopping from Kings Meadow to Wokingham (tiny shop) so my wide choice narrowed considerably as the store was smaller.
3. I wasn't happy with the quality of the meat that I bought from Tesco.
4. I wasn't happy about spending that amount of money in a supermarket that seemed to be swallowing up the country. (An ethical choice.)

So I moved to Sainsburys because:
1. The local store is small but still has a wide variety of choice and I can get everything there that I need. (Apart from the really weird stuff that I buy from the Oriental Wholesalers).
2. The staff there are very polite and very helpful.
3. When I buy online, the shopping comes from Calcot Savacentre, which is ginormous, and never seems to run out of anything.
4. Although the price is a little more, I usually buy supermarket brand anyway, so there isn't that much difference, but the quality is better.
5. Sainsburys seem to have much more of a family feel about them. They appear to be much more nurturing and concerned about the environment and ethics, which sits much more easier in my life.

The biggest reason that I personally don't shop at Asda is because of our local store. Whenever I go to visit a friend of mine who lives in Swindon right near a very new and very big Asda/Walmart store, we always go in and have a look. I actually do like Asda, even though it's been taken over by the biggest company in the world. But my local store is old, and dingy. The aisles are cramped and it is very busy. The toilets aren't even in the store, so if you take the kids, they invariably need a wee half way around the store, irrespective of when they last had one. You have to leave your trolley in an aisle somewhere, not quite sure whether it will still be there when you return. Whenever I go in there they have moved everything around and it takes me forever to find anything. In fact a few times I have been in there with the kids, I have got so frustrated I have just dumped the trolley and left, to save my sanity, and to stop me screaming at the children.

If I had loads of money I would shop at Waitrose. So does that make me a food snob? I guess it does. But, my brother in law, who is the biggest food snob in the world does his regular shop at Asda, so it's obviously not the quality of the food that is the problem. But then he like me gets most of his meat and fresh veg somewhere else.

So what is a food snob? Am I a food snob really? I don't buy all my food branded, (which you can get in any supermarket and I am reliably in formed that a packet of Kellogg's cornflakes tastes the same in Asda as it does from Waitrose) so that can't be it. Maybe I'm just of an age to realise that you can make a difference, however small, to your own life, those around you, and what you put in your body affects your mind too.

Oh how philosophical!

Receipts Two

So here are the next set of receipts. Ok so it was ages ago, but I'm a busy woman with an erratic network connection. What are you gonna do?

The first receipt is dated 23rd Sept, so I bought a few things for a 'Pampered Chef' party I was having that evening. Kettle Chips, multi dips, and then some items for something that would be made at said party... an onion, carrots, puff pastry and the gruyere. So all things I wouldn't normally buy. I love gruyere, it's really nutty, but quite expensive. Then a couple of packets of crisps for me and Oscar to have with our lunch, and some kitchen towel. Again, we went to Waitrose because it's quick and I was near there.

The second receipt is from the next day. I was obviously making spaghetti bolognaise! The ingredients speak for themselves. Maybe Oscar asked me to make it for him. Whenever I make it, I make loads of sauce and then save some. I also bought a gammon joint to make some ham. This was the last time I made spag bol, as my daughter who has proclaimed spag bol as her favourite meal of choice from the age of one, now has decided she doesn't like it anymore. GGggggrrrrrrrr.

Some You Lose

It seems there has been a spate of uselessness in our family recently, my mum also had a car accident where she pulled out of a junction in front of a car that was indicating to go down where she was coming out of and therefore would miss her, but he wasn't going down there, just pretending he was. So I really don't want to tell you this, as you are now going to make the rash assumption that everyone in my family is a bunch of morons, but I also had a car accident yesterday.

I pride myself in being the one that caused the least damage, but I did reverse into a stationary car, so that doesn't say much. But in my defence, I have never put in a fault claim in my life, and I have been driving for twenty years. It was dark, I was reversing out of a very small car park round a very large and stupidly placed skip, and reversed into a car that I was actually trying to avoid. Duh. Luckily, it belonged to someone I knew, although what luck had to do with it I have no idea, because if I was lucky I wouldn't be writing this.

Anyway, joking aside, I now have the very real problem of acquiring £250 for my excess. I have no magicians hat or pot of gold, so I guess we will be raiding the kids savings accounts again. Which means that the Christmas present money pot will be considerably smaller than it should be. My children are destined never to go to university, just because they won't ever have any money.

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Luckily I'm not religious.

Ha ha! The irony of it all.

Some You Win

Forgot to tell you....

Last week Alex had a car accident. He wasn't hurt and neither was the other party, just a little shook up, but unfortunately, it was Alex's fault. He had been working all the hours God sends and a few more that he didn't, he was knackered and coming home very late at night. Stopped at a traffic light, and then when he saw a green light, which he assumed was his as it was pointing in his direction, pulled out into the junction, but unfortunately, it wasn't his light, and an oncoming car slammed into the side of him. He has a company car, so gave the man his details, and when he went into work the next time, informed them of what happened. Alex was due to get a bonus in his wages for all the work he had put in building, setting up, manning and then dismantling the stand they had at a recent trade show (the reason why he was tired and ran the light in the first place)but because he backed into a wall whilst in France in summer had already had his allocated one claim for this year. So his bonus went to pay for the excess. If he hadn't been building the stand, he wouldn't have been out late and run the light, but we still wouldn't have any money, but Alex might have got some sleep.

The Farmers Market (and Other Such Gems)

A Favourite Place of Mine. And one not everyone seems to have as yet discovered. I am very lucky to have, in the small town in which I live, a farmers market once a month. It is unfortunately on the third Wednesday of every month which falls just before pay day, so I don't tend to have much money then. But some may see that as a blessing.

Anyway, I am concerned about the farmers market. When it first started out some four or five years ago, you couldn't get in the town car park first thing in a morning on the day of the market. When my daughter was at nursery, which is next to the town centre, I always knew it was Farmers Market Day by how packed the car park was. But now, it's not the same. I'm not sure whether the ensuing credit crunch has formed the down turn, or whether it has anything to do with the fact that Woodley Town Council have also now started up a regular farmers market on a Saturday as well. The Saturday market though is a bit of a mish mash, and certainly not much to do with farmers. There are some jewellery stalls, a lady selling hand made cards, another lady selling 'decorate your own ceramic plates' and a stall selling joss sticks and semi precious stones for ridiculously inflated prices. Not impressed.

So back to Wednesdays. The REAL Farmers Market is great. There are stalls from farms all around the area, specialising in all kinds of things. My favourite stall is Eadles, a free range pork farm, who also rear free range chickens. Their prices have risen a little over the past couple of years, but they are having a tough time of it themselves, and even so, still a great price. At Eadles I buy two large whole chickens for £12, and two packs of four (large) chicken breasts also for £12. Two packs of four big pork steaks for around £9, a couple of packs of fat sausages for £5, (loads of different flavours to choose from, so little fat in them you actually HAVE to fry them or put them in the oven) and to top it all, a gammon joint for a FIVER. The chickens, chicken breasts and sausages are packed by weight, but if you buy two of each they sell them at a set price, so I always rummage around for the heaviest to get the best deal. One time I came to the farmers market and Eadles weren't there, I still haven't forgiven them. Apart from fish products, and red meat, this our meat for the month. It will all go in the freezer, and will be brought out and defrosted whenever needed. Apart from the gammon joint. I get home and pull out a big pot. Unwrap the joint and chuck it in. In the fridge I find a couple of carrots and an onion which I sling in as well, then in the herb drawer I find a couple of bay leaves. I haven't got any celery this time so I stick in cloves instead as it's getting wintry. Cover the lot with water and then bring to the boil, turn it down and let it simmer for a couple of hours. Drain, cool, and I now have ham. My family consumes ham like its made out of gold. Most of the stuff you get prepacked in the supermarkets has so much water and chemicals in it, it doesn't even resemble meat any more. Let me ask you, when was the last time you saw a square pig? When I run out and need some quick, I go to the Deli counter. It's good quality ham that actually looks like it may have been near a pig at some point in it's life, but, because it's not hermetically sealed in plastic, it costs a great deal less. BUT still a great deal more than doing it yourself. Home cooked ham though tastes great, and made with fresh free range gammon, there is nothing better. At Christmas I make a massive ham which is cooked in (wait for it)... coke. It's called 'white trash ham' as it is from the Deep South, where apparently they put coke in everything. It may sound disgusting, but don't knock it till you've tried it. Don't use diet though (urgh) it has to be full fat coke. Use that instead of water and just put a couple of onions in as well. When it comes out it's amazing. Tastes all sweet and smoky. The sugar in the coke breaks down the fibres in the meat, so it literally falls apart in your mouth.

Back to the farmers market! After dragging my body weight in meat back to the car I make my way back to the market and have browse around the rest of the stalls. There is a lovely lady that sells plants she grew herself, all kinds vegetable, herbal, and ornamental. I have a look and if something catches my eye (it usually does) I may come back later if I have a couple of pounds left. The goats cheese man catches my eye too. Three hundred million types, flavours, colours and strengths of goats cheese. I never used to like goats cheese, but now I love it. And, it's half the fat of normal cheese, so you can eat twice as much. I buy a couple of wraps and hope to squirrel them away at the back of the fridge so Alex can't eat them. Two vegetable stalls vie for your attention. One is the local pick your own farm where we take the kids in the summer, another is larger and quite frankly cheaper. I head there. Five kilos of potatoes and two kilos of onions later, for pence, drag them back to the car, and back to the market again. I need a trolley. The potatoes most likely will end up as mash (the kids favourite) and the onions will because onion marmalade to make as Christmas gifts. I buy some interesting beef sausages for Alex and myself, as a treat and then head to the egg stall, where you can buy free range chicken, duck and goose eggs. I buy a tray of 30 misshapes for £3. (in supermarkets free range eggs are getting towards two quid for 6) There is absolutely nothing wrong with them, just the British public seem to think as with everything that grows, if it isn't perfectly uniform and smooth, then there must be SOMETHING WRONG WITH IT. Not so. My misshapen eggs are a source of amusement to the kids. Long eggs, round eggs, lumpy eggs, white eggs, thick shells, thin shells, ridged shells, but inside, they all taste the same. Great. We will make eggy (hard boiled or fried) sandwiches, quiches which will go in the freezer, omelettes, carbonara sauce, and a staple favourite of childhood, boiled egg and soldiers for breakfast.

The Farmers Market is a mecca of cheapness and quality. If it ever leaves my little town I will weep. We already lost the organic market (once a fortnight in the Oakwood Centre) where you could buy loose cereals, grains, nuts, dried fruit, pulses, pasta, oils, as well as eco friendly washing products. You took your own storage, filled it up weighed it and paid. It was so cheap. But no-one ever went. So it closed down. If the Farmers market goes the same way, it will be very sad. This is supposed to be an affluent area. You would think that the kudos of shopping at the Farmers Market would be enough for those with more money than sense, but it appears that we would rather have our kudos without added mud, so they stick to Waitrose. Sad.

Talk of Shopping

So, here it is. A good 40 minutes later, and I have no idea whether you will be able to see this properly or not until I publish it, so this all might be a big waste of time!

Anyway. The first receipt is from 21 Sept, which I believe was around the time we started this thing, so seems as good a place to start as any. I believe I ran around Salisbury's on a Saturday afternoon (bad idea) with Willow in an attempt to collect some stuff for packed lunches and something to make for tea. We were both thirsty & hungry and would not be going straight home afterwards, but to Chapel Hall for Willow to be taught here song & dance solo, so got some juice cartons and crisps. We also bought Cheap tinned chopped tomatoes, some seriously cheap reduced price organic fruit and veg, spaghetti, parmesan, and deodorant, so I think we must have had spaghetti for tea, but not with the deodorant.

The second receipt is from Waitrose which I seem to shop at alot at the moment. Normally I do one BIG supermarket shop a month, just after Alex gets paid, in which I buy loads of dried/packet/tinned goods, all the store cupboard ingredients that don't go off. Then I do little shops to purchase perishables such as bread/milk/fruit/veg and anything I might need to make a meal out of something I already have in the cupboard. I also buy the majority of meat from one of two places. Either the local farmers market, once a month (free range local fresh produce) which I stick in the freezer, or a company which delivers frozen free range meat & fish from a huge range which I do every once in a while. This company is more expensive, but the quality is excellent even though it is frozen. I pay a certain amount by standing order to them every month, and when I have enough credit, I do a massive order. Then of course there is the veg box which we had stopped having over the summer as we either weren't here or weren't eating what they put in it, but will get again. We recently changed from Riverford (very good quality, very reasonably priced) to Able and Cole (who I always want to call Cain & Able) who are a little more expensive but VERY good quality, better service, the box comes on a week day, Saturday deliveries with Riverford could be a bit of a pain when you where out, so would the box (and your eggs) sat in the sun all day. Nice. But also because Able & Cole did a mixed Veg and fruit box which meant we actually spent less money in the long run.

So anyway, back to the Waitrose receipts. There are alot of them, and normally I wouldn't go there. The quality is exceptional, but so is the cost. But it is far too handy when dropping off/picking up little ginger boys at Nursery to pop round the corner to Waitrose for a pint and a loaf than getting in the car and driving all the way to Tesco. Just think of the pollution! So I seem to be shopping there quite a bit at the minute, and more so as I haven't been and done a proper big shop as I was more skint.

This particular visit, you will recall was when I picked up my bargain trout fillets for £1.05. I also bought some crisps for myself and Oscar (he likes to have crisps with his lunch) some tomato soup (for our lunch), broccoli, fish, low fat cheddar (tastes like old socks) milk and filo pastry to make some poncey mini flan things when my friends came over one evening. Not alot, but it came to £14. Which is quite alot. Nuff said.

Bed time.

Battling with Technology

I have not been around this place much (well, at all in fact) in the last week or so. I have been busy getting on with my life and the ever growing mountain of 'stuff' to do. And also my computer is really annoying me.

A typical evening's Internet viewing will go something like this...
7.30pm. Kids in bed switch computer on, wait fifteen minutes while it warms up, goes through all its checks, loads up my desktop, and settles down. I make a cup of tea.
7.45pm. I log into my emails to find I have 64 new emails, 62 of which are junk (and those are just the ones that actually got through), and the other two are friends being very jolly and fun. I am really knackered and have 'stuff to do' so I ignore them as I am too tired/busy to answer.
8.00pm. Have a look on eBay to see if any one wants to buy any of my stuff. Nope. Have a look at all the auctions I forgot to bid on because I was busy being a mum.
8.10pm.Search for some new stuff to bid on.
8.12pm. Internet connection decides to momentarily go to sleep. A page I am loading takes three minutes to come up.
8.15pm. Internet connection wakes up. Page loads.
8.18pm Internet connection goes to sleep again. I receive irritating 'This page cannot be displayed' message. Stress levels rise.
8.20pm. Internet connection given kick up backside. Page loads.
(this battle continues for approximately three quarters of an hour at which point my teeth ache quite a bit from stress gritting)
9.05pm. I decide to write an email to a friend.
9.15pm. I try to send email to friend.
9.16pm. Internet connection is lost again.
9.17pm. Email is also lost.
9.20pm. After screaming into a pillow, I try very hard not to bludgeon laptop into small pieces.

So you can see why I haven't been around here much lately. The idea of spending half an hour regaling tales of spending to you only to have it disappear into the 'ether' was not one of my favourite ways of wasting my time.

I am keeping my fingers crossed. (And my toes.)

Any hoo. I had a cunning plan to show you what it is I have been buying and why, so I kept all my till receipts to scan into the computer, which I have done. Anyway, in doing so, I have realised just how much money I spend and just how far it doesn't go. AND actually, for all my money saving talk, just how much rubbish I buy.

So here goes....