Monday 29 April 2013

It's going to be an odd sort of week

Lot's of different things happening this week. Starting this morning when I took Him Outside to catch the train at 8.15. He is starting his regular 3 days a month of doing his old job. So he goes to the big town to pick up a van which he will use for looking around Suffolk at things that might fall down!
 Then tomorrow I have to go out for a training session so that on Thursday I can have a VERY long day out sitting in a village hall.
Friday evening our son and girlfriend, who live in Bucks., arrive for the weekend  so that they can go to a wedding of one of his school friends.
Then it is also Bank Holiday weekend with some extra campers on site, so more cleaning, emptying bins etc will be needed, and there will be 2 Car boots to go to - weather permitting, ( goodie! extra one on Bank Hol. Mon.)
Which reminds me that we did go to a car boot on Sunday morning. (There is one every Sunday through the summer, alternate weeks in two different places just a 5 or 6 miles from home) Not many booters out at this one but we did find two sets of darts to go with the dartboard that we already had, which we've put in the campsite 'recreation room'.
I also bought this cup and saucer for £1, it will be a Christmas pres.which I shall fill with goodies to give to our friend who buys eggs from us and always brings a pile of newspapers for lighting fires and some farming magazines for us to read.( it's OK she doesn't have a computer so she won't see this!)
While I was in town for the station I thought I might as well do the May big shop at Tescos. ( Yes I realise it is still April but Mays house keeping was here and it will save me a trip later in the week.) Once again I noticed HUGE price hikes on things- especially bread flour. I like Alinsons flour best but it has gone from £1 a bag to £1.72 - I couldn't believe it - what a huge jump from one month to the next. So I bought Tescos own which was £1.21. Their value tinned pineapple which I got for 25p last month - GONE. Only own brand at 65p for a smaller tin. Value  packs of spaghetti was back at 19p a packet - they haven't had that in stock for several months and their value cooking chocolate also gone, though I did find same price cheap chocolate in the sweets aisle. Whole Earth Peanut Butter ( I find the value jars everywhere to be too sweet and too salty for me) was on offer so stocked up with 4 months ( 4 jars) supply and they actually had their refill packs of coffee back again, which were missing last time I went so got two of those as we were getting low. One thing I hadn't seen before was packs of blanched peanuts,Him Outside will be pleased as I will be able to make his favourite peanut biscuits. Haven't made any since Julian Graves closed down - still much missed by me as their spices, nuts, dried fruit etc were such good value and quality.
So what with those extras, normal stuff like milk, O.J. cheese (tesco value mature is always good we find) etc. fresh fruit for the week ( health issues means I must have fresh fruit) and stocking up my  tinned toms shelf -vital ingredient that was running low, 4 cans of Mild for Him Outside and a couple of special things for our weekend meal with family the total was again a lot more that it was a few months back. And no meat at all on my list and no Willow spread either - that was another thing completely vanished. Shopping round here in the country with not much choice of shops is so frustrating. And I can hear a whole load of people thinking - blimey, she's not very frugal at all. So I'll just say we are frugal in other ways so that we are not so penny pinching on food!
Must just add a thank you message to Trudie, compostwoman, Karen and Pam for comments yesterday and last week. Also to whoever had the link to BBC news page re living on less. I copied it over to Word, deleted the pics. shrunk the whole lot and squeezed it together and then printed out to read properly and to pass on to my Penny Pincher friends. I still find it much easier to read things on paper than on a screen- another sign of old age I guess!

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