LET’S GO SHOPPING

The boring bit: budgets.

Shopping on a budget can be bothersome, if not somewhat trying. That said, it does make one become inventive with household accounting. My budget is currently at roughly under £50 per week. (I can see Mr Saville, my old math teacher, tutting and giving me yet another C here, telling me I must try harder. 😁.) I know of some people who quite successfully have halved this and I hope with time I can, too. If halving, at least take off another £10. Each week I start off my shopping by adding things to my online cart without checking out. This gives me the chance to add or omit items that i think I can live without. (Like cake! How I miss cake! 😁. Even the word is gorgeous, right?) But as fabulously delectable as it is, it’s no longer on my list of essential foods. Well, it is, but I just can’t bloody have any. 😁. Same goes with chocolate, crisps and chips. All essential food groups I’m convinced (😁.) just not if you want other foodstuff in your cart. (sighs.) I just have to be sensible. (Oh boy!)

Vegetables.

Using a great many and a wide variety of veggies in my diet, I find it not only bulks up my meals but, let’s face it, they are boringly good for you. Now that’s all well and good but they’re not quite so healthy for ones bank balance. I’ve watched the prices rise substantially over the months and was left in some what of a quandary. I was getting to that stage of either eating fresh veg or meat. Here is where I compromised. After much researching I found my store sells veg quite cheaply in frozen mixed bags. Not only is this a much cheaper way of shopping, it’s great if you’re lazy like me: a cut-corners kind of cook. Takes minutes in the microwave. No chopping, no washing or mess or waste. It’s quick, easy and just as good for you,. The biggest plus is there’s no time frame for usage. Over the months this has saved me an absolute fortune.

Bargain hunting.

Do you ever get that buzz like I get from finding something half price? I have to admit, it gives me a real thrill. (Something has to these days. 😁.) Searching for those cut price items is just like going hunting, scouring for those on sale items (with just my trusty weed-wacker to hack back the undergrowth of lush temptations, slathered in cake repellent) until… there it is in a clearing! Those wondrous tins of thirty-six pence whole tomatoes. Those are definitely going in the cart. Not just one but two! That’s the budget blown. 😁. Kidney beans, lentils… all jokes aside, folks, these are a cupboard must have. I’m a huge chili fan, so cut price kidney beans are of real excitement in my house.

There’s also the obvious, like buying store home brands which most of us have been doing for a while now. Before giving chocolate the big heave-ho, I discovered (quite on the off chance, you understand, harmlessly checking out, er, other stuff on that shelf) store brand bars of chocolate. Firstly, I must say I cannot remember getting any bar of chocolate for 36p since my childhood. 😁. (That being back in the day when there was fire-breathing dragons and unicorns roaming Tesco.) But out of sheer desperation I clicked on it, not just once but twice! (Oops!) 😁. (Yeah, I know. In all fairness to me, though, chocolate had not passed these lips in over a month. Okay, it never passes my lips ever, opting rather to just open my cake hole and shove it in.) 😁. I did, however, wonder some time later… well after I had already clicked on it of course… how can this bargain basement chocolate taste halfway decent? I mean, how can they afford to sell it at this price? Does it, in fact, taste of those really cheap pet shop dog chocolaty drops? (Remember those?) How do I know what those taste like? (Ain’t telling! 😳.) But we all did it, right? Then imagine my shock and most pleasant surprise when, after the first tentative bite, it was actually okay! No, not Cadburys, Galaxy or Lindt you understand, but if you find yourself craving something sweet, it’s definitely worth giving it a try.

I have to say though, rather than becoming depressed by all this austere economic budgetary wizardry, I find myself rather enjoying the challenge. Admittedly there have been times I’ve faltered, nearly straying off my path via some evil temptation on Amazon or another. (I have heard their stocks have gone down in recent times. I knew I had issues but really!? 😳. 😁.) I even had one regular driver pull up here outside last week just ready to knock before he realised his mistake. No, seriously! This bad habit now broken though is a lifetime one for me. I mainly did it from boredom or bouts of depression anyway. I didn’t really need half the stuff I bought over the months at the time. (But only now is most of it coming into its own. Now I no longer feel that overpowering urge to splurge.

Each evening I sit and, as the light slowly fades away and dusk makes its presence known, I’m grateful for the lengthening days. My two lamps sitting idol until around 9pm most nights now. I do, however, make full use of some solar lamps I bought last summer (another Amazon purchase now fully coming into their own) as are my four power banks. One keeps my phone on the go during the day so I can still be in phone land with Jesse. I charge them up after midnight when it’s a cheaper electricity tariff. This lifestyle I realise wouldn’t be for everyone. It can tell on you at times. I have to be extremely disciplined (something, I might add, I’m really not) but by next year I want to be bill free, solvent, in the black… whatever form achieving this takes I’m willing to give it my all. I’m lucky though, I know. I have the full support of those around me. They cheer my efforts and make something that could have been so damn miserable an adventure. I know I have learnt, once and for all, the things worth having in this life cost nothing, but are indeed of immeasurable value. Take care of yourselves, folks, till next time we meet. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤💛