Renaming it 'The Freebies Blog' ...

 

I laughed this morning when I saw all my freebies once again, and thought very briefly about renaming this blog 'The Freebies Blog'.

On Wednesday I phoned Mum as I usually do before we visit, to see if she needed us to bring her anything or if she just fancied something.  She's been off her food since being in hospital, so temptation is the name of the game at the moment.  This week she asked for some milk and some scones.  As I was sat in the Booths carpark ready to go in and get this week's freebie ... a packet of Warburtons Soft Naans ... and we were due to set off for Manchester in half an hour there would be no time to make some.

Happily there was a choice of nice fresh scones to choose from, so I chose a pack of tiny sultana ones, there were lots in the pack but I knew Alan would be pleased to help her eat a couple after our lunchtime sandwiches.

I decided that while I was there I would use my quarterly Booths voucher, this time a massive £20 one and stock myself up on the Mutti tomato products that were on a generous offer.  They are not the cheapest of tomato products, but they are among the tastiest.

As you can see from the top photo I managed to get two four packs of tinned tomatoes, some just peeled and some finely chopped, along with three jars of tomato sauces, two vegan Bolognese style and one with basil.  Along with some eggs for me and some cherry tomatoes to have with our sandwiches at Mum's.

My freebie this week was worth £1.60, not to be sniffed at.  

It's a good job I went in nice and early to claim these as they were very popular, everyone at the checkouts had a pack either on the conveyor belt or still in their baskets, and the large wicker basket at the front of the store was already half empty ... and this was still before 9am.

My receipt, showing all my tomatoey bargains and the freebie and the grand total that I had to hand over in cash for everything in the top photo.

Total Spend - £2.21

Last night while we were chatting Alan asked if I fancied a cooked breakfast at Booths, of course I said yes.  😁

So this morning as soon as Alan got back from walking Mavis, we went to Booths.  Even though it was market day our little town is always slow to come to life, and at 8.45am the café was still lovely and quiet, the few folk that were there were mostly men eating bacon butties and reading their papers.

A picture of tray-carrying concentration.

Before we left the store Alan picked up some bread for himself and a naughty pack of Caramel KitKats and asked me if there was anything that I fancied.  When I saw the yearly edition of Gardeners world magazine at the checkout I said 'yes I fancy that' ... so he bought it for me.  

I buy this one every year as it contains the '2 for 1 Gardens Pass', usually along with a free gift, which this year was four packets of seeds.  Using the gardens pass just once gets you back the cost of the magazine so it is really worth having.

So I got a magazine with it's offer and seeds bought for me and I came away from the café with even more sachets than usual ... and look, they've upgraded their sachets to the posher 'Stokes' ones.  We sampled half each of the other brown sauce one with our breakfasts and it was very nice.

I was pleased to see that inside the magazine there is a feature with Gaz Oakley, one of my favourite vegan chefs who is now living a very sustainable life on a Welsh hillside, just like we did.

So it was a good and very cheap shopping trip for me on Wednesday, and then a very tasty and completely freebie filled outing on Thursday morning.  And we were both back at our desks and working away well before ten o'clock.

Sue xx