Shopping ... and Price Differences

 

I didn't need much shopping at the weekend, but Alan was going to Aldi and going for a bacon butty at Booths so I volunteered to go with him.  😁

After Booths, where he had his bacon butty, bought me a toasted teacake and we both partook of coffee, we bought some bread on the way out.  Alan got an unsliced organic loaf and I got another packet of four buns ... which he very kindly paid for despite my trying to put £1.25 into his hand.  The next stop was Aldi where Alan seemed to go mad in the aisles and filled a shopping trolley, I just got the few things above and waited for him just past the checkouts.

I didn't really need the fish portions, but knowing that I now had space in the freezer seemingly my right hand thought that they should be in the trolley along with Ginger's morning treats and the other bits and pieces.  I did need the wine, it was after all Saturday and right at the end of a long week!!  😄

My Aldi shopping receipt.

I thought 'woohoo Ginger's treats have gone down in price', I wasn't quite as excited when I had a closer look at the packet when I got home and discovered that now there are only five treats per packet and not six.  😐

The Booths receipt that Alan paid for.

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that I bought TWO packets of bread rolls, or 'baps' as these are insisting to be called..

When I saw these in Aldi for just 69p looking so similar to the Booths ones but at less than half the usual price ... they are on offer at the moment at £1.25 and are usually £1.40.  I thought that a taste comparison was in order.

I'll let you know after I try one of each in the very near future.  The Booths ones are currently residing in the freezer, even me and my penchant for brown bread rolls cannot manage to eat all of them at once.  I do have one of last weeks  Booths pack leftover to do the taste test. 

Sue xx

Sunday, Beautiful Sunday

 

A gorgeous cottage.

Which I think is slightly reminiscent of the fake cottage used in the Christmas film 'The Holiday'.  I was so disappointed when I found out that it wasn't actually real.  The set was beautiful.  😟

A lovely kitchen.

Old books, and china in shades of blue.

Although I have the urge to 'iron' that wall ... and those of you that know me well, know that I don't iron anything!!  😄

And finally a pretty cup, which reminds me it's time to get and get another cup of coffee before we hit the road.

Hope you have a lovely Sunday.

Sue xx

What's for Breakfast?

 

Some days I get up and have no idea what I fancy for breakfast, I find it so much easier in Winter when most days I am happy with a nice filling bowl of porridge, but I rarely fancy that in the warmer months.

Thanks to the freezer inventory I knew that I had two slices of bread in the freezer, so inspiration suddenly struck and beans on toast was the order of the day.

I can't eat a full tin of beans, and even half a tin is too much these days, so I always divide the tin into three portions.  Tipping the beans first into the pan and giving them a stir means that the sauce is distributed fairly between all the portions.

Three of my little pots hold a full tin of beans between them so I just fill two up, pop the lids on and put them in the fridge, knowing that I have the same sized portion left in the pan.

Gosh that made for a nice breakfast.

It's not a meal I have regularly, but when I do I always enjoy it.  Perhaps because it is only once every few months it tastes all the better for it.  Now I have two more portions of beans to add to other meals over the course of the weekend.

Lovely leftovers once again. 😃

Sue xx

Inspiration ... Three Slices of Egg

 

Yesterday's breakfast on the left, and part of todays lunch on the right.

Saving little bits from one meal as the basis of another has always been something that I like to do, a spoonful of this or that can be the inspiration behind a whole other meal.  I think I really got into this a few years ago when I used to read Suzy's blog Sudden Lunches every day and she would make the most amazing meals which started off from the remnants or purposefully picked out bits of others.

I posted here about her book when it first came out.

The Leftovers Handbook by Suzy Bowler

I think I am going to have another read through of this to give me even more inspiration.

But in the meantime, I have a couple of spring onions in the garden, and a sad looking remnant of a lettuce and lots of lovely homegrown tomatoes in the fridge, so I see a lovely egg salad bun on my very close horizon.  😁

Edited to add in:

My egg salad bun.  😀

Sue xx

Back to Basics - Freezer Inventory

Creating an inventory of what is in the freezer is something that I always put off and yet once it's done it really is a massive help.  

Already I have been able to look at the scribbled pages when I have been wanting to get something out, instead of rummaging through the freezer drawers, thinking it's in one, not finding it there, trying the other two and then going back to the first one where by some mastery of physics it is suddenly very obviously right there!!  I'm always convinced that something is in one drawer when it is actually in another buried under a mound of bits and bobs of leftovers.

Happily the freezer is pretty full with very edible and tasty looking things, mostly of bags of vegetables, so I see a lot of vegetable curries and soups in my immediate future.  I do have one suitable candidate for a Christmas dinner centrepiece ... if it lasts that long.  I obviously didn't fancy it last year, will I this?

 Anyway I wrote out everything that was in the drawers and then compiled myself a menu plan of evening meals for this week, and up to now I have stuck to it faithfully.  

Having just one meal on each days menu means that I can ad-lib at will and have different things for lunch and breakfast, and when I am at my most brain-dead and unimaginative in the evenings I have a hope in hell of finding something to eat ... and in the right drawer as well.  😄

Sue xx

First Job - Count the Cash

 

I was going to go through the freezer drawers and make an inventory of what I had in there, but then I decided to count the cash that I've got available to me first.

These are the three places that I usually have some money.  My bag, I don't have a purse I use the card and zipper section of my handbag instead, the little drawer in the middle is where I have been putting the cash that I have made from my recent Facebook Marketplace sales, and finally my little change box.  This is where I dump any loose change when it gets too heavy to carry around in my bag and I have been using bits and bobs from it just recently to keep the contents at a manageable level.

I was pleasantly surprised at the contents.  I have almost a hundred pounds ... £97.09 in fact.  😀

That's quite a useful amount to have.  I am putting no time limit on how long this has to last me, just as long as possible.  If I only spend cash, I won't be paying for my shopping with my credit card and then next months bill will be a lot lower, well that's the plan!!

In a bid to put off doing the freezer inventory for even longer, I decided to use up some of the Mediterranean Vegetables that I roasted a few days ago and make a large pot of pasta bake.

I used the last two thirds of that jar of pasta sauce, the same amount of water was used to rinse out the jar to get every last bit of tomatoey goodness out and then I kept adding handfuls of pasta until it looked about right.

You do need to have more liquid than you think you will need when you are cooking the pasta in the sauce, as it absorbs quite a lot, and this is what makes this sort of pasta bake even more delicious.

I got it just about perfect.

This pan made me one evening meal and two delicious lunches.

The leftover Med Veg was put into two little tubs and popped into the freezer.

Now I have to do the freezer inventory before I put anything else in there, not that there's much space left!!

Sue xx

Easy Peelers ... and Right Back to Basics

As you can see I make good use of jars in my store-cupboard, all sorts and all sizes.  

Lots have been collected over the years especially the Mason jars, Kilner jars and any that are usually purchased new.  Some were bought when they were on special offer, some bought from car boot sales and a few gifted.  

But even having lots of jars already ...

... I can never resist an 'easy peeler'.

The ones where a little soak in the sink means that the label peels off smoothly with no sticky residue to get off.  Now that I have so many jars in my arsenal I rarely have that sticky label fight and I'm more than happy to send a jar off for recycling ... unless of course the jar is really special, then I still can't resist.

They are just so useful, and jam jars especially are strong enough for reuse time and time again whether in the freezer for soups and sauces or to actually be used once again for jam.  With the courgettes still coming through I might be tempted to make some chutney and make good use of some of my empty jars.

But as you can see from the top photograph I definitely do not need any Green Tomato Chutney making this year.  😀

While I am supposed to be being really good this year, especially since April when the pay packets stopped rolling in each month, replaced instead by my miniscule private pension of £77.45.  I have in fact let things slip slightly each and every month.  

The money that my son owed me has now all been paid back, so no more £100 a month extra to supplement the pension, gosh even the interest from my savings account has gone down and I was drawing that each month into my current account as well, but the tax man had to be paid.  Greedy man!!

I've just checked what I owe on my credit card which is usually paid on or around the 10th of each month and oops ... I owe just over £300.  This will of course be paid in full just as it always is, but doing this will send my current account into an all-time low of just £78.80 after my direct debit for my life insurance has gone out.

It really is time for me to stop messing around and get right back to basics.

The first step is to count all the cash I have in my bag, my little Facebook Marketplace sales pot and my spare change box and see what money I'm playing with ... because cash is going to be king from now on.

I had just finished typing all of the above and Alan came over.  Did I want to go for a *coffee with him as he was going to Booths for a bacon butty, of course I said yes.  When he asked if I wanted any shopping on our way out I said just bread really.  I picked up the buns as they were on offer £1.25 if you had a Booths card instead of the usual £1.40.  He was going to pay for them for me but I stopped him, I had enough bits of change to pay for them myself and I wanted to start immediately.  

Product Code Product Name Qty Total 522045 4 BOOTHS SOFT BROWN BAPS UNIT  Cardholder Discount 1 £1.40  -£0.15

Then I obviously came back home to finish this post ... and now the Challenge is on.

 Sue  xx

I did of course accept the kindly offered cup of coffee.  😁

The Garstang Show 2025

 

It was our local country show on Saturday, and happily the weather did us proud.  Although it was cloudy for most of the day, it stayed warm and dry, just right for all the animals.

There were lots of horses, both being judged for  looks etc and taking part in various events in the separate eventing field.

There was a slightly smaller show field of vintage vehicles than last year.  This local wagon won first prize in the commercial class.

This seemingly was HM the Queen Mother's private bus, delivered to her in July of 1966 and mostly used to ferry staff between royal residences in London, and take staff, luggage and Corgis when the royal family moved between palaces for holidays.  It was beautiful.

There was a little field of giant tortoises, about eight of them in total.  Sadly only children were allowed to go in the enclosure with them.  😉

A John Deere tractor or three made Alan drool and remember his previous John Deere's.  I doubt we will ever have enough land ... or money ... to warrant the purchase of such a monster, modern version though.

Of course there were all the classes of cattle,

and sheep.

But the part we enjoyed the most was sitting and watching all the dog shows, with so many fun and novelty classes for pet dogs to take part in.  We laughingly worked out which of our dogs would have won each class ... Sophie, the best sausage catcher.  Mavis, the dog with the most beautiful eyes.  Suky, the dog most like her owner ... although Alan said my ears aren't quite silky smooth enough!!  And the dog with the best handshake would have to go to Rosy.

It was a good day, but as you can see the showground and car park were pretty big, almost as spread out as our town which is on the left of the photo, and we both went home for a lie down and a rest come mid-afternoon.

Sue xx

Rounding Off the Shopping from July ... Offers and Freebies

I finally received my £100 eGift card after taking out my Pure Cremations funeral plan four months ago.  If you remember Mum got three vouchers to give to friends or family and if they used the vouchers she got £100 for each one, and each of the users got £100 off their new plan and a £100 gift card for themselves.  My brother kindly did all this on Mum's behalf as her LPA is in his name.

Now, what they don't tell you is that to actually get your gift card you have to phone and remind them, and one by one we all did this, me, my brother and Alan, and we all got exactly the same response each time ... 'oh this should have been done automatically we are so sorry, it's our fault it will be with you in a couple of days'.  Now I'm not stupid, they are obviously hoping that more people will forget to claim than will phone them to ask about it, or even as it's mostly elderly people taking out these plans will die before the claiming time is up.  

Crafty, a little sneaky or just plain cheating?

Anyway I chose to get a Sainsbury's eGift card as did Alan, and my first shop using it was the things above.  Just a couple of things that I needed, a little treat, a pack of toilet rolls as they were on offer again, and some chicken for Ginger ... who is now mostly refusing to eat cat food except for his dried mix, and lives mainly on fresh chicken or salmon.

I spent a total of £28.99, so I have £71.01 left to use as and when I need to.  A brilliant freebie ... once I actually got it.

My only other shopping last week was hummus and bananas from Sainsbury's, bought to take advantage of the offer that was running throughout July where you got a rising amount of extra points for each shop.  You only needed to spend £1 or more to get first of all 2 x50 Nectar points, then 100 points, then 200 and then 300 points on five individual shopping trips over a set period.

I decided to take advantage of the offer in a sensible way, using the odd change from my little box to buy only the things that I actually needed ... but one at a time.  I did Google what a total of 700 Nectar points would earn me and it turned out to be £3.50.  Not a lot, but as our store is literally three minutes away by car, I didn't use much petrol, I only bought things that I actually needed and in a couple of cases was very careful to just go over the minimum spend of £1.

So by and large I do think it was worth it, and it made me careful about what I spent my money on each time I visited.

After getting my final shop of the challenge and picking up the 300 points, I dropped some clothes and shoes off at the charity shop, and decided to call into Booths on the way past on the off-chance that there was a Wednesday offer on.  There was ... so along with the bread rolls that I needed I picked up  this weeks little offer, and it is very little, so much so that it showed up as £0.00 on my till receipt. 😄

Well that's me all up to date with shopping.  July was a good month for freebies, with lots of napkins, condiments, a free Greggs coffee and vegan sausage roll, a £100 voucher that will keep me going with my shopping budget for quite a while and a boost on my Nectar points total too.

Sue xx

The Books That I Read in July

 

It's been a good month of reading, helped I suppose by the fact that the weather has been half really nice and half really rainy.  Reading on the patio once the sun has left the area where I have my chair, with a cup of coffee and the occasional biscuit on a plate is always good for my reading mojo.  When the weather turns wet I can retreat into the lodge and sit in the cool ... with more coffee even closer at hand.

Good Food for Bad Days by Jack Monroe

The first book that I read in July was this one.  Not one of Jack's finest offerings I'm afraid, I really do think that her earlier books were so much better.

This book has been donated.

The Place of Tides by James Rebanks

Alan bought me this book while we were on holiday in Thornthwaite, Cumbria earlier this Summer.  We were in Booths buying some bits for our evening meal and they had a wonderful book selection there with lots of local authors, and James is from Cumbria.  I rarely buy books, even new books at full price but Alan talked me into it ... you can imagine how easy that was.  😄

It is a wonderful book and a very special read, telling of his time spent on a remote Norwegian island with one of the last of the 'duck-ladies'.  Helping build the duck houses, looking after the ducks and then harvesting the eider-down ... the traditional non-cruel way.

Nigel's review sums it up perfectly in just a few words.

Kept.

Upside Down Cooking by Dominic Franks

I actually treated myself to this as a pre-order to get a bit of a discount.  I follow Dominic on Instagram now, I used to follow his blog way back in the day when we lived on our second smallholding and I had a HUGE collection of cookbooks.  We shared random recipes from random books each month.

This novel approach to cooking is so unusual that I just have to try it out ... there is a sheet of ready rolled pastry in my fridge just waiting for me to spring into action.

It will be ... 'So Good'.  

(If you know you know!!)

Kept.

Educated by Tara Westover

This is an outstanding book and one that I was recommended to read and I'm glad that I did.  It's brutal in places, with violence towards the writer graphically told, but overall the story is heart-warming as she comes to understand that her upbringing and lack of education can be changed.  She takes small steps forwards rather than great strides but ultimately makes a great and very educated life for herself.

After reading the book I did some research on Tara and her family, it was very interesting.

This book has been donated.

Lifting the Latch by Sheila Stewart

I just could not get into this book at all, which really disappointed me.  I gave it a good shot, but maybe because the last three books had been so good this one was a bit of a let down.  I gave up just a quarter of the way through.

This book has been donated.

Veg by Lucy Tweed

Another book that Alan bought for me, luckily it was half price at the garden centre because I didn't think very much of it.  Her humour just wasn't mine and the foods although tasty looking just were not that special and occasionally over-complicated.

This book has been donated.

I am already into my first book of August, Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton and it is shaping up to be a very good read.  So, I'm hoping for lots of sunny days on the patio, finding shade under the umbrella with copious mugs of coffee, and lots of time for reading in the month ahead.

Happy reading.  📚

Sue xx

I would just like to point out, that although I provide links to Amazon for all the books that I read each month, not all my books are bought from Amazon.  If they are some of them were bought from the Used section rather than full price.  

I share the links so that you can learn more about the books that I write about for yourself, or read reviews from others that have read them.  Of course most of the books I talk about would also be available from your local library, and if you are very lucky you might even find them in charity or thrift shops.  

There are so many ways to bring books into your home if you love reading. 📚