Catching Up On This Months Shopping ... and Riverford

 

Aldi 1st  February - £21.20

It's time for me to try and have a catch up of everything that I've been missing, but I can only manage a short while on the bar stool that I have to use when I'm on the computer, so sadly it will be brief.

February started with me back eating fish, but I have to say I have really gone off fresh salmon, so I think breaded fish will have to be the way forward, and these Aldi fish portions are reasonably priced and very tasty.  

It does bump the cost up though doesn't it when you buy a few fishy products at once!

There's not been a lot of shopping up to now this month, but then there's not been a lot of eating either.  😞

Booths - £4.30

The second shopping of the month contained no food, but my favourite washing up liquid was on special offer at 25% off, so although I needed one, I bought two.

I have decided that from now on I am buying quality and ethical products rather than quantity and cheapness.  It seems to actually balance out ... well up to now anyway.

The three napkins were from the café in Booths, Alan took me out for a coffee, but the tablets I am on are making everything taste foul, so there's not been much coffee drinking going on this past week.  I must be saving him a fortune.  😄

11th Aldi - £14.94

To bring you right up to date, this morning we had a quick trip to Aldi as we have family coming to stay for a couple of days and Alan wanted to get some things in.

Looking at the photo it really is a very random basket of shopping isn't it, but I was just going for what I really needed and what I fancied.  But when everything tastes awful you just have to try ... I won't be munching on the floor wipes though!!

The receipt from Aldi.

Happily just before we left for Aldi, this weeks Riverford box and Salad Bag arrived so we could check out what we definitely didn't need to buy.

Again it was all beautiful quality food, and once we had shared it out we set off for the other things that we needed/wanted.

I changed the order a bit this week and went for a Seasonal Vegetable Box rather than the mixed fruit and veg box.  I have to say that this suits me better as I do prefer vegetables to fruit, I always have. As there wasn't a cucumber in this weeks salad bag Alan bought a large cucumber from Aldi and said I could have half, so I have some lovely salady things to eat.

 Once again this order was paid for by my prize winning vouchers, and I have enough left in the account to get one more totally free of charge order and then something off a fourth.

As it was pouring with rain first thing this morning the delivery driver left the order on the doorstep and ran back to his van.  Happily they have a 'Box Brolly' to put over and around your box to keep the cardboard and the contents dry.

I would actually call it a polythene bag ... but hey now it's a box brolly. 😁

Sue xx

Bungalow Progress ... All Mod Cons

 

I've not been on my computer since last Sunday, so I apologise for a complete absence of blog posts.  I tend to post a couple of days in advance and set to automatically publish, hence there being a couple of posts last week.  I was sent to hospital in the early hours of Monday morning and spent all night in A&E before being kept on the Urgent Care ward all day Tuesday.  Things are slowly getting back to normal, so there's no need to worry.

Anyway I thought I would do a little update of the bungalow progress.  We are having a little breather between builders etc while Alan gets on with some labouring and they work on another job that is much more urgent.

As you can see from the top photo, the garage has now been rebuilt and has walls, a roof and a door and a window.  There's still a bit of work to be done, but it's nice to see it up instead of us just having a hole in the ground.

Our mod cons consist of running water from the outside tap.

And toilet facilities in the front garden.  Of course we also have a bank of five electric sockets in the old hallway so that lights, tools and kettles can be plugged in.

On the downside, thanks to Alan's hard work, we no have virtually no floors.

Oh well, one day we will live there.

Sue xx

Our First Riverford Fruit and Veg Box

 

Our first Riverford Fruit and Vegetable box along with the additional Salad Bag that I ordered, arrived as promised last Wednesday.  

Sadly, being poorly I couldn't chat with the delivery guy and find out his name etc in case I was still in any way contagious,  I hope to remedy this next week when he brings our second one.  We may decide to change to a different box next time, once we have gotten around to browsing the website again. 

 You can chop and change your orders as often as you want and add things to any delivery right up until the day before delivery, and I think it will be good while I still have the value of my prize vouchers to use up, to shop around the website a bit.

It all looked amazingly colourful and in brilliant condition.

I almost felt guilty that I couldn't get stuck in straight away with cooking and tasting everything, but I was not eating any food at all even by the Wednesday delivery day. 

The contents of our Small Seasonal Organic Fruit and Veg Box.  £17.95

As I've written below for the salad bag, I did a trial order of organic produce from Sainsbury's to see if we were getting any value by ordering from Riverford.  I was able to almost get the same items in the same weights for just over £11, including a couple of 'Nectar price' offers.

This was the contents of the Salad Bag.

It was all beautifully fresh, and that cucumber was the first thing that I did eat when I was back on food.  It was as tasty as a homegrown one ... which in a way I guess, it is going to be.  At first we both thought that the price tag of £11.50 for this amount of salad was a bit steep, but then I sat and did a trial organic order of the same things from Sainsbury's and the cost even with Nectar discounts came to over £7.  

So when you consider the ethics of Riverford, the supply chain, home delivery etc we both decided that that the small additional amount for both items was totally fine.

I felt almost guilty that I couldn't set to and make good use of everything straight away, but the mere sight of food was making me feel worse, so my half of the delivery was very quickly stashed into the vegetable and fruit drawers of the fridge out of sight.  Alan was made of sterner stuff and he made himself a big pot of soup to start with, and then a lovely looking pot of vegetable curry.

Here is a link to the Riverford website - Riverford Organics UK

And here is my referral code if you would like to place an order - Share the Happeaness.  

Using my code means that I get a referral fee ... and you get £15 off your second order with Riverford.

Now I'm just looking forward to seeing this van pull up outside our house again next week, and being able to enjoy the contents of whichever box we decide to choose much more quickly.

Sue xx