Time for a bit of humour I think after my last post.
I braved the supermarket today (first time this year) and was surprised for a couple of reasons:
1. No Easter Eggs for sale yet (has a new law been passed?)
2. It was busy.
I only wanted a few things, but as I was on my own, I thought I’d have a browse and see what I couldn’t afford was on offer these days.
I also began to wonder if the place was actually full of aliens.
The first section as you go in is fresh fruit and veg.
Nothing exciting, except perhaps a large pack of conference pears (the hard ones) were on a promotion at 99p for 8.
On the shelf above it were four smaller conference pears in a very nice plastic tray and cellophane wrapper for £1.49, or if you preferred, you could buy them singly for 19p each.
I noticed some women oohing and aahing, before picking up the 4 pack. Sad.
I bought 3 apples (59p), 2 bananas (27p) and 3 onions (19p).
Moving on, I picked up tins of bolognese, chilli and curry for our store, browsed through the DVDs (none of interest) and made my way to the back of the shop with its fish counter and deli.
I encountered a woman in one of the store’s mobility scooters.
I hung back so that she could get by, but she was complaining about not being able to get to the shelves for her shopping because people were in her way (welcome to my world) and blocking everyone herself. I ended up having to detour into the next aisle and back again, not that I wished I’d bothered actually.
What amazed me was the number of shoppers looking at things AS IF THEY’D NEVER SEEN THEM BEFORE!
People were passing me with loaded trolleys (do they really get through so much every week?) , and it seemed worse than before Christmas. I felt kind of insignificant with my meagre purchases, even though I had a trolley (OK, one of the smaller ones, but a trolley nonetheless) as I had big stuff to get, ie. 2 boxes of cereal.
I suppose I should be grateful that at least it wasn’t a Grand Prix event, as most customers were controlled and relaxed as they shopped, or blocked the aisles talking to people they hadn’t seen for, oh, all of two days.
Wheeling my trusty steed round to the bread counter, I had to hunt for the chain’s cheap line which we’ve discovered keeps fresh until we get to the very last slice about a week later. I was more than a little gobsmacked that the brand name we used to buy (and freeze) for 75p has rocketed to £1.35 a loaf.
Part of the budget economy drive this year is to have ONE TREAT per shopping trip, not half a dozen (aka buns, chocolate and biscuits). So, it was either buns or chocolate as the budget biscuits in this supermarket are crappy, and seeing as we’d munched our way through a whole tub (753g) of Roses the other night, buns won.
Now that I was again at the top end of the shop albeit on the other side, it was the cleaning agents turn for my scrutiny.
When did everything get so expensive?
The clothes washing liquid we used to buy has increased from £2.75 to £4.78, the bathroom cleaner has doubled AND you get less, and I’m glad I got my nine pack of toilet rolls some time back as they have gone up to over £6 (I opened them this morning).
I decided that now is the time to test drive the supermarket’s own brand, and saved over £5 on washing liquid, tumble dryer sheets, and the Bio liquid we put in the cassette loo on board.
Our main meal today was due to be bolognese and noodles, but I decided to buy some fresh chicken and make a curry from scratch (well almost, as I had a jar of curry sauce in the cupboard that I’d got on special offer 3 months ago, good shelf life by the way).
I went back to the fruit and veg section and got 2 mushrooms (24p) and a carrot (11p), so together with some chicken breast strips for £2 and what I already had, it would still be a cheap dinner.
Getting to the checkouts was a marathon obstacle course, with cages of produce abandoned half emptied, cardboard boxes on the floor, and people pushing overflowing trolleys everywhere.
I had too much for the self service machines (15 items max), so settled in behind 2 laden trolleys and waited.
The cashier wasn’t slow, but then she wasn’t whizzing everything through in a frenzy either. After the panic rush of Christmas when the shops were going to be closed for just one day, it was like everything was in slow motion.
My total bill was £16.85, so I was well pleased going back to the car.
Getting out of the car park was a bit of a game though.
All those damn space ships!
pensitivity101 