Wonderful Waitrose

I always used to think that my personal measure of richness would be able to do all my grocery shopping in Waitrose or Marks and Spencer, and to always be able to buy the proper wool for a project rather than getting a cheap brand from the market.

Can you imagine my surprise then, that I find myself shopping at Waitrose now, when our budget is tighter than it has ever been? And although it would be very, very easy to spend a month or more of housekeeping in one go in there, if you shop carefully, it is actually surprisingly economical.

I had a £15 off if you spend £75 voucher, so I decided to use that, several months ago. I shopped online, with a list, and got a lot for my money. Also, I was really impressed with the service. The delivery slots are in 1 hour blocks, staggered in half hour intervals so it is really easy to get a time that you want, and not have to wait around too long for it. They send you a text message on the morning of your delivery, to confirm the time, who the driver will be, which van they will be driving (they are all named after fruit or veg!) and if you have any missing items. The bags are colour coded so you know what needs to be unpacked into the fridge first, and they will take old bags back to be recylced. Also, on the receipt, the items are laid out in order of expiry date so you can see what to use first. The delivery people have carried everything up to our first floor flat and been really pleasant too.

All in all, I really couldn't be more impressed. I have been getting even better value for money too, by paying a flat fee each month which entitles to me to as many deliveries as I wish. It works out better than paying a delivery fee each time! Oh, and I had an email today to say that when I have put in my fifth order, I can choose either a box of chocolates or a bottle of champagne as a thank you!

I still was not convinced it was the cheapest option out of those supermarkets who deliver, but was pleased enough with the service and quality of the goods not to worry too much. But out of curiosity, I did my last shop through My Supermarket, which calculates how much your shopping would cost at several different supermarkets, and then transfers your shopping to whichever one you choose. To my surprise, Waitrose came out cheapest! So not only have I been getting great service, it really is great value too.

The only word of advice I would give is to shop online, with a list, and don't get too distracted by lovely things such as pale blue eggs for breakfast, or you can easily break your budget. Having said that, their Waitrose Essentials range can save you some pennies, and also I think it is important to have a treat or two in the trolley!

Happy Shopping!

Love,

Mimi

xxx

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair

Four years after our wedding, I can finally say, with a happy swish of my locks, that I have long hair again. It makes me feel...better. The weight of it just feels right, somehow. Although I will of course get a trim from time to time to keep it in good condition, and may play with layers and fringes here and there, for the forseeable future, the length is here to stay!

We have had an electrician and a plumber out to look at our shower over the past week and a half, so sadly I have been reduced to washing my hair under the bath tap! Not idea when you have longer hair and are trying to take good care of it! I like to change my shampoo and conditioner from time to time as I think hair gets used to it if you use the same one all the time, so I have started to look about for something to use once we have a working shower again.

I have seen lots of adverts for the new range from VO5, and it looks good. It seems to be on offer in lots of places too, which is even better. Alas, the range is perhaps a bit too good, and I found it impossible to choose which I needed. Initially I thought Gloss Me Smoothly was for me, but then saw Plump Me Up, Give Me Moisture and Nourish Me Truly. How to choose? Not in a snap in front of the display, so I decided to take some time to think about it. What I did bring home though, was a tiny bottle of Miracle Concentrate (click on the title of this post to go to the web page). It was on offer, and I used my Boots points, so I decided I had nothing to use!

I have been slightly wary of oil treatments in the past, as they can have an unfortunate effect on the hair, but I am pleased to report that I am really impressed with this one. You use it very sparingly, on either damp hair that you can then dry, or dry hair. I used it on dry hair, massaged it though the lengths, then gave it a gentle brush. Almost immediately my hair seemed to relax a bit, defrizz, shine more, and smell heavenly. Without knowing I was trying out a new product, Carl came home and announced that my hair smells 'good enough to eat'! That has to be a result.

I can't decide how often to use it at the moment. I want to use it often enough that it has a good effect, but I definitely don't want an oily build up on my hair! I think I will start by using it when I wash my hair, and see how I go.

I am really looking forward to choosing and trying the shampoo and conditioner now!

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Oh, how I looked forward to this novel, and oh, how much I wanted to like it. It was a promising premise...a girl wakes up one day to find that not only can she taste the flavours in food, but the emotions of the person who made it. Imagine her distress when she discovers her Mother is particularly unhappy. Her brother also has problems, and it is the portion of the story concerning him which I really struggled with. It is impossible to talk about too much without giving away much of the story, and it is constructed in such a way that you are left thinking you won't know the outcome of his story until the very end...so I don't want to spoil it for you, if you are going to read this. But I had to read sections out to my poor husband, to check that I was reading what I thought I was. Perhaps the fault is my literary palate, and I am not sophisticated enough to fully enjoy it.

I did enjoy the slightly dreamy quality to her writing to begin with, but it actually gets quite annoying after a while. A particular quirk is that the authoress does not write speech in the typical manner. Instead of using speech marks she just writes it all into the prose. Ugh.

However....it has left me with a strong desire to perfect a lemon cake recipe (although never ever with chocolate icing, as in the novel!) and a gladness that I borrowed the book from the library and did not buy it! Not a book that is destined to live on my bookshelf, alas. If you have read it, I would love to know what you think!

On Getting My House In Order

There has been a lot percolating in my mind lately, and a lot has to do with the housekeeping. By which I do not mean the dusting and polishing, but the budget set aside to buy food, cleaning products and other household necessities. As of Monday, we are living more or less on one salary so naturally, it seemed a good time to look at our household expenses. We have put together a budget for our bills and suchforth, and set aside a budget for the housekeeping. Now, for me, the aim is not for us to live or manage on the housekeeping budget, but to live well on it. By necessity it is smaller than I am used to, but I am also aware that it is probably more than some people have to spend. So rather than feeling hard done by, I am actually really enjoying the challenge of living and living well on less.

In the course of some internet dabbling to find ideas on living on a smaller housekeeping budget, I have found some lovely blogs:

www.thriftychick.co.uk (Thanks, Midori, for the tip!)

www.cottagesmallholder.com

www.hummingbirdhomemaking.com

www.groceries101.blogspot.com

www.becomingdomestic.co.uk

www.frugal-cooking.co.uk

Isn't it interesting though, how 'frugal' does not conjure lovely images in the mind. I like 'thrifty' as in my head it sounds quite jolly-hockey sticks and war-time vintage. Thrifty reminds me of the feeling evoked by the book 'Orchids On Your Budget' whilst frugal makes me think of mouldy bread and stale cheese. (The word that is, not the blog!) It is all window dressing really, because whatever word you choose to use, it is about living well on little. Not necessarily as little as possible though, because I think it is important not to trim the fat completely if you can possibly help it, otherwise if there is a tighter pinch, there is nothing left to cut! Also, for me I would have to be very hard up indeed before I started eating battery eggs or chickens. (I realise I am lucky to have the luxury of making that choice, though). I would rather have good tea bags and coffee, and make my little sacrifices elsewhere. Ultimately, it is about what matters to us individually as housekeepers.

Now that Carl is the breadwinner, it is also more important to me than ever that I get value for the money that I am spending, because suddenly it is his money I am spending rather than mine or ours. I know to some it may sound old fashioned, but if he is going to spend a long day at work earning to support us, then I want him to come home to a dinner that is nutritious, delicious, and that he enjoys. That might mean eating vegetarian 5 days of the week then having a really good steak or beautiful piece of fish. Or it might mean taking a cheaper cut of meat and braising it slowly in beer as a stew. Either way, whatever happens, I am going to need to be really organized.

So, first things first, I need a plan. For me that means a budget, a goal, a framework and a menu plan!

The Budget

Having discovered the Grocery Challenge on the money saving expert website, I will spend the first month or two aiming to stay inside my budget (£260/month) and then after that reduce it by £5 or £10 a month. £260 sounds an awful lot for 2, but when you think about it that is £130 each for the month, £29 a week, £4.19 a day, £1.39 a meal! Less than that really, because the money is for all household expenses, not just food! And with the rising costs of food prices, I think it would be rather easy to burst that budget, especially when a quick visit to Marks after work for some dinner and a pint of milk can easily see £15 spent....

The Goal

As I said before, I want to provide nutritious food that is delicious and does not feel frugal. I have seen some terrifying websites where meals are made for 30p a head and include tins of pilchards and value pasta. Fine if your tastes run that way; mine don't. Instead, think a yummy lentil dahl and homemade naan. Automatically this is going to mean eating in season (in season fruit and veg being cheaper and tastier) and lots of home cooking. All this whilst staying in budget!

The Framework

No more 'just buying milk' on the way home for me! Instead, the monthly budget divided by 4, a quarter to be spent each week on a grocery delivery planned in advance. Breakfast is more or less taken care of - in general we are cereal eaters. There is variety of course; we may have porridge or mueseli, and I usually keep a box or two of granola or weetabix to choose from as well, the changes being run with chopped or grated fruit in addition. On Sundays, we used to go out for brunch as our weekly treat; for now I will be making pancakes or bacon sandwiches or similar at home three weeks out of four, and plan to save enough out of the housekeeping for breakfast out on the fourth.

Lunch tends to follow the pattern of sandwich/roll/wrap/pitta/salad, fruit, yoghurt, flapjack style bar, so they won't be too hard to plan either.

Dinner is where the bulk of the money and the inspiration is needed! So here is the pattern I have put together to make things a little easier for me:

Monday~Free Choice

Tuesday~Fish

Wednesday~Soup (Souper Wednesdays!)

Thursday~Pizza or Pasta (homemade of course, and probably vegetarian)

Friday~Curry (I am going to work my way through Indian Every Day by Anjum Anand)

Saturday~Fish

Sunday~Simple Supper eg meat, potatoes, vegetables

By now I am sure you are pouring yourself another cup of tea and thinking that you know more than you want to about the running of my household, but seeing as I have found other blogs and blog posts about this helpful, I am hoping that if there are other ladies out there tightening their belts a little, this may help them. So do stay with me please, or put on another pot of tea whilst I just finish up!

To keep track of it all, I have a spreadsheet! Now usually you know that I adore my notebooks and fountain pens, but I decided to do it online because I can share the spreadsheet with Carl, and also I can access it on my phone when I am out and about! There are several sections to my spreadsheet; an inventory of my storecupboards, fridge and freezer so I know what ingredients I have already; the weeks menu plans; an archive of past menu plans; a running tally of what I have spent and what I have left to spend.

I wish blogger would let me share the actual spreadsheet with you, but alas, it will not! I can add images, videos and links, but not a simple spreadsheet!

The Menu Plan

Using the framework, all I have to do is go through and choose a dish for each day, and then think about breakfasts and lunches, and from that I can make a shopping list. I found it much less daunting today, rather than just sitting down to a blank sheet of paper. This week we are going to be enjoying amongst other things Tuesday Tarts which I found on the lovely blog Attic24, Pea and Goats Cheese Risotto, and Vegetable Curry with Homemade Naan. I have made my grocery order and it should be delivered tomorrow evening.

The only minor issues so far have been that it has been time consuming (but then I have turned out and inventoried all the food cupboards!) but I anticipate the time needed will be drastically reduced next week, and also, it is slightly scary to buy only what you need and not just add things for 'in case'. I know I have money left in my budget, so if the worst comes to the worst and we need more I can get it, and we do live only 5 minutes away from the shops...but it does feel a bit odd!

So, that is what I have been up to the last day or so! We shall see how it goes, but you know, even when we are both in gainful employment again and have a larger budget, I think I will carry on housekeeping like this. I like the idea of knowing exactly where my money is going, and getting the best for it. Ultimately, at the end of each week I will be asking myself 'Is this the best I could do? Can I do better?' and take those thoughts forward for next week.

With that, I will take my apron off, and sip a cup of tea for a while. My mind is a bit of a jumble of recipes and ideas. I have recorded The Great British Bake Off to watch, so I shall sit and sip and enjoy watching the baking. I am still slowly working on my crochet cushion Christmas gift, and enjoying the cool evening air.

I wish housekeeping was taught at school! But perhaps it is...the school of life!

I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

Somewhere at the back of my mind is a quote...only I can't remember exactly who said it, or how they said it. Oh yes, wait, I do! It was Raloh Waldo Emerson, who wrote:

"A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognise our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.....tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we will be forced with shame to take our own opinon from another."

Isn't that an eloquent and beautiful way of telling us to have faith in ourselves? The French film I watched the other evening (Love Me If You Dare) had a scene in which the male lead character meets the female lead character again after a number of years. She is working as a waitress, and he asks her something to which she replies (I am paraphrasing here) 'this is not my life, it's just my job'. Now that is an attitude that I need to adopt a bit. I don't mean that I don't want a job that I don't love and care about, or that I would give less than 100% to my job. More that I don't want to define myself by my job anymore. Doing that has not exactly brought me happiness so far, especially in the last months.

Have I mentioned before that my little brother (he is in his mid 20s and probably a foot taller than me, so not really little, but younger!) works at temp jobs? He has been in his last one a while, but he definitely goes for jobs rather than a career. That is because he has a lot of outside interests, and he works to fund them. He has a hobby that takes him all round the country, and occasionally across the pond to America. Whilst I would like to see him happier at work, it did occur to me that he probably has a far healthier attitude to work than me. If you were to meet him, he would tell you about what he does with his life, where he went at the weekend, his last trip abroad, the one he is already planning. I would probably tell you what I do at work. Ok I have lots of outside interests too, but work has always been a big part of my life.

So I suppose really, this post is all about finding oneself. A lot of my character traits and personality quirks are firmly drawn in already. Anyone who knows me will associate tea and red lipstick and never wearing trousers with me. Books and black and white films and sparkles and baking and vintageness. Taking a cup of tea into the cinema. Eating my packed lunch off a china tea-plate. Writing in fountain pen, even just to sign the bill. I would say that I am fairly comfortable with who I am, with not being 'fashionable' but liking my own style. But of course we are always growing and learning and developing. I like to think that there is more, much more of us waiting to be discovered by ourselves, if that does not sound too out-there. I also think that we have two 'selves'...the self that we see and imagine ourselves to be, and the self that everybody else sees. I think it is good from time to time to just check in and make sure that you still enjoy everything you are doing and being, to let go anything that you don't need or isn't working for you anymore, to pursue new avenues or branches of interest. But most of all, whatever and whoever you are or want to be, it is important to embrace your authentic self, to borrow a phrase from Sarah Ban Breathnach. I have been working through the Muse programme written by the wonderful Alison at Brocante Home, which is all about becoming your true self, so this kind of thing has been in my mind lately.

To cut a long post short, Fleur de Guerre, whom I admire very much, wrote the most stunning blog bost today. Do go and read it at www.diaryofavintagegirl.com/2011/08/baring-it-all.html she really says it better than I can myself. I am coming up to 30 myself, and silently shudder when I find a silver hair, so her thoughts on ageing are inspirational. Also, I realised, all of a sudden, that I have not been particularly happy this past year and a bit. I swam a lot when I got my new job (the one I just lost) to swim away the stress that came from it. I think one of the reasons that leaving it has upset me so much is that I never feel I really got to grips with it. I realised, browsing the 'wellbeing' shelves at work, that I probably haven't been particularly well. I don't mean that as a euphamism for anything, more that the stresses of work and then the stress of the restructure and redundancy have become almost commonplace to me, so waking up suddenly and realise that I am not going through it any more, it is a thing that happened to me in the past, is rather relieving.

Of course I do need another job, and quickly too, but I imagine that I will have a few weeks of just working part time (and I pray it is not much longer than that). But I have decided that I really want to take this bit of time and work on my wellness. To drink fresh apple-carrot-and-celery juice, to do yoga stretches in the morning. So when Fleur wrote in her blog post

'it's never too late to take up a new fitness hobby, beauty regime or change in your eating habits to make yourself shine from the inside'

it really resonated with me. It is not that I want to change who I am, more that I want to make the best of who I am, and spend a time on a little self care. My hair really is properly long now, so I want to take time to learn to put it up. I like the idea of one of the 'things' that people associate with me being beautiful vintage up-dos! I want to sign up to a burlesque dancing class in the autumn, and start going on early morning walks. I want to shine from the inside!

My manager recently told me that I really need to start being kind to myself, so I think I will try doing that.

What things do you do to be kind to yourself?

Fruit and Flowers, Tea and Showers

Today was a day I have both been looking forward to and dreading in equal measures. Looking forward to it because it is our fourth wedding anniversary (how in the world did that happen?! It feels just like yesterday!) but dreading because it is the 11th August, and for the past eleven weeks I have not been able to see past August 9th, my last contracted day of work. To me, August 9th was a big roadblock and there was no August 10th. August 9th was when the world ended! Needless to say I woke up and it was August 10th, and as they say, life goes on...

This morning was a much happier morning to wake up to. After an early oops moment from Carl when he asked if he could work late tonight, not realising it was tonight, I was really looking forward to it. We buy each other low key but thoughtful gifts for our anniversary, and our activites for the day are always built around sharing time together.

4 years is the fruit and flowers anniversary, and we decided we would buy a joint membership to either the RHS or National Trust or similar (on the basis there are flowers in the gardens of those properties!) and get each other a small token gift too. Carl bought me the most heavenly bunch of long stemmed red roses and grape hyacinths which really took my breath away. I bought him a blueberry scented bath bomb from Lush, some grapefruit scented tooth tabs (also from lush) for the 'fruit' part of my gift, and a bottle of organic locally produced beer for the second part (beer is made from hop flowers!).

Originally we planned to sit in a park with a picnic today, but alas the weather forecast was correct and it was a drizzly day. We started off by visiting one of my favourite places, the Secret Garden Tea Rooms (www.secretgardentearooms.co.uk) where we drank coffee and ate bacon rolls with the drizzle tapping against the windows and damp chickens taking shelter! It is so peaceful there. The service is always slow, but in a relaxed way rather than a sloppy way. Just as well as it gave as a chance to decide what to do with the rest of our day! As it was not raining too hard by this time, we drove to Danbury Country Park. It is a place I have always known was there, but is far too far to walk to from my little library on top of the hill, so today seemed the perfect time to explore. My grandparents used to live in the next village, and their garden backed on to some woods, so I used to spend a lot of time playing in the woods as a little girl. These aren't the same woods, but they are very similar, and the scents of damp leaves, and soft mulcy underfoot feel took me right back. We took pictures of mossy tree trunks and wizened tree stumps. There are some beautiful little lakes there too.

It made me smile that the other people we saw walking there were all wearing jeans, trainers and anoraks. I was wearing a maxi dress, shawl, and was carrying a polka dot umbrealla! I felt very Lizzy Bennett-ish, as though I was walking to Netherfield to visit my neighbours! And of course, lucky me, I just so happened to have my own Mr Darcy with me!

After a long walk, we drove back to the village, and found ourselves in another tea shop! This time it was Tea on the Green. I really wish it had a website so I could share with you how lovely it is. Despite winning many Tea Council awards, it does not have one though! It is by the village duckpond and is just...lovely. I really faniced Welsh or Buck Rarebit, but it was not on the menu, and then Carl had the wonderful idea of having afternoon tea (seeing as it is our anniversary, and we had an afternoon tea for our wedding reception). Carl drank the most incredibly fragrant Earl Grey, and I drank English Breakfast tea. We each had a two-tier cake stand (mine was patterned with violets!) with two kinds of sandwiches, a scone with cream and jam, and a slice of cake. Alas, neither of us could manage the cake, so we had to bring it home wrapped in foil! It also put paid to our plans for dinner tonight, because even as I type, we are still full up!

Now as compatible and happily married as Carl and I are, there is one very serious matter upon which we will never agree. You see, Carl is one of those people who puts the cream on his scone first, then the jam, where I am very firmly from the school of jam on first, then cream. And before you even ask, yes it does matter, and it does make a difference! Devon and Cornwall are practically at war over the issue!

But that aside, we have spent the rest of the day very companiably indeed. We returned home and watched a film on Sky Box Office (there was nothing on at the cinema), drank more tea, and then somehow, it was half past ten! Where did the day go? Actually, now I come to think about it, we had that exact same feeling on our wedding day too!

You know, as soon as we were married, standing outside the church, holding hands and smiling as the photographer snapped pictures of us, we squeezed each others hands and whispered at how it felt different already. It still does, and in the best possible way. I know that marriage is not for everyone, but it is most definitely for us. There is a wonderful passage in Mrs Miniver, where she talks about the little but important things in marriage...the having somebody's eye to catch at a dinner party, and saving little stories and anecdotes from your day to take out of your pocket and share with your spouse at the end of the day. She is right, those things are wonderful....and so is having someone to eternally quarrel about the correct way to eat a scone....

Macaroons and Moody Blues

When I last left you, I was pondering on what to do with my evening of Saturday solitude. In the end I painted my nails red (Affair in Red Square by OPI) whilst watching the French film Love Me If You Dare. Then I took myself into the kitchen to make coffee macaroons. I have made them once before and was astonished at how well they came out, given their reputation for being difficult.

It seems to me that if macaroons were people, they would be a moody french femme fatale, giving you a smile at first, then tossing her hair and walking away. Because this batch of macaroons just refused to behave at all. Despite my blending the almonds, icing sugar and coffee, the mixture was somehow lumpy, and impossible to pipe into neat circles. I cooked them in an oven preheated to the same temperature as last time, for the same length of time, but this batch came out a little underdone, and several collapsed into a sticky mess as I tried to get them off the baking sheet. I hoped that the next morning things would go a little better, but the coffee icing was far too runny and refused to set! I wonder how they will come out next time.....

Actually, the moodiness of my macaroons put me in mind of two things...firstly a novel that I have been waiting to read for a while, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, about a girl who can taste the emotions of the person who has prepared the food. Secondly, this song by Elvis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NQwiGTXoRU which I love!

I am determined to master the art of macaroon baking...perhaps when I make the next batch, I will listen to Moody Blue whilst I bake!