Day 8: five minute freewrite - Started

I started shopping differently a couple of years ago after I noticed that I would regularly do a big shop at the weekend, cramming the fridge full, and then the following weekend, discarding most of it before heading out to the supermarket.

I wondered what was happening during the working week when I would come home, open the fridge door, behave as if it was empty and go and buy something else to eat. I passed a branch of my favourite supermarket, the Co op, everyday on the way home and, instead of the big shop, I just bought what I needed for that or the next few days. I often discovered that I could go for days, much longer than I expected, without buying anything. On Fridays (my favourite night of the week) I could treat myself to prosciutto, fresh figs, crusty bread and a glass of chilled white wine. My weight dropped and my wallet got fatter.

It was easy to shop like this, living in London, there were multiple options for shopping, good public transport for the occasions when you went crazy in Waitrose, or a taxi for Homebase trips. I took my medium sized wheeled suitcase to pick up a large rug I'd bought in the sale in Habitat, and I had one of those large wardrobe-on-wheels suitcases for Amazon deliveries from work to home.

Coming back to a provincial Midlands city where shops are not quite so well distributed and public transport is not so extensive or frequent, I made more use of home delivery - organic fruit and veg boxes, dried goods and housewares from the wholefood coop (minimum delivery £15 and £30, respectively), milk (in glass bottles), eggs and juice from the milkman and a trip on the bus to the nearest Co op for fresh items, a whirl round the charity shops and a visit to the library.

Round the corner is a small Londis for treats and emergencies - marinated artichoke hearts, light bulbs, Aunt Bessie's frozen roast potatoes for when we've had another half in the pub before going home to cook Sunday dinner.

The blessing is that I rarely have to spend time in large supermarkets with their mortuary aisles of chilled food, gradually losing the will to live as I try to find own brand jumbo oats. I prefer to go to small shops where I ask the person behind the counter for what I want. So much less stressful, and although individual items may, but not always, be a little more expensive, overall my spending has dropped right down to less than half of what it was during the big shop days.

https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-8-5-minute-freewrite-prompt-started