Thursday 1 September 2022

Autumn, Cold Feet, Cherry Cakes and Plans



Wow, it's September!!  

Time for me to turn over yet another page in my calendar and think about a change to what already feels like a whole new season.  The cooler mornings and evenings of the last week have made me start to think of cardigans and cosy blankets for the sofa.  Already my old patchwork quilt has been draped across the bottom of the bed to keep my feet warmer while the summer-weight duvet is still in the duvet cover.

What's that got to do with the photo at the top I almost here you shouting!

Well as most of you are most likely aware if you've read my blog this week.  I have been considering resurrecting one of my older blogs and taking a trip back in time to the days of rationing.  But a more modern style of rationing, mixing the old with the new and doing it my way.

This little shop-athon after my trip to the hairdressers highlighted to me oh so well just why I need to do this.  I called into Booths for some yoghurt and buns, but because I had time to spare I wandered the shelves and somehow acquired a few more things in my trolley.

You'll never guess how much this teeny tiny shop cost me ... go on guess NOW ... I'll tell you at the bottom of the post!!


Of course, I totally blame the cake 😆

I saw it as soon as I rounded the corner to pick up my buns and immediately thought 'that's something Alan will love', so without even a glance at the price tag into my trolley it went.  Alan loves cherries.

I didn't even spot the price of my shopping at the checkout, I waived my magic card over the card reader, refused the paper receipt as it comes through as an email before I even leave the shop and travelled on my merry way home.

Then I left the shopping for a minute while I sat down to rest my back ... and that's when I checked my emails.  Bloody hell I thought they've over-charged me.  Sadly, a quick check through and some basic maths proved that to be wrong ... £4.50 for a cake!!

I mean, I can't even see the makings of a complete meal there ... unless it was a weird pizza-y type thing with buns, aubergine and cheese draped with tagliatelle and smothered in yoghurt. 😝

I could eat for a week or more on the money I spent on this little lot, I could even eat for a week on the money I spent on the cake!!  It showed me once and for all that I have to nip this stupid extravagance in the bud before it gets to be a habit.  So, some modern-day rationing IS on the cards, when I will start I'm not sure but it will be soon, very soon.

It has to be or I'll be going bankrupt.

Alan loved the cake by the way ... and the shopping came to a total of £25.83, did you get close?


Oh yes, and you all know how much I needed the pasta.   😅


Sue xx



43 comments:

  1. Firstly I would have been tempted by the cake too but, wow, that's expensive 😱 It just shows how easily we can be tempted to spend in the supermarket. That's why I
    rarely visit one anymore. If I do, I go with a list and just don't browse 😇
    Really looking forward to your resurrected blog!
    I can't believe it's 1st September already either. Today is our GD's 18th birthday and I don't know where the years have gone 😳
    I've been awake since 3am this morning but you're an early bird too Sue! Have a lovely day x

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    1. Yes, I think I'll be armed with a shopping list from now on, this has been a lesson worth remembering, oh and I wasn't up as early as you think, this was set to publish while I was still fast asleep in my cosy bed ;-)

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    2. Haha...not such an early bird then! Good thinking!

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  2. OK, so you did not buy the cake for yourself - that's the bill immediately down to £21.43. Then take off those sweeties (ouch, looked on their website) so you spent £15.33 on proper shopping. And knowing how you cook, apart from the toiletries, everything in your photo will make many meals. Don't be too hard on yourself - maybe limit the sweet stuff to just once a month?
    (PS: did Alan appreciate his cake 😆 ?)

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    1. Those little packs of sweets are only £1 each, oh I'm not being hard on myself ... it was most slikely just the shock I needed to spur me into action. Alan LOVED the cake when he got back from work. A five hour drive puts most men in the mood for cherry cake :-)

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    2. You should stock up then - they are £3 on the mftr website!

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    3. That's for a 140g bag, mine was only 54g. You should NOT have sent me to that website ... it's dangerous!! I hold you entirely responsible. ;-)

      BUT, that larger bag is only £1.50 on Amazon :-)

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  3. I guessed £25, so close! :-) The cake does look lovely but I always think what it would cost to make it and, even with oven heat, it wouldn't be that much. Don't blame you for falling for it though. xx

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    1. Well done :-)

      I guess the cherries would have been expensive, Alan's only complaint was that there were SO many cherries in it the sponge didn't hold together, he had to eat it with a spoon!!

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  4. I was saying to DB the other day, we need to start using cash more. Apparently the government and banks are trying to stop us using cash altogether. There are so many shops now who don’t accept cash it’s crazy.

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    1. In Booths you can use cash at the tills, but not at the self-service ones, there it's card only. I think we do need to make a stand as cash makes you think twice before handing it over for sure.

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  5. I guessed 24.00 near enough but probably because I have done similar things myself, I think there is something in supermarket air that makes us lose all reason. That cake is expensive expect the cherries are costly

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    1. Especially at the moment while it is so lovely and cool in the supermarkets. There were a LOT of cherries in that cake, it will be homemade from now on with a third of the number of cherries, but cut up smaller so that it looks like a lot ;-)

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  6. I guessed £25 so wasn’t far off! Booths is a lovely supermarket and everything is laid out so temptingly. My big habit to kick was M and S food bt as we don’t have one near us now, that problem has been solved! I had to do a top up shop in Lidl’s recently and bought my DH a lovely madeira cake for less than half the price of your cherry. He was delighted bless him as I am refusing to bake in this hot weather. Catriona

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    1. Oh I do love M&S especially now that they have so many vegan options to choose from. I don't blame you for not wanting the oven on in the heat.

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  7. Coo! I guessed £15 so was way out - definitely sticking to shopping - with a list - at Aldi 😃 Country Cook

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    1. I should maybe go and try and replicate the shop in Aldi and see what it comes to there!!

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    2. Well…I was just doing a click and collect order so had a look -no coconut milk yoghurt but 4 vegan coconut lollies £1:79
      No vegan Greek style cheese. Aubergine 69p each, baking pots 19p each. 4 whole meal sub rolls 65p per pack of 4, 2x16 paracetamol 58p vegan gummy sweet strawberry or watermelon flavour 99p for 120g cherry cake 320g £1.09 toothpaste 55p tagliatelle 500g specially selected die cut is £1.29/ basic range 99p 500g ….. so that’s about £8 and a trip somewhere else to buy Greek vegan cheese!
      - just goes to show it really is worth looking at prices - thank you so much for all your tips on making the most of food and budgets, will be so interested to see what your next challenge will be 😃
      Country Cook

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    3. Brilliant, thank you for doing all that checking Country Cook, it's good to know. Aldi are quite poor in the vegan cheese department, unfortunately, but the cheddar style one is quite nice.

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  8. I guessed £23.
    I love cherry cake too. It's my favourite. Whenever I make it the cherries always sink to the bottom. I've tried washing the syrup off them and tossing in flour but it doesn't work.
    It's a good job there isn't a Booths close by. I'd be in real trouble!😂

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    1. Oh I hate cherry cake as much as Alan loves it, in fact I dislike ALL fruits that have a stone in them, which I only realised quite recently. I've tried both those methods for keeping the cherries distributed equally throughout a cake, they do work sometimes but not always. I find the firmer the mix the more chance you have of them staying suspended.

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    2. Bake the cake mix on a higher temperature for 5 minutes and than lower the oven temperature to the requisite heat and cherries will not sink

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    3. A good tip Anon, that's well worth a try.

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  9. That is a pricey cake but it looks delicious. If you sat down in a cafe to eat it with a cup of tea it would probably have been that price for just a slice so if you think of it like that it wasn’t too expensive if Alan enjoyed it over a few days - that would be my justification anyway! Maeve

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    1. Looking at it that way it really was a bargain, one slice of our favourite cakes at our favourite garden centre is £3.25 and that cherry cake would be about 3 slices.
      Alan enjoyed it over two days, once when he got back from work ... he was stuck on the motorway for over 5 hours, so he REALLY appreciated two slices of cake and a cup of coffee when he got back. And then the next night the rest of it in a bowl with milk ... yes I know WEIRD!!

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  10. I don't "do" boughten cake, so that would have stayed on the shelf. It's frightening how quickly "just a few things" add up. I write a shopping list and try to stick to it - but more often than not it gets left on the kitchen table! My shopping list is getting pruned week on week - but having said that I am going through cat food like there's no tomorrow. One poorly cat and 3 fussy ones and the 4 x 6 packs of tinned cat food is staying unopened. They leave it and then the flies get it. The one time I bought a very large pack of sachets, they decided they had Gone Off Whiskas mum . . . I do my main shop in Aldi, and then the bits I can only get at Tesco, from there.

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    1. We do our main shop in Aldi usually, but then get bits from Booths or Sainsbury's. Certain things from certain places depending on what else we are doing. I think it's because I don't go to Booths as often, so that when I do I'm like a kid in a sweet shop for all the fancy things.

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    2. I’m like that with M&S good hall. We don’t have one locally so it’s a rare treat, but so enjoyable!

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    3. Yes, I've been picking up a few bits from M&S whenever I pass one. There's one quite near to my Mum's I have to force myself to drive straight home and not go in there every time I visit her.
      A friendly reminder Anon, that it would be nice if you signed your name at the end of comments if you want to continue to comment as Anon.

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  11. I always have to bring a list when I shop.
    It was nice of you to treat Alan, tho!

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    1. I am determined to go back to my shopping lists ways, it just makes so much sense doesn't it.

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  12. I put some cherries in the mix half fill the tin sprinkle more cherries over the half put the rest of the mix in then put more cherries on top. It works for me may be worth you trying, it's Dennis's favourite too.

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    1. Oooh that sounds like a good idea too. I guess it's sort of making a double decker sinking system, so the top cherries only sink into the top layer.

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  13. What I'm finding is that it's ok to 'go budget shopping ' most of the time but just occasionally we all need a little treat don't we and the Aldi/Lidl options aren't always quite such good quality - the cake looks great!
    Alison in Wales x

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    1. I have to say though Alan is addicted to the Aldi Strawberry Tarts and their Iced Belgian Buns with a cherry on top. I can't think of anything sweet that I buy from Aldi except the budget tinned peach slices.

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  14. If life is just a bowl of cherries--then it is clear it will be very, very expensive. :)

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  15. We have a good budget of £200 per month for the two of us. Any money leftover goes into the ‘food savings pot’ and so far this year I have just over £200 in it which will be dipped into when we have visitors or I need to buy food for a celebration. I devise various methods of food shopping (the last few months have consisted of one big shop for staples and small fresh food shops. In September I have a new plan which instead will mean £15 to spend every Monday and Friday. The money is already allocated to envelopes with the date on. I have a fair bit in the store cupboard to supplement with. I think I’ll like this experiment because I enjoy wandering round supermarkets looking for the best buys.

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    1. I meant FOOD budget, not ‘good budget’!

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    2. It's a food budget and a good budget by the sounds of it. I like the sounds of the new way of spending too, it's nice to try out various ways to save cash or budget better isn't it. After all we don't know until we try.

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  16. The cake looks very nice and Alan liking it was great. I am looking forward to seeing your new challenge.

    God bless.

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    1. There was NO way Alan was not going to like it. I'm just pleased he didn't eat it all in one go ... it has been known to happen!!

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  17. I guessed 19 pound. I'm American and have not lived in the UK since 1983, and I do know that things there are more expensive than here, although we have had massive hikes in prices and a decrease in choices at the food market. I am thinking about doing the envelope thing, estimating the cash we will need for the cost of groceries, then challenging myself to be more careful with menu planning and prep of the grocery list. I also want to check out Aldi more often than I do. Also looking at things like lentils and other legumes (pulses?) as meat substitutes in my Mexican-style meals, and adding more soups as the weather turns chilly. It is great fun to do the planning and I make it a "competition" with my "other self", that being the girl who always wants to find a nice sweet treat at the shops and then regrets it!! I think you did fine on your shopping, since you didn't waste a bit of it, you gave your beloved a very special treat (that cake looked divine!!), and you learned a lesson from it! I sign off as HappyGrama on google, but my name is Mary Lomax and I live in the middle of the US.

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