Well, I’ve added up the week’s shopping and it seems to be about the same as it would have been at the supermarket. It’s difficult to be sure because I am buying things I don’t usually buy but which will last more than a week so at the end of the month I will calculate properly. I will also try and take into account the electricity and gas costs
We ran out of cat food and our cats have been eating our free range chicken! On Wednesday, proposed shopping day, I will talk to the butcher about something cheaper.
I understand now why the women of my childhood needed set days for their household tasks, it’s really the only way to manage when you make everything yourself and have to buy things at several different shops. It was even more the case forty and more years ago when owning a dishwasher, tumble drier or automatic washing machine would have been unimaginable to most housewives.
I’ve made pate, hummus, soup, cheese straws, mayonnaise, flapjacks, rice crispy cakes and yogurt as well as the meals we have eaten. I’ve shopped in Lay-it-on-berzooms and Tinkle market and spent hours researching products and principles on the Internet. I’ve boned a chicken and fainted at the price of line caught haddock but all in all I believe that this lifestyle is probably sustainable and by the end of the week I actually sat down to read The Week – the nearest I ever get to a newspaper.
My main challenge now is not eating too much. My waistline has already expanded as I have given up artificial sweetener, reduced calorie mayonnaise and lite ice cream in preference to their fuller fat homemade alternatives. My evening glass (well, half bottle really) of wine has been accompanied by Cheddar cheese nibbles dipped in a dip made from homemade mayonnaise mixed with Greek Easiyo yoghurt and smoked garlic – yum, and my morning toast has been topped with a generous layer of organic, free range butter.
Next week I am heading back to Slimming World for a bit of motivation but I will need to rethink my eating habits now that low fat, high fibre alternatives to my favourite foods are so difficult to find. Will my butcher be able to provide low fat sausages? Can I get low fat Easiyo? Will there be time to bake a wholemeal loaf for me and a white one for Whizz and Mavis? Watch this space.