I'm not gonna lie, this week has been hard. It's not that I've found it particularly expensive or I couldn't get the things I wanted, but it's been genuinely psychologically difficult.
At least part of this process is retraining my brain on the previously held 'beliefs' (rather assumptions) and learning not just new information but also new routines. So my routine I think is probably similar to most people's – there are things I wait to get with the 'big shop' then there are things that I'll get locally either because they are needed before the big shop, or they're not worth travelling for or just because they are fancied then and now. One brain change has been that when I need something I just get it. One example was hot chocolate, normally that would wait until I was in Home Bargains or Lidl but instead I got one at the local Auchenblae shop and although it was definitely more expensive than Lidl's own brand or something I'd pick from Home Bargains, it was still affordable and cheaper than the choices from the Co-op. I don't like to change routine so this has been really uncomfortable.
Also uncomfortable was not knowing what I could get and where. Now I've been a few places – I made the effort to visit every shop I could this week! - that's been a huge weight off my shoulders. I do feel somewhat 'hemmed in' still though but I hope that will change next week as I need to get petrol and a few hardware store type things so I'll be going further afield!
Highlights of my week
The food! Oh my god, the incredible food I've had. On Saturday I went to Edzell, which if you haven't been is a lovely little town/village with a gorgeous old fashioned looking high street. I went to the charity shop where everything was half price so I got a top and a dress for a combined total of £2.50, went to the chemist, our favourite butcher and the post office.
Bel's butcher is our favourite. I don't eat much meat but we do have it some nights and the meet from Bel's is really great quality. They also make a mean pie! So I needed to get mince because Shep (husband) had offered to make lasagne and I'm never gonna turn down that offer! Normally in that instance – an unplanned meal we fancied – I'd go to the Co-op and get what I needed. At Bel's the mince I needed happened to be 3lbs for the price of 2 so I got the 3 – one for lasagne and 2 for the freezer. It cost £12 for the 3lbs. Now had I gone to Asda or Lidl would I have got mince cheaper? Yes. But what I would've done that day was go to the Co-op and the equivalent steak mince there would've worked out more expensive.
While at Bel's I also got 2 pies (mandatory) to take home for lunch as well as a pack of butteries from the Phoenix Bake House which I had to buy because they just looked so big and fluffy and incredible! And they were.I very nearly walked out with a bag of tatties too because they looked so yummy but I left them because I had no plan for what to do with them and didn't want them getting wasted.
Not just the butcher, but almost all the shops I was in had some sort of local, or wider local, baked goods, and the local bread we have was about 20p a loaf more expensive for a smaller loaf but it's so so tasty. We're already looking at these super tasty things as more precious as they are so good, and none have been unaffordably expensive, at least for a treat.
I also want to shout out Raphael's Deli in Laurencekirk. I've been a few times and they are lovely – both the folks and the food. They do a small menu of seasonal soups, chouquettes and goujieres (sweet and savoury choux pastries), madelleines and breakfast 'breads' that are more like a slice of cake but with olives or other savoury inclusions. They also make waffles for you as you wait, as well as tea and coffee, and it's such a lovely addittion to Laurencekirk that people need to visit. I bought a whole bag of chouquettes one day and just ate them myself with a cup of tea. Perfection.
Lows of the week
I failed. Twice.
On Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, I went to the Co-op. On Saturday night we ordered a takeaway and as I was going out the door to pick it up Shep asked me to pick up something I had forgotten when I was at the shop earlier. Either I could go to the Co-op or I could come back home with the take away then go out again in a different direction to get it. That didn't seem like a good choice for the planet when I had to go in the co-op anyway to get cash for the takeaway. On Sunday I made a trip to a shop which I found closed. Again my choice was either to drive around an additional 7-9 miles to get to another shop, or to just go into the Co-op. Given how little I needed, the extra mileage seemed a bad choice.
Going in the Co-op actually made me feel a little better in a way, and the urge to buy things 'just in case' was strong! But I didn't. Just typing that has made me realize why this is so uncomfortable.
Supermarkets create a feeling of abundance, the idea of going without them, for me, had created a feeling of lack. The discomfort I've been feeling is partly this feeling of lack and now I've named it I hope it will dissipate, and I hope that the longer I do this and the more great shops I find gets rid of it completely.
Neutrals of the week!
This was neither a highlight nor low but it was something worth noticing. When I was in Edzell I went into a shop I thought was the Spar, because I knew there was a Spar there. I got what I needed and when I came out I thought wow that was much more expensive than I thought, but brushed it off, you live you learn. As I was driving past I noticed that the Spar was further up the street and I thought to myself 'Damnit I'm stupid I should've gone to the Spar, it would've been cheaper!'
That is a lesson in brand power my friends. We see the big fancy sign, with the name we recognise, and we think it will be a better option than the unknown, unbranded, place. But the second lesson was when I checked my bank, because I didn't really pay that much attention when she said the amount, I realised it wasn't expensive at all, it was, in fact, right on par with what it would've been in Spar.
To round things up, it's been a week of ups and downs but I feel a lot better now than I did at the start of the week. I know which shops sell what locally and I've had some really lovely food and made some big realisations. I'm really looking forward to next week, although I have to get a Mother's Day Gift for my 80 year old mum who has everything and lives too far away to take out for the day, so that'll be interesting! Any suggestions are appreciated!