If the entries seem to have dried up a little, it’s because there’s nothing much to report: I haven’t run out of food, and nothing terrible has happened. Last night I finished up some leftover shallots & tomatoes and the £2 bacon offcuts I bought last week in a pasta sauce, with plenty left over for lunch today. Because I’m not filling the fridge with more and more stuff from the supermarket that I’m not sure if I want or not, I’m just using the stuff I already have more creatively and thoughtfully.
Looking at other blogs by people who’ve done the same challenge, one of the most frequent observations is that even if some items are more expensive in local shops, overall you save money because you only buy what you went out for. You don’t walk around the supermarket in a daze, picking things off the shelves because they’re ‘on offer’ or look appetizing, only to throw them away, leave them unused in the store cupboard, or eat them in preference to what you already have.
I have also saved an enormous amount of time. Supermarkets are attractive places. They’re enormous, bewildering, beguiling. I can’t calculate the amount of time I have saved by not standing in front of 10 brands of the same thing trying to work out which one is cheaper, or looking at a hundred different cuts and types of meat, wondering which one I want (even though I didn’t go in for meat in the first place).
