Sealed pot for the Preserving Pot and Christmas

This is something I have started off this year in part to go towards Christmas 2020; I end up with loads of change in my purse which means it either falls out of my purse or I am forever hugging my purse together which is not particularly safe.  I also started a pot off  for my preserving so that I always have some money to one side ready to take advantage of good bargains or fresh ingredients as they become available.  So very much a double pronged attack this year.

I have an ulterior motivation for this in that it may take some of the pressure off next Christmas financially without us having to make a lot of adjustments to what we actually do throughout the year, but will give us a sum when it is needed the most and because we do not believe in putting Christmas on a credit card (we don't use or have them now) having been stung in the past.  It is false economy. Dealing with the preserving in the same way may also mean that I can invest in  new Kilner/Mason preserving jars and extend my food preserving and storage.

Christmas for me is the main celebration of the year and the most important one. However, I still intend to carry on doing what I always do and put stuff up from the end of August beginning of September in readiness.  Doing it gradually also takes some of the pressure off. 

I also have a suspicion that food prices etc. are going to go up a lot more than what they have been.  I have noticed a difference in pricing in the Co-Op and not small price increases either.  So I shall still continue to do what I can when I can in stocking up the pantry. 

I tend to shop around a lot rather than do a big shop in one store although recently have used Aldi more.  (I would be a fool not to especially in the run up to Christmas) as well as other shops - I go more for specific ingredients than anything else in specific shops so that I am able to take advantage of different things. I am more loyal to myself and my own purse than to the shops. 

However, be very careful with your shopping habits as sometimes buying a bigger tin of something can cost you more than buying two separate ones.  So always weigh up the pros and cons of an item when considering it as you could save yourself a lot of money in the process.

I am also aware that there are things that I do on the pantry front each year which require a little more investment into them  at specific times which can cause a bit of a shortfall on the household budget i.e. Strawberry Season, Cherry Season, making Rumptopf, obtaining the spirit for the same i.e. Rum, Gin and Vodka.  So I am going to continue getting a bottle of something per month so yet again that does not impact too heavily on the household budget.  If I budget for them and they are taken into consideration in the greater scheme of things the impact is not as drastic as it could be a little and often theory/practice and also enable us to still continue those items that we still would like.  Everyone has to have a treat or something to look forward to somewhere along the line.

Because I stock up well before Christmas there is usually a smaller amount of money goes out on the food budget in January and February so that will also give an opportunity to save money and probably put some money up towards meat for the freezer etc.  I am in someway planning things forward and may be able to accumulate quite a sum in the process without missing it too much.  That is the hope and whatever happens I will end up with something towards Christmas or the Preserving Pot which will mean that I will not have to find everything in one go.  I am hopeful that this year's Preserving goes a lot better than last year.  Although I managed to preserve I was not able to do as much as I normally do.  That is one of the main reasons I have started earlier this year to get stuff put up and away both for financial and time reasons.  I want to maximise both and do as much as I can in the longer term to make sure we are able to achieve what we want to with regard to food and Christmas festivities, creating an individual Christmas with individual presents and lovely food in the process a lot of which you will not be able to buy off the supermarket shelf.

One of the other reasons I have elected to do this is that in the run up to Christmas a lot of the shops up the prices on certain foodstuffs and Joe Public ends up paying the premium price for stuff.  I shall touch on this further in another post, but it is something I try to avoid at all costs.  After all the pennies are better off in my pocket at the end of the day.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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