Cleanliness and Food Basics

Have been to Home Bargains this morning to fetch soap powder, fabric conditioner and stain remover.  Prices have gone up a lot since my last visit a couple of months ago. Fabric conditioner was £3.50 last time I bought it, now £4.99.  I ended up buying a very big Surf for £14.99 which had 130 washes in it.  I normally buy Persil non bio and bio.  £11.99 for a 77 wash packet so today I opted for the larger Surf box, but when I go back at beginning of July will buy in a Persil again.  I also bought a tub of The Pink Stuff stain remover for £2.99. 

I normally buy in bulk for soap powder and fabric conditioner as well as stain remover and cleaning materials.  No cleaning materials were on the list today just the basics.  I take the view that I need to keep things clean no matter what and if  you have the ability to keep yourselves clean, you can maintain your health to a good standard.  Old fashioned values that still work and which I do not see myself changing at all.  I still do a couple of boil washes per week.  I use cotton tea towels and I have a stash of them.  However, I only use a tea towel once and do not reuse them as they go straight into the wash pile again.  I also use cotton dish cloths and boil them up as well and re-use those.  I do need to buy in a stock of white vinegar, as I use this in preserving, as well as for brightening the whites for a boil wash (I do not use fabric conditioner on the tea towels).

Whilst in Home Bargains I had a quick look at the tinned goods.  Prices were very good to what I have been paying, and I aim at the beginning of next month to stock-piling some tinned stuff for the Pantry shelf and start building up my stocks again which have been sadly depleted.  I want to get a healthy stockpile of items as I can in readiness for Winter in any event.   Once that is built up it will then be a matter of just keeping things ticking over and adding to where necessary.  Branston Baked Beans £2.50 for four cans.  John West Tuna £3.69 for 3 to 4 tins (maybe more), Tinned Ham £2.99.  There were loads more offers, but the ones mentioned are ones that I immediately noticed.  Also sugar 89p a 1kg bag.  If any one of you is near Home Bargains I would go and have a look and see what you can find for your pantry.  I do not know what B & M Prices are at present where I have traditionally located a lot of tinned goods.  However, I have tended to buy tinned fruit when it is on offer.  I will also be getting in mushy peas, tinned peas, tinned potatoes and tinned carrots for a quick type meal.  They are perhaps not always how we would like to eat, but they serve a very practical purpose.  I am hoping to go into town for a mooch later in the week to see what is available and the pricing.

We had been getting a big bag of cheap potatoes (made lovely chips) from Home Bargains but they did not have a big bag of any potatoes today.  As I say I only had a quick rush round and himself was waiting in the car with Missy and with it being an extremely hot here today I hurried as quickly as I could.  Rain is apparently coming!  We will wait and see what happens on that score as it has been a few weeks since any rain.

I am also stacking up bits and bobs where I can on the dry goods front as well.  Quite a bit of Rice was bought last week, two bags of long grain rice 2kg and a 2kg Bag of Basmati.  Will add a bit more in due course.  Porridge oats were also added as I use these for baking and for breakfast and you can also make your own Oat milk out of them. I also use them in a Mincemeat slice, and as a base for Muesli and Granola. Two boxes of Cornflour were also added.  I do need to buy Arrowroot though.  Will check out Holland & Barratt on that score which is where I normally buy it from.

Back to real life.  Storms and a little rain were forecast earlier.  Sadly all we have had is lots of rumbling and lots of stormy clouds hanging around and it has remained dry, hot and muggy.  Would really welcome some rain though.

More washing has been done now I have all my cleaning stuff.  I still have more to do but that will happen over the next few days or so.

As it has been such a muggy and hot day, I just was not in the mood for cooking at all.  (Cannot be in the mood to cook all the time)!  We have therefore had a big plate of salad, Pork Pie, Quiche, Frittata and a slice of Cheddar, and I must say it has gone down very nicely.  Just a chuck it altogether salad!  The best type in this kind of weather.  Hopefully it will be our salad leaves soon.

Pumpkins have been put out into pots.  Some other stuff will be following suit in the next few days.

Hope everyone has a good evening.  I am off to potter a bit.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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