A little trip to Iceland

 ...... well not the country unfortunately, but our local neighbourhood freezer and food shop that offers some very good bargains generally.  As with anywhere, you do have to watch the prices, but generally on bulk offers, they do what they say.

To be honest, one of the reasons I go shopping at Iceland is because of the offers they have long term on most items.  Particularly on tinned items and other consumables which make them a bit more economic to buy and then store on the Pantry shelf.  We end up at some point utilising Iceland for a lot of basics especially bread for G.  

Yes, they mix things up a little every so often.  They no longer unfortunately have offers on the Starbucks coffee drinks and they are now £2 something per bottle rather than buy three for £3.  Not too much of a problem as I have enough bottles at the moment and although I like the drink, sometimes (more often or not common sense has to prevail) unfortunately, and the pennies have to go to more sustainable items with which to stock the Pantry.  

Today though was not really a Pantry stocking up sort of day; a couple of things were, but I shall be going back when things are a bit quieter during the week to see what they have on the tinned fruit section and other tinned items.  I like to keep in lots of Tuna, Salmon, Corned Beef that sort of thing oh and some tinned Ham.  They all help out with what I call a "Scratch meal" every so often.  I will then have a look in Home Bargains to see what they have there in their food section.  Yet again another good source for useful things.  I cherry pick what I want for my Pantry shelf.

Generally speaking, I love cooking, however I am hampered to some extent by some of the things that G will not eat and by some of the things he will only eat.  White processed bread seems to be his pitfall along with Tomato ketchup a well known brand despite the fact that I am capable of making both.  There are other items like this, but these are the most immediate.  

Me, well I just love simpler homemade foods that have not been adulterated and to tell you the truth I would rather have a go and make my own items than buy them, apart from the base ingredients.  However, you can only do what you can do and at the moment have to deal with what have rather than what would like to have.

Cereal has gone  up a lot over the past three years and some of the stores charge the earth for breakfast cereal. Iceland at the moment do have the larger boxes of cereal in with offers on two for £5 on quite a range of cereals.  I like to have porridge oats in as  you have quite some scope with making alternative breakfast meals such as porridge, breakfast pots, granola and you can also make your own oat milk if so inclined.  

In the fridges they also had a massive 5.5kg block of what is called Cardinal Mature Cheddar for £27.  I had not seen it before, although G says he has.  Do not know what it is like so are trying it.  Even if it is not very strong, it will act as a good base for all cheese based cooked items with the addition of much less but a stronger cheese.  Fingers crossed it will be more than okay.  That is being stored in the fridge.

Iceland had lots of offers on today in the freezer and on the shelf.  In the freezer there were many offers.  One of the offers was for three bags of different sized prawns at 3 x £10.  I have bought large prawns and the smaller prawn cocktail shrimp sized prawns; they did have a range of different prawns to choose from.  In all I bought 6 bags of prawns, some of which are destined for the Christmas table as both of us do like prawns of any kind and are particularly keen on prawn cocktails; very retro I know, something we like though with homemade sauce.   The bags are not the biggest but they worked out a lot cheaper than one bigger bag of prawns has been elsewhere.  I spent £20 on these.  The prices have gone up astronomically.  Prices also tend to go up in prices at the end of November and the beginning of December and I object to paying through the nose. I am therefore buying in a few pieces here and there when I can.

I have bought some other items for the freezer as well, including two tubs of Walls vanilla ice cream (2 large tubs for £5 predominantly for use at Christmas, although I will be making some homemade ice cream too). 

Overall, I am very grateful for this freezer, although primary use is for eating through the month, so items will be in and out and the turnover quite high as it is the only freezer I have at the moment. However, I do miss my chest freezers where I could stock anything and everything.  I will remedy this as soon as I have the space and the pennies to do so and will make allocation for the extra electricity into the monthly budget as well.  Some things you have to prioritise.  Next year I also want to get the Dehydrator in full production as well.  Something I have not done much of this year.

I also bought three packs of garlic Kiev's for 3 packs for £10 as well.  When it is quieter during the week I will go back to Iceland  and have a good look at the other items as well.

I would like to get back to buying in a pig or half a cow that sort of thing once a year, but at the moment that is just not possible; however it may be possible again in the future. Fingers crossed and toes plaited.  One never knows quite what is going to come your way.  Have to work on what you have and work with what you have got.  A lot of the time, if you get by day by day and take things on that basis, make adjustments as you go along, you can somehow or the other get through. Something seems to prevail somewhere down the line. Slowing down, simplifying things and taking control of everything even the small things seems to help in the longer term.  To some extent this has taken me out of my comfort zone as I am a bit of a worry wort; especially if pennies are tight and you are not sure how long the electricity is going to pan out for or whether you can have the heating on.  Have done all of this and no doubt will have to make adjustments again in the future.  My solution is to fortify my Pantry so that we can eat long term and know that we can eat properly and pay the bills.  Over the years my Pantry has got us out of so many fixes. As I have said, at the moment I have priorities such as getting that Pantry stocked so that we can eat out of it comfortably for at least six months to a year.  That is the outline plan and my over-riding aim.  Once I have achieved this, I should then be able to get the preserving back under control and supplement and put away different foods during the year to provide a different form of food security long term.

I have planned for quite some time to have a major sort out on the Pantry front and get things stocked right up again. Today has been partially for that and partially for monthly living.  I do not go monthly shopping like a lot of people do on a regular basis.  We have bought in just what was needed to get us by, and we have been able to pay all our bills this way without getting into debt and eat as well.  Granted sometimes the food is not what we would want to eat by choice, but it is often a good meal in itself that you can have two days on the run or re-hashed into another meal. It all serves a purpose at the end of the day. 

I know that I am very lucky, in the greater scheme of things and I am trying to concentrate on getting the Pantry back into full working order.  Even though I am blessed with what I am going to be able to do, on top of that which I have at present, I am well aware that there are those not so fortunate.  I do not think we live extravagantly. Very rarely apart from the odd frozen item here and there do we have pre-prepared meals. I would rather spend the money on a decent piece of meat from the Butcher, although some of the cheaper buys also play their part in what we eat and some of those buys are very enjoyable.  Most of our money is directed towards food and we very rarely have treats or anything personal, choosing to concentrate on good honest food at the end of the day.  Sometimes we cannot afford to do this, which is when we really live out of the Pantry and/or Freezer.

Whenever I go out shopping these days, I always look at the reduced counter.  Today I found four Swedes reduced to 35p each (£1.40 in total) and so they will be either frozen or heat processed not sure which at the moment. I also found four very large sweet potatoes reduced to 70p per pack (also totalling £1.40).  I may try and get some carrots and make carrot and swede crush for the freezer or heat process cubes of each in jars and pop them on the Pantry shelf for either adding to stews or indeed turning into Carrot crush. The Sweet Potatoes I will also cube and freeze these as they are lovely roasted with some fresh Rosemary and soon cooked in the Air Fryer.

Therefore today has been a good day.  I have done some more work towards increasing food security for my food storage whether that be Freezer, cupboard or Pantry.  Still loads to do, but every step forward is a success and very much a blessing.  We are no means out of the woods yet as the saying goes,however I am grateful for the current reprieve.  As a consequence, I have tried to be sensible and practical in the options available to me and my choices as a result of which I hope to develop a little more food security for ourselves in the longer term.  

Have a lovely evening everyone.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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