Getting Food in the time of Corona, Brexit and War

Post by **merry** » Thu Sep 29, 2022 8:11 pm

Wildrover's final post from old-HF in this topic (for Patience who was wondering about a few car models)

I drove a Kia Ceed for 2 days as a hire car. i was pretty impressed with the boot space and it was comfortable. It's not the car for me as I tend to go for fun cars like minis which aren't very practical but don't need to be for my needs. I wlll say the Kia's fuel consunption was outstanding - I did nearly 400 miies on 28 litres of diesel. It had DAB radio and reverse parking camera but I've no idea whether these were standard or options.

I've driven lots of Golfs over the years and they have been OK but seem very overpriced for what you get. I've not tried the others. This was the exact model of Kia that I hired - https://www.motorpoint.co.uk/vehicleadv ... rch-result I didn't realise they came with a 7 year warranty - that's pretty impressive too...

Post by **merry** » Fri Sep 30, 2022 9:47 am

A 24 pack of Cushelle is currently £12.15 in Tesco.

50p a roll doesn't sound off-the-planet bonkers to me, but it is causing a bit of a stir nationally as apparently it used to be a lot less.

I buy Tesco cheapest (Springforce) which is £2.19 for 9 rolls, about half the price or less.

My lovely daughters are more fussy (!) so I buy dearer stuff for their bathrooms/delicate undercarriages. They tell me cheap roll is a false economy as you use more. Not sure they are right!

Tesco have started 'double rolls' which are not generally popular as people buy them and then find they don't fit on their holders!

STPD · Post by **STPD** » Fri Sep 30, 2022 7:34 pm

Haha - I am the QUEEN of economy on everything else, but my delicate nethers will just not handle the cheap stuff

Believe me I would still be buying the bargain stuff if I could..as I agree, you don't necessarily use any less with the Cushelle types :oops:

Post by **merry** » Fri Sep 30, 2022 7:37 pm

STPD!!!!

so glad you made it here!

I agree you are the Queen of Economy - well - the junior Queen *preens bigger crown"

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Mon Oct 10, 2022 8:17 am

My food will be here soon and I can have my breakfast.

Two subsitutes. One is tinned tomatoes where they are sending me napolina expensive brand ones because the others are unavailable. Tomatoes are tomatoes so I don't pay the extra usually but fine I still have my tinned tomatoes. Other is potato cakes where they sent 2 times 4 cakes instead of 2 times 6 cakes. I should have 3 packs by my calculations and means I will run out sooner can't toast less than one a time.

There are shortages at the ordering stage so can't even get things on the order. Biscuits especially are very scarce. Basics like ginger snaps and bourbons are just unavailable. And quite a few tinned fruit and veg aren't available.

I have upgraded to a yearly delivery plan now which is a pound cheaper. I only had the 6 month one because that's all they allowed in the early days of lockdown and I only got that as helpful merry said quick quick they have plans again. Then they were stopped for next 2 years but they let me renew the existing 6 month one. I don't know why they started them again maybe fewer people are getting delivieries. Since they allowed plans again I can't get my slot that i prefer so someone else is sneaking into furby favourite times. I will have to go back to trying at a minute past midnight four weeks before.

Looking forward to sitting there at 5am in November waiting to get a Xmas week slot. The year has gone really quickly seems hardly any time since I was 66000 in the queue to get on the website.

Wildrover · Post by **Wildrover** » Mon Oct 10, 2022 9:51 am

The only thing I've struggled with over the last couple of months is skimmed milk. Whole and semi-skimmed seems readily available but not skimmed which seems strange. We always get our toilet rolls in packs of 48 from Costco -they're much higher quality (i.e softer and stronger) than the cheap ones from Sainsbury or Tesco but cost around the same price per roll. MYF has all but moved into my house so I expected my toilet roll use to treble however it has gone up 10x so this is now more of an issue than it was. What do ladies do with toilet roll?

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Mon Oct 10, 2022 9:55 am

We are back to signing the germ infested touchscreen device thing. That's the first time here since lockdown. I rushed in to get my tablet pen kept for such times. Oh I can sign it for you he says. What on earth is that all about drivers sign their own deliveries. Maybe they always have during lockdown and beyond and it was just hidden from what got done. I managed but not sure my signature proves it's me anyway. We had a process at my work and royal mail sent us scrawls and then the recipients denied it was theirs. I think a photograph of the door with me and the shopping would be better idea but probably against data protection or something.

Grocery shopping must be quite low risk mustnt it if you don't order 20 bottles of champagne or half a cow or something. They are delivering to a home address and who is going to stand at someones door and unload 40.67 of bread and potatoes and milk etc without being spotted when a delivery is expected at that time. Though now some people can't afford food perhaps they will try.

It's a sign Tesco think for sure we are all done with covid. But if so why is the government bothering with vaccines it's all very mixed messages.

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Mon Oct 10, 2022 2:22 pm

WR, I don’t exactly know what ladies do with toilet paper, but i have a theory from the sounds from the cubicle next door.

Enter cubicle, wipe seat
Take lots of paper and throw it in bowl (I assume this is to deaden the sound of peeing
Arrange garments and use toilet
Take some paper and wipe
Rearrange garments
Take even more paper and put on top of the evidence.
Flush

I can only guess this is what the noises equate to.

Wildrover · Post by **Wildrover** » Tue Oct 11, 2022 10:01 am

Patience I'm sometimes amazed that I've got to 58 without knowing this stuff. I did actually have a cerebral conversation about this with MYF last night. She actually blames her excessive use on the fact she is a "scruncher" rather than a "folder" - needless to say I didn't query what this meant

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Tue Oct 11, 2022 5:48 pm

That one is an easy answer.
Folder takes a couple of sheets and folds then wipes (or pats). Scruncher grabs a handful and then, well I dunno cos it seems messy to me.

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 9:16 am

Birds are in lockdown because of bird covid and thousands have been killed if one of them caught it in their house so this means turkeys will be dearer for Xmas and farmers are poorer. This happens every year doesnt it though this is a bad year with covid as well as flu and if I was a farmer I would plan to kill my turkeys in September and sell them for frozen before flu takes hold and I lose them all.

I try to get a small turkey piece for Xmas and they don't do many of those frozen so if whole turkeys are short supply they probably won't sell as many in cut up pieces so I might have to have chicken as a plan b. Chickens are locked down too but there's more of them and selling them in cut up pieces is already an established product.

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Mon Nov 07, 2022 7:08 am

Eggs are out of stock. This is because of bird flu and lockdowns. I couldn't order my usual eggs and all the other ordinary eggs were out of stock too so I had to order finest eggs. This morning those finest are also out of stock so they will send some alternative very fine ones. And cakes are out of stock including potato cakes. This is an annoyance of online because if I was there in person I am sure I would find me something. But in good news I got 4 tins of soup for £4. And some of those little tinfoil dishes which are always out of stock in December.

Post by **Panikos** » Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:11 am

Furby, that made me wonder and I checked eggs on my tesco. They seem to have a dozen kinds, but my tesco is a superstore branch which might make a difference.

Also.. I've noticed a lot lately they they offer things which then inexplicably they don't have on the day. Things that are still marked as in stock on the day they fail to fetch them. I put them in the basket for next time and "oh look they couldn't deliver them again"

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Tue Nov 15, 2022 2:53 am

Morning merry

6.07am I am 172343 in the queue with a wait time of more than an hour.
7am I am 129293
8am finally got in and bagged an order for Thursday 22nd. The 23rd already booked up all morning.

I have a weekly order now until end of year so will stock up on what doesn't go off so can have trifles and turkey and cream and fruit and veg on the Thursday. That's my plan a anyway. I have tried to start this plan already but they keep being out of stock of what I want at the time I put an order on.

Hope merry had managed to get her orders done too. And anyone else but most of you are brave and go to real shops don't you so have the crush on Xmas Eve to look forwards to.

Post by **merry** » Tue Nov 15, 2022 11:18 am

Furby!

In the night i hoped you had remembered... I should have checked. I miss the Three Latest Topics display soooooo much!

6.07am I am 172343 in the queue with a wait time of more than an hour.
7am I am 129293
8am finally got in and bagged an order for Thursday 22nd. T

Pani and I got up at 5:20 - and the queue opened at 5:40 (I have made a note of this for next year.)

I was 788 on my phone app, and 3690 on laptop, the minute it opened.

Got in at 5.59 and was checked out by 6:02!

Like you, I got the 22. I wanted it anyway as it's my normal Thursday delivery day.

(there was a downside to this early start as I then struggled to get back to sleep - didn't wake till 10 am which is UNHEARD OF. I hate that i missed hours of the morning! stupid system we have!!!)

Post by **Panikos** » Tue Nov 15, 2022 11:39 am

Glad you remembered, Furby.

Getting up for 5.40am seems daft, but I was back asleep in half an hour that way and I remember the old days before home shopping.

Trudging around in rain and sometimes snow. Finding this shop have run out of something so you must return to the first shop you went to hours ago.

Then crowded buses full of damp miserable people and bags. It wasn't even something you could do in one trip.

You can use other supermarkets of course. ASDA has slots for the 22nd in my area. Unfortunately they don't stock all that I need.

Also one of their drivers is weird about delivering to flats and I don't need the hassle.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sat Nov 19, 2022 5:20 pm

Time for a grizzle about Morrison's - again! This time it's the beef cannelloni which is heating up in my oven. I noticed there were only two cannelloni in the little tray, whereas there used to be three of them. On top of that you used to get three of that type of ready meal for £6 and now it's only two. So the price of their green packet ready meals has shot up compared with only a few months ago.

Everything is going up; fortunately I can cope with it at present. But I can do without people like Andrea Leadsom saying that the state pension should be means-tested without elaborating on just where the income barrier would fall so far as the means-testing is concerned; it doesn't add to my sense of festiveness. However, I think that eventually the state pension will be means-tested even though it is very low compared with many other countries so I understand; you aren't going to live the high life on just under £11k a year after next April if you qualify for the new state pension.

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Sat Nov 19, 2022 6:57 pm

I think I could manage without the state pension on my occupational pension and investment income but currently I simply don't have to worry about living costs. Without that safety net I'd have to keep a closer eye on my spending. I only get the basic pre-updated state pension plus a little for AVCs which for me is currently £7800 pa but it's effectively disposable income.

I noticed there were only two cannelloni in the little tray, whereas there used to be three of them.

Is this why you're losing weight?

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Sun Nov 20, 2022 5:34 am

I am currently managing without the state pension but as Eccles says have to keep careful eyes. It's one thing to manage for a few years though and another for rest of one's life. Savings don't last forever do they. If energy bills had gone up to 6k as predicted I would have needed to take savings for essentials. My private pension only goes up almost 3% max anyway and I get a bit annoyed about all the news coverage of people saying boo hiss pensioners huge 10% rise working people don't get that. Which they don't of course but pensioners didn't when they worked. And it's only when you are 67 and only 9k for state pension anyway (or less for really old people like Eccles) which is half the minimum wage so the extra amounts are less in money than people on mimumum wages are getting (9%) and energy bills and food are paid by everyone. In the case of energy bills more so by older people because they are home alone more of the time.

I suppose our generation is lucky in that we have our houses (though upkeep is a big expense) or got council houses when it was possible for ordinary people without very serious problems to get them. When the next generation who private rent retire it won't be possible to live on the state pension because rents will be more than the pension. Even if they don't buy any food or have heating it can't be funded. Housing benefits assume everyone can get council houses rents which is no longer the case.

Items being made smaller to be cheaper has an official name shrinkflation it's so popular now. I don't think it really is cheaper they think customers are daft which I suppose most are. I noticed with paper hankies. Used to be a gross in the box way back, then 100, then 80 then 72 and latest box is 64. But if I need one tissue I need one tissue so it just means the boxes run out sooner and isn't cheaper at all. Annoyingly they aren't even cheaper they are dearer as well as having fewer tissues nothing under a pound a box now and it's creeping up to a pound a bit now.

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Sun Nov 20, 2022 10:59 am

really old people like Eccles