Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Baileys_Babe

We often do this with large pots of flavoured yoghurts @foxgloves sometimes we do half flavoured and half natural yoghurt.

foxgloves

I think we will defo carry on with the big better quality pots, BaileysBabe. I don't know why I haven't noticed the saving before, as there are very often brands on offer at £1, sufficiently so for us to choose one each. Mr F likes sweeter yoghurt than I do, & only fruit ones. I like yoghurt to be properly sour & one of my favourites for topping fresh fruit & compote is plain skyr. I do like fruit varieties but not if full of sugar &/or aspartame. 
F x

foxgloves

So yoghurt aside, I wonder what other little things we'll have learned regarding household supplies once this crisis has passed. This is a conversation from our kitchen a few days ago:
Mr F: What are you doing?
Me: What does it look like?
Mr F: Well, it looks as though you're writing something on the inside of a toilet roll, which is a bit weird.
Me: That's exactly what I'm doing.
Mr F: What are you........? Eh? You're writing today's date, aren't you? You're going to ration it!!
Me: I'm not rationing it. But it'd be useful actually to know how long a roll lasts on average.
Mr F: Ha! I bet you'll say we use too much.
Me: I don't think I will. Before loo roll became like emergency currency in this country, I was putting a new loo roll out EVERY OTHER DAY & that's ridiculous for two people.
Mr F: (genuinely bemused) Well who's using all that then?
Me: ME!! But I've halved my 'sheets per function' due to the shortages, so I thought I'd see if this has impacted on roll usage.........
OK, so I wrote "5pm - 5/4/2020 on the inside of that new loo roll before putting it on the holder....... & it is still there. My rough calculations tell me that if I stick to my new sheets:function ratio post crisis, our household expenditure on this currently treasure status grocery item will be halved.
And that's good for trees & reducing plastic wrap too.
Thought this might raise a smile, lol. 
F x

Baileys_Babe

I'm also curious how long a roll of toilet paper lasts us.
Later this morning I am going to replace our but used rolls with dated rolls so I can monitor.
The part used rolls will get put once I have finished monitoring, no wastage here.

PurpleFairy26

I was also a little fascinated by the toilet roll panic buying as we don’t seem to use lots and certainly couldn’t understand what people thought they were going to do with all the ones they were buying! We have ours delivered on a subscription that is green and plastic free. So when we set this up we understood quickly how much we used. Was pleased that ours lasted 6 weeks longer than the ‘recommendation’ they had for a family our size. So using it sensibly definitely helps on the cost. 

We use big yogurt pots too. I don’t eat sugar so mine is a particular brand of natural that hasn’t sugar in but get flavours for other members of the family. But I also use the natural with puréed fruit if I have an excess so it doesn’t go to waste which is yummy. 

stitching_witch

My next door neighbour has told her young daughters that their toilet roll usage is rationed. They can use two sheets for a wee and three sheets for a poo. 

I panicked at home yesterday when I used three sheets for a wee and wondered when the Toilet Roll Police were going to turn up at my door! 🤣

I’m not wasteful by any means but I have been thinking about my use of consumables more since this began. 

foxgloves

Lol, Stitchy..... My usual method was just to yank a big wodge off the roll. Two sheets for a wee? Well frankly that's a bit soggy but three absolutely does the job & is half what I used to use. No rules on exact sheetage for more substantial functions but am not using anything like what I did pre shortages. 
And yesterday, when I was defrosting king prawns ready to make prawn skewers with spicy couscous, Mr F suggested I put 4 prawns back in the bag 'because they're expensive'. I nearly keeled over from shock as he is a brick outhouse of a man with an appetite to match! 
He also bought less Easter choc this morning because he said there'd be leftover mini-eggs from decorating my simnel cake....... which there were. Just eaten mine! I'm sure there used to be pale blue ones in the mix when we were kids. Only white, yellow, pink & mauve in my tube today. 
Hope you are staying well, 
F x

Onebrokelady

Hi Foxgloves, do you have a local bakery shop nearby,our local one has been selling bags of flour to customers here 😊 Im sure there used to be a blue mini egg too, maybe the blue food colouring isn't allowed nowadays 

foxgloves

I've sorted it now, OBL, thanks. Mr F got white bread flour in M*rrisons this morning. They had plain flour too. And I have made contact with owners of a local-ish windmill who are inundated with orders (collect only) but can supply me with wholemeal bread flour of various types at the end of this month, so I'm going to support them & place an order.
F x

foxgloves

P. S Ha!! I KNEW there used to be blue mini-eggs. At least it's not as offensive a change as that brexitty walnut whip with no bloody walnut!
F x