In the past, I've maybe been a brand snob. I've always bought Birds Eye peas, Heinz beans, Warburton's crumpets, and so on. With prices rising way faster than my salary, I've been looking at alternatives. I've liked Lurpak butter for a long time, but now, the price is just silly so we've switched, mostly, to a vegan margerine. It's pretty nice on a sandwich, though for toast, I do prefer Lurpak however I won't buy it unless I see it on offer somewhere. Crumpets are now store own brand which are a fraction of the cost and taste almost as good as my usual. Beans: I've switched to Branston. There are cheaper brands, though these have a good write-up and frankly, I can barely taste the difference and they're a lot cheaper than Heinz. Peas, are also now an own brand from the store I work in, and they're just as nice, and again, a lot cheaper.

I've been asking for more hours, and therefore more money, for the past year due to rising costs. Initially I was advised there could be hours available, particularly at the weekend, though this has now switched to January, maybe. We have a lot of new starters for the Christmas period, and if they keep them on without offering current staff more hours, then I'll approach the union. Our new contracts state we should be offered the hours before new staff are employed. As it is, I've worked, on average, an extra 5 hours a week for the past 6 weeks or so though that may now stop due to new starters. I do have a lot of overtime booked for the Christmas period, so that will all help.

We've made a number of small changes to the shopping, and this pay period I've definitely spent less. Pennies saved here and there, and maybe more, doesn't seem like a lot though it soon adds up and I'm pleased with the savings made thus far with just some basic changes to purchases, and bulk buys where possible, and short-dated items too.

This past week I did make an unpleasant 'find' in the garden. I have a number of buckets around the garden, and following heavy rain I went to empty them, only to find a dead mouse in one of them. OMG! That was most unpleasant. I toyed with just bagging and binning it, but didn't have the heart and besides, bin day wasn't due for almost a fortnight so I dug a small hole in the gravel bed and burried it. I know they're rodents, but it was so small it was a little sad. Despite wearing gloves, I then washed my hands so many times...

My time off has been good so far. Some good sleep, some not so much. I made rough puff pastry - first time ever - and using the mincemeat I'd made in early October, I made a mincemeat lattice. It was good! I didn't take a photo as it had leaked lol, and didn't look fantastic, but it tasted very good and that's the main thing.

Wednesday I escaped early to do some grocery shopping. I don't know where my mind was, but I came home and realised I hadn't bought quite a few items we needed, so had to go out again on Thursday morning. D'oh!

Well, that's enough for now. We have some glorious sunshine today (Thursday) whilst London has had rain of biblical proportions. Take care.