Tomatoes, compost heaps and shopping..

Yesterday I managed to get some tomato plants into the garden and add a couple more potatoes to the potato patch. Now I like to try and be frugal. I don't like spending money if I can get something cheaper, or better still free! Don't get me wrong here, I'm aiming for a simple and partially self sufficient life because I like the idea of it and because it feels right, and not because I have any strong eco feelings - at least I thought not, but I'm beginning to think I might well be wrong about that, but I'll talk more about that in a later post I think, once I've had time to think it through more to analyse what I really think.

In the meantime I don't have a picture of the tomato plants, or the bed along the end of the house under the wisteria which I have spent all day digging out all the weeds from and sorted out all the edging bricks along it, but I do have a picture of my compost heap - which I'm very proud of I hasten to add!

An early picture of the compost heaps

 They are much fuller now and I've learnt lots about compost heaps, what to put on them,, what not to do, brown and green stuff to put on, and that's thanks to both my sis and bro in law and the wonders of youtube. They probably don't look very exciting to you but to me they are fascinating to me, and I've spent quite a bit of time making sure that the layers of stuff are right.

So why is this important when I'm supposed to be talking about shopping? Well it's really quite simple. The compost from these heaps should be ready by next spring to dig into the garden to improve the soil quality, that means that I'll be able to grow more and better veg and fruit, which in turn will mean that I don't have to spend so much on shopping and I can guarantee the quality!

 Yesterday morning I spent all morning in the kitchen. I've discovered that minced beef, a staple for cheap meals for us in the UK, is actually expensive here, at around 12 euros a kilo. That works out at about £9.50 a kilo or £4.40 a lb. I managed to pick up some beef that was on offer of the week and promo and made 1.9kilos for 11.87 euros - that's about half the price of buying the mince direct. Now I've been really lucky and last Christmas hubby bought me a Kitchenaid mixer and attachments, one of which is for mincing things so it was really easy, if a little time consuming, to do.

Shopping here in France does seem quite a bit more expensive. I'm not sure if it's because I haven't quite got my head around what's a good deal and what's not, or what brands are the cheaper ones, but that will improve in time. In the meantime we'll make savings where we can, make all our own food whenever possible at all (bearing in mind that I only have a set of gas rings, a combination microwave, a bbq and a George Foreman grill. The oven part of the cooker doesn't work which does limit things a bit, but you just have to think ahead and be creative. 

What foods are we missing? Well the French don't appear to make potato salad, but that's easily fixed by using salad potatoes and mixing light mayonnaise with creme fraiche and chopped chives. Tea will be an interesting one once we run out of the Yorkshire Tbags and PG tips we brought with us. We can get British tea but it's expensive, otherwise it's Liptons. Tea is a personal choice and for me Liptons just doesn't cut it! Sausages are different, but my Kitchenaid comes with a sausage making attachment so that's fixable in time, once I've sourced sausage skins. Up to now I think that's it. 

The variety of both fruit and veg and fish is much bigger in the local supermarkets, and the patisserie and bread is, in my honest opinion, far better than in the UK. 

So all in all the pro's far outweigh the cons when it comes to the shopping - apart from the cost of course!