day eight two

I went to my favourite fruit and veg stall today. I got a pineapple, a punnet of strawberries, a bag of apple, a bag of oranges, a bag of pears, a bag of potatoes, a bag of carrots, 2 peppers and half a dozen free range eggs all for the bargainous price of £5.25.

day seventy six

i went to the supermarket for the first time in about 2 months today. because of the snow my mum hadn't been able to do a big shop for weeks so there was alot to buy and she needed my help (plus i had nothing better to do). we went to Lidl and Sainsbury's. i rather miss Lidl and Aldi. i miss their weird German produce and their hilariouslu named made up brand names (Snacky Cracky being a personal fave). i also miss pretending i'm on holiday surrounded by the badly translated (and sometimes just not translated at all) product names. i will definately be looking into their ethics in order to make a decision on whether i will occasionally shop there once this project is over.
i don't miss sainsbury's as much as i miss the German supermarkets. i had a look at the clothing. now i know the TU clothing range is hardly the most stylish and desirable but i'd usually find something i wanted, but's it's funny, i seem to have lost the passion and desire for shopping. even when people talk about the wonderful things they've got in the january sales i'm not really jealous or want to go shopping. my mum reckons when the new season come in i'll want some new clothes, but i think as i'm going travelling and living out of a bag there'll be no point in me buying loads of clothes i can't take.

day seventy five

going home for some friends' leaving do. i got the coach to London Victoria. Victoria station looks more like a shopping centre than a train station. it is a barrage of advertisement where the small print states that there is a train station hidden beneath all these shops.
once i got to Liverpool Street i had an hour and 20 minutes to wait because i wanted a train ticket 2 quid cheaper. ordinarily i would spend this time buying food and magazines. another dieting bonus for non-shopper as i would have undoubtably gone for something incase in pastry or cooked in a vat of oil (or both). i was almost tempted by this new sushi place (i don't know how new it is, i wouldn't have looked at the shops last time i was there) particularly as it looked independent.
i decided not to ask and to settle with my homemade salad and ryvita. i set off to find something to eat it with as i forgot a fork. luckily M&S has some plastic forks so i took (possibly stole as i hadn't purchased anything!) one and tucked into my delicious and healthy salad.

day seventy four

i went back to Optical Express today to sort out paying for my eye treatment. ironically i couldn't be signed up for a financial plan with 10 months interest free as i'm not completely useless with money and don't need a credit card. i'm not saying that people with credit cards are useless with money but as a student with no dependants and someone else paying the rent i'd have to be shit with money to need a credit card. plus they're pretty dangerous things. so i need to sort out how i'm going to pay it with the help of my mother's credit rating.

day seventy three

after debating long and hard i've given in and i'm going home to say goodbye to two of my best friends before they bugger off round the world for 18 months. i scoured the internet for cheap travel options. i've managed to get to ipswich and back via coach and then train for just over £30, which isn't too bad as i'm travelling most the length of the country and only booking 2 days in advance. it's gonna take me an age to get there though!

day seventy two

i must of entered a competition or something because for the past few months Optical Express have been ringing me and asking me if i want to book a laser eye surgery consultation. i had a think about it. my vision is pretty bad, i need contact lenses or glasses all the time, i can only see about half a foot infront of my face. and i was thinking about what i'm going to do when i go travelling for a year after uni, i can't really take a years worth of contact lenses with me and i don't suppose it'll be easy to get hold of them in the middle of Thailand, and i don't really want to wear glasses all the time. plus i won't be able to do diving and surfing and things like that, so laser eye surgery seems like a fairly good idea. so i booked a consultation, it was supposed to be last week but due to the weather i had to cancel. so instead it was today.
the consultation was really useful and led me to the decision that i was going to have surgery, in two weeks time! as you're guessing it's not free but as it's technically for my travels (and the rest of my life!) it fits in with my rules.

day sixty five

so i've had a break over christmas. not from the challenge of course (although i did almost buy a burger when i was drunk), but the documentation of it. i honestly did mean to write a blog or two but i got caught up in the festivities. i'll do a bit of summing up here.

first problem i faced was i was lacking make up wipes. normally these would go on the shopping list and mum would buy me some or i would go to boots or superdrug or the like and buy some but seeing as my mother shops in supermarkets (strictly banned) and boots and superdrug are chain stores i had to find another way around it it. as i am also trying to be greener and buy more ethical/ecological alternatives i looked on the internet for local stockists of the best tolietries brand i have come across, Faith in Nature. their products smell pretty amazing, scored highly in Ethical Consumer and aren't quite as ridiculously expensive as the other green products on the market. i'm not aware of any organic, ecological, ethical shops in Ipswich and my search showed there were none and the nearest ones were in villages a 20 minute drive out, the drive defeating my efforts at being green. the Oxfam in Liverpool has a small selection of Faith in Nature products so i tried the store in Ipswich, they didn't stock any(at least i thought they didn't, i late discovered they didn't i just wasn't looking hard enough, they were hidden in a corner at the back, at least i know for next time!). so i ended up ordering some off the internet, along with some deodorant and tampons to qualify for free postage and packaging.

it wasn't just make up wipes i couldn't put on the shopping list, it was anything. so if i wanted any particular food i had to go out and get it myself, from an independant shop. this was hard at first but i got used to it (or just ate what we had in the house).

i also chose not to tell any of my friends about my challenge. i've found that non-artsy people don't really understand what i'm doing (particularly my brother and sisters who all think it's stupid). and no one seemed to notice, not even the people i went christmas and january sales shopping with (without buying anything), i suppose they were too wrapped up in their own consumption.

everyone seemed to enjoy their ethical/charitable gifts and were particularly excited to open them as they all had a few little gifts and no one knew what they were getting.

so a new year, and with it comes a resolution. and as it is every year, it's to get skinny. but this time i actually have to do as i'm going travelling when i've finished my studies and i'm going to hot places and everyone knows bellies don't go well with bikinis. so my question is how easy is it to diet when you can't shop in supermarkets. the first problem is that i won't be able to get such a wide range of low fat food, but i'm sure i'll find alternatives.