Not sure it was worth it

Today I went shopping in Morrisons with little bear and darling father.  It was a bit busier than my normal stop off on Wednesday evenings, so a lot more challenging.  Little bear was not on his best behaviour either.  He wasn't exactly bad but he was never still, hard to keep track of and prone to wandering off.  And if I had to turn left or right, little bear was guaranteed to be in the way.  I did lots of, 'Darling, can you just move a step or two forward...'

The reason for this madness was that if I spend £40 or more in Morrisons every week between now and the end of December then I will get a £30 voucher.  I quite like Morrisons, and I get vouchers via Myfamilyclub which lets me get a £10 while paying £9.50.  I had a £2 off voucher from darling father as well.  And in store  I found that if I spent £60 in store then I would get a coupon to get 15p per litre off petrol.  And with little bear and darling father, it is hard not to spend more than £60.

The first challenge was the fruit and veg.  Little bear insisted that we get some black kale (which he will eat with relish).  Darling father got a coconut, which I insisted was his responsibility - I was having nothing to do with it.  For me, coconuts come wrapped in chocolate and labeled 'Bounty'.  Then it was the fish stall.

Little bear loves fish, he really loves fish.  And cod loin was on offer.  So after some smooth talking from the fishmonger we walked away with two meals of fish, one for tonight, one for the freezer.  Oh, and two pots of prawns - one for little bear and one for darling father.  The cod was definitely a good deal.  The prawns, well, it could be worse.

I determinedly avoided the sweets, crisps and chocolate aisles.  There were no decent offers on the whisky but darling father picked up a bottle of brandy - he does enjoy an occasional brandy, so that was not a make weight.  We picked up kitchen roll, ham for next week's sandwiches, lunch makings for darling father like some very tasty looking pots of old fashioned brawn and some cheese.  They also had Heinz soup at four for £2, which is not a bad deal.  They only had chicken or tomato, but darling father likes chicken and little bear will only really eat tomato, so that was okay.

So far so good.  I picked up a pair of jeans for little bear, who has just hit a growth spurt and all hts jeans seem to be heading north.  Only last month I was weighing up how much weight he seemed to be carrying, now he is like a skinned rabbit and impossible to fill up.  Thank goodness, it shows he is growing.  Darling father picked out a beef joint at £5 per kilo, which again is a good deal. 

Little bear persuaded me that I needed to get him some biscuits, which he promptly forgot about before we got home.  I picked up some kitchen roll, a bag of plain flour and a bag of self raising flour and that was about it.  The checkout was relatively painless.

Then we ended up getting a taxi home.  I felt a bit grumpy about it, as I felt that it ate hugely into my hard fought savings.  However we had also bought some clothes before we got into Morrisons (for darling father) so waiting for the bus was possible, but a taxi was almost plausible. 

However the sting was that as I got home one of the bags swung against the wall as I opened the gate.  I have never before managed to break a bottle of spirits, despite some really dreadful clankings, but today I managed it.  A light tap and there was this awful crash and then brandy started gushing everywhere.  I managed to save most of it, but not only did I lose the brandy but also both bags of flour.  And the ginger tom is probably going to have a hangover tomorrow. 

Better luck next week.