Excess - No Excess

I had a coupon for £5 off a £50 shop at M&S the other day, not a huge amount but worth having if you do need something, and as we needed meat for the freezer and that being the most expensive part of any food I buy, I decided to stock up on things that would make lots of meals.

I was also lucky enough to get a couple of 'yellow stickered' bargain items that fell neatly into my 'many meals for one packet' train of thought.

Of course I didn't just come home and pop all the purchases straight into the freezer.  I unpacked everything that could be portioned up, individually wrapped things and then put them into labelled boxes.  The little chicken things were open frozen first so they wouldn't stick together and then packed into a box.

The only thing I hate after doing this is the excess of packaging ... but as we were having a bonfire after tidying outside I just chucked them on there ... lazy me, you don't have to wash them out if you do that.  They did start the fire well meaning that the damp newspaper from the henhouse burnt much better and quicker.

Out shopping with Mum yesterday in Sainsbugs I treated myself to the latest magazine, don't you love that they have altered the publication month so now the October magazine actually reflects things in season and available in October and is not a whole month ahead of itself.

Anyway I didn't notice at first but it came with a free silicone pastry brush, as soon as I did notice I swapped the magazine with the pink brush on it for one with a green brush :-)

Inside there were also a free drink and a body scrub, nice to get something for nothing and I will most likely be happy to use these.

What I don't like however, is the amount of leaflets that fall out of every magazine you buy in a shop and even those that come through the post as a subscription purchase.  In a shop if the magazine is unwrapped I take the leaflets straight out and leave them in the shop, but this edition with it's freebies was in a polythene bag so I couldn't do it.  So once home they joined the other annoying pamphlets and leaflets in the recycling bin.

More and more magazines are also sticking leaflets inside with that clear snot like glue (yes I love to peel it off ... but there my fun ends), or even including them in the staples ... The Radio Times is a big culprit of this, and this weeks edition even had the leaflet for something I never look what these are for, stapled in between pages rather than being in the centre, making it even more awkward to get rid of.

How much paper, ink and electricity are wasted in the manufacture of all these, not to mention the amount of trees cut down purely to end up in landfill or recycling boxes.  A whole industry built on something we neither need nor want.

Arrgghh ... they are all driving me mad!!

I'm jumping off my soapbox now and looking instead at something with no excess ,,,, a perfectly formed miniature Cauliflower.  

I had to harvest it as the slugs were devouring all it's brothers and sisters.  There's absolutely no excess here, even with the full sized version you can simply cut off the very end and then use every little bit of your purchase or picking.

Phew ...... the world is not completely mad ....YET!!

Sue xx

Soap Box Warning

I got this in the post yesterday.

A thank you for doing Live Below the Line earlier this year.  It was a letter, a certificate ...

 ... and a glossy brochure telling me all about the work done by Action Against Hunger.  

Yes, it did contain a plea for funds and a form to fill in to set up a direct debit, BUT and this is a great big BUT, I did not raise funds to be spent on postage, on paper and on printing magazines, I raised money to help in my small way, to try and stop some, any people being hungry in any way it was possible to help them.

Needless to say I will not be raising money for them again.  I only hope that some of your, and that includes family, friends, and the lovely readers of my blog, hard earned money went to where it was supposed to go.

This is from someone who has worked in the charity sector for years and knows that some money has to be spent on fundraising and paying staff to do this work, but it does not have to be spent on unnecessary fripperies.

I do not, and never will support the charities that send me begging letters, send me free pens, and even in one case sent me FOUR letters all with a five pence coin stuck to them, that was twenty pence profit I made, perhaps twenty pence that some poor child dropped into a collection box from his spending money!!  

And as for all the leaflets with the poor donkeys, horses, dogs, cats. tigers, abused children etc etc that clutter up every magazine that I get on subscription, if you stopped printing millions of leaflets you might be able to help the very animals and people that you spend so much time photographing.

And breathe ......

On a lighter note .... do you think this is fashion sense in ANY meaning of the word.

Look at little Suky's face in the left hand corner of the photograph, it says it all.

" Dad ... you've been tangoed!! "

Sue xx