Food and stocking up again

I had an appointment in Huntingdon yesterday so I went to the Big Brands For Less shop in Ramsey on the way. I wanted to pick up more of the bread mix as I am so pleased with it - so I got 10 bags - for just £10. Let's get the calculator out!!

Each bag weighs 7.7lbs, and it takes me 3lbs of mix to make 2 large loaves of bread at a time. All I add is water, at minimal cost, so I am going to overlook that for now. Each bag therefore makes 5 large loaves of bread, at a cost of 20p a loaf. I know that we should factor in some electricity, but I think that is not going to be a lot - I could cook 4 loaves in the oven at a time, and it is on for about 45 minutes. Moneysavingexpert forum posters reckon an average oven uses about 3kW/hour, so that would be 2.25 kW for 45 minutes - and I am paying 9.98p per KwH with uwclub........so am I right in thinking it costs me less than 23p to run the oven for an hour........gosh, this is too early for maths!! If I rounded the 23p to 24p for the sake of the maths, each loaf would cost less than 25p - and that is a definite saving on "good" bread in the shops which is over a £1 a loaf, and even "cheap" bread is nearly 50p a loaf at the big supermarkets, so I am making a good quality loaf at less than half the price of cheap bought stuff. Result!

The lady in the shop said that they have been selling that breadmix for well over a year, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they continue to be able to source it. I still have two bags of the Granary mix which I am going to try this week when I bake - maybe later today - but I am tempted to cut it with some of the white mix as I am not sure that the gang will like straight Granary...

I have another order from Approved Food coming today - the text has arrived to say that the delivery will be made between 12.07 and 13.07 so we will see how precise they are today! I have re-ordered some products we liked, but not everything that we bought last time is available again, and new things are on offer - Nouvelle loo roll this time, for example - 9 rolls for £2.60. That loo roll is particularly good for here as it breaks down easily for our septic tanks, so I think I ordered four packs of it! I may have to think of new and creative places to store it all as the current loo roll store is still quite well packed with the Nouvelle that Tesco were selling at half price before Christmas!

The children are very adaptable and thought of new ways to eat the things I had bought last time - the YFG has become fond of the Savoury Rice as a breakfast choice!! The only trouble with that is that the fastest way to cook it still takes at least 10 minutes and then it is a hot meal to eat so she has to think of what she wants early enough to have time to cook it and eat it. That is one of the items not available at present, so she has about 4 or 5 sachets left. I had thought that the rice would be served beside some more veg and perhaps fish, for example, serving the three of them ( I can't eat it because of the wheat/dairy intolerances) but it seems to serve one person adequately if that is all they are eating for that meal.

Well, off into the day I go - chickens, washing, tidying, ironing, baking, coaching, cooking, chatting as well, no doubt! Have a good day, everyone :-)