A fictional supermarket shopper has discovered that £30 still goes a long way, provided the journey ends before the cheese aisle.
Helen, 38, said she had maintained her weekly budget by moving several items into the category of things the family could look forward to on a special occasion, such as lunch.
“I’m not saying everything is unaffordable,” she explained. “I’m saying I now pick up a pepper with the care I used to reserve for a bottle of wine.”
Her list has evolved from a practical reminder into a work of speculative fiction. Items appear in order of hope, with a line drawn underneath potatoes to indicate where the funding ends.
A recent shop included pasta, tomatoes and the brief consideration of parmesan. She described the meal as Italian-inspired because it had been inspired by the idea of eating in Italy, where she also could not currently afford to go.
The family has responded by becoming more flexible. Her husband is flexible about which biscuits she buys. The children are flexible about which of their preferred biscuits she buys. Helen is flexible about standing alone in the aisle for a minute.
She has also embraced price comparisons, visiting three shops to establish with scientific certainty that she cannot afford quite as much in any of them.
A loyalty app informed her that she had saved £6.40. Her banking app, using a different methodology, informed her that she had spent £43.70.
At home she arranged the groceries on the kitchen counter and took a photograph, not for social media but because it would soon be difficult to convince the family that this had once constituted a shop.
Next week she plans to save more by bringing a smaller bag.
