Basically a great day

It was a very exciting day the other Tuesday.

After a good old moan about our accommodation provider (who shall remain nameless), they finally delivered on my fridge complaint. The back of the fridge was as cold as the freezer, and the space in the freezer was mostly taken up by ice, which seemed to invade like a horrible fungus and was impossible to fend off.

It’s a peculiar story. Basically a few days after lodging the ‘maintenance report form’, I went down to the reception to check if they’d received it (I was told a confirmation email would be sent, but I never received one). On asking the lady, she told me it’s ‘on it’s way.’ No, not the confirmation email,  but in fact a new fridge.

Of course, it was a month before it actually arrived (I was awoken one morning by the sound of two Devonian  blokes huffing and puffing their way into the kitchen) but it made us all rather happy. Because now our cucumbers don’t freeze solid, and we don’t have to defrost our mayonnaise should we wish to eat some.

To celebrate, I went to stock up on food (on salad in particular). I decided to visit the local Sainsburys, a little further away than the Iceland I usually visit, which is just round the corner. I had been quite intrigued by my flatmate, who kept returning from Sainsburys with several jars of curry sauce priced at nine pence each. And indeed my dreams of incredibly cheap food were recognised.

24p for twenty-four jaffa cakes, 19p for a bottle of vinegar (I didn’t really need it, but frankly why not at that price) and 13p for a tin of pineapple, among other things from the ‘Basics’ range. Before this turns into a shameless plug, I will of course mention that certain other supermarkets offer similar low-price ranges, but a least with Sainsburys you don’t have the guilt of supporting a corrupt corporate monster.

I was in supermarket paradise. It was sort of a treasure trove of stuff you could have as much of as you like, but with just a little incentive to stop you wasting it. And if that wasn’t enough, you get cheeky little slogans on the packages: on yoghurts, ‘A little less fruit, still a great pick’, on pasta sauce ‘Basic recipe, doesn’t cause a stir’, and the slightly alarming message on the washing powder box, ‘Cleans, no added promises.’

Sainsburys have been marketing their Basics range considerably more lately, for obvious reasons. Now people don’t have as much money as they would like, Jamie Oliver is telling us that buying a wonky carrot isn’t as bad as we first thought. Not that us scroungers-off-the-state cared anyway.

Living in a student area + a recession = good times!

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