I’m in the food queue for the poor shop. Pushes the sunglasses against the root of the nose and is a little ashamed. How did I end up here? Still, everyone is welcome to the scrap shop, which sells food that would otherwise be thrown away at a bargain price. Anyone who is really cramped and living on a living wage can also become a member and buy the food on the way out even cheaper.
I have limited the items in the basket so as not to appear stingy. I am content to enjoy minced meat from Gotland for fifty kronor a kilo, rust sandwiches for a ten and freshly squeezed raw juice for a five.
I also have a prepared defense speech that I am a climate-conscious customer who saves both food and the planet from destruction. But no one in the queue seems to see me as a perverted Karl-Bertil Jonsson. The man in front of me lives in the exposed area nearby and has loaded three trolleys full which he says is enough for a month.
There is something fair with inflation exceeding class limits. When the Bregottasken costs 62 kronor, even I do not want to be with anymore, for all the butter in Småland. Rather spread the crackers with cheap vegetable margarine to save about twenty boxes.
In the past, I rarely looked at the food receipt. Now I cruise around the grocery stores like a day trader to make clips. Often ends up in front of the fridge with food marked “eat soon” and lets the daily offer control the food menu. Like a continental housewife who goes to the square every day for dinner shopping.
The least economical thing now would be to shop weekly according to a well-planned menu. It must be what it becomes.
Also realize that my move to save electricity last winter by raising the refrigerator to eight degrees was a fatal mistake. The pennies I save I get again a hundred times by keeping the fridge really cold. Four degrees prolongs the life of both dairies and vegetables for several days. Food waste is the biggest culprit, for both me and the planet.
My food preferences have radically changed in recent months. During the pandemic, I made inspiring dishes from scratch with recipes with fifteen ingredients. Today, neither planed parmesan nor sun-dried tomatoes end up on the pizza.
Tonight I celebrate with a classic Margherita. Three ingredients in red, green and white are still the real Neapolitan product. The basilica is self-sown and the mozzarella beyond is best found in the poor shop.
How does the stingy pizza taste? I would like to claim heavenly, but good is good enough.
Read more kåserier by Jessica, as when she prepares to place herself in a mobile refugee camp.