I'm happy to be back in Tamworth since it's a market town with a wide variety of small shops, a huge retail park, and a shopping centre, that's cycle-friendly. Today I went for a 15-minute bike ride to the town centre, to purchase some essentials.
I find it liberating to ride my bike across towns and do my shopping especially when traffic is chock-a-block, and I love the independence and find that cycling is a great activity for a confidence boost.
Also, being on two wheels with a front basket and double panniers, helps me to be disciplined and stick to my planning, so this is what my basic shopping list looks like. I compile my lists over an extended period, and sometimes I find that I can eliminate things and substitute or find dual purposes for things that I already have here on the boat.
Today's priority was a large sack of wood and some kindling since I rang out completely, and my firelighters then were running low.
However, if you peruse my shopping list above, you'll probably figure out exactly how they relate to my life on my boat; no extravagance, just simple.
My small living space on my narrowboat forces me to be shrewd about my purchases and is a beneficial minimalist hack for living more affordably, simply because there's no place on board to keep stock.
These are general items that can be found in pretty much all major supermarkets. However, I prefer to shop at small inventory stores like Lidl and Aldi, that rotate their items, so they might not always have these items on the shelves. So today I went to a couple of my usual bargain shops to get these.
So it was annoying that I found myself in the middle of the Christmas Shopping chaos, as the queues were long, shops were redecorated, and items reshuffled and I had to walk through all the aisles to find exactly what I was looking for. It's all sales tactics you know? However, I feel a deep sense of satisfaction when I do not deviate from my shopping list and return home with the specific items that I went to purchase.
I call this practice mindful shopping, and I tend to have a rolling shopping list and bring items that I didn't get forward, for my next shopping day. This helps as it's a way for me to reaccess if I still need the items, and it helps with budgeting and keeping stock to alleviate hoarding and accumulating unnecessary stuff.
It's been a while since I last went out on my bike, carrying the sack of wood, a bag of kindling and the other items. All combined, I was fully loaded, and fucking knackered when I returned home. The slight uphill route riding against strong winds had me gasping for air as if I was suffering an asthma attack. So I drank several glasses of water and managed to cook a simple meal, and I slept soundly!
Happy Monday peeps and have a great week ahead. :)
All the images included were taken by me.
December, 2024
