Saturday shopping and an expense I should have avoided

Well, the farmers' market is back, and lovely it was to see it this morning.  Even if I did get up a bit later than planned and even if the temperature was still hovering just above freezing when I went out.  I kept to my list fairly well again and only bought two things that weren't on it, one of which I did need but had forgotten to write down.

On the way back from the market I stopped in a shoe shop to try on some shoes - I really could do with a second pair suitable for winter weather but okay for wearing in the office, too.  Unfortunately, my big feet continue to be an issue.  Either manufacturers are making their shoes smaller or I've gone up another half-size.  There was a pair that were kind of nice and not too expensive but the 43 was just that bit too long and the 42 was just that bit too short.  Oh for the days when I could just buy a size 41 and it always fit.  I may just bite the bullet and go to the shop I got my last boots from.  It's a proper shop with trained staff and since almost everything is expensive (in the really good quality kind of way), they don't specially try to push you towards one thing or another based on price but rather really spend their time finding you a shoe that fits well.  It's run by the people who manufacture arch supports as well and I badly need new ones, too.  Might try and fit in a quick appointment with the orthopaedic doctor next week to get myself a prescription and then head there next weekend to organise new arch supports and check out the shoes.

I also stopped off at the library to drop back some DVDs I borrowed last week.  Stupidly, I forgot that since I wasn't working last week, I had actually gone to the library on Friday and not Saturday so I had to pay 6 euro late return fines.  It's very annoying to have to pay money that I could easily have avoided having to pay.

On the whole, I'm doing alright budgetwise.  That may have something to do with having given myself a very, very generous budget this month knowing that not only is January always just a generally grey and depressing month that can be tough to cope with but also that following a long holiday, it might take me a while to get back to a normal routine.  Here's what I spent from last Saturday to yesterday:
25.30 transport
37.18 food necessities
9.62 food luxuries
21.00 lunch x 2 (one nice lunch out, one pizza at my desk)
0.00 toiletries
0.00 gifts (incl. postage)
0.00 clothes
6.99 house/garden (this was a small first aid kit on special offer in one of the local drugstores)
9.45 medical (sinupret tablets)
5.50 other (this was for 11 cards for various occasions that were also on offer in the local drugstore - handy to have in the drawer in work)
Total: 115.04

And here's what today's shopping looks like:

Price list for today's shopping:
Straetmans (at market)
2 x 1 litre milk - 1.20 (plus 1.50 deposit) each
456g apple bread - 2.69 (this was the unplanned item - 5.90/kg)
262g butter - 2.49 (the forgotten item - 9.50/kg)

Etzold (at market)
Red cabbage 1.408kg - 2.82 (2.00/kg)
Onions 914g - 2.29 (2.50/kg)

Vennbachhof (at market)
Pork shoulder 534g - 4.01 (7.50/kg)
Speck 188g - 162g - 1.62 (8.60/kg)
Small piece of Fleischwurst thrown in the bag for free

Thees (at market)
2 x small bunch fresh garlic - 1.80 each
Very large handful lamb's lettuce and a smaller handful of a type of purslane - 6.90 (2.00/100g)

Flassrath (at market)
Apples 2.5kg - 4.00 (on the left of the picture are boskoop and one smaller rubinette, which I got mostly for drying.  On the right are golden delicious, jonagold and elstar)
Potatoes (afra) 2.5kg - 3.00

Reformhaus
750ml cider vinegar - 2.25 (this goes under the category of toiletries in my tracking spreadsheet as I'll use it as a conditioning rinse for my hair)
370g jar of pineapple pieces in juice - 2.85

Chemist
Nose salve - 10.42 (that's the white bottle at the front of the picture.  I was at the throat, nose and ear doctor during the week to get a prescription for the hypersensitisation I'm going to try this year for hayfever.  Since I'm still struggling a bit with this cold/sinusitis he told me to take more of the same sinupret build up your defences tablets and also prescribed this salve, which is supposed to help with my dry nose.  I hate, hate, hate having to stick or spray things up my nose but I suppose if it helps...)

I'll post my meal plan up on the other blog again.  I mostly kept to last week's one although there were an awful lot of celebrations in work this week and yesterday I had several glasses too many of Sekt (sparkling wine), which led me into a very bad snackfood kind of place.  Not the healthiest dinner ever, I must say.