A man has described a thirty-mile supermarket expedition as a decisive victory over the cost of living after saving two pounds on a shopping basket and refusing to discuss the petrol. The journey also required parking, a meal deal and a celebratory pastry.
Clive Barton presented the receipt at home with the gravity of a returning negotiator. He explained that normal household accounting could not capture the psychological value of buying washing powder at the correct price. His partner's suggestion that they had already owned washing powder was dismissed as short-term thinking.
Barton has created a spreadsheet in which fuel is categorised as leisure, parking as personal development and the pastry as essential infrastructure. Under this model the trip generated a saving of £2, a positive attitude and several new rows. The spreadsheet does not calculate the value of Saturday.
Next weekend he plans to visit three supermarkets to establish which offers the cheapest loaf. His route is optimised for loyalty points and will take roughly the same time as reaching northern France. Asked whether he might simply buy less, Barton said that sort of defeatism was exactly how supermarkets won. His partner has quietly ordered a delivery and bought back Saturday.
