An Eagle Eyed Shopper.

Ah, today I earned my stripes...

Rechnitz was my chosen port of supermarket call and mainly for the princess. There is a Spar and god forbid they run out of food, a Billa right next door. Door hopping has been acquired by yours truly. Yikes, am I approaching that age already although in my defence I don't drag coupons, calculator nor magnifying glasses with me.

Spar has a 25 % discount on all their pet food today and seeing that our child is so well versed in sniffing out even an ounce of questionable grade meat, the joys of giving her cheap morsels is denied to us. Believe me, Bob's tried every trick in the book including the old bait and switch, although the plucky little thing'd rather show ribs than leniency.

Having almost cleared out the shelf of choice and only buying these items, I couldn't help mentioning to the cashier;

" Alles für die Katz! "

which at least gave her a moment of levity on a Friday morning.

My main shop was done next door at Billa. Wheeling a trolley about puts me into the zone. The happy zone interspersed with self denial zone. Many an item has been taken in and out of the trolley whilst I mentally counted the various treats I'd like to eat. When I got to the meat counter I already knew what would occupy the soup pot. Pot luck a la Biggi...A big piece of beef is already stewing happily surrounded by root vegetables of all sorts.

The butcher was circulating checking his wares and I set the cat among the pidgons when I asked him if he had any cold cuts sans nitrates!

He and his ladies behind the counter hadn't hear of the nitrate cover up and by the barely repressed eye-roll, I could almost hear them put me into the nutter category. Anyway, I tootled along to the cheese display when the butcher got me.

" Look here young lady, this definitely hasn't got any nitrates. I made it myself this morning. Cevapcici. They only take a few minutes on each side. "

Oh well, Bob deserves a treat and when he gave me 50% off, the deal was sealed. ( meat discounted...I better not have any in case I need to take Bob to the doc's )

Finally, after eons of meandering up and down the isles of temptations I had managed to put my footprint on the conveyor belt. Bob's the grand master of arranging the items and as he likes to do things just so, I feel rather at sea when I am shopping on my own. Too many balls to juggle. These cashiers are fast and I could have used an extra hand to put the bought items into the trolley while at the same time observing the till display.

Supermarkets all over are so very fond of offering discounts, two for the price of one and of course the special de jour. But, the money is often lost in translation as the computerized till is always the last to know.

Today, eagle eyed Biggi earned two euros eighty. Tschibo had a special on their Black & White coffee. One 500g packet costs 5,39 while two 500g packets bought together drops the price to 3,99 each. Ha, they didn't take it off and yes, I asked the cashier to double check. She even went to the coffee section to look. Ah, it was the fine print that did it. The special only ran for ground coffee and not beans...Of course as they didn't have any ground coffee there, she kindly gave me my discount. It pays to hold up the line.

Biggi