Bean counters

They've just dropped the 'baked' from their most famous product title, which has been spelled 'beanz' for yonks now. What they ought to drop is the price. There was a mini-forum on baked beans in the Post blogging community some time back - the Branston brand by Crosse and Blackwell seemed to be well favoured.

I've been own-branding it for quite some time, with the good old Co-op my final choice, although Morrisons is an acceptable substitute in terms of price. Sainsbury's is too pricey, although they have a ring-pull top, which is good, but not worth the extra you pay.

On the very day I went on a scouting mission to Aldi, where all the middle classes are now shopping, apparently, there was a good piece on their boss, Paul Foley, who reckons most punters save £30 on a weekly shop there.

He makes a lot of sense, comparing Aldi (which he calls 'a cross between a supermarket, a warehouse and a street market') to the big four in terms of product lines. All I know is that I bought a large tin of perfectly eatable baked beans, under their Corale logo, for less than I can buy a small tin of own brand elsewhere.

We gave up the organic veggie box months ago - too much wastage - and get stuff locally. We have a greengrocer and fruit shop a few minutes away, ditto a fair-sized Co-op supermarket and a Tesco Express open from 6am to 11pm. It's so small and so busy that fruit and veg as well as bread is delivered twice a day. A few steps from my front door is a great bakery and pattiserie.

The fancy Italian bubbly bottled water has gone in favour of the stuff that comes out of the tap, the gym membership is on the way out - I'll ride my three expensive bikes more (one at a time) and go the to the fitness suites at my two nearest local leisure centres, where there's cheap rates for buspass holders.

So we're shopping local on a daily basis - with bulk buys of staples like rice from a food co-operative - and doing the hypermiling thing that will, I'm sure become the norm on our roads.

It's the pensioners' survival code. Any other suggestions gratefully received.

I can't resist signing off with a slight misquote which fellow pensioners and film buffs will recognise: I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of pensioner bloggers don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now... Here's looking at you kid.

(Edit July 15) Couldn't resist adding this little bit when on my tear-off calender today was heralded as 'Beanfeast Day' the name given in the 19th century to what evolved into company picnics and works outings. It was a far cheaper version of the original wayzgoose, when employers roasted a bird for workers. I remember the latter term being used for a peripatetic piss-up by printers... but then I am very old ...