4-star Style

DH and I are not what you might describe as "corporate high flyers". In fact, I don't think either of us have ever been on anything bigger than a 12-seater plane. And top level accomodation for us would be having our own bathroom, rather than sharing a bathroom like we do most trips when we take our camper trailer. lol. Even before we had kids, if stayed in a motel it would be of the "budget" type variety.

So it was a bit of a treat for us this week when we made a very quick trip to Adelaide to look at a truck for the farm. We left the kids with Granny and took off overnight. Not only did it provide a welcome break for us both but I particularly enjoyed it as DH was paying our way from the business account so I didn't have any "budget" concerns. LOL. We've talked about taking a business trip together for years but this is the first time we've actually done so.

Of course, being our "own" business, it wasn't the same "splash out it's on the companies account" that you hear about or see on TV. LOL. I was really pleased to get a last minute deal with a 4-star accomodation place for $140 including a cooked breakfast. When we got to the dining room on Wednesday morning we noticed our cooked breakfast would have cost us $38 for the 2 of us. So it ended up being quite a good deal really. I looked on some of the last minute type websites and then emailed the place directly asking what they could offer. Their offer worked out about $25 cheaper than those websites so it was worth asking.

Eating breakfast in a posh dining room complete with linen tablecloths and serviettes was quite a novelty for us. :-) We wanted to order room service the night before (just cos we could lol) but we'd been to a buffet for our evening meal so no matter how much we wanted to, we just couldn't see ourselves consuming anything else. LOL

It's been quite a number of years now since we've stayed in accomodation with a mini bar. This one they'd certainly thought of everything (including panadol AND berocca). But sheesh! Why do they have to inflate the prices so much? Do people really pay that?

Anyway, we had a lovely time. I had a chance to do some shopping and picked up a few "bargains". The shoes I was wearing turned out to be huge money savers too. They're still fairly new but I've worn them a few times without problems. Not for doing the walking required for 3 hours in a large shopping centre though. As my feet were rubbed raw my walking got slower and slower, so I fitted less shopping in than I might have normally. Not a problem. I'd picked up a bargain pair of RED shoes (are you reading this Kelley cos it's all your fault!!! lol) in Target. $39.99 down to $5!!! So I decided to swap shoes.

Picture me balancing on a toilet seat in the public toilets with handbag, shopping, 2 pairs of shoes, socks and a packet of band-aids. LOL. I'm surprised I didn't lose both the band-aids and a sock down the toilet. Why didn't I close the lid you may think? Well, naturally I was trying to multi-task at the same time. LOLOL. I'm sure it would have made for quite comical viewing. Thankfully I had complete privacy (as far as I know anyway).

I'm convinced though that Kmart trolleys have some kind of "stuff magnet" in them. I popped in there for a couple of things and left with half a trolley load!!! Why does that always happen to me???? DH tends to shake his head at my shopping efforts. I always go with a list but about half way through I have to admit to him that nothing I've bought so far was actually ON the list but of course it was all stuff that we totally NEEDED - I just didn't know it at the time I wrote the list. LOL.

In actual fact, I did quite well this trip. I did buy a *few* things not on my list. But they were things that I'd in the back of my mind to buy if I saw a good deal. Like a gameboy game for DD for Christmas discounted from $59.99 to $10 (plus I had a voucher so it was really FREE).

On the way out of town yesterday, we stopped at a fruit and veg shop that we haven't tried before. Turned out to be well worth the stop. I don't think either the shop attendant or the other customers could believe their eyes as I loaded up the counter with bag after bag of stuff. My total spend was around $47 but I bought:

20kg bag of potatoes (we'll be busy eating potatoes for a while) $6.99
3 x 1kg carrots at $1.20 each (we've been paying $1.89-$2.59 here)
4 x 2kg apples at $1.99/bag (here they're $5.99)
large bag bananas at $2.99 kg (they've been $7.99kg here)
1kg mandarins
HUGE whole cabbage
whole cauliflower
1kg tomatoes
2 zucchini's
3 large sweet potatoes
2 sweet corn
3 heads broccoli

I think that is all. It looked like a LOT of stuff for under $50 anyway and should keep us going for a couple of weeks. It's a real pleasure opening up our fridge at the moment and seeing all that FRESH and HEALTHY produce. :-) We have a very FULL fridge at the moment!!!

I also stopped at a Coles store for some pantry staples plus a few meat specials (we have a fridge/freezer in the car) and picked up some fresh fish along our way home as well. So we arrived home with a car FULL of shopping, but thankfully most of it was food. DH had to unload me and the shopping so that he'd have enough room to pick up our kids. LOL.

As for the truck -well, DH decided to buy it. He'd already done a lot of research on it so it was kind of expected that he would. The poor guy has been looking at trucks for the past 5 years and keeps putting it off due to the seasons not being great. Unfortunately our old truck (which is over 30 years old) is getting less and less up to the task. This *new* truck is only 20 years old. LOL. Anything newer is out of our price range right now. But it'll be more reliable, cost less in fuel and enable him to take more grain per load than our existing truck. DH is quite excited about it, which is nice. It makes me smile when he's happy. :-)