A Tale of Two Shopping Baskets

You can learn everything about a person from their shopping basket. My mother's typically contains organic vegetables, wine, granary bread, skimmed milk and wholewheat pasta so therefore you can instantly tell she's middle-class and so a bit of a food snob. My sister's usually is full of saladly bits, chicken, couscous, bread, Hellman's mayonnaise and things like chopped tomatoes and olives revealing that (a) she has a remarkable amount of discipline when it comes to junk food, (b) has inherited my mother's food snobbery and refuses to buy supermarket brands and (c) cooks meals properly from scratch.

My latest shopping basket however was an embarrassment, even by my low standards. It contained milk, tea bags (that's alright), Cocopops, tinned soup, two quiches (not great but not that bad), toblerone cookies, Dairy Milk Wholenut, sausage rolls (it's ok, I am revising for finals after all, the need for soul food is understandable) and microwavable macaroni cheese (there is no excuse). In comparison my flatmate's basket held Fruit and Fibre, apples, spices, rice and pesto. I was so embarrassed that I deliberately picked out the most common looking checkout person in Sainsburys and even she judged me.

But even this shameful assemblage doesn't even come near to the typical shopping basket of a boy I knew in first year. His basket (and those of you who know me know I rarely exaggerate) comprised of meatballs in a can, three packs of supernoodles (which he mixed with the meatballs), Tesco Value bacon, white bread, tinned ravioli, coffee, ketchup (which was squeezed in liberal amounts on top on the supernoodles/meatballs concoction), three packets of fags and a 24 pack of Carling (drank with the meatballs/supernoodles/ketchup combo). I haven't seen him for three years but I can only presume he's either dead from malnutrition or his mother dragged him back home in horror at his dietary habits.

I'm hoping that my shopping habits will sort themselves out in time. Otherwise I am never going to get married. I'm putting all my hopes in the fact that as a middle class person it is my unavoidable destiny to start buying organic milk, artisan cheeses, probiotic yoghurt and fairtrade coffee.