Updates

I had a request to show a photo of my shopping trolley, which I'm very happy to do.

Here it is in all it's eight-year-old glory fully stuffed with groceries after my large shop this morning.  I'd bought so much this week that I'd also hd to carry a very heavy carrier bag back from the High Street too.  The main problems was that I'd bought seven pretty heavy books in the charity shop as well as all my groceries, and they really bulked out what I had to carry.

For all the hundreds of miles this trolley must have been wheeled in the past eight years, it's still holding up pretty well.  It was a fairly expensive item when we bought it (somewhere around £30 if I remember correctly), but I think shopping trolleys are probably one of those items where you get what you pay for.  I know you can buy much cheaper ones, and I've had those in the past, but they don't seem to last anywhere near as well.

My trolley is kept out in the shed and I think the metal parts are beginning to suffer a bit because of that.  The shed is basically water-tight but is, without doubt, a tad damp, and I noticed last week that some parts of the metal frame are begining to look a little rusty.  Still there's not a lot I can do about that as there just isn't room in the house to keep it inside.  If it fell apart tomorrow I'd be very sad but couldn't really complain after all the sterling work its done.  A true work horse.

I tried out some of the stick-on insulating tape over the weekend - just to see if it was any good.  We've got a small fanlight window in the kitchen which is never really opened but which was very poorly fitting and it was the ideal window to do a test run on.  I undid the window lock and finally forced the window open, taking a chunk out of my finger in the process, so that I could clean all round the frame and attach the tape. 

There was a variety of insulating tape for sale in Wilkinsons - 'S' shaped, 'P' shaped and 'E' shaped.  I looked at the instructions on all the packets and they seemed to all be good for the same things so I went for the 'E' shape - just because it is my initial.  I stuck the tape around both frames of the window - the bit that opens and the bit that doesn't, and then jammed the window shut again.  The tape was incredibly neat and hardly noticeable when the window was shut - a big improvement on the bits of paper kitchen towel I'd jammed in the cracks before!!  And over the weekend, when a howling gale was blowing, it was obvious that the tape really does seem to do the trick.  The window is right next to the back door - through which a hefty breeze was gusting - yet the window let in no air at all.  I was impressed and will certainly be using the tape on the back door, and the french windows fairly soon.

We were lucky with the weather yesterday morning, so me and the next door neighbours were able to enjoy the delights of the local car boot sale again.  I came back well pleased with a couple of 'new to me' items of clothing for 20p each, and a small bottle of Body Shop Mandarin body wash for 10p.  By the middle of the afternoon the heavens had opened again, it was very lucky for us that the rain held off as long as it did.  Huh, and they call this summer!!

Comments

[Maureen]

Ahh, your photo brings back fond memories.
Might be worth hanging the trolley from a hook or nail in your shed to keep it off the ground and more free from damp.Here we are, 12,000 miles apart, and we have the same front door!

[Frugal Trenches]

Oh I love it!!!

Very cute!!!

:)

[sharie]

Thanks for posting a picture of your trolley? Does it have a name? Mine does!
There seem to be more and more people cottoning on to the idea of wheeling a trolly round. Our shopping centre seems to be filled with them and today I even saw a lad about 20 pulling one along.
I wouldn't be without mine now.