Who: Sam and Leslie Where: The Red Stripe When: Sunday afternoon Rating: Probably PG Summary: Sam is shopping on a budget Warning: Perhaps a "bloody hell" thought or two.
Sam looked into his grocery basket once more, and mentally added everything up yet again. Now that Jesse had been popping round every so often, Sam liked to have snacks and such on hand. Though that meant he had less to spend on "real" food, for dinner and the like, it was well worth it, to have company. So he had plenty of cola at home already, and was stocking up on crisps and beer now, as well as his normal weekly run for bread and milk and the like.
So he was standing in front of the beer section, and though his hand was hovering over the cheaper American brands, his eyes and heart were drawn to the more expensive imports, such as Newcastle or Grolsch. Neither were the same as a good old fashioned hearty stout drawn from the tap at a pub, but Newcastle was as close as he was going to get, apparently. And Grolsch, while not tasting anything like a good stout, was familiar as an imported bottled beer available at most pubs. But neither were cheap.
He did a mental review, and reckoned that if he put a few things back, and maybe bought the cheaper brand of milk (that didn't taste quite as good, but sacrifices would have to be made), then perhaps he could splurge on the beer. He opted for the Grolsch, reckoning it was a bit closer to Jesse's preferred brand in taste, though he may make the bloke try the Newcastle one day soon. He added the six-pack of bottles to the basket and shifted its weight in his hands, then turned and wandered down to the crisps, where his mouth started salivating to see a bag of Walker's Cheese and Onion flavour. He could have sworn they had not had that imported before, though he'd only allowed himself to buy crisps one time previously.
He immediately grabbed the bag, then wavered. What if Jesse didn't like them? Then he'd have nothing to offer the bloke, and that wouldn't do. But he really wanted them for himself, so he decided to be irresponsible under the guise of being hospitable, and took a second bag off the shelf. Ruffles, specifically; plain flavour. Those were the ones Jesse always had on hand at his flat, so Sam felt confident enough in purchasing those.
Then he backtracked back to the bread aisle, and retrieved the loaf he had pulled from the shelf earlier. It wasn't the cheapest brand, but it was the one that tasted more like the bread he'd always bought at home, thicker and denser than the plain, cheap white American bread. But, again, sacrifices. He put the more expensive bread back on the shelf, and allowed his eyes to scan for the cheapest bread they had. He found the lowest number there, then inwardly cursed when he saw there was no bread left in that section of the shelf.