La Vie En Rose for 2008 April 10

What's more important, buying free trade or buying organic?

Discuss. Link me. Just don't tell me it's all a sham. I'd like to hold onto some of my idealism.

I'm working from home today, so I went out exploring some more of the West Indian grocers on a nearby street. Finally I found some black beans I can cook, which is good news for burrito time. I love cooking black beans because for a little more than the price of a can you get 4 times as many, plus you can make them however you want and it's really not the much effort. I just can't bring myself to buy a can for 50p knowing the beans are saturated in salt and will only make about 3 burritos. I have been pretty much living off of lentils recently so this will make a nice change. I've been craving protein since I started running.

I also found some white vinegar and baking soda in containers bigger than tiny. But they were still quite expensive. £2.79 for 900 grams of baking soda and 79p for a bit more than half a litre of vinegar. I wanted to start using them for cleaning as we use up our current stash of cleaning supplies, and I guess it is still cheaper than buying more but it's not really the huge savings it would be if there were a smart and final around.

In other news I found a place that has henna just off the tube stop, so now I'm a red head again. As are my flatmate and my friend Jenn. 99p and enough henna for all of our hair. Once again I recommend henna to all who want to dye their hair red.