Chapter 86: Buying New Year's Goods
As for buying New Year's goods, in this day and age even having a full meal is a luxury, there is nothing much to buy.
But it is the Chinese New Year after all, and every household lives a more luxurious life than usual.
As for food, I would buy two kilograms of white flour, which I usually couldn’t afford, and make some white flour dumplings and steamed white flour buns to eat.
I would buy a pound or half a pound of pork or mutton, which I usually couldn’t afford, and chop it into fillings for dumplings.
Even if it’s eggs, you’d have to buy a dozen or twenty of them. You can’t make many meat-filled dumplings, and egg-filled ones taste better than vegetarian ones, right?
When it comes to clothing, there are not many stores as generous as Xia Juanjuan. Cotton and cloth are expensive, and they are used a lot.
Any family that can make a smock and a pair of cotton boots is considered wealthy!
As for other snacks such as peanuts, melon seeds, and candies, I only buy a small amount to entertain relatives during the New Year.
The big head is a gift to bring when visiting relatives. Eggs and pork gift strips with a bag of sugar are the most impressive, but this is only given to wealthy families and is given to the daughter-in-law when she returns to her parents' home.
As for the other relatives, all of them would wait until their own families received the gifts and then shuffle and redistribute them, sending them to this family or that family. The gifts they gave were mostly sugar-coated noodles, better canned fruits and the like.
Xia Juanjuan thought about it and realized that the kid's and her own cotton-padded hat and boots were all newly made, so at most she could make a smock for each of them to wear on New Year's Day. There was no need to make boots for now.
As for food, her family usually eats the same food as during Chinese New Year. There is nothing that must be bought. Just take it from the space and eat it now.
Snacks were much more abundant. Others weighed out half a catty or thirty ounces, but she weighed out two catties each for peanuts, melon seeds, and candies, which made other housewives envious and gossiped about her for being a spendthrift.
Xia Juanjuan didn't care about that. She only bought two kilograms for Jing, how could it be enough to eat? She still had to get more from the space!
As for the gifts for visiting relatives, Xia Juanjuan thought about it. Hmm... it seems that there is only one family in the original owner's parents' house.
Li Cuihua and the Xia family have already severed their relationship, so there is no need to go.
As for Li Zhan, she had heard from Zhou Qiuhe that the Li family had fled here due to a flood and there were no other relatives in the family.
There is only one eldest sister-in-law, Lizhan, who has never returned since she got married and moved away ten years ago. She didn't even go to the funeral of my eldest brother (the father of these kids).
Liu Lan heard that there was an older brother, and Li Zhan and the others wanted to call him uncle, but Xia Juanjuan simply pretended he didn't exist.
Zhou Qiuhe only has one brother left in her mother's family, but he also lives in Lin County. He just sends a postal package and never comes to visit in person.
Wang Guixiang's parents' family is in the next village, and they have a large family.
As for Li Wen's father, his mother remarried, so he has nothing to do with her.
People in rural areas are poor but they pay more attention to the relationship between neighbors and relatives. All kinds of grandparents, grandparents, elder cousins, etc. can be considered relatives, so the sisters-in-law’s family is also considered one, and they will visit during the Chinese New Year or weddings and funerals.
However, Xia Juanjuan only considered climbing up the social ladder with Zhou Qiuhe, and she also wanted to avoid it if possible.
Wang Guixiang's parents were immediately in an uproar.
Well, to round it off, I don't have any messy relatives, which is quite wonderful.
Considering Lizhan's foul appearance and job benefits, he would definitely be very popular in the modern dating market... well... ignoring his extremely good mother...
Suddenly I remembered the injuries from the battle...
Xia Juanjuan's mouth twitched, she didn't know how he got hurt. It was not easy to bring up this matter in front of the person involved...
As Xia Juanjuan was thinking, she came to her senses. Why was she thinking about this? She was full and was tired!
Therefore, as gifts for visiting relatives, Xia Juanjuan only bought two bottles of canned fruit and a bag of sugar wrapped in turmeric paper.
You have to buy this. She has fine sugar in her space, but the quality is so good that it is obviously different from the coarse sugar we have now. And where can you find the turmeric-colored packaging paper?
As for canned fruit, she had not thought of stockpiling that at all when she was stockpiling supplies, so she really didn't have any.
As for the other eggs and pork gifts, just take them directly from the space.
In addition to food, clothing, and meal gifts, there are also firecrackers, couplets, and other things.
Firecrackers are sold at the supply and marketing cooperatives. Tickets for firecrackers were issued before the New Year. People don't buy much of this kind of stuff that can't be eaten or worn. A string of firecrackers is broken into several pieces. They are set off on the 23rd day of the Chinese New Year to send off the stove god, and on the night of the 30th day of the Chinese New Year. On the first day of the Chinese New Year and the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, some noise is set off to drive away evil spirits and have fun.
Xia Juanjuan didn't buy many firecrackers, and she didn't dare to set them off, so she just took one string apart and set them off as several pieces like other people did.
But she also bought firecrackers and other things for Liwen and Liwu, which made the other kids in the village jealous.
The couplets were made by buying red paper from the supply and marketing cooperative, cutting it at home, and then asking a cultured person in the village to write it with a brush.
Qingshui Village was written by Secretary Zhao. There was a big table at the entrance of the commune. Ink was ground and red paper was spread out. Secretary Zhao held a big brush and wrote with great vigor. You can still see some of my scholarly spirit when I was young.
Xia Juanjuan also asked someone to write a few pieces and wrote a few more characters for "Fu".
Of course, Xia Juanjuan’s main focus during this period was selling things.
During the Chinese New Year, although everyone was well prepared, there were still many problems with insufficient supplies and tickets. If you didn't have a ticket, you couldn't buy it, or if you had a ticket but the items were sold out, you had to go to the black market to buy them.
The town has been crowded these days, so Xia Juanjuan doesn't dare to sell on the black market.
Fortunately, the supply and marketing cooperatives sold things quickly, so I only went to the county town to purchase goods twice a week.
The supply and marketing cooperative needed a lot of people, so Zhou Qiuhe stayed in the store. Director Zheng still asked Xia Juanjuan to help.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xia Juanjuan has almost chosen the yard she wants to buy in the county.