Wow, where have you been shopping?
I think you're still living a relatively international student
lifestyle because the prices you're paying is through the roof.
Is that for a month? Or a week? Certainly sounds like its meant
to last a week or two, max.
Do you travel to shop? Or shop at those annoying city Asian
grocers where they jack prices up so bloody high I've seen limes
going for $3 a pop. 24 hour supermarkets, IGA and certainly, 7-11s
are not good places to be shopping for stuff
because they're meant for the international or urban crowd with
dollars to spare and won't bat an eye paying up to $2 more for
everything.
I spend about $80 - $100 a week on groceries for two people who
probably eat for 4. Breakfast and dinner, sometimes lunches for a 6
day period. It's been stretched to 2 weeks no problem as I like to
have some excess food at hand, but ultimately, its what you buy and
where you buy it that matters.
Things I get with $100 weekly (Mixture of Coles Supermarket, Wet
market, Asian grocer & Local Butcher:
Total = AU$78
The stuff which lasts for more than a week are merely omitted in
the next week's shopping, deducing the grocery bill for the next
couple of weeks, unless I use the excess for stocking up on any
sauces, oil, fruit, etc.
For good effect I have used the larger numbers in my
calculations for the price ranges of goods.
These can serve me for breakfast, lunch and dinner, including
snacks, dessert.
I buy my groceries at Footscray. Dodgy as it is, I don't really
care as long as I go in the day accompanied by my fiance as its
safer. Its not as if I go there to buy Louis Vitton bags (which I
don't buy anyway. Am a very pragmatic gal.) so no 'status/face'
problems there (whcih again, I don't really care much for.)
Footscray is filled with Asian grocers, Chinese, Indian, Arabic.
It has local butchers, a large wet market and I drive there every
week to have breakfast at the local Turkish cafes with my
significant other, then go grocery shopping all in one little
central district, all walking distance from one another.
If I'm not taking the car, I go by train, bringing a trolley.
Its just a few stations away from the city.
Ultimately its how you choose to spend your money and where. If
you choose convenience you inevitably pay more in prices. If you
choose specific brands (Some expensive brand, I guess) and won't
compromise (i.e. for toilet cleaner use house brand. Who cares. Its
a toilet cleaner! :P) on certain things, well, you pay extra for
that for nothing.
Admittedly, Singapore is cheaper in terms of groceries. But if
you go beyond the 'NTUC' essentials norm (like buy white button
mushrooms, not shittake, etc etc) you are charged premium for it.
Not to mention how some items in Australia is cheaper than in
Singapore. So, really, its not much of a difference to me.
I'm good at stretching my dollar, anyway. :)
Good for you to be able to get cheap grocery.... I guess
it's an advantage to be living near a market where food is usually
cheaper and fresher.
I do my shopping mainly at the local supermarkets (coles or
safeway), depending which one has the best offers for things I want
to buy. I do occasionally shop at Box Hill (about 15 min
drive from where I live) especially when come to meat shopping as I
prefer meat from the Asian butcher.
The list I gave earlier was the things I bought when they were
not on special but we just had to bite the bullet to help get
through the week. That was why I was shocked to find things
were so much more expensive when you got them at full price.
I like shopping in the supermarkets purely for its
convenience. Weekend is the only time for hubby and I to
rest, do housework, catch up with family etc. The last thing
we want to do is to spend the whole day at the shops or to travel
out of our way just to get a bargain. To us, it's just not
worth the petrol and our precious time. While we enjoy having
the worth of every penny spent, we enjoy spending quality time
doing something else than to shop. Life is too short!
It's a lifestyle I guess, like you said. Everyone lives a
different lifestyle as long as it works for us and we are all happy
about it, that's all it matters. However, it still doesn't
mean we can't whinge about things being expensive, does it?
