Sunday, April 21, 2013

Grocery shopping, eating out, look who wandered through the garden

I know I am not the only one saying this but the price of food seems to be rising and rising, doesn't it?  I always disappointed on how little I seem to get for the amount of money I have paid.

I went to Sobey's and got this lot:

That cost me $36.72, and honestly it doesn't look a lot does it?  I even had $6 worth of coupons.  Two $1 ones for the baked beans and a $1 one for the sour cream.  I got $3 off the five chicken breasts when I bought the two packages of Green Valley veggie/grain mixes.  One of the best deals was the 10lbs of PEI potatoes for $2.  I can hear my friend Cheryl who lives on PEI complaining now how much they cost her; believe me it will be a lot more despite the fact they grow them there.

I then went to the other town and called in at No Frills to pick up this little lot:

The one thing that is missing from the photo is a 28 package of bottled water that was on sale for $2.  The milk was on for $3.97 for a four litre bag, so I bought two, plus they had the "good" potato chips/crisps on for $1 a package, so got some as a treat for dh.  I got the loaf of bread half price, other wise no other deals, and spent another $35.41 on that.  

So this week I spent $72.13 and had savings of $7.54.  All I bought was food, there were no cleaning, paper or personal products bought.  I amazes me how people can feed a family of four or more on less than I can feed me and dh.  I must be doing something wrong?

On Saturday we went to Stayner to check out my favourite charity shop silent auction windows and had lunch at a coffee shop called Coffee Culture.  Now the Canadians who are reading this will gasp with horror at  my next comment.  I prefer their coffee over Tim Horton's.   I know I should be thrown into jail for saying that but it's true.  Their muffins are also way better.  Now to be fair they are more expensive than Tim Horton's, but it is worth the money.

They have a lunch special for $7, which includes a medium coffee, a BLT on a toasted Asiago bagel and either, a muffin, cookie or a bowl of soup.  It was so good and so worth the money.

At the moment, I am having trouble breathing and eating at the same time!!!  So I brought home my pistachio muffin to enjoy with dh for later one.  Everything was as good as it looked though.  So if you have a Coffee Culture near you, you should check it out.  They even have a Red Velvet Muffin!!!

The look who wandered past our house on Saturday afternoon:
Not sure what she wanted, and she was by herself.  What surprised me more, was she flew off.  I know that turkeys have wings but I have never seen them fly before.

I posted another book review here.

16 comments:

angela said...

Your so right each week you get less and less for your money. I worry about my kids just starting out in life. It's just so hard these days.

Aodhnait said...

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the milk that comes in a bag?

Do you add it to your coffee or do you mix it with water to make up bottles of milk?

Anonymous said...

That is a fine looking turkey! My spouse and I spend $100/week on just food; I don't know how you keep your grocery bill so low.

Cindy@NorthofWiarton said...

Considering what you got and what you saved, you did good considering the prices out there. I like Coffee Cultures lunches too the odd time I go down to Port Elgin where there is one located.

Evelyn said...

I spend 1200 a month on food, personal products and cleaning stuff. It is ridiculous and I usually pick sale items and i don't buy outrageous things. i am feeding 4 and two are teen boys. potatos here are 6 dollars for 10 pounds and we live in potato country. I am finding it harder to get meat in grocery chains, they are selling more and more boxed items and prepackaged stuff
alot of people prefer McDonalds coffee over Tims but Tims has something in it that keeps you addicted.

Evelyn said...

Enie bagged milk is how four litres of milk is sold in Canada. You put it in a specially made pitcher and snip a corner of the top

Jane and Chris said...

I'm the odd one out..Tim Horton's coffee is DISGUSTING!!
Jane x

~Carla~ said...

I agree, food is soo expensive! :( It's VERY hard to stay under budget, especially with 4 kids. It seems every week prices are up a bit... That turkey is nervy showing off with food prices the way they are.... ;) lol!

Oh, I agree, I cannot drink Timmies coffee. Ick!

Jane said...

I haven't found any coffee that I don't like:) I agree that Coffee Culture has superior muffins by far! As for the price of food these days you're right! We have a United store close to us (Asian) and they have a huge assortment of produce at very reasonable prices. I spend about $60 there on just fruit and veggies and it lasts us two weeks or more. Love that store!

Lena said...

Here in the States the prices of food are outrageous too. I keep telling my husband: "Remember, when this cost... and that cost...?" I don't even know how to stretch our budget more as salaries only get smaller :(

Cheapchick said...

I am having a really hard time staying on grocery budget too. At least our eating out budget is almost nil now that we are self employed and I can take more time preparing meals. It seems like there are less good coupons for food items and nonfood items have skyrocked in price too. We do what we can.

Unknown said...

Holy moley, I hate going grocery shopping because of the prices. Produce is so expensive that it pays to buy frozen. If it weren't for the farmers markets we would never get anything fresh. Something has got to give!!

The Witch said...

Gill,
Grocery shopping now is all about the flyer specials. Online printable coupons corresponded to the sales are now a must to be able to maximize your savings.
Nice Turkey!! Wouldn't have lasted a minute in a open field here before someone would shoot it. They tried introducing the wild turkey back into the wild and I've never seen one yet. That's over 5 years.
Had the same cold and hope you get over it faster than me. 3 weeks and still coughing up a lung everyday.

Jean said...

Yes we all are getting less for the amount we pay. Part of it is because of gas prices, but a lot of it has to do with the fact they can't get the product to the stores. My husband worked in the grocery industry (Loblaw) for 36 years. They and all the other companies were having trouble getting product in, so they have pretty much all gone to a system where each warehouse carries different products i.e. one will have all produce, one all meats, one all grocery, one specialty items etc. They thought with this that they could stockpile and there by would have no trouble getting the product to the stores. Not so, the biggest factor is that there are not enough trucks to get the product to the stores and this in part is due to two things - firstly not everyone wants to drive truck, and two is the price of gas that drivers are paying. It takes a big chunk out of their earnings. Hence,the shelves are empty and the prices have gone way up. Also, the food travels further. For instance a few years ago,Loblaw closed out 5 warehouses just in the TO area along with numerous ones else where. They are trying to consolidate but not working. Hopefully they will go to plan 5 soon.LoL. And no I am not in any way knocking them as a company - all companies need to do what they need to in order to stay alive especially when foreign companies come in. I am a buy local, then province then Canadian gal all the way. By the way Gill not everyone likes Tim's coffee, I have quite a few friends and family who won't drink it anymore as there is better coffee out there.

slugmama said...

I recently had to go on a restricted salt diet. If you think food is crazy expensive these days, try finding/affording sodium-free versions of products, so you can have shortcuts on some things so you don't have to make absolutely EVERYTHING from scratch....IF you can find sodium-free versions of said items.

The turkey reminded me of our old house, which was situated in a State Forest in the Pocono Mtns. in PA. We had a flock of turkeys that came through the yard every morning, to get to the lake, and returned every evening again back to their roost.
Turkeys do fly short distances.(Domestic birds raised for food have their wings clipped so they don't fly.) Turkeys prefer to roost in tall trees actually, so they are away from predators at night. I've seen many a turkey fly.

Cash Only Living said...

Fortunately we have great produce prices in Las Vegas but the price of meat is astounding! I just came back from Canada and it looks like their meat and produce prices is even higher than in the US! Eekkkk

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