Well, I almost didn't post anything this week.
I rarely do a grocery shop that is worthy of a #MarketFriday writeup. Most of the food that I keep at home is purchased in bulk, is boring, and doesn't need to get replaced that often.
The exception is Milk which has to be purchased regularly but I'm not going to do a write-up on Milk today. I'll save that for another day 😜
So, I've been thinking about how I want to approach my weekly Market Friday report. Here is what I've come up with.
Over the next number of weeks I'd like to take a look at a variety of different Staple foods.
What do I mean by staple foods?
I mean basic, unprocessed foods that you can make many dishes out of:
Here are a few different examples that I took photo's of when I went to Real Canadian Superstore this week:
1. Carbohydrates
Cheap and necessary to give you energy for the day! Everyone is going to have some sort of carb as the basis of their diet. My wife would insist that Filipino are rice burners and they are shaped like rice. She will also say that Canadians love their potatoes and are shaped like...
Well, you get the idea.
2. Oil
Okay, not strictly required like carbohydrates are but what is life without the oil to make it taste better?
Potatoes are fine...but french fries are yummy.
Rice is OK...but fried rice is better!
Bread is fine....but cookies are yummier!
Gotta have some oil.
(I was going to add butter but forgot to take a picture)
3. Proteins
Ahh, proteins! These are the star of the show. They aren't the basis of the diet like the carbs are but it just isn't a meal without some sort of protein!
Carbs give people energy but Proteins help them grow, build muscle, make hormones, and generally function better.
If only proteins weren't so much more expensive than carbs.
Oh well, here are some examples:
4. Alternative Protein
Now some people would say that beans are an alternative to real protein. Between meat and beans...most non-vegan/vegetarian will choose the meat. However, when watching the budget sometimes you need a less expensive alternative. These alternative proteins fit the bill pretty well, and done right they can be very tasty too!
Why do I want to focus on Staple Foods?
I have a goal that I want to accomplish!
I want to answer the question:
Inflation is a major drag for many people. Finding out nutritious food on a budget is a huge challenge. My goal over the next few weeks is to look at all the different food types and figure out what is the least expensive, most nutritious way to spend my money!
Sure it will be a deep dive into basic foodstuffs.
Sure its not 100% what @dswigle wants for the group but I'll be doing the shopping and reporting back to anyone who is interested on Food Costs for basic necessities here in my part of Canada.
IF you are following my posts weekly I'd LOVE to hear about the cost of basic staples where you live. Maybe I'll even throw in a weekly prize for someone who takes a picture of the item of the week. Ahh, but I'm getting ahead of myself I have to finish this weeks post first!
This week I went to Superstore as I mentioned above. It has a bit of a funny entrance. It has a level of parking underneath the store so they have along "accessible" entrance going to the main doors.
Right now they are having a hard time attracting workers so they advertise right when you open the door that they are hiring!
And they really want you to use their credit card .. or even better their debit card so again a prominent display!
But all I really need this week is:
Cabbage! Well, coleslaw I guess but it's still mostly Cabbage.
I check out but forgot that they don't provide bags any more and I'm walking over 1km home. The reuseable bags are $3 each and I'm too cheap to buy that. What do I do? I go next door to the 7/11 and buy a "Too Good to go" Surprise bag for $3.99. I figure for the extra 99 cents I'll get some grocery items and a bag to carry everything.
All said I come home and this is my haul.
And that's my market trip for the week. I won't be posting next week because I'm going to be travelling to visit my Mom for Mothers Day!
After that... a weekly look at all my staple foods and how to get the best deals to fight inflation!
Thanks for reading!