paulry

It's the same here with over dependence on the car except that there's an excellent cycling infrastructure. Public transport here is a bit of a merry-go-round: Well-intended but it detours so much it turns a 3 km distance into a 9km one. I think they do home delivered groceries in Canberra, would never use them though. A good point about the environmental advantages of reasonably-priced all-under-one-roof shopping.

papilon

Who do you use BC, i am up for renewal so am doing a bit of a check, i use Budget Direct currently.

bcworld

That's a fair point Paul. I have to pay my 'rego' this week and looking at it the TAC charge + insurance duty is $449.90. So all up I guess that makes it almost exactly $1000.

3rd year with Bingle, no real premium increase in that time. No idea what the claims process would be like...you takes yer chances!

NKSK version 2

And yet there are still some people who feel that this is some dream scenario because the produce is apparently better from the independents and they are doing some kind of public service by keeping the little guys employed.

In my 6 years here, I have found the prices from the smaller shops to be about as woeful as the quality of the produce they supply. Our butcher is usually much more expensive than the big supermarkets and I cannot taste any difference. The owner of our local IGA should be shot at dawn for having absolutely no shame in trying to sell soft, bruised and mushy onions and other veg.

In our new suburban "Farmer's Market" the fruit and veg, at best, are the same price as the supermarkets and, if the apples that we bought from there last week are anything to go by the quality is dire.

I will happily give every last grocery cent to a supermarket that provides real value.

northernbird

I recently started making proper lists and a meal plan and that has reduced my bill a little. As Tesco says, Every Little Helps.

chris955

£150 to $300 is practically identical in real terms.

DeadVim

We go through about $170 a week for 2 adults, a 6 year old and a dog.

Mainly because I am the one grocery shopping and I figure that you are a long time dead.

BadgeIsBack

I have never taken supermarket shopping seriously but I have banana revelations which I might go out on a limb to watch on...

Badge's bananas...a daily update..

fish.01

Sure, $300 is just a smidgen cheaper using the proper scientific UN sanctioned BE 2.2 ratio rather than the pulled out the a#se 2.0 ratio

fish.01

Yeah, don't think Cairns can be extrapolated out to big city Australia too much.

fish.01

Maybe they live somewhere different to you where non supermarkets/markets provide better price or quality

verystormy

The same thing applies with Margaret River. People go down there and talk about the amazing produce when really its pretty ordinary. Did take me a couple of visits to realise it though. Was sat in the cottage after a hard day at the wineries and nibbling a bit of cheese when i mentioned that this was by far the best cheese i had had down there and looked at the wrapper - imported from France. Made me sit and think about it and realised actually its just a marketing ploy and a lot of the produce and a fair bit of the wine is crap. The reason the cellar doors exist is because most of the wineries dont produce anything that would be sellable normally.

Do buy organic food though when possible and Oz is way behind on this.

unfair dinkum

Why should anyone have to move to somewhere else in order to not get get completely ripped off when shopping for food? It seems to me some people just refuse to accept the presence of the elephant in the room.

Perthine

Sad but so true

NKSK version 2

I always avoid any wine with Margaret River on the label because of the premium charged.