Re: Groceries
 

$1 for a 12oz can 'special kitty' at walmart, whitefish & tuna combo can or salmon can

All joking aside, have you tried eating or using the canned 'salmon' cat food - I have & in some recipes you wouldn't know the difference, or fish scraps/fish ends from the fish market section

You have to do what you have to do, just one of many things in life - 'penny saved is a penny earned', not everyone can go the luxury of steak, tenderloin, salmon, Tim Hortons, eating out lifestyle.

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We average maybe once a month. Last month's 3x had a wedding anniversary meal in there, and that wasn't a particularly spendy occasion either!

That said I've got 4 in the calendar for next month, including the BE Meetup... but they're all social outings, not the two of us going out on our own!

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it amazes me how prices across Canada are as wide as the country.

This week at 'no frills' Ontario, name brand 'Gallo' olive oil is $3.88 for one litre, normally $7.88.

No frills own brand one litre olive oil is always $4.49

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I've been buying a lot of NoName brand recently, their stuff is good and it's not expensive at all.

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The no frills no name 'red sockeye' canned salmon is usually $1/can cheaper (product for product type & can size) than the name brand & its packed at the same cannery. Loblaw IMO, has buying power to stick on those yellow labels to sell in their no frills stores'

As well as many other comparable items, no frills also price matches for those that can make the effort & who have the time to bother about it

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I find for the most part, the store brand or off-brands are just as good as the actual brand. I have a very small list of exceptions (Heinz Ketchup, for one), but for the most part I go for the off-brand. And the same goes for Costco - I buy an absolute TON of Kirkland stuff.

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I'm sure other folks have done the following...

When our kids were at home going to school in the aged 7 -18 time, they insisted on name brand cereal & ketchup type items. Ok, buy it once, then refill the container box with no name brand. Who would know the difference?

Today on their own dollar bill, they generally buy no name brand & use the price savings to pay their other bills

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What does he eat, dry bread and tap water? Our bare minimum canteen (actually the free serve salad bar is quite handy) is $7 for food alone!

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I wonder if it's the loose definition of sale. After a while you start sniffing out when and where things will be on special, and the initial shock of high prices wears off.

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Haha, not a bad plan! I will keep that in mind for further down the road, hehe!

Alright, heading off for the weekend. This was fun.

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agree, its 'buyer beware', one has to know the prices & places to shop as well as take advantage of 'price match' that each store have the best marked down price items on which time of day & on which day of the week.

Should your grocery bill be $100/wk (multiples or divisions of) then doing the eye opener watch or price match, its reasonable to save money, then to use those savings to buy more of the 'on offer/price match specials'. Over time this can be quite a saving

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A liter is like 15 dollars here.

We have no real discount chain in this town, Vancouver does so prices there might be lower, dunno though since I don't shop there...

Ontario appears to have way more competition grocery wise.

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taking into account the cost of gas, would it be worth the trip into Vancouver or to one of the nearest outer suburb towns that have these stores to buy the lower cost items that would save on the total bill - gas included?

Remember if you're doing this to brown bag lunch

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I can my own salmon. I realize it doesn't look terribly appetizing but its very tasty and nutritious.

http://s9.postimg.org/70xhz977z/WP_20150424_003.jpg

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Our No Frills store (a Loblaws store) has had Farmer's Market tomatos on the vine in the mesh bag for 97 cents/lb all week and I've been eating lots and stocking up, mmmmmm. Giant Tiger had Clarke's beans @ 73 cents and I bought a bunch too. Fishing season starts in a week so hopefully I can get away for a bit and introduce some seasonal treats in my diet. :p Those of you who are new to Regina and want to build up your spice racks should pay a visit to one of the Old Fashioned Foods locations; that's where I get a lot of mine.

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I have no idea, not my problem. He was raised in the Soviet Union, he can be very frugal:).

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Nice! what do you use to preserve the salmon, olive oil or brine?

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This thread is opening my eyes on frugality.:blink:

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when I was a kid & we used to go to the 'baths' - the treat after was a 'Bap & a bag of crisps'. Hollow out the bap (eat that first) then stuff the bap with crisps. Liquids was usually 'corporation pop' (from the fountain water) which was free while we ate in the park.

Lunch at work, or lunch out cheap is easy. Over to the local supermarket - buy one bun $0.49, two slices deli meat $1, and/or together $1 worth of salad from the salad bar + free coffee or soda from work.

Alternate....

Many supermarkets have a deli counter with specials... soup, chilli, yesterdays sandwich, even those with a sushi bar generally have marked down sushi

McDonalds Mc'Double $1.69 + tax, free works coffee

Wendys - baked potato & small chilli $4, works coffee for free

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Neither, just some pickling salt and vinegar. The oil you can see comes from the fish. The fish is also cooked in a pressure cooker.

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:rofl::rofl::rofl:

if you are truly British & are from a working class background (especially living on a council estate), then you will know all that has been posted on here. Now, your excuse could be that it was so long ago, that you became rich & famous, that you have too much money to be concerned about frugality - then so be it;)

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Noice :thumbup:

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I think mine is an illusory frugality. I save on some things and waste money on other stuff. Still, although I'll eat almost any takeaway food I draw the line at Mc Doogals. :lol:

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Out here some people can pike with a little oil and ketchup and it's almost indistinguishable from canned salmon; a lady at the beach used to can burbot in the winter as well and it was a lot like tuna (I thought it was even better than tuna).

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A pub around the corner from where I worked for a short time (Portland Sq, Bristol) used to do goat curry at lunchtime. It was good.

I also had it as a goat stew a few times in a small village somewhere on Rhodes. It was delicious.

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I'm not too big on freshwater fish. I once went to a place, Uncle Bud's I believe, that specialized in all you can eat catfish, I had the fried chicken. ;)

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I raised them for a while back in the 70's, nothing wrong with goat; it's like deer meat.

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Venison's dear. :o :getcoat:

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The best food for frugality is a jacket potato with lashings of butter, salt and black pepper.

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Butter blows the frugal part....just the spud with a wee drop of olive oil will do it & remember to eat the skin:nod::nod:

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Rhymes with souvenir. :p

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Or...I don't recall the name, but Maille used to do it and Sainsburys did their own version.

It was a bit like a Mayo and something like Green Pepper Sauce. Not Tabasco or anything like that, it really was more like a Mayo.

I cannot find any trace of it anywhere on line.

Fantastic on spuds.

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Would it be like mixing mayo and salsa verde the same way you make faux tartar sauce with mayo and sweet green relish?

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Canned meat an acquired taste?

I haven't tried a canned meat yet that I considered good, some more edible then others. This excludes canned fish which I do not eat despite buying it. The wife eats the salmon and the dog eats the sardines.

Canned veggies are okay, but I prefer frozen as the cans often are lined with less then pleasant materials. Most are still lined with BPA.

Never caught onto canned fruit either, always has this metallic taste to me, and they seem to always be coated in heavy sugary syrup.

Maybe its its from always having fresh or frozen available my entire life.

My great grandma (born in 1912 or 1914) canned everything under the sun, she was convinced her entire life there would be another depression, her house when she had to move into a home, was so hard to clean because she had so much canned food.

I am talking about stuff marked as canned in 1950's still there in the late 1990's, as I said she was convinced another depression was coming and she needed to stock up.

I suppose being as poor as she was in the 1930's, it makes sense since she had nothing during that time frame.


I got tricked into trying deer once, tried a bite and instantly knew it wasn't beef as claimed.

I am not sure why I am so picky.

Re: Groceries
 

The grocery threads are always fascinating to me :).

Today's Giant Tiger shop:

12 eggs 2.97
1l canola oil 3.97
Dijon mustard 2.77
Mayo 2.67
1kg Coffee (ground, Folgers) 7.97 on special
500g cheddar 6.29
500g Bacon 2.00 on special
Large can diced tomatoes 1.00
2lb Onions 0.67
Garlic pack of 3 .67
Pint of half & half 1.00 on special

Didn't buy, but noticed prices: 10kg potatoes @ 2.50, 5lb bag carrots @2.99, 1lb butter @3.67, 1kg bags of various frozen veggies @ 2 - 3

Earlier this week I bought tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, lettuce, peppers & squash at the wholesale/indoor markety-type place for 7 bucks.

Have minced beef, a chicken, pork, sausages, shrimp all bought on special in the freezer, + free fish. I buy name brand EV olive oil as & when I need it on special for around 4$.

For one person :).

That's about 2 weeks worth of meals, plus several that will go in the freezer for later, with part of what I have in the freezer, and the canola oil, coffee, mayo, mustard will last a while.

I'm lucky to have a Giant Tiger & Maxi (Loblaws) next door to each other, the wholesale/market place plus 2 other supermarkets within 10 minutes walk, and a reasonably priced fancy cheese shop just down the hill.

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Now that's an interesting idea. I shall have to try it. Not so sure about the second one.

Superstore's poseur label has a nice Brandy Peppercorn sauce.

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Giant Tiger has the best prices on things. I used to go there all the time when I lived in Ontario.

I wish they would expand into BC.

There is clearly way more competition out east based in the prices here.

Overwaitea Food Group is the dominant player.

Loblaws has several banners like Super Store, Extra Food, I know there are a few No Frills around.

Whatever company that owns Sobey's owns Safeway and Thrifty Foods neither of which are known for low prices, and don't have a lot of locations really, mostly just in the larger city's.

Of course Wal-Mart and Costco.

Then small players out there as well.

Our local Wal-Mart is not zoned for fresh groceries, and limited to what they can sell grocery wise and I don't see the town changing the zoning, and Wal-Mart agreed to it in order to open the store, so I don't think we will ever see a Super Wal-Mart, the current council certainly isn't going to change the zoning.

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I don't know about Canada-wide, here in Qc we have food banks which are seeing more and more participants :(

I volunteer at our local one which caters for a couple of hundred people each week. "Clientele" is families, singles, all ages. Vast majority are on welfare, some receive EI, some are very low income, working single parent families.

Food comes from wholesalers/supermarket donations: overstock, damaged packaging, corporate charity, via a regional centre which supplies several foodbanks.

Examples of the packages for singles over the last few weeks (I don't deal with the families, but quantities are obviously prorated):

Easter week:
1 chicken
Huge amounts of lettuce
2 cucumbers, 3 green peppers, bag of frozen veg, small bag miniature carrots
Box of crackers, large bag of chocolate biscuits
Unlimited bread (we always get too much donated)
3 packs of ready-made soup
4 oranges, bag of grapes
2 large pots of yoghurt
Bottle of salad dressing

2 weeks ago:
Bag of 10 pogos
2 lettuces, brocoli, bag of spinach, another cucumber, 4 large potatoes, bag of frozen veg
Unlimited bread
Box of crackers, box of biscuits, large bag of chocolate biscuits
4 apples, lots of lemons, 2 punnets of strawberries, 3 bananas
3 packs of soup
I can tomatoes, 1 can of peas, 1 very large can of green peppercorn sauce (nearly everyone declined this ...)
Box of pasta
2 large pots of yoghurt

Last week:
Bag of 10 pogos
1 lettuce, 2 courgettes, bag of miniature carrots, squash, potatoes
Unlimited bread
Box of crackers, box of chocolate biccies
4 apples, lots of tangerines
Can of tomatoes, can of "a la king" or brown sauce
Unlimited packs of soup
2 large pots of yoghurt

As you can see, there's not a lot of variety, and making appealing meals from what's on offer requires some creative thinking.

Some of the leftover veg (and there's lots of it sometimes) goes to a local church group which cooks soup for the local shelter & drop in centre. I'm working on a project at the moment with our very new community garden to sent up compost bins for the surplus that currently goes to waste. Another project I'd like to get out of my head and off the ground is simple recipes which could be easily adapted to accommodate the unpredictable nature of what's actually available each week.

In the rural, deprived, areas I know, several charitable organisations provide a hot soup lunch once or twice a week to elementary schools where there is no cafeteria. There's also a provincial free breakfast programme for schools, but not available everywhere.

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We have a food bank in town, I think they are open 2 times a month.

The frequency one can visit and what you get varies big time community to community.

The food bank I used in Ontario was pretty decent, 2 times a month, 2 days of food, but they had good variety, frozen vegetables a lot.

The food bank I used in BC, was the same 2 times a month, 2 days of food generally, but it was largely made up of junk foods from bakeries, starbucks, a few canned goods, and maybe a couple potatoes.

That food bank was heavily used and at it's seams, so they prioritize so childless folks didn't always get much there.

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Ours is once a week. We're getting close to the seams :(. Summer is always a bit easier however. Thankfully we get lots of (too many) healthy vegetables, enough fruit, and not *too* much junk food, although there's a freezer crammed full of pogos at the moment ...

One of our major problems is refrigeration/freezer space for storage of perishables :(. Also, the perceived stigma of using a food bank, particularly amongst the elderly, and those recently unemployed.