scrubbedexpat091

1. Is the marked down produce thing y'all talk about an Eastern thing? Anyone on the west coast see it on a regular basis? We shop at Save On and I have never seen marked down produce once. I do know they donate to the food bank, so maybe they donate vs marking it down.

I have seen marked down produce at Superstore, but we don't shop there as well there isn't one, and I don't find their overall prices very good.


2. I make soup using a cooked chicken from the store, the breast of the chicken serves as a meal itself when bought, and the remaining meat goes into a soup.

For whatever reason the cooked chickens are cheaper than the raw ones, and the less I have to cook the better. A whole raw chicken is normally $13 and up, vs 8.99 for the cooked one.

I don't add any veggies to my soups as there are very few vegetables I like cooked, and the ones that you'd normally place into a soup like carrots are so gross cooked.....

I have no issue with carrots, raw broccoli, raw celery, but cook them, and the texture and taste just changes too much, especially with carrots.


I actually like potatoes, but as said earlier, they are not something I can eat, which sucks as they are pretty good overall and very versatile.


I think overall we must pay more out here, because some of the prices not to old mentions makes me go as they are so low.

caretaker

To make stock as well as add meat I suppose, I save the tips off chicken wings in the freezer and boil them up or thaw out duck stock if I don't have parts or a carcass for the base and want to make it extra tasty. The Canadian Pacific hotel I worked in back in '73 had a big 50 gallon barrel of soup stock constantly simmering in the kitchen, it was formidable.

Siouxie

Everything I ate growing up was prepared from scratch, nothing in our meals were 'pre-prepared' convenience foods although we did have the odd packet of biscuits and at Christmas would get to have twiglets and crisps. The leftovers from a sunday joint were minced using a hand cranked mincer and made into shepherds/cottage pie or sliced and eaten cold with left over potato and cabbage/other veg fried up as bubble and squeak.

Growing up, my son had very little pre-prepared food, 90% of what he ate was prepared from scratch and came from a variety of cuisines with an emphasis on good nutritive values. His favourites were a simple stir fry or a curry.

It's funny that you should say 'the British way' because my son had arguments with his Canadian girlfriend over this - she would insist on buying packet or canned pre-prepared sauces, soups etc., whereas my son wanted to make them from scratch.

I don't think it's a case of where you were bought up, more a case of what you are given yourself - you learn by example perhaps?

caretaker

Thank immigrants for breaking that cycle and allowing the Oinksters their boozey raids on the kebab shop.

not2old

an hour from Cobourg.

Maybe you should consider moving from NB down to this part of the country just for the lower cost groceries, better winters, higher property prices & higher property taxes.

Jsmith also moving down to this part of the world, likely won't get the health subsidy they get in BC, will pay higher rents - no guarantee that a living wage is doable to pay for rent & the lower cost groceries.

scrubbedexpat091

Kids learn a lot of their eating habits by what they eat and learn growing up.

I never learned much about food growing up, my parents worked a lot so cooking from scratch wasn't the norm at home.

What I know how to cook now is largely just from making stuff up as well as a couple easy Mexican foods (tacos, burritos, enchilada's) that I picked up from my step mom when I lived with my dad and her in my early 20's as she cooks a lot from scratch, she never taught me directly, just seeing her cook helped me pick up how to do certain things.

I've heard the first 5 years of a kids life is the best time to teach them healthy habits, and getting them too eat a varied diet, but no idea how true that is.

scrubbedexpat091

I lived near Cobourg once, Whitby and then Port Hope. Rent's in those area in 2012 about on par with most of this area, but as you say the other things likely not available or doable and the savings in groceries would not be significant enough to make up for those.

BristolUK

Our co-op was bought out (and closed) by Sobeys so it's mostly just them, Walmart and Superstore now. But there are a ton of grocery items at Shoppers and various small independent stores - albeit spread about presenting difficulty in getting to more than a couple.

Superstore is generally quite a bit less than Sobeys but great savings can still be had in Sobeys. I'm never impressed with Walmart really.

But all have stuff marked down for the dates. Sometimes it really needs cooking 'today' or freezing. It's easy enough to change plans if there's no room in the freezer. Whatever you were planning originally will last in the fridge overnight.

Yes, that is odd. It's one advantage for Walmart as they charge just under $8 for cooked.

Having said that there are still cheaper ones when on sale. Quite often only from buying a pack of two and the last pair I bought were both bigger than the cooked ones and they were $15 for two.

I roast them together and we have the leg/thigh each (4) with leftovers available for sandwiches/wraps, curries, fried rice, chicken&mac salads, soup whatever.

After we'd had our roast chicken dinner from the pair, the next day we had 'club' style sandwiches in our half price (baked earlier but still fresh) bread from Superstore and the day after I made a chicken curry and something a bit like a curry but not curry for the non curry eaters. that provided another 8 meals.

I know prices vary across the country but whenever I look at flyers from Loblaws, say, for other provinces, the specials do seem to be the same price.

not2old

Bristol, are you still considering a move to this 'neck of the woods'?

scrubbedexpat091

I am not sure what the Super Wal-Marts sell chickens cooked for here, well in the Vancouver area. Our local store is an old style Wal-Mart without the grocery store, so we have a limited selection food wise, I don't even bother with going there.

When I lived in Vancouver, I would buy a few things at Wal-Mart, but their meat always seems smaller and not as nice as other stores, I think they use some low quality suppliers meat wise.

BristolUK

It's all swings and roundabouts. Groceries would likely be a bit less, actual property tax bills seem to be about the same (regardless of huge variations in property values) and the property tax reduction I would get in Ontario is over $1000 compared to $300 here so I could well be paying less overall, just more to buy the property.

But we have plenty of room for downsizing to negate part of that.

Snow clearance could save a few hundred a year. My medical costs overall would shrink. If it wasn't for our new drug plan for all citizens in NB, they would have reduced massively.

The two major differences would be halving the snow and visits to Toronto with more convenience than visiting London from Bristol used to have.

Shard

Well that's not fresh soup, it's canned soup. Fresh soup is sold in the chilled department.

not2old

I suppose its the difference between 'chilled gourmet'. Baxters at $150, or $0.44 can of Campbells as a soup base.

As I said up thread, to each their own kitchen & grocery lifestyle.

Now, back to my dinner for tonight which is a pickled Ham cottage roll on special (marked down end of date by one day) for $0.99/ib - 3lb weight (cooked in the pressure cooker), served with cabbage & mashed potatoes.

Save the goodness from the pot that the cottage roll was cooked in

.

BristolUK

Not ruling it out.

Need to sell the rental, take a European trip then re-evaluate.

A number of things might change. NB used to be the only province without catastrophic drug coverage. Two years ago one was introduced but it was to be compulsory in its second year and completely unaffordable for most people without coverage already or those covered by assistance programs.

On a change of government, the Liberals made it affordable ($16 monthly premiums and $5 per prescription for me) but who knows what will happen on the next change of government. If it reverts back to the original proposed cost it would be $80 a month and $30 per prescription. That alone would present me with an extra couple of thou to pay at least..

Staying on and having to find an extra $20k or more over 10 years could make me want to move regardless of other things.

transatlantic

If anyone is interested here's my receipt from aldi, still finding life a bit more affordable in blighty.