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Oink and his mate Kev .. (family in the background..fortunately they allowed topless bathing)

I did my main monthly grocery shop at Walmart yesterday (after comparing prices with GT, No Frills etc) and while looking (in vain) for Oyster sauce, saw they had a wide variety (surprised me) of Patak & Sharwoods curry sauces & pastes & chutney as well as all the VH stuff & a couple of other (more expensive) brands unfamiliar to me.

Also saw that they had Marmite (which I wasn't looking for at all), in the baking aisle, next to instant yeast...

The cheapo cans of coconut milk were hidden on the very bottom of the shelves below the Taco kits & accoutrements, in another part of the store.

There's a very weird logic to the store layout, which I haven't yet managed to work out!

All in all, a goodish haul: 78$ for ~ a month's supply of food (I'll probably need to top-up on veg, & milk/cheese), plus a couple of non-food items.

$78 for one month for two people?

Excluding the top-up's that is amazing. Does your grocery bill include any meat, chicken, fish?

So a huge guess on my part that with top-up's that $78 comes in around $100? If that is correct, then you are BE's star award grocery shopper in my books, especially when its down to Walmart with price matching

For 1 person, plus another 1 (sometimes 2 or 3) who comes for dinner at weekends.

That 78$ included a whole chicken, bacon, a lot of veg & lentils & beans; fruit, yoghurt, butter, cheese & eggs. There were a few other bits and pieces too which aren't monthly purchases, so actual food was ~63$.

I already have some chicken, fish, & Italian sausages in the freezer. I eat very little meat, only buy it when it's on offer, & cook everything from scratch, including bread (which I also eat very little of).

The chicken for example, will stretch to around 8 different meals for me, not counting soup/sauces from the stock I'll make with the carcass.

While I'm always quite careful about my food budget, I wasn't being *particularly* thrifty yesterday. Also, from participation in this thread for quite a while now, I realise that grocery prices here are generally a LOT lower than elsewhere - probably because we have 5 stores (the 3 cheapest in the same parking lot!), & a wholesaler open to the public on the same short stretch of road.

shirtback @ post #1175, thanks for filling in the details & I still say a BE award goes to you for being an amazing 'thrifty shopper'

I learnt just about everything I know about thrifty shopping (& cooking) from mother & grandmother .

Sobeys had some really nice Pork joints a couple of weeks ago that included great crackling. A ridiculous $1.44 lb. We bought a couple. For $10 they make a great roast for 4 and plenty left for sandwiches, curries whatever.

Last week Superstore had the big Ham joints for $1.29 lb. They're about $10 each, quite a big bone, but they provide plenty for two x4 dinners and sandwiches, salads.

This week, Superstore beat Sobeys price for the same Pork. $1.29 lb. We also got a couple of Inside Rounds @ $2.77 lb that will do nicely in the slow cooker.

When you can buy good meat for daft prices like that, the saving pays for the occasional Beef Tenderloin - also bought when down to around $7 or $8 lb.

That's epic. I spent $105 last night and that's aimed at 2 weeks food. Quite a bit of frozen stuff though.

I do like Freshco when it shows you're savings at the bottom. Last time I shopped there I was 35% off list price.

Supermarkets are good social and cultural barometers. So three main reasons I absolutely detest shopping in a supermarket in Canada. Firstly, I hate all the other shoppers, secondly the food is terrible quality and the lack choice is absurd and thirdly they don't sell booze in them. And fourthly the check-out people seem to far too earnest and friendly, its unnerving.

You forgot portion size of NA foodstuffs.

Supermarkets here sell booze. Just saying...

Self-checkout. Shop later. Minimises the 'other people' factor.

I remember the feeling of liberation that came with driving into Montreal from the west on Easter Sunday afternoon and buying 6 cold beer at the corner store, cheaper than at the liquor store at home, too. It's hard not to think of that as being enlightened.
Edit: I also remember seeing the Red Army Chorus in Safeway here in the 80's, and they were excited about the bounty of produce ("Look, Boris, bananas!") and they'd probably been in some good stores. I think they got army wages and saved by making sandwiches etc in their hotel rooms. Couple of KGB minders at the door to make sure no shoplifting or truancy.

Or get HID's mum to do it.