Grocery Shopping

Doing the grocery shopping for work is not everyone's favorite chore - and with it taking 5 shopping trolleys to get everything done these days I can understand why.

This is the second week it has been back on my list of things to do and it is working wonderfully well. I take two of the lovelies with me - on the condition that they do all of the lifting that my back can't do and they genuinely help - as opposed to just skive off in the supermarket.

We now have lovelies trying to out-shop the team of the previous week - both for speed in getting the job done (about an hour and a half to get out of the checkout) and the quality of produce.

We have a basic rule that if it isn't on the list then it isn't bought so that makes things easier but for two weeks in a row I have had lovelies actively doing price comparisons so we can get the best possible options (and so earning the praise of the other lovelies) within the usual constraints of budget and my personal bias towards real food and not the fake stuff that is listed at length on the back of labels.

And that is another thing that amazes me - I can't help but impart my wisdom as we go shopping - and no one has protested yet - not even rolled-eyes (well not that I have seen anyway lol). So this week we learned that those products at eye level pay for the privilege so it is always worth looking both up and down on the shelf for alternatives; that the ingredients on the majority of generic brand products is exactly the same as those on name brands (except for tuna which I will only buy a name brand because the content of the fish is less in the generics), that you buy fish from the deli on the day of or the the day before use, that comparing items on special doesn't always provide a bargain - but sometimes does, and that no-one needs icecream cones for their survival.

And for those that genuinely help (which I haven't had any of the other sort so far) I buy them the equivalent of a bottle of coke ($3.50) each without me complaining or lecturing them on their choices. Personally I think this is very fair as they have to get up 45 minutes early, push the trolleys, pull everything off the shelves after proving to me they can do their math on each item we buy, put up with my mini-lectures, unload everything onto the checkout, repack all of the trolleys and then load everything into the van (in the pouring rain today) - as well as help pull it all out at the other end. And do all of that without complaining, swearing or otherwise disgracing themselves in public. I did notice that today's lovelies were eyeing all sort of things off as we went up and down the aisles - a particular brand of fruit juice, chocolate ... how to squeeze every cent of value out of their combined $7. I thought they performed a miracle with their final choices - two bread rolls topped with bacon, cheese and pineapple ($1.95 each) ... and five 1 litre bottles of softdrink ($3). If nothing else they are learning to spot bargains lol

I know I live in a strange world but this is definitely the highlight of my week so far :-)