by JO ABI
The kids are back at school and I feel a bit dazed, like I’ve just been flung out of a twister. You know that dazed feeling?
After weeks of a house filled with my children, nieces, nephews, friends, electronic games and of feasting, forgetting to exercise and having a break from the kids many and varied activities, now the house is a little too quiet.
Day One and I decided to go grocery shopping on my own for the first time in months. We’ve been eating so badly over the holidays that I plan to focus on healthy foods as much as possible. We could all do with more fruit and vegetables in our diet after the cakes, chocolates and biscuits lovingly cooked and gifted by family and friends.
I grabbed a trolley and instead of having to put a toddler in the baby seat I put my handbag there. It’s the perfect place. Pushing determinedly past the hot cross buns (please) and the chocolate eggs (ridiculous), I headed straight for the fruit and vegetable section.
Recently, I read some brilliant advice on how to eat more healthily at home. It suggested cutting and washing fruit and vegetables and leaving them on the lower shelves of the fridge for the kids to grab. It suggested reorganizing the pantry in a similar way.
Throwing out junk food felt wasteful, so I stopped just buying it and threw away any open packets. I’d phase it out. I didn’t want my family to notice and I planned to act vague when asked where the Coco Pops were.
I spotted green grapes and red grapes, seedless, on special, hooray! $2.48 a kilo. I placed a bag of each in my trolley and added any fruits and vegetables I thought the kids might like, but not too much. I’m sick of throwing them away wilted and rotted.
I was all done with my healthy shop which focused on the outside aisles of the supermarket and was heading to the register when I spotted a HUGE display of Tim Tams. When I say spotted I mean it was so big it was in my face. It was obnoxious and impossible to avoid. My trolley may have slowed down a little as I passed it (hey, I’m human) and that’s when I noticed the price. $2 each.
That’s right. A packet of Tim Tams was actually cheaper than one kilo of seedless grapes, in season.
Seriously.
Can you imagine a world where junk food cost A LOT more than healthy food? Everything would be so much easier. We’d all be healthier. We’d have no choice but to stock up on fruit, vegetables, lean meats, milk and wholemeal bread because we just couldn’t afford chips, chocolates and ice cream.
Sorry kids, I can’t afford Tim Tams today. But I have grapes. If you close your eyes they taste like lollies. Maybe.
And here’s another thing. I usually stop at the doughnut shop for coffee before I grocery shop because it is right outside my supermarket.
Always, always, I’m offered a free hot cinnamon doughnut.
“No thanks,” I usually say. They look at me like I have two heads, but I just don’t want one every Monday morning when I’ve usually planned a healthy week. I can’t start like that.
I love how I can buy three doughnut for a dollar. When I have a craving I don’t want three. I want one.
“But you get three for a dollar,” they explain.
“Give me one and I’ll still pay you a dollar,” I explain back.
It’s a similar story with fresh fish. I know we should be eating it, especially salmon, but it’s so expensive! And fish fingers are so cheap. Imagine if this were reversed and the fresh fish was cheaper than the packaged stuff? Or if a chicken breast cost the same as drumsticks? I don’t understand why a chicken breast is more expensive. It all comes from one chook, right?
There are certain healthy foods I always buy regardless of price and these are potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, apples and lettuce. With everything else I try and wait for specials.
I used to love grocery shopping but now it gives me a massive headache. Yes I want the healthiest food possible for my family of five but we are also on a strict budget due to past financial problems. It’s so difficult to balance this. It’s so hard to be healthy during every single meal every single day without some white rice (apparently basmati is okay), some fish fingers or God forbid some frozen pizza sneaking in.
And I hate that the confectionary isle is located opposite the fruit cups and how they put confectionary at the register, oh and the confectionary at the petrol station. It’s everywhere. It’s cheap. Three for the price of one. Can’t bananas be this cheap?
Monty Python always hands me the most fitting quotes and right now I feel like it’s a “mad mad world”.
The battle continues…and it’s one I’ll never stop fighting.
Any thoughts? What’s your supermarket hang up?
Jo Abi feels like she’s more of an observer of life than a participant which makes her a little irritating to live with. When asked about her writing her husband said, “Nothing is off the table, which is fine, sort of.” Jo has worked in TV and radio sporadically between the arrival of each of her three amazingly gorgeous children. She has written a book called How to Date a Dad and plans to finish one of the many other books she’s started once her children get sick of playing Minecraft on her laptop. You can follow her on Twitter @JoAbi.
What foods do you find are overpriced? What do you hate spending lots of money on?
Top Comments
Just a few things in response to some of the below comments:
Frozen berries are much cheaper (not perishable) and still delicious.
Always buy fruit and vegetables IN SEASON. If you're buying stuff that's out of season of course it's going to cost more, it's travelled further to get to you. It's also therefore going to be a lot less fresh. Don't know what's in season? Head to a farmer's market local to you, if it's not there, it's not in season.
Also, often I hear people say that when they decided to "go healthy" it cost them heaps more. Yes, buying lots of value-added health foods is going to cost you a lot. Buying simple whole foods is not. My partner and I (no kids) fill our trolley each week with fruit and vegetables, brown bread, rice and pasta, a little dairy, free-range meat and eggs and some fresh seafood. Plus the occasional treats such as muesli bars, and sometimes we splurge by trying different cuisines... We go out a maximum of one meal a week and eat in the rest of the time. This rarely comes to more than $100.
IT IS POSSIBLE.
I was in the supermarket one day and the manager was showing someone around.The supermarket is in a mall with other shops, butcher, baker, health food, newsagency etc. He said to the other person "Our aim ought to be to shut all these other shops down so that we sell everything to everyone". Apart from admiring the zeal of such a company man (the 1950's called, they want their attitude back!), I thought "WTF I am not helping you do that!".
So I see where you are coming from, but if you look at it overall as a benefit to your family and community, buying the least amount of food you can at the supermarket is better for everyone.
You can get the exact quantity you need at the butcher, independent baker and fruit shop, rather than what they think you need. (Unless you are running a scout camp, who needs 48 sausages?) My local fruit shop prides itself on stocking locally grown produce and often names the actual farmer who grows the produce. If a product is from overseas (e.g. lemons from the USA this week) they label them.
If you pass up the Tim Tams that $2 can pay the extra few cents per 10 products that you can choose to buy locally produced or name brand rather than Home Brand or overseas produced.
Supermarkets are not really helping anyone. Their employment conditions are rubbish, their demands on other industries such as the transport industry, farmers and primary producers are merciless and, in the case of the transport industry, dangerous. They are silently spreading throughout the community, through the liquor and hotel industry, fuel sellers, hardware etc. I fully expect to see Child care centres run by the big two soon.
Try to give them as little of your money as you can.