The $10 meal challenge

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Carolla said:
Good point about the 'best before dates' - here's some info - http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/best-before-dates-and-expiry-dates-5-things-you-may-not-know-1.3006858

In the produce section there is often stuff packaged up & inexpensive - if planning to eat it the same or next day, it's perfectly good & a bargain.
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We have them regularly in our meat department at the Coop. Some days (or time of day) the choice is good - chicken legs, beef steak, pork chops, sometimes even a roast - maybe seasonally they will have lamb. Other days it is mainly ground meat; and sometimes it's slim picken's.
 
Yes, that's why a chest freezer is an important part of eating on the cheap. I can pull out the fixings for an impromptu dinner for quite a few.
 
Thinking back to my post #11. My imaginary woman living alone making a chicken dinner good enough to share with her friend and have leftovers for soup. Today I found 2 lb bags of carrots for $1.29 and bags of yellow onions for the same price. A little juggling of the grocery list, a quarter found under a chesterfield cushion and a loonie in a forgotten pocket and she can manage until her cheque comes in.
 
Peanut butter was on today at $1.99 (regular $3.99). I picked up a jar for the church program. Also individual puddings were on for $.69 (reg. $.99) for four. Clients are always looking for something for school lunches.
 
Another reason why it's more expensive to live in poverty. When peanut butter comes on sale, I get 8 of them.
 
Seeler said:
Peanut butter was on today at $1.99 (regular $3.99). I picked up a jar for the church program. Also individual puddings were on for $.69 (reg. $.99) for four. Clients are always looking for something for school lunches.
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Even $3.99 seems like a good price depending on the size of the jar. That's about what the smallest size usually costs.
 
puddings were $1.00 for a pack of 4 a week ago so I bought a pack. They were probably about to go off their "sell by" date. Full of sugar, not what I consider "real food" - junk food - but a sweet treat.
 
Kimmio said:
Safeway usually has marked down their baked goods by 50% if you shop at about 8 or 9 p.m. or later, which is not uncommon for me, nor for my roommate or my ex - it's open until midnight. The busiest time at the Safeway in my old neighbourhood was probably 10 p.m. I'd usually into people (church friends too). That's also when lots of things have been marked down. The fresh soups are cheaper by then, also.

If your stores close earlier, I'd recommend shopping closer to whatever the closing time is to find good marked down items.
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I used to go to Safeway late fairly regularly. The biggest difference I noticed is some produce would be covered with fabric and some of the lights would be off. No marking down.

I have seen a little metal trolley thing both at Superstore and Safeway that has things marked down, but it's always cookies covered in gross 'frosting', muffin flavours we would never buy, etc. The only thing I think we may have bought from them is seasonal items, I do like the cookies with the coloured sugar in the holiday shapes, good holiday memories. Not standards like bread, buns, tortillas. Sometimes I do see stickers on a few other treat things, but they are always with the regular stuff.

I don't like dealing with raw meat, so I'm not buying that on a regular basis. From the times I do though I have seen it discounted, but again, it isn't all together. It's right with the same cuts.

I've never seen clearance produce.

We shop at various stores. Superstore, Walmart, Costco, Safeway (not lately), Coop, Save-on, Sobeys, even a few things at Shoppers Drug Mart.
 
Well, my husband did have a bad habit of buying 1/2 price donuts :eek:. Other than that, bread was often on sale.

We actually live not far from the McGavin's bakery now (not sure if you have it everywhere but it's like Dempster's). I haven't been there yet but my roommate says there's a shop off to the side that sells baked goods and she comes home with deals on several loaves or packages of bagels at a time.

It's an apartment kitchen with a regular sized fridge/ freezer and not a lot of cupboard space. There's not enough room here to buy bulk like that! Drives me nuts when she does that because although she may save a few bucks in buying it, things don't get eaten and get thrown out. And she buys it for herself and uses all the space for stuff that goes bad - I have one little cupboard. Grr. She's a self proclaimed food hoarder. Anyway ... Off topic. ...but bakery outlets have deals was my point.
 
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Kimmio said:
Even $3.99 seems like a good price depending on the size of the jar. That's about what the smallest size usually costs.
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Store brand, one kg jar. I shop at a Coop store where we became members forty years ago. Prices are often lower than for-profit stores even after taking the $1.95 weekly service charge to make it worthwhile and, fortunately for me, it is the supermarket closest to my neighbourhood although I do know of members who drive considerable distances for their weekly shopping.
 
hmmm $10 is hard


A free lunch is provided here in town daily for whoever shows up-it's a community effort-but it does mean that hose who eat it are not working-nor is it available for the children

I do know the markdown area in our dairy aisle and often get the 1/2 price yoghurt.
I could buy cold cereal and powdered milk for the 10 or instant oatmeal or some fresh vegetables to go with the food bank box.
 
rice,. then pasta dried beans.lentils.legumes and frozen veg potatoes and onions- canned tomatoes and soy sauce and hot sauce can be very inexpensive. the least expensive protein is canned tuna - the canned mushroom soup to make tuna casserole may cost more than the tuna id the tuna is on sale! for protein, a carton of eggs might be better....all of the items I listed tend to go on sale often and you can get a lot, but it is entirely carb driven - proteins are expensive even on sale and forget about fresh produce
 
Talked to a friend yesterday who just returned from Ontario. She said that groceries were really less expensive, except for cereal, than in NS. And you can always find sale prices. She got milk for $1 and 12 sausages for $2.99. Impossible to find this here in NS.
 
I believe that the price of milk is controlled by a Milk Marketing Board in NB. Many stores seem to sell it at the lowest price permitted, as oour Coop does. It never goes on sale. When we get our 'flyer' for the big sales where many products are reduced at much as 50%, milk will be advertised 'at our usual low price'.
 
Seeler said:
I believe that the price of milk is controlled by a Milk Marketing Board in NB. Many stores seem to sell it at the lowest price permitted, as oour Coop does. It never goes on sale. When we get our 'flyer' for the big sales where many products are reduced at much as 50%, milk will be advertised 'at our usual low price'.
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We always find groceries in northern New Brunswick (we vacation there about every summer) to be very expensive. As I recall, three bags of milk at the local Foodland was $7 this summer - almost twice what we pay here in Toronto at our local Food Basics.
 
Mrs.Anteater said:
Talked to a friend yesterday who just returned from Ontario. She said that groceries were really less expensive, except for cereal, than in NS. And you can always find sale prices. She got milk for $1 and 12 sausages for $2.99. Impossible to find this here in NS.
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That was my wife's experience, too, when she lived in NS for a couple years in the nineties after doing her Ph.D. in Ontario. She definitely found it more expensive living in NS. Milk for $1 must have been for a litre, though. We buy the 4L bags and they now run around $4-5.
 
So much for equality and equine states eh bi? Such is a dream when certain families are intent on physical power that monies bring ...

Life is truly a learning process when encountering such examples. Some see it as invisible ... in their dreams!
 
I'm not sure how much we pay for milk. It is a staple. I pick up a two liter jug of 1% from a local dairy every week. Since the prices are set and never on sale there is no reason to do comparative shopping. I think I pay around $3.00 but I could be off.

I have noticed produce quite a bit cheaper when visiting my sister in southern Ontario - but I think Elliot Lake might be as high or higher than NB. Fresh fruit and vegies seemed out of this world in Newfoundland the time we visited. I don't know how the local people could afford them - their fish was excellent and prices good though.
 
I am not sure about the price of regular milk, I buy lactose free milk, 2l for $5.19. A couple of years ago, it was 3.98 and you could still get bread for $1.99. Now it's at least 2.50.
 
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