Let's go grocery shopping!

If you ask my mom what she misses most about having me living at home, somewhere in the top five is that she misses me doing the grocery shopping.

I don't know what it is about the planning, list-making, and menu-scheduling that I love, but I do. Kroger, Food City, Ingles, and Target (*not Wal-mart)? I could spend hours at those places.

I am very protective of my grocery shopping time. I like going alone and taking my time.

Of course grocery shopping in New York was not as fun, because we didn't have a car and thus I was limited to what I could buy, since I had to carry it home.

The last six months we were in New York, I gave up grocery shopping all together. I started ordering our groceries online and getting them delivered. I loved that. I had my weekly meal plans and grocery lists planned out perfectly. It was rare to forget something since I could check before I ordered.

Last week I went grocery shopping for the first time here in Canada. We have a car again so I was able to drive to our supermarket, Save-on Foods. It is nestled in an outdoor mall, a five minute drive or fifteen walk from our apartment.

The grocery stores here are mostly similar to the ones in the states, with a few notable differences.

1) Carts

Apparently this is a west coast thing since my husband said he’s seen this before. You put in a quarter to unlock a cart and when you return it, you get your quarter back. (At first, I couldn’t figure out where the quarter went, but luckily a lady stopped by to help. You have to put the quarter underneath and then the key on top of it. Just in case you were wondering.)

2) Bins

This is one of my favorite things at the store. You get to decide how much you want of any given item. For example, some times our croutons would get stale because we wouldn’t eat the whole package in time. Here, I can just bag up the amount we need for a given week and not waste food or money. Genius! 

3) Cheese and Chicken is more expensive

I’m talking two and half times as much. Nine dollars for a $2.50 bag of Kraft cheddar cheese (only it’s not Kraft).  Since my dietary restrictions limit red meat right now, the Wilsons are seriously contemplating going vegan. I’ll keep you posted.

4) Canadian money

While we use a debit card for most purchases, I have become quite fond of Canadian money.

There are no pennies in circulation (since 2012). Clearly the Canadians were watching West Wing and liked what Sam Seaborne had to say. The total of your bill gets rounded up or down to the nearest nickel.

There are nickels, dimes and quarters. As well as: 

photo courtesy of bcpassport.com

The Loonie: the one dollar coin

The Toonie: the two dollar coin.
The bills here are much prettier than in the states. The queen's presence graces us on the twenty dollar bill. 

photo courtesy of cbc.ca

We are after all in British Columbia. God Save the Queen!