The Real Shopping Cart 22/8/24

This week's grocery review

Image description: a bowl of stew with lemon aioli on top, tomatoes, zucchini and other vegetables in an orange-coloured broth in a blue ceramic chipped stoneware bowl.

Highlighted Meal of the Week: Fish Stew with Green Radish and Lemon Aioli

Charles and I ate well this week as we have been doing since we started to make our own meals and stopped eating processed foods, going out to eat and ordering in. This fish stew is delicious and we have it regularly. We used sole this time, but we sometimes use salmon. Any lean fish will do.  Walmart and Your Independent Grocer often have sales on packs of fish.

For this meal, we used mirepoix, which I have to say was a complete mystery to me until I learned about it. It is a combination of celery, carrots and onion cooked lightly in butter. We made up a batch of mirepoix, divided it into eight individual servings and froze them for later use in soups, stews and sauces.

The lemon aioli is a great addition to this meal. Adding aioli to the stew was also a revelation for me.

The total cost of this meal for two was $9.80 and the single serving was $4.90. In order to lower my carbohydrate amount, we substitute daikon also called Lobok or Chinese radish for boiled potatoes. Right now green Lobok is in season and available for cheap at Kowloon. It is less radishy tasting to me than the white Lobok.

Groceries This Week

Stores considered this week were Metro, Walmart, Voila and Adonis for delivery, Massine’s, Isabella Loblaws, Kowloon and Farm Boy, which are within walking distance, and Real Canadian Superstore and Food Basics, which are accessible to us by public transit.

If we could get the cheapest price at all the stores, the total amount would be $97.44.

By combining delivery from Walmart and a few strolls to local stores, Charles has obtained a price of $105.68 for this week’s shopping list, only eight percent higher than the cheapest price if we could shop all the stores.

As you can see in the table below, by shopping at only one of these stores, you can pay from thirty three percent more to a whopping forty six percent higher, or in our case, with the groceries that we need, an additional $45.07.

Image description: Table with headings: Cart/Cost/%Extra/Items.

Row 1: Best/97.44/0%/22.00

Row 2: Actual/105.68/8%//22.00

Row 3: Metro.ca/129.48/33/22.00

Row 4: Voila.ca/140.27/44%/22.00

Row 5: Loblaws/142.51/46T/22.00

As you may have noticed, many stores we considered didn’t end up on the table. The table includes the stores where all our shopping needs were satisfied. Walmart, Real Canadian Superstore, Food Basics and Adonis came close but were missing one or two items. Kowloon, an Asian grocery a few blocks away, has some of the best prices on produce so it is considered but will not find its way onto the table because it doesn’t sell some of our other essentials, such as deli meat and tortillas. Finally the local Farm Boy doesn’t get much representation here because it doesn’t list all of its prices on its site, just the flyer.

Next week we intend to check out the new Metro on Rideau Street. It’s on our calendar. It’s a date. Ain’t we romantic?

I wish you nutritious, delicious and affordable meals, lingering conversations with loved ones, joy and whimsy.

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