Grocery Shopping - aka Why Rhys Won't Go To the Supermarket With Me.

Sundays tend to be my grocery shopping day, mostly because that's when the local markets are run on the peninsula.

These days I always do meal planning first because no matter how cheap beetroots are per bunch, if you have nothing to do with them it's a waste of money and food! On the menu for this week is Tuna Risotto, Fetta and Tomato Salad and, lastly, Roasted Red Capsicum Tarts.

A quick trip to the local fruit and vegetables market and $15 later I had all the vegetables and fruit I needed.

Then.... the supermarket, a place where Rhys no longer treads with me. Why could this be?

To illustrate the whys of this situation I thought I'd make a list of what I bought in Woolworths today and why I bought each item.

AO = Australian Owned
AM = Australian Made
S$ = On special

• Hercules bin liners - got excited that degradable bin liners existed. Spent some time comparing brands offering degradable bags - none AO or AM. S$
• Archibald Honey - Glass (recyclable) jar. AO and AM (other AO company in glass jar was using imported honey). Bulk size. S$
• Devondale UHT Milk (for my next yogurt making attempt) - I find it hard to determine in Devondale are AO and AM - (it says so on their butter products but not their milks?). Tetra pak is recyclable. 1L to prevent wastage.
• Cedel Toothpaste - Only AO, AM toothpaste on the shelves. I dithered for about 4 minutes determining if it was a waste of money (same price for small tube as for a large Colgate tube) and if Rhys would shun an unknown brand.
• Bundaberg Brown Sugar - Determined that it was AM and the only other brand CSR is also AM but neither appear to be AO. So looked at location of production and decided Bundaberg QLD was closer than VIC (CSR) and so was less travel miles to get to me. Larger size as it was cheaper per 100g and meant less packaging.
• South Cape Fetta - Low Fat. AM.
• South Cape Parmesan - more expensive than other brands but only AM that I could find.
• Pampas Shortcrust Pastry - Low Fat. S$. (This is my one regretful purchase because as I was unpacking later I realised that I could have made shortcrust pastry myself easily enough and prevented the unecessary plastic packaging.
• Mirabella Light Bulb - AO. Will plant a tree for every bulb purchased. CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) uses less energy, lasts longer than incandescent bulbs.
• Nestle Condensed Milk - Low Fat. Buy 3 for $6 - S$. Purchased these as a start to my stockpile (buying non perishables when they are cheap on sale.)

For each item on the list above I spent time looking at all available products, checking for cheapest prices, checking packaging to see if anything was Aussie made/owned, considering packaging (recyclable? biodegradable? bulk? individually wrapped?), considering health (low fat? low sugar? more fibre? vitamin fortified?). THEN there was dithering time added. THEN there was the time I spent doing this for other products that I didn't end up buying at all (e.g. olive oil).

And that level of anal retentiveness, good people, is why Rhys (and most other people) won't grocery shop with me anymore.

I don't think everyone should have to put that amount of thought and deliberation into their grocery shopping but I do think our environment, economy and health would be in a better way if we all did.