Grocery shopping here takes some amount of skill and a lot of strategic planning. Back home I would just hop in my car, drive to the store, and pick out food I wanted for that week. The first thing I have to do here is meal plan. This is especially difficult for me as I generally don't like to eat the same thing everyday. So this means at least two options for breakfast and something for lunch and dinner that can be changed by adding rice, or other spices, normally some sort of vegetable soup. I also have to decide if I am going to want meat at some point that week. So once I have my meals picked out I make a list. Then I have to figure out what items to get a what store. We have about 5 or so grocery stores here and each one had cheaper prices for certain items. So this week I am making Taco Soup. This is what my list will look like:
J's Waterside Supermarket Lavi's M. Ali's Market
Sour Cream* sandwich meat meat Gatorade fruit
milk canned corn eggs
Chips canned tomatoes onions
canned beans tomatoes
cucumber
hot peppers
* Sour Cream is hard to find and if they have it it might be too pricey or almost expired
Now to figure out where to go first. The market, J's and the Supermarket are all near each other. So I will probably do the supermarket first then the market then J's, but that order doesn't matter as much. Since I only want Gatorade at M. Ali's I will skip that and look for it elsewhere. That makes Lavi's either my first or my last stop. This trip I will probably carry a back pack and a green bag to carry everything. Don't forget that I don't have a car so I will have to lug everything to each store and then to the other side of the town to get to Lavi's, then catch a taxi home (with 4 other passengers). Then finally home, soaked in sweat because none of the stores have AC. You will notice this list is only food, that is because last week I had to pick up things like TP and cleaners, and laundry soap. That is normally a separate trip out! Oh and I will probably forget something so I will have to go back out later in the week! The struggle is real.
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