Sunday, February 23, 2014

Food is expensive here -- my grocery shopping round up

I went to the supermarket for the first time yesterday where I experienced my first case of sticker shock.  Eating imported foods is expensive, and I don't eat many of the local foods which puts me in a bad place.  I also don't have a car, which means I can only shop in places that are relatively close to my house.  I ended up going to Hayat, a butcher down the street from my house and a Coq'ivoire

1st stop: Hayat (in the Cap Sud shopping complex) 
Amount spent: 32 000 francs for 30 items. 
  • The upside: Don Simon Sangria for 1100 francs. Finding muesli.   
  • The downside: How expensive meats and produce were in the supermarket.
I have been told to go to markets for fresh fruit, but I am not sure where my local market is. 

2nd stop: le terroir (butcher's shop on rue du canal)
I walked by this place and everything looked amazing.  I ended up getting two lamb chops for 1 190 francs and 12 chipolatas for 2 313. 

3rd stop: Coq'Ivoire (poultry shop). I got 1 kg of chicken thighs for for 2950. 

4th stop: Street vendor I  bought 4 tomatoes on the side of the road for 200 francs, but they were looking kind of old.

Bottom line: I spent a grand total of 39 000 francs to stock up my fridge for this week.  I'm a single person, so that's a lot.  But I did end up buying poultry, meat, lentils, couscous, pasta, olive oil and some canned goods for that money.  Finding Don Simon didn't hurt either. I'm starting to learn that I shouldn't expect to save money on food here (unless I start eating a lot more local foods).  If I don't, my food costs will work out to the same amount of money I would spend if I were living in France, or any major US city. 


2 comments:

  1. Thank you. It would have been nice to have the expenses in euro or dollar equivalent.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well to get to USD you multiply by 2 and strike three zeros. So 5000 francs is 10 USD. Hope this helps

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to comment