The Cost of Living

Harvey, bless him, likes wake me at the crack of dawn, to go food shopping ! The idea is that we "beat the rush". So being the diligent and long suffering wife that I am, we are out and in Woolworth's by 8am most Saturday mornings...

This morning was a Saturday morning like no other (except we were slightly late 8:15am). Harvey pushing the trolley, me with my list and dumping stuff...the difference is that the shops were PACKED ! It was SO weird ! I'm thinking that with a cyclone imminent people were "being prepared" and getting their foods and trying NOT to panic buy?! Was interesting.

What I was thoroughly disgusted with was the cost of fruit and veggies ! Since when was it cheaper to eat junk food than the healthier alternatives?! We bought 8 Fuji apples and it cost over $8 !! That's just over $1 an apple ?! What the?! My quarter piece of watermelon cost nearly $5 !! Isnt that just RUDE?! Before I get comments such as "why dont you buy cheaper places and/or cheaper fruit"? My answer to that is - we buy what our children will eat - so there is no wastage. The other is that we buy "local" to us because by the time you factor in the cost of petrol to go to market places (our closest is almost 12kms down the road) the cost balances out to be nearly the same - and sometimes you are only getting "seconds" and so the fruit/veggies you get dont last as long...sigh. No win situation there.

Adversely,a bag of potato chips only cost $2 and they had specials of $1 for lollies and other junk. Makes you want to cry.

Harvey with our 1st harvest of the year.



Close up



Prue & Madi doing a taste test.

Effects of harsh sun !

Why not garden I hear you ask? Well, since we live in sunny Perth, NOTHING is growing despite our favourite gardener's (Harv) best efforts of manure, fertiliser, soil improver's, composting, watering and shading. Its tragic. Partly because our soil is SO sandy, everything just washes away - either that or our sun is SO harsh that everything is fried crispy !  We have a "bumper crop" of grapes...but nothing else survived the past two weeks of 35c+ heat. Cant win their neither.

I AM thankful though, so that we have so much "abundance" when there are those who are much worse off that all of us. I do feel bad that I gripe about prices when there are so many who through circumstance, are much worse off that any of us could imagine. It is scary that this could all be taken away in just a blink of an eye. We are all happy and healthy despite these economic times and for that I am truly grateful.