Grocery Purchasing Experience

First week here, I was with mum, all I need to worry about was setting up a bank account, finding a place to live, how the transportation work, meeting my supervisor, sorting out all the documentations for uni and for my scholarship and finding the best place to shop because, the price of groceries here can be insane!! (well, at least for a Malaysian!)     xD

Next, I had to ensure that mum will not only spend time here with me to suffer while I did all these stuff, and made sure I brought here to some places to visit as well. I'll post this up one day. haha..

When she left, I was miserable, as you guys already know, so I dealt with my misery by spending time watching Korean dramas, movies and calling home! I even had enough time to make a table on the groceries I have bought so that I could be more price savvy in the future!! Anyway, the point of my blog post today is to actually share with you on my grocery purchasing experience.

So here goes,

First 2 weeks alone:
Think I bought 1 bunch of Choy sum, a zuccini cucumber, some bacon and a mince meat. And I thought, ok, should be able to last me a week, what with all the rice, spaghetti and stuff mum bought me. And I was wrong! I lasted 2 weeks! Thanks to the cyclone Marcia that made sure I stretched my food supply at home!

Cyclone Marcia as pictured from abc.net.au

And so I realised, damn it, I cannot just buy food enough for a week. I need to make sure it last longer!

Another thing I learnt, when you reach home, do not ever just throw all your meat purchase in the freezer, it will kill you to separate them later. Separate them into different freezer bags and store them (buy biodegradable ones if you are concern about eco-friendliness!)

These are the freezer bags I bought from Coles

*Side note: did you know, if you googled frozen bag, all you get is Frozen cartoon imprinted back packs?!

Third week alone:
So at the end of the second week, I went crazy shopping for groceries! I think I went grocery shopping like 3 times and I bought like $80 worth of groceries. And here was the next problem, halfway into the third week, I realised that food didn't have much flavour even though I tried to put lots of salt (which apparently I am failing at, because I'm used to putting teaspoons of salt not shaking it out of a tiny bottle with tiny holes!), and I only have garlic!! Also I realised, mince meat isn't enough and I would need to buy real meat.

So when I ate this the other day, it felt heavenly!! This is roasted pork with steamed vegetables and roasted potatoes

So here's my summary of my post if you didn't realise what I was trying to say:

1. Buy more vegetables, they last far longer in the fridge than you think it would.
2. Try to buy fruits in varying degrees of ripeness so that you won't have to stuff all that fruit down your throat when its all on the verge of over-ripping or spoiling.
3. Make sure you buy more ingredients (garlic, ginger, onions, chilli, pepper and etc) otherwise, food is just bland.
4. Buy more meat! It last for a month or so in the freezer, so that you don't have to keep hunting for meat!
5. Separate the meat!!!! I cannot stress this enough!
6. Rice can last quite long in the fridge as well. (Damn, I'm getting good with storing and eating leftovers.. o_O )

Things I am currently learning:

1. Counting the amount of shakes I need to do to add the right amount of salt to each dish.
2. Boiling less water when making soup (I'm just too greedy when it comes to soup. >.< )
3. Planning on learning how to use an oven.
4. The multiple uses of yoghurt! Did you know it taste good with rice?

Until next time!