Last week was my “no spend week” so I don’t have any awesome grocery deals to report but some of the things we ate last week were: Pork chops with grilled zucchini, mushrooms and rice, a vegetable frittata, split pea and ham soup, pancakes and eggs, big salads, chicken pot pie, oatmeal cookies and pasta.
Okay… MOVING ON.
So what I really want to talk about today is the grocery store prices in Vancouver, British Columbia The Girl and I spotted while we were there 10 days ago. Well, not only the grocery store prices but their ketchup chips {or do they call them crisps there?}.
Currently $1.00 Canadian is roughly equivalent to $0.75 in US currency so keep that in mind when you see the prices of items throughout this post.
Now… about all those ketchup chips! We counted 7 different brands of ketchup flavored chips for sale. How crazy is that? It must totally be a thing over there because I have NEVER seen ketchup flavored chips for sale anywhere in the US.
A bag of Lay’s $4.15 CAD/ $3.11 USD. So about the same price we’d pay here in the US for a bag of chips if they weren’t on sale.
We even found ketchup flavored Pringles and popcorn seasoning!!!
The sale prices on condiments seemed a wee bit high to me. What do you think?
- 34 ounce bottle of ketchup was $5.19 CAD / $3.92
- 30 ounce jar of mayo $5.69 / $4.30
And a lot of other prices were hit and miss as well.
- Minute Maid Frozen Orange Juice $1.19 CAD / $0.90 {Excellent!}
- 14 ounce box of Cheerios $4.99 CAD / $3.78 {Insane!}
Bulk carrots were crazy expensive too.
- 1 pound $1.49 CAD / $1.13 USD
Here at home bulk carrots cost about $0.59 a pound.
The funny thing was though… the prices on other things were the same {or less} than US prices here in the Pacific Northwest.
- Asparagus $ 2.99 lb CAD / $2.25 USD
- Bananas $0.79 lb CAD / $0.59 USD
- Tomatoes $0.99 lb CAD / $0.75 USD
Sour cabbage. Have you ever tried it? I was tempted to buy a head for my dad {who LOVES all things pickled} but I wasn’t sure the cabbage would survive the long car ride home. Where would I find this in the US? Anyone know?
Another thing I noticed was the size on a lot of their packaged cookies and crackers were about 1/4th smaller than the US. I’m not sure why this is. But you know what? I kind of like it. The prices were equivalent to a regular sized package here in the US so maybe Canadians don’t buy as many cookies and crackers? Maybe they are more of a special occasion thing over there? I don’t know. I’d love to know the reasoning behind it though.
And last but not least…
- 1 gallon of milk $5.79 CAD / $4.37 USD {Crazy Expensive!!!}
- 1 pound ground beef $3.99 CAD / $3.01 USD {Great Price!}
So I don’t know. The prices were all over the map from crazy expensive to incredibly reasonable. I guess if I lived in Vancouver, Canada I’d really have to pay attention to the grocery store ads and buy only what was on sale in any given week. And if milk were regularly $4.37 a gallon US? I’d go without in my tea and I’d definitely not be buying cold cereal any time soon.
What do you think of the prices of groceries in Canada? Good? Bad? Comparable to where you live? I’d love to know what you think. Oh, and those ketchup chips…. have you tried them before? Did you like them? Curious minds want to know.
~Mavis
Total Spent This Week $0
- Total Spent in January on Groceries $202.99
- Total Spent in February on Groceries $143.94
- Total Spent in March on Groceries $183.35
- Total Spent in April on Groceries $205.67
- Total Spent on Groceries in May $248.60
- Total Spent on Groceries in June $90.41
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- Total Spent in January on Take Out, Date Nights, and Bakery Treats $42.19
- Total Spent in February on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $118.45
- Total Spent in March on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $25.29
- Total Spent in April on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $62.50
- Total Spent in May of Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $54.52
- Total Spent in June of Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $69.25
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