Shopping 🛒

Once a month we head to the big smoke to do our grocery shopping and pickup any supplies needed. Our nearest shopping centre is at Emerald, in Central Qld, just over 200km away.

It’s an early start, I wake the kids about 5:15 and we aim to leave no later than 6:30. I cook everyone hash browns for breakfast and we eat on the go, it helps keep the kids happy in the car for a bit and saves arguing about eating their breakfast in a hurry before we leave! Win win.

It’s a 2 1/2 hour drive one way but we have adapted easily and we all enjoy the drive together, it’s a nice time to chat and catch up. The kids have definitely got better at long distances, they are pretty accepting now.

It’s very mundane boring shopping, normally a stop at big w and a few other places before we do the groceries. It’s a 3 trolley grocery shop at Woolies..Matt and I with one each and Indi too. And normally a fourth trolley with odds and sods from other places. The poor checkout worker must dread when they see us coming with three trolleys and three cranky kids. It’s normally around $700-$800 which I think is pretty good for a months worth. That does exclude meat though as we are supplied meat by the station. There is a deep freezer that we just help ourselves too and when it runs low the men do another killer, it’s like a magic packet of tim tams that keeps refilling 😉

Normally we have to take the ute to fit everything in. We take 2 car fridge/freezers for our cold goods which take up a fair bit of room. I would much rather take the Prado for comfort but the one time we took it we nearly had to ditch things in the carpark because there was not enough room. 🤦‍♀️.

Last stop is a strategic late lunch/dinner from Red Rooster, again it fills in some of the trip and once their bellies are full the kids normally nap for some of the trip home. We normally arrive home just on dark and the crappiest job of all starts, unpacking. Ugh!

We are lucky to have 2 fridge/freezers in the kitchen plus a third outside in the laundry and a deep freeze as well. We’ve always been pretty savvy shoppers and have learnt to buy and store certain things to make them last. Even back in Tansey we shopped similarly. Bread and milk get frozen, wombok replaces lettuce and broccoli comes from a packet…it’s worked for us so far. We are lucky to have a small Spar in town locally, which is great for fresh fruit and veg top-ups. The veggies are brought from the Brizzy markets so sometimes not fantastic quality once transported and stored and can be pricey but still a great option.

Stay tuned for the next blog…a rogue roo, station parking tickets and more. 😀