It’s been over two years since I’ve bought groceries in the US, so I have no clue what the prices are anymore. To give people an idea of what it’s like here, this is a photo of what I bought today. The list is:
- 180 g (.4 lbs) of shrimp
- 364 g (.8 lbs) of chicken
- 374 g (.83 lbs) of pork
- 240 g (.53 lbs) of spiced ham (sausage)
- 200 g (.44 lbs) of imported Swiss cheese (the only real cheese in the city)
- Half a loaf of bread
- 2 bell peppers
- A batch of mushrooms
- A head of broccoli
- A half head of celery (for some reason, they cut them in half)
- 2 packages of pasta (shells)
- A bundle of noodles
At today’s exchange rate, this is almost exactly $22.50 worth of groceries.
The cheese was the most expensive (35元–about $5.75) The list includes over 2½ lbs of meat.
I made chicken and ham soup (with rice) this afternoon. I used all the chicken, one pepper, half the ham, and a bit of the broccoli and celery. I splurged and made a grilled cheese sandwich using two slices of bread and about half the cheese. That was two large meals (lots of soup). I have enough soup left for another 3 or 4 meals. The shrimp and pork are in the freezer. That’s another 2 or 3 meals. The rest will serve to make up the majority of another 15-20 meals, at least (I’ll often eat a bowl of spiced noodles as a meal)