All posts tagged: shopping

Tofu Tuesday: Textiles

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It’s a week until winter arrives and we’ve been hit with a sudden cold snap. Heater, dehumidifier and hot water bottles were deployed last night. The last few weeks has seen me stocking up on warm things at Kmart. It’s my new favourite discount store. Most of the time I’m browsing for bargains. Things that look more expensive and well made than their price suggests. It’s kind of a game. I’m on a bit of a geometric kick at the moment which you may have noticed if you follow my Pinterest boards. Above we have Tofu the bunny with black and white geometric scarf and blue tone geometric cushion from Kmart. (Fur coat model’s own)

Do you read labels?

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I actually enjoy grocery shopping because I don’t spend a long time reading labels. Shopping would take longer and be more of a chore if I had to read the label of every item. I generally have products I know and trust and those I never read the ingredients list on, things like steak, bananas, butter etc. A bargain…? We usually buy our meat at the butchers because of the price and quality. Our local supermarket more expensive and the quality is not as good, but we recently shopped at a discount supermarket (the yellow and black kind) and I was amazed that the meat was half price or less. That should have been a warning, but the bargain hunter in me said, “Woohoo! A meaty bargain!!!”. I bought a package of “steak” at the discount supermarket. The “sirloin” was on special at $10 per kg, so thinking I had eyed up a fantastic deal, I bought a pack. Sirloin steak at our local butchery is $25.95 per kg, so that should have triggered alarm bells. …

Voting dollars

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Karma points. Call me a superstitious nitwit, but I believe in karma points. Karma is doing good deeds in this live for a better life in the next. But to me, karma points is doing good in this life and reaping the rewards and avoiding bad stuff happening in this life. At the very least, cosmic stuff aside, being a good person attracts other good people into your life. That is tangible. Every dollar you spend is a vote for something in the world. When you spend somewhere you don’t believe in, you’re taking a vote away from something you believe in. Shopping for locally made products is gaining momentum. Buying local made is considered a luxury these days and Christmas comes just once a year. Isn’t that Christmas a luxury? I can’t say I’m going 100% local this year, but I’m sending some of my votes that way. Shopping early and buying local makes me less stressed. Even if you don’t believe in karma, avoiding stress is easy to justify. Buy from Christchurch If …

Bangkok: Eating fish, eaten by fish and 20kg of shopping

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Our epic South East Asia adventure came to an end with 2 nights in Bangkok before flying home to New Zealand. Bangkok is a great place to end a holiday as you can load up to the gills with shopping before hopping on a plane. We did the typical tourist sights in Bangkok on a previous stopover so we didn’t want to do any more. I estimate we gained 20kg in shopping in 2 days. Last time we were in Bangkok, our 2 day stopover resulted in 13kg of shopping. If you measure by weight, we are definitely getting better at shopping. Our 2 days of epic shopping in Bangkok put us up to 39.9kg. We were allowed up to 40kg in checked luggage so pretty close! Eating fish This steamed fish dish was barely cooked and would have tasted amazing if only it didn’t have about 10 times more chili than I could handle. I scraped off all the chili, ate it with all of the teddy bear shaped rice and still needed lots …

Fresh Food Markets in Luang Prabang, Laos

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Even if you don’t buy anything, it’s worth a visit to the fresh food markets in Luang Prabang. There are no supermarkets here and locals buy fresh food daily from the markets. Markets in Auckland are a weekend activity and even then, only a small percentage of the population actually do their shopping at markets. I love seeing all the ingredients in their uncooked state. Ingredients look so fresh and lovely in daylight. When was the last time you bough vegetables that hadn’t seen fluorescent lights? The tourists here are just touristing, people don’t tend to cook while on holiday. We eat out a lot instead. There were plenty of familiar things at the market and also lots of unfamiliar  stuff to concern yourself with. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but where do you think the local restaurants get their fresh meat and produce from? Street Food There are plenty of snacks to be found at every corner. Fresh Meat This uncovered, tepid meat might horrify the NZ Food Safety Authority, but think about …