the Renaissance Housewife
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Saving >
      • Kitchen >
        • Food >
          • Recipes
      • Bath & Laundry
      • Medicine Cabinet
      • Office
      • Electricity
      • Gardening
      • Foraging
      • Animals
      • Weekly F. A.'s
      • Printables & Downloads
    • Earning
    • Investing
  • Books
  • About
    • RH Recommends
    • Newsletter & Updates
    • Travel
    • Beta Readers
    • Legal Stuff

Grocery Shopping in Coronado

1/9/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
The other day we went grocery shopping in the town of Coronado. 

Because we chose to stay in a resort  area by the beach, there aren't many restaurants in walking distance. To our knowledge, there are three places to eat within walking distance- 1) a pizza place, 2) a dinner joint that opens sporadically, and 3) the resort itself. All of these places charge about $10 per plate, and the resort charges $10 just for breakfast, $15 for lunch, and $20 for dinner.

Hubs and I don't budget at home; we spend only what we need/want to. We've tried budgeting before and it is kind of pointless and frustrating for us as a couple. I tend to feel like a failure if I don't budget lower and lower each month, and Hubs feels obligated to spend more than he needs to just because it was budgeted. We keep track of expenses every month, but if you are living far below your means, I don't think forecasting or "limiting" future spending is necessary. Away from home, though, expenses can easily get out of hand. We could just be penny-pinchers like we are at home, but that's no fun on vacation. A budget helps us know what we can afford, without coming home to find that we spent $10k or something. 

All that being said, spending $45 per person per day on food was not in the budget. Thankfully the condo has a nice kitchen, so making great meals at home was is option. Even though groceries cost just as much or more here than in the US, spending $1.50 per plate as opposed to $10 is a massive savings.

Eating Regional Foods to Save

One thing I was looking forward to was finding underpriced food items and cooking locally. In Guatemala the produce is cheap, cheap, cheap, as well as "street food" and little hole-in-the-wall tortillerias. You could buy avocados for $0.60. Here in Panama we've had a harder time finding deals like that. One majorly underpriced item we found was rice. People joke about "rice and beans" being cheap, but in the US I can find meat priced cheaper than rice. Here, rice actually is a good deal. We bought some at $0.40 per pound, not even on sale. Produce prices were comparable to the US, and meat was more expensive- most meat was at least $3.00 per pound, though we were able to find some chicken and seasoned beef for less than that. I saw some hot dogs for $1.50, but I can eat cheap hot dogs at home. We also found some seafood for $3/lb. Is that a good deal? We usually don't buy seafood at home.
Picture
What's in this, anyway??
Picture
In addition to working with generally higher prices, we also had to take everything home in a taxi. We used one of these cute little grocery carts. I had never seen one before! I'm sure glad we didn't have a bigger cart; otherwise we wouldn't have been able to carry it up to the condo.

When we were at the store, I decided to try some new fruit. Tomarillos, or tree tomatoes, are used to make salsa, desserts, and in Columbia (the country on the east side of Panama) they are blended with ice, sugar and water to make a sweet juice drink. Eaten on their own, they aren't all that great.
Picture
After we got home from shopping, Hubs made fried chicken and seasoned rice for us to eat for dinner. He said it was one of his favorite meals to make when he lived in Panama. Hubs doesn't cook a lot, but when he does it usually turns out fantastic! 
Picture
Chicken & Rice
The total for our meal was $2.03, or just over $1 per plate (which included all the rice we could eat!). We are looking forward to making more great meals on our vacation. When I'm cooking at home I normally stick with cheap meals, but on vacay I'm looking forward to having fancier fare. Even with groceries being more expensive AND fixing more expensive recipes (frying chicken instead of baking it, for example), cooking is so much cheaper than eating out.

In addition to the rice and more boring foods, we also bought some fun foods, because, it is vacation after all! Cereal, Nutella (which I would NEVER buy at home!!!), and we also found our favorite Chiky cookies from Guatemala. We bought those too, of course!

Some Things Are Better In the US
Things we don't like buying in Central America are pizza and ice cream. They put strange toppings on the pizza (hotdogs...) and the ice cream just doesn't taste quite right. Dairy products are pretty expensive, and I noticed that the yogurt and cheese have a "homemade" aftertaste. There is some real refrigerated milk available here in Coronado (almost $6 per gallon!), but the first grocery store we went to only had non-refrigerated, ultra-pasteurized milk in boxes. This is typical in Guatemala as well. Lastly, lunchmeats can be weird here as well. The ham we bought tasted like tuna fish, and other ham we've had tastes like bologna or hotdogs.

That being said, I hope all you at home are taking advantage of the great deals and eating real pizza and ice cream this week.

Adios de la playa!
​-Bethany 
Picture
1 Comment
Julie
1/11/2016 07:23:16 am

Chikys! :D

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Bethany

    Housewife, happy wife, and mama to one. :)

    Picture

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Food
    How to Eat for $10.00
    ​per Week

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Menu Planning
    A Weekly Menu to Save
    Time & Money
    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to
    Frugal Fruits and Vegetables

    No Garden? No Problem!

    Watch Meals From the Bunker:

    Picture

    Check out my Youtube Channel!

    RSS Feed


    Picture
    Baby Girl's Birth Story
    Picture
    8 Cheap Ways to Eat Healthy
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Book Reviews
    Books
    Christmas
    Cleaning
    Clothing
    Cooking
    Couponing
    Education
    Ego
    Electricity
    Farmers Market
    Finance
    Foraging
    Frugal
    Frugal Accomplishments
    Frugality
    Garage Sales
    Gardening
    Gifts
    Grocery Budget
    Grocery Shopping
    Herbs
    History
    Hobby Farm
    Home Based Business
    Home-based Business
    Home Decorating
    Housekeeping
    Industry
    Languages
    Laundry
    Marriage
    Meal Planning
    Medicine
    Minimalist
    Network Marketing
    Organization
    Plants
    Product Reviews
    Quotes
    Recipes
    ROI
    Rv
    Sewing
    Simplicity
    Spanish
    Spending Report
    Travel

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Full Disclosure & Disclaimer

    Picture
    Picture
    I get cash back for many online purchases including wedding gifts and Ebay stuff!

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from dasWebweib, amanessinger, thewritingreader, diakosmein