I was so excited I had to come to tell Aussie that there are avocados here 8 for $1 today. LOL

I just went to a supermarket yesterday and paid $2 each and today they're so cheap elsewhere. They're local ones too. That's something I was going to suggest to you too, Aussie. Try to buy local products when you can. I'm not sure if you have any markets near where you live. I'm pretty fortunate where I am for that.

Also try to buy what's in season although I notice that here we're able to grow a lot of fruit and vegies all year around now.

I use that supermarket that I think Noong mentioned earlier on the thread. Aldi. They're great for getting certain things, but I can't do all my shopping there is the problem. Great for pasta and pasata (sp?) sauces and Italian ingredients like cheap canned tomatoes. They also have a really good and cheap organic range of foods which I like.

I grow some of my own herbs too. Sometimes a simple dish can be made special with the right condiments.

If you live in a unit rather than a house with a yard, you can still grow tomatoes and lettuce easily in pots in the right postion on a verandah. Strawberries too. Depends on your climate I suppose. I used to grow my own sweet potatoes and cabbage and beans and tomatoes and all sorts of things. I'd use the crop of beans when they were finished to dig into the ground to make it more fertile for the next lot of vegies. I always had a lemon tree and other citrus. These days we can't really legally water anything so I've taken to growing my things like herbs in pots again.

If you like mushrooms, buy a kit and grow them at home. Same with things like sprouts. We eat a lot of them.

My biggest problem is that I love cooking so much but tend to make too much of everything and I end up eating it. lol