After I dropped my son off for his afternoon kindergarten class, my youngest daughter and I walked over to the grocery store around the corner to pick up a few things. We live in the big city, but our neighbourhood feels very small town (with three times as many houses and cars of course). We spend most of our time in our neighbourhood. We walk to school, to the local library, grocery store, convenience store, video store, movie theatre and soon to open, veterinary clinic.
Don’t get me wrong, I like my neighbourhood and all but I still want to move far away from the big city. So the walk made me think how much I would miss having everything so close and convenient. I know there are small towns with shops close by, but when I’m talking about moving out of the city, I’m talking country home with land, population 100. Probably not too many shops to walk to in those areas. I was thinking how I’d have to get use to driving everywhere to get things, even a replacement bag of milk (‘cuz no matter how much land I have, I’m never owning a cow).
My sister lives in the country, sandwiched between two farms. Since her husband works in town he does most of the shopping. They are living on a limited budget and have four kids in the family, so there’s no splurging when it comes to grocery shopping. After flipping through the grocery flyers, my sister’s husband drives from store to store (and since most towns only have one store, this actually means driving from town to town). All just to save a few cents on milk and apples. Now I’m no economics major, but how much are you really saving? The cost of driving from town to town must be higher than this weeks deal at Foodland. Don’t you think?
I’m all for saving and I know if we do get out of the big city it will mean giving up the big money and making adjustments. I hope along the way I don’t lose my common sense. [mental note: refer to this blog if I feel the need to drive more than 20km for a savings of $0.10]
Trying to balance life at home with my 3 kids (all under 7), while building my business and developing my writing. Oh and throw a load of laundry in and a dinner that isn't burnt. Wasn't working from home suppose to be easier?
Another day, another thought...or two. 
Posted by LaDonna on March 24, 2009 at 11:21 pm
I agree. We shop at 3 stores for groceries. A friend buys our milk at Wal-mart in the city. Then we shop at one store that is always cheapest, but doesn’t carry everything all the time. Then we get whatever else we need at the expensive store.
Posted by CA on March 25, 2009 at 7:03 am
I must admit, I do make a special trip to Costco for milk. With 3 kids we go through 12 liters of milk, a week! Sometimes I wish I had a cow, but then the work would out weigh the benefit 🙂