**I should
warn you that this post is for people in the UK unless you want to tell me
about some good value places you shop!**
When Mark
said we were going to be moving one of the first things I found out was that
Singapore is expensive. Food would be
expensive, housing would be expensive and cars are expensive. Luckily Marks work has taken care of two of
those things and in the grand scheme of things paying a little bit more for
food shouldn’t really matter, however I didn’t want to just get ripped off.
When we
first arrived we were so lost and well….a little bit hungry we headed to Market
Place at Tanglin Mall. It was easy to
find as we could easily type Tanglin into Sat Nav and it is quite close to Marks
work. We knew it was probably the most
expensive place to head to, but it seemed the easiest at the time. Well, when we got there we did find it expensive,
but knowing that we only needed a few essentials helped and it was nice having
that little trip into the city. Market Place
has prices more in line with doing all of your regular grocery shops in
Waitrose or M&S. Actually a lot of
the branding on tins was Waitrose, but a lot also seemed to be American as
well.
Next time we
needed shopping we went to Cold Storage at Centrepoint mall. This is on Orchard Road so the very middle of
the shopping district and it would mean us quite easily tapping into Sat Nav
where we wished to go. This grocery shop
is all over the island and is quite popular as it does still have some branding
that you’ll be used to from the UK.
Even Cold
Storage was quite expensive for us as in the UK we really shopped around quite
a bit. I did keep reminding myself that
although Singapore has a massive presence, it really is tiny and isn’t like
Scotland and can hand over vast areas of land to farming. “Of course it’s going to be expensive!” I reminded
myself, “but think of everything you are getting in return.”
OK-this is
going a bit like Goldilocks now, but the third grocery shop we did was just
right. Finally we found a NTUC Fairprice
which is excellent value for money and is much more comparable to the UK. It doesn’t really have many brands but I’m
more than happy to get what I need from there.
There happens to be one within walking distance from our neighbourhood
and I’ve picked up a few things I would say were bargains there. I got a pack full of 8 bulbs of garlic for $1.65,
5 carrots for 93 cents, 500g of spaghetti was $1.65 and quite a big shoulder of
pork for only $3.16 (it was reduced from $7).
We are constantly snacking on grapes which are about $4.40 per kg which
is the cheapest I’ve found whilst here.
Cheese seems quite expensive for really plain stuff so I got 250g for
$7.15, but that’s without really looking about.
I only needed a bit of it for a pasta bake when I run out of ideas for
tea one night!
I also went
along to Fairprice Finest when I needed to post some letters one day at
Clementi Mall and found that the prices were relatively all right, for example I got 3
sweet potatoes for $2.32. It’s a bit
more Western and has more food similar to Cold Storage, but is still better
value. I did find myself paying $2.90
for a packet of beef gravy as I couldn’t find any at all. Oh well, Mark said it was nice and it went
with (a much reduced in price) packet of rump steak we bought the other day.
I like
shopping around and trying to make more interesting meals than I would have
done in the UK. I am trying to look
on Pinterest for ideas so that we have a
variety of different things to eat, and we were always warned that is you try
to just eat Western food the prices would be astronomical. I find that a little bit odd though, as I wouldn’t
want haggis, neeps and tatties here anyway!
