Pet Peeves Part 3: Let's Talk Shrinkflation!

Join Jennifer and Cam for the third installment of the Pet Peeves series as they tackle the frustrating reality of Shrinkflation. It is the trend nobody asked for: prices continue to climb while portions get smaller by the day. They discuss the items that used to offer value deals but now break the budget, from eight-dollar chocolate chips that barely fill a cup and a half to six-dollar bags of Cheese Pleasers.

The conversation dives into the new warning labels on food and the confusing world of portion sizes. Jennifer and Cam examine why eating healthy has become significantly more expensive than buying junk food, even though both categories feel overpriced lately. They weigh the pros and cons of gardening versus grocery shopping to save money and compare the rising costs of fresh versus frozen fruit.

From holiday candies like Mini Eggs—now priced at two dollars and fifty cents for a tiny pack—to the hidden gems found at the dollar store for food and household essentials, the duo looks for ways to fight back against rising costs. Plus, Cam shares his secret recipe for making the ultimate bowl of Kraft Dinner.

Tune in to join the rant, pick up some savvy shopping tips, and try out Cam’s KD hack. Let us know if his recipe lives up to the hype!

Let us know your thoughts in the comments and leave us a review!

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Transcript

0:16

Jennifer. Cam, it is snowing out again. March the third, and it's snowing. I think spring arrives on March 21st. That seems like a long way away, which means probably between now and then, it could snow a lot. And it's cold. I know, it's supposed to be spring already. It's cold. It's cold. I don't like it. I should refer to the farmer's almanac again. I think when you go back to your office, check the farmer's almanac. I'm going to. And find out how much longer we gotta put up with this snow. Well, hopefully not much longer. This is crazy. It's too much. Anyways, that being said, we are still here and we are coming to you live from the Wall Coffee Roasters in the heart of beautiful downtown Acheson. So if you hear people talking in the background, kids screaming, no kids today, but lots of people in here or machines whirring, it's because we're coming to you live from the coffee shop. And this is where we love to come for coffee and conversation. Yeah, it's a great place. It smells good in here today. I mean, it always smells good. But today smells nice in here. It's coffee smell, coffee and chocolate. I kind of smell chocolate. Do you smell chocolate? No, I feel like we're at a wine tasting, when it's like, do you smell the aromas of floral and fruity and cherry? Anyway, we need to tell you that Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam is brought to you by... Wing Snob. Wing Snob. Where the wings are fresh, never frozen. That's right. 16 different flavors, four rubs. Amazing wings. If you've never had a Wing Snob wing, you need to head down to Wing Snob. Ten locations in the city of Edmonton, one in Calgary, one in Grande Prairie. Congratulations, Grande Prairie. So if you live around the Grande Prairie area, check out Wing Snob in Grande Prairie. They have the best wings you're ever going to have. I guarantee it. And they got cornbread and parmesan fries and a whole bunch of other stuff. And they are awesome. And they are sponsors of Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam. So check them out at www.wingsnob.ca. That's right. And we also need to tell you about our sponsors, Mprint. Mprint Sign and Print Solutions right here in Acheson. They're amazing. The work that they do, whether it's a business card, a brochure, a book, or they'll even wrap vehicles. They are amazing. Mprint, Don and Jan do incredible work. They are the preferred printer of Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam. That's right. And you don't have to be in Acheson to use Mprint. You can be anywhere. Just give them a call. www.Mprint.ca That's right. And check them out because they are good at what they do. And thank you for sponsoring Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam. Jennifer. Cam. Today, wait though, before we get started, should we tell people about our new segment coming up? Yes. And Cam. Or has it dropped already? Well, it drops today. Drops today. Although when people are hearing this podcast, it will have already dropped. For two days, it'll have been out. That's right. And it's an awesome segment. It's one of my favorites. I know what it is. It's called... Grape Expectations. Grape Expectations. Yes. Where we do wine tasting and learn all about wine with our favorite, Cam. She is our favorite. She is. And she's amazing. Karen Principe. Karen Principe. She is like a wine sommelier and she is an amazing lady. And like you say, we do a wine tasting segment. She knows her wines. She does know her wines. So once a month... Once a month. We're going to be dropping this segment... Yep... Where Karen will introduce Cam and I to the wonderful world of wine. That's right. And so... W-W-Oh, W-W-W, the wonderful world of wine. What? W-W-W, the wonderful world of wine. I love it. That's good. No, that is really good. We should... Yeah, we should coin that for it. W-W-W, the wonderful world of wine. And hey, that's it. No, it's good. And it's a great segment. Karen knows her stuff. We do a red and a white. Yes. And we have cheese. What we did this time. We had cheese. I really like the cheese. Wine pairs with, but this segment is not pretentious. It's down to earth. It's achievable. That's right. It's affordable. And it's not like, they're not like like $800 bottles of wine. That's why I said affordable. Right. They're like, yes. With an everyday person. That's right. And it's great. And you're going to love it because Karen, she just says it like it is and tells you about the wine, what it pairs with, what it goes with, all that kind of stuff. It's awesome. And we have a lot of fun doing it. We do have a lot of fun. It's great. So dropping in every month. First one dropped a couple of days ago. So it'll be out two days. Check it out. You can wherever you get our podcast or at www.coffeeinthepark.com. That's right. I always. You always say .ca, you almost messed me up. I don't know why. I don't know, but that's why you're here. But you know what? If you're listening to this, go and get the wines Karen recommended and then shoot us a note. Let us know what you think. That's right. Send us a little email. Go to our website, send us a little message and tell us what you think. Because we want to hear from you. And what are your questions? What do you want to know about wine? That's right. And we'll ask Karen. You know, I love our segment. We had the Wing Snob flavor of the month. We did. That was awesome. Mike Chadi did that. And now we've got Grape Expectations with Karen Principe. Love it. And I love it. It's awesome. So yeah, so check it out. And today, well, today's a very special day. We actually today, we don't have a guest. Don't turn us off. Don't turn us off because this is like Pet Peeves number three. It is, but it is very targeted. Very specific today. And you and I have been talking about this topic for a very long time. We have. But Cam, there's a lot going on in the world right now. There is, isn't there? You know what? It's hard to turn on the news because it's not good news. So remember when I coined my word of the year, levity? Levity. Today, we hope to bring you a little levity. A little levity today. I feel like we should have music. Levity. I know. That's a great word. Levity. It is. And so today, you're right. We're going to have a little levity. Yes. And I think today we're going to talk about something that every single person, they're going to agree with us. They're going to say yes. They're going to send us mails and give us their ideas and their thoughts on what we're going to talk about today because every single person goes through this. And is going through this. And is going through this. That's right. For a number of years now, but it's gotten worse. That's right. So today, we want to just talk about, well, how do we say it? How do we broach it? Yeah. Well, we want to talk about the cost. That's right. Of life these days. That's right. So have you noticed? Yeah. The cost of life. Have you noticed that everything goes up? Yes. Everything's gone up. Everything's gone up. It doesn't matter what it is. And you don't, it's not like we're saying, well, we're really old. Do you remember the good old days when you could get a cheeseburger for a nickel? That's not what it's about. That's not what it's about. Because I think you could have been born two years ago and say cost still... Oh, absolutely. Not that a two-year-old is going to say cost went up. I can't see a two-year-old saying that. Think back to your life when you were, say, going to the grocery store even five years ago. That's right. Compared to now. Compared to now. I do remember some of the good old days. Believe it or not, I remember when you could get a cheeseburger at McDonald's for 35 cents. See, people would never understand that now. Because now you get a cheeseburger and you're paying, like, For 35 dollars. Right. Well, not quite. But it feels like it. Well, actually, right now, I have to say the fast food places, they actually have some pretty good deals on. Well, I think that's what they're trying to do. Yeah, because they're trying to get people back. But nonetheless, you're never going to get a cheeseburger for 35 cents. Not anymore. And everything's gone up. Everything. Everything has gone up. And the other thing I've noticed, the grocery store, everything's gone up, but everything's gotten smaller. Yes. I think they call it Shrinkflation. Shrinkflation? Yes. I never heard of that. Yes. Is that what it is? That's the term that has been coined. OK, this is what it is. And you and I have been talking about this for a long time, because I see it everywhere. You walk through the grocery store, you go wherever you go. You go to restaurants. It's Shrinkflation. Yes. You pay more and you get less. That's right. Right. Yeah. OK, so we got some things here, actually. Well, Cam and I went grocery shopping. Yeah. The other day we did. And we were texting each other about different items. That's right. That have skyrocketed in price, but you are getting far less product for what you're paying for. That's right. Because it's shrunk. How often can you even walk out of the grocery? So this is this is my life. And my husband will attest that I complain to this all the time. Right. I will go grocery shopping. Yes. And I'll come home with maybe two bags. And it's costed me a gazillion dollars. I know. And then I look and say, what did I actually buy? I know. It's like you got to take out a mortgage just to buy groceries. It's unbelievable. I remember the days where I could go grocery shopping, say on a Sunday for the week. Now I still have to go midweek because I know there's less of what I'm buying. I know it's it is unbelievable because, I, you're getting less for far. You pay far more. You're getting less. It doesn't last as long. So you're right. The once a week grocery shopping is not once a week anymore. I agree. It's like two, three times a week sometimes. And then I go to stores like Costco. Well, and there you go. I mean, again, but it's just you seem to be paying more and getting. We got some things sitting here. And so where do you want to start? What do you want to start with? Let's start with my cheese pleasers. These are my cheese pleasers. I love cheese pleasers. Cheese pleasers used to be really big. I haven't opened these yet, but I'm looking through the plastic and they're gotten much smaller. Like the bag or the actual puffs? Well, the puffs themselves are smaller than they were. I think the bag is even a little bit smaller, but they used to be really big and have a big curl in them, and now they don't even have that anymore. What did you pay for those? Where's my bill? Oh yeah, you have your bill. Hang on. I do have my bill here. This is the question. My bill is somewhere. Where's my bill? What did I do? Is my bill over there somewhere? No, but we'll find it. We'll find it. I think I paid like $4 or $5 for that bag of cheese pleasers. I know. I can remember when I could buy those for like... Oh, your bill is beside you. Oh, there it is. Okay. My cheese pleasers, I paid. I paid $5.79. That's ridiculous. And that's with a loyalty card.$5.79 for a bag of cheese pleasers. I mean, I'm telling you right now, when I eat those, I got to eat them very slowly. They got to last. Well, you better enjoy them. Well, I know. I honestly didn't pay attention yesterday.$5.79 for a bag of cheese. I can remember when you could buy, they were on sale for like $1.50. Same size bag with bigger cheese pleasers. Okay. I'm going to pull over my chocolate chips. Oh yes. This here. These are the, yes. So these are chocolate chips that I purchased from the grocery store. And Cam can attest to this. It looks like a very large bag. It's unbelievable. I'm holding the bag and I don't even know if I could get a cup and a half out of these. You know what? I don't think you would get a cup and a half out of that. How much did you pay for that bag? Well, so I got an off brand. That's right. To compare. Yeah. So if I was buying the name brand, yeah. It's close to $8 for a bag of chocolate chips. I remember buying chocolate chips for $3.$8! So if you're trying to bake something. If you bake chocolate chip cookies and put those in the cookies, you'd get like four chocolate chips per cookie. I know. And the cookie would be like $8 per cookie by the time. This is why when you go out to eat everywhere, it's costing a fortune. Unbelievable. I can't. Folks, you should, I think we're going to do a video a little bit later and you should see this. I mean, there is just, it's unbelievable. A bag is like half empty. Do you know, okay, this is going to be off topic, but I'm going to talk about it. Have you noticed, especially on all my favorite foods, because I like a lot of junk food, the little warning labels now? Yeah. What does that say? This one says, high in saturated fat, and that's put out by Health Canada. They're telling you that it is high. But have you not noticed this is a new thing on a bunch of products that you get? It is. It's all on there. I don't know if, let me check. I don't know if the Cheese Pleasers has it anywhere. It should. It doesn't. It should. But let's talk about it. And then they put all the nutritional things on the back. So the nutritional facts for your chocolate chips are per one tablespoon. Is that tablespoon or teaspoon? Hey, wait. Tablespoon. Tablespoon. For one tablespoon of chocolate chips. That'd be like four chocolate chips, 80 calories. It does have one gram of fiber. Well, you're getting your fiber in. It's got seven grams of sugar. Oh my goodness. And it's got six percent fat in it. Per one tablespoon. Well just think, I make my chocolate chip cookies with a cup. I might need to rethink some of my life habits here. That's why they put this warning on here. High. This is the, no, it's not. Is there nothing on the cheese puffs? No, but can I tell you the nutritional value of the cheese puff? If you have one or one three quarter cup, three quarter cup of cheese pleasers, cheese pleasers, that gives a brand away if you know what I'm talking about. A three quarter cup has 270 calories and 16 grams of fat. Saturated or monosaturated? Trans fat? Oh, saturated is 1.5 grams, 8 percent. Oh, the trans fats are the bad ones. It's got zero. Okay, then you're okay. It's zero. But it has one gram of fiber and three grams of sugar in it. So I'm just saying, but it's got a lot of potassium and calcium. How? But I'm telling you, there's no warning on these, so I'm feeling better about that. Unlike your chocolate chips over there. I'm a little concerned. But you're right about that. I mean, my goodness, they just... Yeah, it's incredible. So, okay, what else do we have here? Well, my favorite are... Oh, you love salt and vinegar chips. Salt and vinegar. And I am going to give the brand the shout out because to me, this is the best brand. This is the Old Dutch Canadian. Old Dutch Canadian. That's right. Winnipeg. This is by far the best salt and vinegar chip. They are good. Try to prove me wrong. No, you're right about that. I think you're right. They are very good. I know. How do you eat your salt and vinegar chips? Because I... Do you lick the salt and vinegar off? Yes. This is what I'm saying. I eat one at a time. People think it's gross but you have to. But you have to. I don't put a whole bunch in my mouth. No, you don't. I just lick the salt and vinegar off. But then your tongue starts to feel a little wonky after. You have to have like a soda with you or something, a Coke or something like that. However, so this is a 220 gram bag of chips. Yes, and when I squeeze, it's mostly air. It's mostly air. It's a lot of air in there. Yeah, it is. Look at this, it's like half filled. It's a lot of air. You're right. It's a lot of air. And regularly, again, you're almost paying $5. Now, I bought these because they were on sale. Did you have a loyalty card that you scanned? Well I did, I did, yeah. I know that's what you have to do. You got to watch for the bargains in the loyalty scan. But that is the thing with chip. There are some chip brands, I'm going to say, when you buy them and you think this is going to be, I'm so excited, you get home, you open it, and there's like so few chips in there. I know. Old Dutch, I think, is still pretty good. They're still pretty good. And there's two grams of fiber in my salt and vinegar chips. So the salt and vinegar chips are better for you than the cheese pleasers, per fiber. So they say. If you're needing fiber. And you can eat 27 chips. And how much, what's the fat content on that? 13 grams. 13 grams, okay, for 27 chips? 27 chips, but let's be honest, I'm not stopping at 27 chips. Who is, especially if you're sitting there or watching a TV show or a movie or a sporting event. I will eat the entire bag. I know, me too, that's the thing. Here's what I try to do. I get a little bowl and I put a few in a little bowl. But then I go back. I know, see, exactly right. So I'm thinking if I have a little bowl, that's all I'm gonna eat. But then I eat that little bowl and then I just. See, for people learning, wanting to know more about Cam and I, we have a chip weakness. We do. If you go to my snack drawer in my office, there's usually chips in there. Yeah, I tried popcorn, but it's just not like chips. I like popcorn. I do too. But it's not like chips. No. All right, so. Okay, what else did you get? Okay, this is the kicker right here. People are gonna say to us, okay, but try to eat healthy because everything you're talking about is unhealthy. But you know what? Who can afford to eat healthy these days? Let's talk about that. Exactly, to your point. I bought this yesterday. I have the bill to prove it. I could show this bill on our website. I won't, but I have the bill. I bought a head of cauliflower. I like cauliflower. How much did you pay for that? Okay, and it's not very big. No, it's not that big. For this head of cauliflower, I paid $7.99. See right there, $7.99.$7.99.$7.99! For cauliflower. For cauliflower. And let's be honest, cauliflower really doesn't have a lot of, there's not a lot of health. It's just cauliflower. It's like, well. There's gotta be something, I don't think there is. I'm going to check on that. But most people cover it with like cheese and stuff. Well, that's what makes it good. That's what takes all the health stuff out of it.$7.99 for this. So no wonder people are struggling. Where was this made? Where? It's a product of the USA. Doesn't say where in the USA. Did it have tariffs on it? Could have. The cauliflower tariffs. There might be. The way it's going. For $7.99, you could catch a flight and go down there and get your own cauliflower. Pick your own. But yeah, I couldn't believe it.$7.99. I have a question for you. Yeah. With the price of fruit and vegetables these days, do you ever try to grow your own? Yes. Actually, yes. Yes, we have. Yes, we have. We've tried to grow fruit. We have our orange tree. Well, you have a lime tree, I have an orange. My orange tree is not doing well. I think we're in the wrong environment. Well, it's in our office. It's mine's in the office. I don't know. It's not doing well. There's no oranges. But do you grow a garden to try to save money? No, do I grow a garden? Are you kidding me? I can't grow. I can't grow. Do you grow? You grow stuff, don't you? I grow some things. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't know. Like I can't. Some people love gardening and I can't. I just can't. It's a lot of work. I bought apples the other day. I know people are going to just shake their head at this. And I swear it was four apples. Remember when apples was like the cheap fruit? You could buy apples for like a thousand apples for like $10. Apples, bananas, they all used to be reasonable. I'm not kidding. I almost fell over at the till.$8 for four apples. It's unbelievable. It's craziness. I don't know if you know what to say about that. I was shopping for blueberries the other day. And I'm not kidding you.$12 for a little plastic basket of blueberries. That don't even look that good. That don't look good. No. They look terrible. And so they used to say when things weren't in season to buy frozen. However, have you looked at the price of frozen these days? I know none of it is cheap anymore. It's all just it's unbelievable. And so there's the blueberries, there's the strawberries are through the roof. You got to take out a loan. Got to go to the bank, get a loan for a pint of strawberries. Although I'm going to say I bought raspberries the other day. And raspberries were a good price. You have to really watch for the sales. You do. You got to shop around. You got to shop around. And now if you're listening to us probably like in California or Florida or something like that, you're like, ah, you people are crazy because you get it all year down there. This is Edmonton, this is Alberta. Today it's snowing. Nobody's growing. The other day I saw grapes, $12. I know. You know where they were grown? Chile, Chilean grapes, green grapes, $12. Listen, I feel we need to be more self sustainable and grow more of our own food. Not you and I, but no, definitely not me. No, no, no, no, no, but businesses. Yeah, we need more businesses. We need more Canadian businesses, like those big greenhouses. That's right. If you want to go into the greenhouses, you should. Yeah, that's a good business. It is. Like hot house tomatoes or those kinds of things. I agree with you. I think we should do more of that. That's a good idea. I don't know what the cost would be. Might not be any cheaper. I don't know. But nonetheless. It can't be more. OK, we got a couple of other things here. What do you got over there? You have... Oh, because it's that time of year. It's almost Easter. It's Easter. And Cadbury Mini Eggs. I love. Oh, these are the best. I love Cadbury Mini Eggs. Cadbury Mini Eggs are the best. But Cadbury Mini Eggs are through the roof. I know. This is the littlest bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs you can buy. It's got 170 calories and there's, I'm not kidding, there's like six Mini Eggs in there. Six Mini Eggs. Oh, I don't want to know. This has, you want to talk about sugar, 22 grams of sugar. 22 grams. Holy smokes. For this, how much did I pay? It's on my bill here. For these little Mini Six, I'm not, I'm counting in one, two, three, four, five. Yeah, six, six, six Mini Eggs, $2.49 for six Mini Eggs. I've seen the big bags of Mini Eggs for $24. I saw that. Who's paying $24 for Mini Eggs? I don't know. I guess you have to wait till after Easter, but even then, they're still really expensive. Six Mini Eggs for $2.49. I know. There was a day when you could go in and buy chocolate for like a nickel. It's true. A nickel. Yeah, you're not getting a chocolate bar anywhere for under $2. I'm going to put in a shameless plug for a store. This is where the best price on chocolate bars, I know where you are going with this. The dollar store. The dollar store! Let's talk about the dollar store. I love it. I got to be honest. At first, I wasn't a big dollar store fan because I felt like it was cheap, cheap products, but they're not. You know what? The Dollar stores come a long way. They have come a long way. I used to not buy my gum at the dollar store because it was stale. That's what you used to tell me. Now the gum is fresh. I know. Same with the chocolate bars. Because you know what I do? I squeeze the chocolate bar to see how fresh it is. I know. If your buying chocolate bar at a store I've been to and you're wondering why, it's because I squeezed it. But you can get so much at the dollar store and way more reasonable. So the other thing that I buy there are Ziploc bags. Yes. Because they are half the price. So much cheaper. So much cheaper. Yes. Everything is so much cheaper. Everything at the dollar. And now they sell name brand. They do. They sell Betty Crocker. I know. They sell Campbell's. They sell Lay's chips. And there are some. OK, so I'm a bit of a dollar store snob. Yes. I find some dollar store are better than others. I agree with this. Do you mean like name dollar stores? Yes. Yes. Yes. I don't know if we should. We won't name them. No. But I only frequent one. There's only one I go to. Yes. Yeah, that's right. The others are, to me, they're not quite as good. No. There's that one dollar store. That has everything. Everything. Good price. I mean, I will admit it started out as the dollar store and everything was a dollar. Well, it's not a dollar anymore. No, there are some things. I'll tell you what I buy at the dollar store that I really like is my licorice. I love red licorice and it's a good price at the dollar store. And it's fresh. I know. It's fresh. I squeeze it. It's fresh. I really like it. And they do. They have good stuff there. You can buy soup there. Everything. You can buy everything there. I know. So I like the dollar store. I don't know about the Mini Eggs. If they sell them, I've never... They do! Do they? They do. How much are they? Have you checked the price? Way cheaper than... Next time you go can you check the Mini Eggs? Yes. Because $2.49, not good. All right. What else we got here? Okay. This is the one that really bothers me. This is it. I have here a bag of original Oreo cookies. You know the cookies with the cream in the middle? How do you eat your Oreos? Do you like separate them? I don't. No, I just eat them like they are. No, I pull them apart. I eat the cream. Okay, this is a 270 gram bag of Oreos and one serving. How do they figure this out? One serving of Oreos is three cookies. How do you? What? I don't know. That's what it says. One serving portion equals three cookies. And that's 160 calories per serving. And this cost me, these Oreos cost me $4.69. Were they on sale? No. Okay. No, were they? No, they weren't on sale.$4.69, but here's my beef. The package is smaller. You think the cookies are smaller? Well, let's open it and find out. I'm going to open it right now. Yes, look. Yes. Look at those. Yes, those are smaller. They used to be twice the size. I know. That's unbelievable. That's just like, come on. Seriously, it's no wonder they say one portion is three cookies. In the old days, one portion was one cookie. Now, you have to eat three. See, that's what that tells me. You have to eat three Oreo cookies to equal one in the old days, and you're paying $4.69 for a package of Oreos. Okay, do you know what else has gone up? And we don't have any here because it is not a climate-controlled environment for coolness. It's meat. Meat. Have you tried to buy beef lately? If you're going to buy beef, pretty much, it's a month's wages. You may as well just go buy the cow yourself. Exactly. Put the cow in your backyard because a good steak is going to cost you $20 plus. Just ground beef in general is through the roof. It's craziness. You're right, ground beef used to be such a good deal. Now, it's like ground beef is like the Ferrari of meats. It's a lot. It is. I don't understand. I have cousins that are farmers. I think they tried to explain it to me. But from my understanding, and this is coming from my cousins, my understanding is it's not the farmer getting any richer. No. It's somebody else. Yes. The packing plant? I don't know. The truck driver? I have no idea. All I know is it's expensive. It's expensive and it's just really hard to eat well. That's right. Because it costs a fortune. And I don't know if you're like me, but like my meat, I like good meat. Yeah, I do too. So like I go to a store. A butcher. Where it's like, I'll just say it, Alberta beef, which I consider to be the best beef in the world. And I've had beef all around the world. Alberta beef, the best beef in the world. But it costs you. It costs you. It sure does. It's not cheap. No. So yeah, I don't know. Everything's just gotten more expensive. Stuff has gotten smaller and more expensive. Less of it in a package really drives me crazy. And it's, you know, here's so the other I love. I love Kraft Dinner. I love Kraft Dinner. I just do. And people don't realize. Okay, Kraft Dinner is ridiculous. How are you paying? I remember the days when you can buy Kraft Dinner for 97 cents a box. I can remember the days. For those of you who lived in Alberta and remember the store Woodward's. Oh yes, Woodward's. Woodward's had $1.49 day. Woodward's on Tuesdays. So my mom bought all my underwear when I was a kid.$1.49 day. I'm not even kidding you. Anyway, you can buy 10 boxes of Kraft Dinner for $1.49. I'm not kidding. And now it's almost $4 a box at some stores. That's right. And have you noticed when you open the box? Oh, it's way less. I call them micro noodles. I agree. They are so tiny. They're little noodles. Okay. But yes, they're small. But I want you to tell our listeners the secret to your Kraft Dinner. Yes. Okay. Now I'm just going to brag a little bit here. I make the best Kraft Dinner. And there's three things I do. Three things. I add more butter. Also bad for us. Butter makes everything better. I add more butter. I add more milk. I add the package of cheese. But what's the other secret? That's right. So one day I'm walking through the bulk store. You know, where you buy the bulk food. Bulk barn. And I'm walking. I just like to go there and peruse and see what's there. And I'm walking down the aisle. And there I notice in the bulk barn, in a bin is Kraft Dinner cheese. Just free cheese. Just, well, not free, to buy, but like. So I get a little baggie and I fill it up. And I take it home. And now I put the package. It comes in the Kraft Dinner. And I add like three or four heaping teaspoons. That's a lot of cheese. I know. But that's why you add the extra butter and a little extra milk. I'm telling you right now, folks, that Kraft cheese at the bulk store costs you next to nothing. But it will make your Kraft Dinner taste like gourmet Kraft Dinner. Cam encourages you all to highly try it. Try it and send me a note. Go to the website and say, I tried that. Sometimes, you can get it at other stores in the bulk, but the best place is Bulk Barn. So I'll just give you the recipe once again. Micro noodles in the Kraft Dinner box. The thing is with Kraft Dinner, one box used to feed your whole family. Not anymore. Now you need like three boxes. It's true. So you have the micro noodles. Then you... Don't overcook your Kraft Dinner. I'm just saying this. This is important. Some people boil the... Heck, it's a micro noodle. If you boil the heck out of it, it becomes a microscopic noodle. Seven to nine minutes. I'm an eight minute person. Eight minutes on the Kraft Dinner. You rinse it. Rinse it. Oh, rinse it. Yes. Yes. Put extra butter. I don't... I can't remember what it says. I think it's like a third, a teaspoon, a third of a teaspoon. I got to say I'm probably at like two teaspoons. And then it's a third cup of milk. I add a little more, little more milk. Then the cheese, stir. Then I add the extra cheese, stir. I'm telling you, folks. I'm telling you. You heard it here on the podcast. Send me a note. If you did, if you... You're all going to go out and try it now. Cause you know, that sounds like... It's creamy. It's rich. And it doesn't cost a ton of money, but it's, it's still expensive. Kraft Dinner. It's like, it's... Folks, this is the world we live in today. You know, the other one, cause this was the college student will profess to this, is Cup Of Noodles. Ramen Noodle. I always... Did you, when you were in university? I lived on Kraft Dinner, Ramen Noodles, yes. And so remember when you could buy Ramen Noodles for like 50 cents a cup? Now... Holy smokes. It's like a buck a cup. I know. For a Ramen Noodle. I know. I'm not a big Ramen Noodle cup. I overdid it in university. Yeah, and now you're done? Yeah, I can't. You know what turned me off? I shouldn't say this, but what turned me off the Ramen Noodle is I saw on TV one time the cup of Ramen Noodle. Inside the cup, they use a wax to keep the water. If they didn't, you'd pour the hot water in and the cup would fall apart. People drink it and that wax goes into our body. I think you were warning Hannah about this. I did. And Hannah changed her ways. She now pours the cup of noodles into a bowl. Hannah loves her Ramen Noodle. I know she does. She eats them almost every day. But now she puts them in a bowl and adds the sauce. We don't want anything to happen to Hannah. You don't need your arteries all waxing up on you. No. Anyway. Well, that's enough of like the saturated fat chocolate chips. The saturated fat chocolate chips. Okay, folks, I know as you've been listening to this podcast, you've been nodding a lot going, yes, yes, you're right. The other thing I know is you are all going to go, oh no, I go to this store and I get a deal. Drop us a line. Tell us where you shop. Yes, and people will, I know, I know, I know, they'll come on and say, you should like do coupons. Cam, I've tried. I can't do coupons. Me too. I can't. I've tried. I can't do coupons. And I can't hop from store to store because it's exhausting. No, that's right. Yeah, so the other thing is with the coupons is I put a little note in my, because Canada Post in their infinite wisdom no longer delivers the mail to my door. They deliver it to a community mailbox. So I have to go there to my mail, which by the way, Canada Post, when it's minus 30, the lock doesn't work on the door. I'm just saying. Anyway, I put a little sticker in there. No junk mail. Why? Because I was getting so much junk mail of flyers and coupons, so I don't even get the coupons. I'm going to give our listeners a little handy tip. Do you know what I use for all my flyers now? What's that? It's called the Flip app. Yes, Flip. And it's amazing. They do a comparison. Yeah. And it's great. And it lists all of the new flyers for the week. You're right. You can just quickly scroll. You can circle. The only thing I don't like about the Flip app, and I do have it on my phone, is when you're at the till and there's a person in front of you using Flip, it takes a little longer because they're having to scroll. It's true. And they're like, see? And the lady's like, okay, click. And so it just takes a little. But when it's my turn and I'm using Flip, you're saving money. So check it out. Check it out. They don't pay me to say that, but I do like it. But hey, Flip, if you want to pay us, we're open to Flip. So I'm just saying. That's right. So there you go. So yeah, there it is, folks. It's the sign of the times. It's what it is. Less for more. That's what it is, less for more. Less for more. And we're just paying more. That's the way it is. But like you said, if you have listener tips for us, shoot us a note. But don't ask Cam to garden because he won't. I'm not gardening. And there's reasons for that, which that's a whole other podcast. I'm not doing it. I'm just not getting in the garden. But I know people that garden and they love it. And they, the big gardens. Yeah. You just need to make friends with those people so you can like take their fruits and vegetables. But here's the thing about that. Oh, I hope they're not listening. This will get me in trouble. They always say, you can have whatever you want from the garden, but I have to go. You have to go pick it. So last time I played ignorance and I didn't know how to dig the potatoes, so they came. This is terrible. I can't believe you're admitting this on the podcast. I know. I don't even know. I'm not sure if they're listening. People probably are listening who know who I'm talking about. Anyway, they helped me dig the potatoes because I said I didn't know how to dig the potatoes. I know. I know. But I'm a city boy. That's fair. So anyway, folks, that's it for today. That's Pet Peeve number three. Yes. The price of things. The cost of living. And yeah. And it's going down. So hey, listen, hang in there. Shop for the bargain. Get the deal. Maybe check out the dollar store. Check out the dollar store. You know, I'm just going to say this. I don't know what, my daughter might listen to this, because I'm going to I'm going to throw her under the bus here because no, seriously, growing up, she always thought you can't go to the dollar store. It's not cool. You can't buy stuff at the dollar stores. I remember those conversations. Oh, dad, you can't buy that at the dollar store because it's not cool. Now, my daughter, who's on her own, who has to work for a living, who has to spend her own money. Now, my daughter thinks the dollar store is the best thing that's ever happened to her. Funny how life changes when you're out on your own. Yeah. She's like, dad, you'll never guess what I got at the dollar store. I'm like, yep, I told you. I told you one day you'd be buying. Dad's not forking over the cash. You're buying at the dollar store. That's the way it is. So parents, if your kids are giving you a tad bit of grief, although these days it's different, but if they are, because it's not cool, because you don't buy designer running shoes at the dollar store, you just wait. They'll keep doing what you're doing because the day will come. They'll appreciate it. They'll appreciate it. Anyhow, thanks for listening. You know what? I just want to say my bill. Yeah, what was the total? Total came to, well, $20.53 for one, two, four items. Oh, $20.53. It's ridiculous. However, that's the way it is. Thanks for listening, everybody. Don't forget, I'll tell you what is a good deal. Wing Snob. Yes. Yeah, Wing Snob. If you've never been to Wing Snob, they got good deals. Go check out the wings, get some wings. And www.wingsnob.ca. And Mprint, for all your printing needs. That's a good deal too. They do good work, quality work, good prices. Check them out at www.Mprint.ca. And yeah, check it out. Thanks for sticking with us. Make sure you tell everybody about the podcast. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your coworkers, tell your enemies. If you don't have any friends, make a friend just so you can tell them about the podcast. And make sure you subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. And to make a friend, maybe they'll give you deals on where to shop. That's right. To save money. What a great conversation starter. Where do you shop? Where do you get your deals? I know. I think that's a fabulous idea. Our podcast is all about making friends. So that's really cool. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, everyone. Oh, and don't forget, Grape Expectations. Take a listen and we'll see you next week. See you next week.