10 Groceries Mexican Households Buy Every Week, All Under $5 at Walmart

📖 My mother's whole way of running a house is written down in one book, The Old Mexican Way: https://oldmexicanway.com And before anybody feels bad: none of this is your fault. Last time I taught you to read the little number on the shelf tag. Today is the second half, because on the fresh side of the store the trick is not the size of the bag. It is the knife. Every fresh thing has a twin that somebody washed, peeled, cut or boned, and you pay that somebody by the ounce. Counting down, ten to one: 10. Plátanos: the cheapest fruit in the building, against the four dollar cup of cut fruit 9. Zanahorias: what a baby carrot really is, and why it costs double 8. Repollo: the head that keeps three weeks, against the bagged salad that dies by Wednesday 7. Papas: the one item where the big bag can be the expensive one, and exactly when 6. Cebolla: one dollar a pound in the bag, six dollars a pound diced in a cup 5. Jitomate: Romas by the pound, against the box that never shows you a pound price 4. Leche: the gallon, and the honest word for the house that pours a third of it out 3. Huevos: the arithmetic per egg, even on a bad week, against the carton somebody cracked for you 2. Pollo: drumsticks and leg quarters. You pay triple to have the flavor removed 1. Lo verde: fresh chiles, cilantro, limones. About a dollar, and the difference between food and OUR food The whole cart, about thirty dollars most weeks, in most towns. Prices move, the eggs most of all, so I never give you a number the store can change by Friday. The honest word that matters most: on the dry aisle bigger is always cheaper. On the fresh side, the little number only counts for what reaches the plate. A house of five buys the bag. A house of one buys four loose potatoes and feels no shame. What my mother read that took two seconds: the little number, AND the two words after it. Per pound. Per ounce. Per each. The store changes those words from one tag to the next, so the box shows a tiny number and the bin shows a big one, and the tiny one is five times more expensive.