Finding joy in the everyday

Magazine Illustration of Husband Kissing Wife in Kitchen ( source ) As you know I am very interested in food. Not only do I like to eat food (don't we all), but I love home cooking! But being a statistician, I also love numbers (not quite as much as food) - but when I can combine the two, its fascinating. Here are some statistics that are all about food that I think you might find very interesting.  Australian's spend... In 2009–10, Australian households spent an average of $237 a week on food and beverages ($474 a fortnight).*   About $63 a week was spent on food prepared outside the home (restaurants and takeaways), and $32 a week on alcoholic drinks. Meat, fish and seafood collectively accounted for $30 a week on average. Of that $237 per week, most of it appears to go on restaurants and alcohol, not much on anything healthy!   If people went back to basics (more fruit and veg and less take-ways), they could probably save quite a bit each...

To my American readers this might seem a little strange . . . but my son and I went to Costco on Saturday.  And we had SO much fun.  There are three Costco's in Australia - all new, and it is our first experience with shopping "American" style.  We couldn't get over the "super-sizing" of so many products, things just didn't come in what we would consider regular size - everything was huge (even the trollies)!! Just like the Tabasco sauce.  We usually buy (for around $5) the baby size - but at Costco we bough super-size for just $10.  A big saving. Not everything was cheaper - but heaps was.  However, I avoided the 12 cans of sweetcorn (even though cheaper - where do I keep it) or the 60 rolls of toilet paper (storage problem again) or the litres of sauce etc . . . .My son and I just walk and walk and walk (its huge) and said "wow, look at this" at all the products we don't usually get in Australia. There were a few American products we c...