A TRIP TO THE MARKET

So it's Sunday, August 14, 2022 in our country (Tho I'm posting it on Tuesday, August 16, 2022--I was a bit under the weather lately.) and we are going to the market!

Come and join me...

It has been our tradition to go to the market every morning of Sunday to buy goods that we will use for the whole week. We are in a tight budget so I make sure that I could buy everything we will need for the week within a specific budget. And, oh boy, it is so hard! But it's mostly food and basic needs and we just make do.

The market is about a ten minute walk from our apartment. If it's still early, walking to the market is a nice form of exercise. But we went late today because I woke up late, thankfully it's cloudy and not sunny.

We pass rice fields as we walk to the market. This fields are raffled in a Festival called Sorteo ng Carmona, that is being held every three(3) years. If your name is called to be the lucky winner you are granted as the owner of a portion of the field and you can do anything to the land for three(3) years until the next festival. You are also given a choice to sell the field at a price dictated by the local municipality. This festival is for the local uproots of the municipal only. And due to the pandemic they chose to give money instead of the fields as prizes for this year's festivity that's why there are no crops planted on the fields. But it's still a nice view that makes me think I'm in the province.

After a while of walking we reached the famous statue in our barangay, "The Three Caraboas". If you need to find our place you will just tell the driver to locate this statue. This is specifically useful to me before when I visit my boyfriend because I'm not good with directions. Sometimes I get confused with left and right.

Then you will also spot this small plant store where I bought my cacti plants. They are really cheaply and so far my cacti haven't died yet. And I hope they do thrive more!

And finally, we arrived to the market! The public market in our area consists of three (3) sections: The Dry Section, The Wet Section, and The Cafeteria. The market here is pretty organized and clean. The mayor pays visit to the market every Sunday to inspect if the vendors are following the market guidelines.

Our first stop is at the rice stalls. We always comes here first to buy rice, last week we tried Japanese rice and it was so good! Today I want to try a different variety and we are choosing the long grain rice that smells like pandan leaves.

Next we went to the fish stalls and bought two variety of fishes. That will be for three (3) to four (4) viands.

Then off we go to the meat stalls where we have our friend who sells us really cheap meat. We bought a kilo of pork for only PHP 300 or roughly $6. That is a big saving! My boyfriend was hoping I would buy some meat because we rarely eat meat.

After that we go to the vegetable section. I also have a friend here who gives me hefty discounts. That is one of strategy to budget my money, befriending stall owners so they would give me discounts. I buy them weekly so it's okay. I'm they're suki/ regular buyer anyway!

And finally we went to a grocery stall to buy basic needs like shampoo, conditioner, soap, detergent, toothpaste and such. I didn't get to take picture because it's to crowded in there.

We are supposed to go home but my boyfriend insists that he's hungry. It's almost lunch time anyway so we go to the cafeteria section of the market to eat lunch. We ordered dinuguan/blood porridge and batchoy. And we were so hungry we finished it in an instant!

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On our way home I spotted some rice cake stall but I didn't buy anything because it's too pricey. Instead, I approached the cat sleeping a top of an ice cream fridge.

It is one of the highlight of my market day, petting cats. Sadly I only get to see and pet one cat.

I spent almost PHP1250 or roughly $25. Well living is not cheap.

And so guys, that concludes my TRIP TO THE MARKET!

I am tagged by Ate @yen1503 to this weekly engagement. Now I wanted to invite @bmjc98 @bananzell to do the same. Share us your weekly experience!