Grocery Haul in Rural Alaska _ How much can $600 dollars buy in Kake, Alaska

Hi , everybody .

Um , if you found our channel from my grocery haul in Juneau , then you're gonna like this one .

Uh We have , um , so we are Alaska native and because of COVID and CO in the Covid Cares Act and things like that .

Um , our tribe got a certain amount of money and so each member of the tribe gets um kind of like a stipend every month .

And so you have a few different ways you can spend it .

But one of the ways is for groceries and um , we already filled up our fuel last month and things like that .

So this month we have some grocery money .

So we are at one of the , one of two places you can buy groceries and cake and this is the cake , tribal fuel station , Mini Mart .

And so they get a lot of things from Costco and they order from different places and have things sent in .

Um , so I think we have , let me check .

I can't remember how much money we have to spend here .

So , Cooper off Mini Mart , we have $205.08 .

So , um , you guys will be able to follow us along and see how much we can buy and what we can buy for $200.08 $205 .

Sorry .

Here we have the bread section .

Um , this is fairly stocked .

You can see the refrigerators .

Here .

They are really low because everybody went shopping today because today was freight day and that means that produce was put out last night .

So , uh we did not get there early enough and most of the produce was gone at the fuel station mini marked here's some canned goods .

So here's my first cartload .

Um , I still had to do a little bit more shopping .

I had to get some other things , but there's pretty much what I got there on the bottom .

There is a lot a of mostly it's all gluten free food that we actually was , um , expired .

So I ended up getting it 50% off .

So that was really nice and it helped stretch the money even further .

So that was great for me because I do have to eat gluten free .

And , um , we usually can't find a lot of stuff in town .

So that was great to find some stuff and have it be 50% off is still probably like the same price you guys would pay other people would pay .

But for us , you take what you can get .

So here's the full cart load outside .

This is all that we ended up getting out with .

And so it's a pretty good amount granite .

These carts are very small .

They're not normal size carts .

All right .

So we are at stop number two , which is S OS , which is the , um , just general grocery store .

Uh , the first layer is all food products and then there's an upstairs and that has like presents and kitchen stuff and odds and ends that you never know what you'll find .

But , uh , we're gonna go and I think we have $400 just in here today .

So we'll get to show you what , how much , uh , stuff I can buy you .

And they also got produce .

They looks like they either hadn't put out or they'd run out of some food as well .

They have , produce a little bit longer because they actually , they don't just buy from Costco .

Like the fuel station Mini Mart does .

They actually , um , like have a , someone they purchase produce through .

So they usually have food for a little bit longer , but it's usually a little bit more expensive and then they also ran out of eggs .

So that's been a big problem lately is that eggs have been really hard to come by .

Um , so , like they were limiting the amount of eggs families could buy , but they are still running out .

So I actually , I haven't asked them why .

That's a thing .

But I know on some other things that we've asked about , they have said that it's just not , there's just stuff that's not available right now due to COVID and different factories not running and things like that .

So hopefully we'll get more eggs soon and it will no longer be an issue .

But for right now , we are still very limited on eggs .

You can really only buy them like one day a week when the bar just come in and if you aren't there soon enough then they run out and you just have to figure something else out for the rest of the week .

So , again , this is a very small cart .

Um , it would be like one of the little carts you would get at Fred Meyer .

They don't even , I don't even think they have the really big carts here in town .

Uh , just because the grocery stores are pretty small and you can't really maneuver like , even with two of these small carts going by each other , I don't think they'd fit down the aisle together .

So you have to be really careful about where you're going with your carts .

And then also you have to , um , you just aren't usually buying that much stuff that you need a huge cart and we ended up getting some like juices and things like that just because we don't usually buy juice and we'll probably make it stretch for quite a while because , um , Bonnie doesn't really drink any juice and really , it's just for us , if we're having brunch with friends or something .

It's always kind of fun to have a special treat .

So , this is the hardware section of the store .

Um , and it is in the lower part and it just kind of has odds and ends whatever you might try to find .

They , they try to stock a little bit of everything but you know how it goes , whatever you're looking for , they don't usually have , sometimes they'll have a list out so you can write down what you might need if you're looking for something specific and then they can order it .

So they're pretty good about that though , about ordering things .

They also have some lumber in like outside of the store in the back area that they try to keep stocked .

So you're , you're able to go buy lumber if you need some , they have a very limited supply , but they have basic things that you might need .

Um , and then upstairs they have more , they have like , um , if you needed to buy like a washer or dryer , they have a few things .

They don't have a huge selection , but they have a little bit just in case it go , your stuff goes out and you really just need something and you can't wait for it to come in or order it or you're having a hard time .

So they do have a little bit of supplies of most things that you would need .

Um , if you're looking for something super specific though .

It's gonna be pretty challenging unless you get lucky .

All right , here we are bringing up our items about halfway through .

And then we ended up at less than $400 .

And so I went and bought Bonnie another pack of , uh , baby snacks just because I knew it was close to the register and there was people behind me , there was a line .

So I was trying to like hit the $400 mark .

And so we ended up having to pay like a dollar 15 buck .

It was not a big deal .

So it was , it was nice to be able to get as close to 400 as we could .

All right , S L S is done .

We got everything home and unloaded and then we're going to set it all out on the table and show you guys what we got bunny wants to eat all the food because it's layed out on the table .

You already had a pepper and you want some more pepper .

Y All right .

So this is what $600 can buy you in cake .

Uh I'm sure that if we were more careful about every single little thing that we got that it could go a lot further but for just going through and getting things that we need or we can stock up on .

This is what we got .

We also got um brown rice and red flour and uh yeah , so we're gonna go through a little bit of , um , I'm just gonna go through some of the things that are kind of more expensive and show you what that looks like .

This cheese here was 17 98 and then this one was $30 .

So I think cheese is probably the most expensive thing .

Brown rice was $25 and then the , um , but flower was $19 which , I don't know , didn't seem that bad to me .

Cheese was like more expensive than that .

So today was actually produce day , meaning the barge came in last night .

Um , but we had some things we had to do this afternoon .

So we didn't get to the stores until I think two o'clock .

And so most of the produce was gone .

Um , there was no eggs .

This was one of the last two milks that was there .

Um , we were able to get some lettuce and peppers and celery and onions .

But , um , we were also looking for a few other things that we weren't able to get because they had already been sold out .

Um , but then the other stuff is kind of , you know , it's not as people can get that pretty much whenever .

So , um , we just went through and kind of stocked up on some of our things that we use a lot and that we are running low on .

So bottled Clorox was 9 93 .

Hot chocolate mix was , ended up being 10 , 11 , almost $11 .

Um Till me , medium cheddar that sliced cheese was almost $18 .

Seaweed rice cracker things .

Those were 5 25 each .

Like basically cool whip was 3 37 tortillas .

5 58 .

The other amount , the big thing of mozzarella was almost $30 .

The gallon of milk was 5 42 .

The canole oil , we got two of them .

So it was like $8 each .

It was a pack of two .

Oh , and then this is a bunch of the gluten free stuff that ended up being 50% off .

And so there was , um , like there's crackers , there was a , uh , like a bread , uh , pizza bread mix box .

Like , I think there was a couple of those .

Um , I think I got some pretzels and yeah , I think that was pretty much what was , um , 50% off .

Oh , and then we got some peach , like a , some kind of peach thing that was on sale .

Um , and then the brown rice , which was $25 and then the bit the bread flour , which was $19 .

And then again , I was trying to not waste any of the money that we received .

So we got to like $200 and then it was 205 .

So , um , it's really hard at the fuel at the Mini Mart because nothing has prices on it .

And so it's really just a big guess you can ask them and they can like , ring it and tell you , but it's kind of hard to do that for everything .

So it's challenging to figure out how much money you're spending .

You kind of just have to put stuff in the cart and then , um , like have some things you could take away or add in because you really have no idea .

So I got to like $200 and then I still had like at least $5 to go and I really was trying to like use all of that .

So I didn't know what to get .

So I just , um , grabbed some a condiment .

So I ended up grabbing ketchup , which we didn't super need , but we'll just keep it till next summer .

It's not a big deal .

Um , it's shelf stable .

So , so , and then that ended up bringing us over our amount to $207 .

So I think I ended up having to pay like $2 or something like that .

But we tried to get as close as we could again .

So S os um , we ended , we had got more stuff here because we had more money deli ham which was 7 39 .

So that's like a sandwich basically sandwich ham .

Oh , we got Canadian bacon for making pizza .

It was 4 39 .

We got two sausages which was 8 79 each .

Um , we got pepperoni for pizza which was 5 29 .

Joe saw Blue Cheese crumbles and he was really excited to got that .

And that was 3 69 .

We got a same mozzarella like a ball thing for making pizza .

And that was 7 79 got some sliced pepper Jack and some sliced Swiss cheese , which the pepper Jack was $4 and the Swiss was 5 99 .

There was something from grocery that is 2 49 .

It didn't say exactly what it was .

Oh , 15 bean soup .

It was just like a bag of dried beans was 4 39 .

Apple cider was 6 19 , assorted juice .

Four pack .

Oh , that was what we got for Barney .

Um just in case she gets sick or something .

That was 4 99 .

We got molasses which was 5 29 got baby dills for 8 79 elbow noodles .

We got two of them .

They were 2 99 each .

Actually , I think the pasta is fairly decently priced here .

It doesn't seem like there's a huge markup .

Oh , we got gluten free noodles which were four oh nine .

Uh We got some more gluten free ones which were 3 79 .

Oh , I got a lemon frosting because I wanna try making something delicious .

And that was 3 19 .

We got a couple of bacon ranch pasta mix boxes .

They're really del surprisingly delicious and they were 3 99 each .

We got some oatmeal which was 4 69 baking powder for 3 19 .

Uh Chinese mustard hot Chinese mustard for 5 99 almonds .

Can't remember what that is .

Corn cream style .

I really wanted to try that .

I hadn't tried it before .

So we got that one .

It was 2 89 .

We ended up getting three Masso because we make our own tortillas quite often .

Um , because we can't find gluten-free tortillas here in town .

And so we got three mass so we can make tortillas and those are 5 59 each .

Um We got cranberry juice for 7 39 .

We got a few uh two things on Marino cherries for making um like different fun drinks .

So that was 2 89 each .

The cereal we got for 11 59 .

I'm not sure what the melts chop are but they were , we got two of them .

It was 4 79 .

gluten free um crumble cake looked delicious and it was 6 39 corn chex mix was 6 49 .

The mini marshmallows were 2 59 onion roasted garlic for 9 79 .

Pickling salt for 5 19 cupcake mix .

A gluten free cupcake mix for 5 29 .

Another juice for 5 39 pomegranate juice for 6 59 .

Um Pretzels were 3 49 .

All those were pretzel rolls and pretzel buns .

So they were both 3 49 jo thought they looked delicious .

We got some , I don't know what that stands for .

Some of those .

I'm not sure we have some water chestnuts .

There are 1 79 each .

Just those really small little tins .

Uh , dark chocolate cocoa powder was 5 39 jelly peck in .

We'd been eating that .

We got two of those and they were 3 59 .

Table salt .

The box of it was 5 19 Vinegar cider was 12 oh nine .

Meat was seven oh five .

I think that was the Chinese pork stuff that we got .

Oh , sausages .

We got , and they were packs and we got two of them .

It was 5 39 and then we got two eggnogs and they were 6 39 each .

We did not realize how expensive they were .

They were two like small ones .

So Joe was thinking he'd be like having one big one , but we ended up drinking before I went back .

So that was good .

Oh , we got a couple of pie pans because we were running low on at Thanksgiving and they were 1 49 each .

We had run out of , we'd run out of freezer bags .

So we got two of those for 3 19 , Costco didn't have them last time .

I was there .

So that was disappointing .

So we ended up having to buy them here , but that's all right .

That happens .

Um , and I ended up getting bananas which were 5 32 a pound .

So it was like $7 for that bunch of bananas .

The celery was 3 11 .

The cucumber was a dollar 89 .

The romaine lettuce was 5 29 .

Granny Smith Bigger Granny Smith Apples was 7 29 .

The lemons ended up 2 97 and then we got some , a bag of like mixed nuts because , you know , festive for the holidays and it was 5 79 .

We haven't really eaten them though .

We're gonna have to get on that and eat those up .

And then we got a thing of green onions .

The green onions are worth 69 cents .

But I think the green onions and the cilantro are like very reasonably priced .

I don't , I mean , I think that's the same price as other places .

So it's really funny some things that I think are like the same prices of other , other , as other places and then other things are like way more expensive .

And then the last thing was red , red bell peppers .

I think we got like four or five , maybe four of them and it was like 11 79 .

So milk at the mini Mart , that's something we always try to get at the mini mart because it is almost $8 at S Os .

So we try to make sure that we get milk at the mini mart because you're saving like $3 every time you buy milk .

So we do , we try not to go through a ton of milk , but usually maybe a gallon of milk , uh , every like week and a half or we try to make it last two weeks .

Um , Bonnie is still using powdered formula and that is because milk is so expensive here and we run out a lot .

So if she was no longer using formula , there's no guarantee that there would , there would always be whole milk for her to have .

And so it's kind of a gamble if you start using whole milk because um , it , they don't always have it .

So , yeah , I would be kind of nervous about that .

Um , so we're just keeping her own formula for now and honestly , we'll probably just keep her on there until we just stop using bottles .

Um , because it's just , it's less stressful , something to think about too .

Like , um , when I was going through and telling you the prices during the video of the cheese .

So the most expensive thing we bought probably was cheese .

And the reason why it is so expensive is because everything comes to us from Seattle .

So everything goes onto a barge in Seattle .

So , however it gets there , I mean , it might be shipped from other parts of the country .

I don't know , but I know it all comes together in Seattle .

It all goes on the barge and then the barge makes its way from Seattle to Alaska to Juneau and Wrangle and all the , you know , most of the towns and it makes its way to us here in cake .

And so during that whole time it's on the barge , it has to be refrigerated and so all the shipping costs are one thing , but also to have the cost of refrigerating and , and anything that's frozen through a week of shipping on the barge on the ocean , um , it , it really adds up and so that's why it's so expensive to get .

Um , that's why milk is more expensive .

Anything that's refrigerated or frozen is really a lot more expensive or anything that's really heavy .

So , as you could tell the pasta price really wasn't that extraordinary .

And that's because it's not super heavy and it doesn't have to be refrigerate it or frozen .

And so a lot of these things , if you really , like , think about why it might be that much more expensive .

It does make sense .

I mean , it does cost a lot to get it here and even if you were just sending it from Juneau , um , it still has to be refrigerated or frozen on the barge and , um , most places won't do that .

Like Juno isn't usually a hub for groceries .

The groceries still have to get sent to them from Seattle .

So anywhere in Alaska , pretty much all of our groceries come from Seattle .

Actually .

I don't know .

I know that's more true for Southeast Alaska , up in Anchorage and up places up north .

I would still think a lot of it would come from Seattle , but don't quote me .

So , thank you for watching .

This was a grocery hall in rural Alaska in Kick Alaska and Um I'm sure everybody has a different way of doing groceries and a different way of thinking about it .

But this is just how we ended up spending our money and we are very grateful to have this money and it was really nice to help get us through the holidays .

So thank you for watching .

Uh , if you haven't already check us out on our Instagram , it's at Lewis Family vlog .

I can leave a little link .

Um We also have a Facebook page that is um I think it's just Lewis Family vlog .

Also , everything is Louis Family Blog .

Our email is Lewis family blog at gmail dot com .

Uh And then we'll make sure to subscribe so that you can watch more of these things videos and we don't usually do grocery haul videos , but um we were just able to receive this money and we thought it would be fun for you guys since a lot of our subscribers actually started following us from my yearly grocery haul that we did going to June .

Um Some of you have asked when we're going to do that again .

Well , probably not for a year .

Uh We'll see it'll probably be next summer .

So that's when we have ferries .

And uh right now with COVID , we aren't getting out of town very often .

So as of right now , the next time we'll leave is probably in the summer time .

So we'll make it through the winter with what we bought and we'll see how we're doing and what we need .

All right , have a good day .

Bye .