After agreeing, Food Basics would be my go-to grocery store for the foreseeable future, I did a terrible thing. I couldn’t help myself. I had to sneak over to Zehrs, if just for a peek at the shiny fruit displays, the mile high stack of fresh produce, the Deli counter…ah the Deli counter.

 I have been enjoying the frugal pat on the back I have been giving myself after shopping at a discount grocery store. I always think, wow, only $93 for a week’s worth of food (excluding meat because I’ve got all the push-pins I need) but every now and again, when I run out of crumbled feta and my only option at the discount food chain is a block of floating feta in mouldy cheese water with an expiry date somewhere around last Christmas or when I want to watch an actual meat slicer cut the meat before my eyes so that I know it’s real or when I’m craving real ice cream, caramel, cashew, toffee, ice cream for almost $8 a litre and worth double that, I cave and go to Zehrs.

The other day when I watched my two containers of feta, my two pounds of sliced meat, my fresh, local blueberries, did you know they sold cream of tartar for my banana bread recipe in the bulk food aisle? run through the scanner, I noticed an item on the computer pop up on the screen at $6.42.

I wasn’t sure what it was. Perhaps the chocolate chips I would later use in some freshly baked muffins or maybe it was the sparkling water, some skinless, boneless chicken breasts.

The $6.42 line item showed up opposite “nectarines” on my receipt.

I bought four nectarines. Four. Just the four. Nectarines. Four of them. For $6.42. Nectarines.

I removed the hand that had been patting my back for weeks of savings at the discount store and placed it over my mouth to muffle the shouting.

While a part of me knew charging anyone $6.42 for four nectarines was outrageous, another part was even more excited for the prize that must be hidden inside.