The secret to going to the wholesale market, one million is enough food for a whole week for 6 people

Instead of going to the market by day, which takes a lot of time and is expensive, Ms. Le Thi Diep from Duong Noi, Ha Dong, Hanoi often goes to the market weekly with more than 1 million VND but buys enough food to eat for the whole week for her family. 6 people.
Ms. Diep works as an accountant for a book publishing company, earning 10 million/month. Her husband has a carpentry workshop, income depends on time and month. Some months earn only 10-20 million, some months earn a few dozen or more hundred million.

Diep and his wife have 3 children. Her children are all grown up: the oldest one is in 12th grade, the second one is in 10th grade and the younger one is in 7th grade. In addition, her family has a 30-year-old brother from the countryside who moved to Hanoi to work with her. In total, her family has a total of 6 members. In the past, Ms. Diep used to go to the market every day, or at least once every two days. However, she finds going to the market by day is time consuming and has no control over the market money. Therefore, her family’s monthly expenditure on food is always above 10 million VND/month. Going to the wholesale market, Ms. Diep saves 2-3 million per month (illustration image) “Every day, our family eats 3 meals, it costs about 250,000-300,000 VND. Weekends are slightly better, have to be 400,000 VND / day because I buy more chickens and ducks, fresh food improves. Therefore, my family’s monthly market money is about ten million dong. Also, every day I have to carry the lane to the market, calculate the daily dishes. Many days have busy work, not in time in the morning, then come home late in the afternoon and still rush to go to the market,” Ms. Diep said. Seeing that it is inconvenient to go to the market by day and to reduce the cost of food during the epidemic season, Ms. Diep decided to go to the wholesale market on a weekly basis. “I see that my colleague’s house goes to the market on a weekly basis, which is both cheap, can buy a variety of foods, and saves a lot of time. She suggested going to the wholesale market every weekend to buy all kinds of shrimp, crab, fish, vegetables, etc., for preliminary processing, breaking them into small meals for the refrigerator to eat gradually, which is very convenient.” Listening to your advice, Ms. Diep has gone to the wholesale market once a week for several months. Each time, she brings 1 million dong or a little more. She often goes to the 365 wholesale market and the Duong Noi wholesale market, every Saturday. “In Ha Dong, there are many markets for people’s living and toad markets. However, to buy cheap food, I often go to market 365 to buy meat, fish, vegetables and fruits. Especially vegetables in this market are very cheap. When I go to Duong Noi wholesale market, I buy poultry and seafood. So, I only need 1 million to buy enough fresh food to eat for a whole week,” said Ms. Diep. Specifically, when going to the two wholesale markets above, Ms. Diep often buys the following foods: 1kg of beef: 160,000 VND 1kg of shrimp: 135,000 VND 2 kg of lean shoulder meat: The price of pork has cooled down a lot, so it’s only 110,000 VND/kg, buying 2kg is only 220,000 VND. 1 kg she asked the seller to grind, 1 kg she divided into 3 pieces for storage or roasting. 2 dozen eggs: 40,000 VND 1 chicken about 2kg: 180,000 VND 1.5kg of industrial chicken wings: 120,000 VND 3kg of drifting fish: 90,000 VND (type 1 kg/fish) In addition, vegetables: 1kg of potatoes: 20,000 VND; 1kg beans, 1kg chayote: 30,000 VND; water spinach, amaranth, spinach: 30,000 VND Fruits: 1kg of plums: 30,000 VND; 2kg watermelon: 30,000 VND; 2kg mango: 30,000 VND. Total: Over 1 million VND/week fixed. Of course, you still have to add a little fresh food every day, but not too big. Thus, with an amount of more than 1 million VND, Ms. Diep was able to buy quite a lot of food with enough meat, shrimp, fish and vegetables. After that, she washed, processed into small meals and stored in the refrigerator. “1kg of pork, I divided into 3 meals. 1.5kg chicken wings also divided into 3 meals. My fish is divided into 4 meals. When you like to eat cooked fish, cook it with sour or pickle. When I like to eat stock, I will go to the neighboring warehouse. My beef is also divided into small pieces to stir-fry onions and garlic or to dip noodles for breakfast. As for our chicken, we usually boil it, the meat is removed to cook chicken noodle soup in the morning to eat at home. Every day, I just need to buy more food or other condiments such as onions, tofu, and fruit if needed,” said Ms. Diep. Calculating, three meals a day at home, but this young family of 5 costs about 150,000 VND/day. For the whole month, adding fresh food and other complementary foods, Ms. Diep’s family spent about 6 million VND to go to the market, saving 3 million compared to before. According to Ms. Diep, in addition to going to the wholesale market at the end of each week, in order to save maximum spending, each sister herself needs to know how to create menus when cooking, helping to make family dishes more diverse. “It is important that the 7-day menu is not duplicated, changes dishes continuously. Because food is just around the corner, if you don’t know how to process it, the dishes on the rice tray will be very monotonous,” she said.