Relearning Shopping

I'm having problems with shopping.

This is difficult for me.  I have been good with shopping for many decades.  As the eldest of six kids, I helped mom with shopping, and learned early on how to spot specials.  I graduated from helping Mom with the household grocery shopping, to being the lead shopper for our house, when a group of guys rented a house together and split the chores while going to university, to shopping for myself, to shopping for myself and Gloria and whatever else that we needed.  Now my situation has changed considerably.  And I'm having trouble.

Part of the problem is that I've moved.  I'm in a new place, with different stores, and also with different economic factors governing the way those stores arranged their prices.  Certain things are more expensive, and certain things are not.  Some things are actually cheaper, at times.  And then, of course, there's the pandemic factor, and the current inflation pressures, that are driving up all kinds of different prices, but in very unequal ways.  I'm having to relearn an awful lot of different prices, and comparisons.  What is more expensive now because this store is more expensive, and what is more expensive now because everybody is charging more for it.

So, I'm having to rebuild my mental map of prices, almost from scratch.  Almost nothing seems to be the same as it was.  An awful lot of my database of prices has to be completely thrown out so that I can get an accurate picture of the reality of what prices are right now.

The fact that I am in a new place means that different stores are available to me.  I've lost some.  So what I remember about what those stores sold best, or cheapest, or had available when others didn't, is no longer of any use, since those stores are not available anymore.  At the same time, I am checking out different stores.  Sometimes I am checking out new stores because they are newly available to me: sometimes I am checking out new stores because I am trying to see what they have in terms of comparison pricing to replace the stores that I've lost.  So, for example, over the past couple of days I have learned that canned meat, which I used to get at Safeway, because Safeway had the best specials (when canned meat was on special), is no longer available from Safeway since there is no Safeway here.  But when looking for something else in Dollarama yesterday, I found that Dollarama *does* have canned meat.  And, since canned meat is not exactly a perishable item, nor is the retail store responsible for the quality control involved, I might as well take advantage of the fact that Dollarama sells canned meet at regular prices on a cheaper basis than even Safeway sold when it had the meat on special.  (This is, of course, if I can figure out whether or not I actually need canned meat, on my new ridiculous dietary regime.) 

In addition, of course, Gloria's death has changed things.  There are certain things that I'm not buying anymore, because I bought them in the first place because Gloria wanted them.  Then again, Gloria's death has sparked my ridiculous diet, and that means that the groceries that I buy are different as well.  So, at times, grocery stores have become triggers for grief, because I go automatically to buy something that is on sale, and even intend to stock up, and then realize that I don't need this at all, since it was a favorite of Gloria's, and, in my current dieting regime I wouldn't be eating it anyways, and it would just go to waste, even if it is a good price.