I converted my USD too soon :/

Wonder if I should switch it back and see if the exchange gets worse

Canadian dollar and oil slide to 13-year lows, stocks sell off

Canadian dollar and oil slide to 13-year lows, stocks sell off - Business - CBC News

Trip to see friends in LA are now on hold. They can come up here to see me and do some vacationing at a damn good discount, instead.

1 USD = 1.45410 CAD
1 CAD = 0.687711 USD

fuck, produce and groceries are soo expensive now. It's weird, felt like the price doubled from last year, but dollar didn't go down by as much.

Its winter. Pay attention to what you are buying. A lot of it has nothing to do with currency and everything to do with weather.

read some articles - basically says veggies like cauliflower up due most to the drought in Cali and a bit to the low Canadian dollar. I notice broccoli and certain lettuce also got more expensive as well.

Man, I love cauliflower and broccoli . . . :QQ:

Notice how EVERY single article cites cauliflower as an example? Maybe a bit of sensationalism (vancitybuzz syndrome) going on there?
Either way, this could be the perfect opportunity to revisit concentrating on a very lucrative industry in Canada. Farming. Food is more important to the world than oil is.
Now since the shitty head of cauliflower shipped in from California in the back of a semi truck that was harvested 3 weeks ago costs so much, you can look into some higher quality, fresher more sustainable food thats close to home.
Unfortunately its not the best time of the year for it, but its something to pay attention to.

that's gambling - just enjoy the 'win' you got, and go from there with your cash plan / investment plan

Cauliflower prices have come down a lot.
If anyone is selling them for more than $4 a head, they are a rip off.
Broccoli is also much cheaper, should be closer to $2.49 per lb.

***Edit***

3 weeks for Cauliflower from California is not correct.
Say they pick on Sunday, load on Monday and it is only a 3 day journey so they arrive on Thursday and go to the stores on Fri or Saturday.
At most, I would say the product is 1 week old by the time we consume it.

***Edit***

Green onions, Cilantro and other Mexican stuff not so much.

Produce has been affected by the exchange rate, but more of the price increase is due to weather, Obama, more profits in other crops.
This weekend, there was some pretty nasty weather in Florida.
This will drive east coast demand up for Mexican and California produce.
Freeze during Christmas has hurt a lot of the mexican crops.
Currently, rain in California has/will affect crops from California for the next little while.
California was in a heavy drought for the past 2 years, so that plus extreme heat had affected their product this past summer.

Obama's welfare plus the crack down on illegal Mexican workers have reduced the amount of farm workers available.
Plus, whatever workers are left, they rather work certain crops that require less bend/stretching or pay more money ie medicinal marijuana

To be honest, concentrating on local farmer is not the solution as we live in a rain/winter climate and lack of people willing to work on the farms. But I'll leave that for another discussion.

Not sure where you finding $4 a head cauliflower. Superstore, save ons, buy low all have it at $6-7 a head last week. Was at superstore last night and it was $6 a head. I don't have Costco membership or anything like that. Local grocers are usually cheaper but don't have all the produce and household stuff.

Hook us up with the cheap produce!

I honestly didn't think this many people would care about or eat cauliflower haha

That was last week.
I am talking about this week.
Some stores are now down to $1 per lb.
So depending if they are carrying small heads or med size head.
Med size would be $4 or less per head.
Small heads are around $2-3 per head.

Never mind cauliflower talk, most of short and medium rice sold here comes from the US. Kokuho Rose for sushi rice. Damn, probably gonna go up each shipment. Prices go up quickly, going back down, not so much.

On a side note, rice in Asia was currency.

Did a little trading in rice way back when.
Rice is very much like oil.
Because rice is dried and doesn't go bad, people tend to store them in warehouses and sell them when the market is short, ie higher ROI.
But not so much locally now that costs of warehousing has gone up.

you guys think thats bad? donalds market had asparagus for $11.99/lb
i never buy that stuff unless its like $2.99/lb or less, $11.99/lb means a bundle is going to be like $15+

I can't say too much for fear of getting in trouble at my job, but I do expect these slightly higher prices to be the new norm for produce for the next little while.

35% increase in exchange rate.

Farmers losing too much money over the past 5 years so everyone is cutting back, and add in the other factors I already mentioned.
But don't worry. Once the farmers see how much profit they made this winter, that is the dangling carrots to entice them to grow more this summer/fall.

In general, most crops take 90 from planting the seeds to being able to harvest the item.

fuck foie gras, gimme some dat cauliflower and a$paraga$$$!!

Lol, I remember when rice was in major shortage. Congee king gave me like 12 grains of rice in my water they like to call congee. That or my bowl was not clean and they gave me a dirty bowl full of left overs diluted with hot water from the last table.

Global news was just talking about cauliflower. Kins market is selling 2 heads for 4 dollars now.

I didn't know our entire food supply was quantified by cauliflower.
If you guys are stressing that bad about the expensive foods, just know you can get steelhead trout for less than asparagus.
I know what I'd rather have for dinner tonight.

It's costing them almost $10/lb, so the mark up isn't that much(relative). But yea, probably best not to spend your money on asparagus until its local and not imported.

the only veggies/fruits i'll pay an insane price for are Lychees and Cherries

everything else can skyrocket if it wants i'll just eat leaves off of a tree :lol

Strawberries.............. mmmmmmmmmmmm, strawberries. Good thing I have a shitload during summer. Have a bunch frozen from last year's bumper crop. All of a sudden, my backyard is going to be so important. Gonna have to get rid of the weeds and put up planter boxes and greenhouses.