Second uplift arrives!

Teacher's belongings are transported, or "uplifted", at the expense of Education Queensland when relocating to the Torres Strait.  A family gets 30m3 (1 container) of furniture, clothing, food & personal belongings transported when first relocating, then we can apply for a "second uplift" for essential items not included in the first uplift.  We were lucky enough to have our second uplift approved for the transport of our boat - we bought it in Brisbane when we returned for the Easter holidays.  We then filled the boat with newly purchased camping gear, fishing stuff, a few clothing items, toiletries, gardening gear & lots & lots of groceries!

We packed everything into the boat & strapped it all down with a boat cover.  It was picked up by the transporters in Brisbane in the last week of April...but didn't arrive here till the 27th May- 1 month later!  It got as far as Cairns, then the transporter company called us to say they would not transport the boat with it's contents, they would send the boat empty & send the contents separately... 

The contents actually beat the boat, arriving here on the 22nd May.  There was a mountain of unpacking to do...groceries that wouldn't fit in the pantry...an overflow of nappies...new camping gear to store...it was just like Christmas!  We really made good use of the chance to ship groceries for free - I had bought about $1000 worth of dry goods from Coles & Woolies while back in Brisbane - so we won't need to do an online grocery order for quite some time!!  Highly recommended!

7 packs of nappies & 1 of wipes - yoo hoo!   

2 boxes of toiletries...

Some of the stuff that won't fit in the kitchen cupboards - it lives in a box on top of the pantry!

Atop another kitchen cabinet - more dry goods that won't fit in.  There are 4 drawers full of food in Milly's bedroom too!

P.S. I have 21 boxes of cereal in my kitchen at present!  Happy days.

Update on the cost of groceries here vs shipping them form Cairns...

Well, after many days of research, I can now report --- my Coles grocery order shipped from Cairns WAS cheaper than buying here! 

I collected my Coles order from the Seaswift barge on Monday this week.  It came in 11 boxes & with a very thorough inventory of everything I had ordered, their unit prices & totals.  So I visited our IBIS supermarket each morning this week with that inventory list & wrote the local prices next to the Coles prices.  This morning I tallied it all up & here are the results...

Coles
Groceries $512.73 + Coles delivery fee $20.00 + Seaswift shipping $142 = TOTAL $674.73

IBIS
Groceries = TOTAL $842.91

Wow! That's a difference of $168.18.

Now, I'm not saying it's worth doing every weekly shop with Coles online - it's too time consuming & a lot of work to pick up all those boxes of groceries ...but I do think a big monthly Coles shop will be entirely worth it, especially considering many of the things I bought are not available at all here on Thursday Island.  For example - my vegetarian "Quorn" sausages & mince, kids yoghurts in squeezie pouches, vol au vent pastry cases for making tuna & corn pies, lamb mince, lamb sausages, tinned Mexican beans for tacos & nachos, sliced deli chicken, scones, 100 & 1000's biscuits for the kids, croissants, kids chicken noodle soup tins, etc... plus many of the things that are simply in the brand we prefer or buy because they are the cheapest.  For example - there's no "cheap brand" laundry soaker, tinned tuna, free range eggs, corn chips, liquid stock, chocolate blocks, ice cream, crumpets, dips, tampons or yoghurt.  Of course, not all of these things are essential to life on earth - but they do provide variety...and let's face it... pure happiness at meal times.  We could say they are essential for maintaining one's own sanity!  

I have discovered "Grocery Run" online shopping too - they ship anywhere in Australia for a maximum of $11 postage & have some cheap deals, but don't do fridge, freezer, fruit, veg, meat...just pantry, bathroom & cleaning stuff.  So, will probably do a monthly order with them too.   

And...I do completely intend to support the Islander Board of Industry and Service (IBIS) supermarket in-between my big Coles orders. 
:-) 

Arrival of our first grocery order from Cairns!

Our first Coles grocery order arrived on Thursday Island today!  Hooray!!  We ate beautiful, fresh food for dinner tonight!

Anyone who is new here spends a lot of time discussing / asking / researching options for procuring food...it's a time-consuming hobby!  Of course, a good range of things is available at the IBIS supermarket in Douglas St, but everything is expensive because it's been shipped here from Cairns & there's no competitor supermarket.

So, I had a go at a coles online order...I set up a shopping list on colesonline.com.au & an account with Seaswift freighting company before we moved here.  Then after much "to-ing and fro-ing" about whether or not is was worth paying the cost of the freighting, decided to give it a try - because I figure you can't make your mind up till you've tried it yourself!  

Some long-term residents here do fortnightly or monthly orders with coles, wholesale butchers or green grocers in Cairns, others just do there groceries here every week...so there's no one definative answer.

I had originally expected my order to arrive here last Friday, & was so disappointed when I realised I'd missed the cut-off times for delivery to the Cairns wharf...so we had a 'skinny weekend' where we continued eating a restricted diet for a few more days while waiting for it's Monday arrival. 

Dropped in to the TI wharf Monday morning to see if anything was ready - told to try again at 3pm.  Took the girls with me after school pick-up & our freezer & chiller goods were ready, so took those & madly rushed to carry heavy boxes to our downstairs fridge/freezer & unpack everything before it melted while the girls whinged & got in the way!  Went back to the wharf at 4.30pm & collected the dry goods & Dwayne helped me unpack those.  Happy days! 

Wow - our freezers, fridges & pantry look so much happier now!  We all enjoyed chicken breast, cheese, cream cheese & fresh salad, on wraps tonight...ahhh!

Jayne doing a happy dance in the driveway with her coles groceries sent from Cairns!

My pantry is now happy - but not as happy as my stuffed-full fridges & freezers!

Will take my coles receipt down to the IBIS this week & compare prices - see if it really was worth all the effort??  Keep you posted!