Around 200 bananas

Bism Illah wa as salaamu alaykum.

After finally peeling and freezing the last of at least 35 - 40 kilos of bananas, I thought I'd let you know how things work here. When you find something you like, want, need, or use for your food or cooking, it is best to stock up. Things that are in the shop today, may not be seen again for months, years, or ever again.

In our first weeks in Madinah, when my husband came home with 20 packs of organic wholewheat pasta, jars and jars of fruit spread, and bags of organic sugar, I told him he was being excessive. Once we started getting low on those items and we found that there weren't any in stock anymore, I started to realize the wisdom in stocking up.

Bananas are usually around SAR 5 per kilo. Sometimes they are cheaper in the big supermarkets and go down to SAR 3.75 or even SAR 3. As we use bananas for our frozen treat, "Better than Ice-Cream", and also smoothies, we are usually on the look out for good prices and nice quality bananas. Last week Carrefour was selling bananas for the lowest price ever: SAR 1.95 per kilo. Subhaan Allah, hubby couldn't pass it up. He came home with around 10 bags full of bananas. There were so many, mashaa'Allah, that I had to find buckets to store them in. It took me 3 days to peel them, break them into chunks and pack them in buckets for the freezer. Now we have enough frozen bananas for smoothie every day in Ramadan, inshaa'Allah.

Of course, we are a family of six so we have to stock up differently than a smaller family, but after a very short time one learns that if you find it and you need it or the price is right, you need to buy it up!