No Manwich, grits or cornbread???

I've smuggled lots of bacon and country sausage into the UK and then frozen it. It doesn't go all that far, obviously. There are some excellent "artisan" sausages in the UK, but hella expensive.

For that matter, just don't do the currency conversion in your head when you shop for meat, 'K? It's bad enough if you think to yourself "those prices are in dollars." You'll scream if you double it.

Oh! One of the greatest prepared comfort foods EVAR: frozen toad in the hole. Every supermarket has its own brand. It's sausages in batter. Oh, man. My favorite!

If you earn your money in £s and spend it in £s why would you convert it into (US) dollars?

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=24636.0

Michigal you'll find in this thread links to some online shops that sell American groceries that might help you.

I take it this was your first grocery shopping expedition in the UK? Tesco on a Saturday is not the best introduction!

If you earn your money in £s and spend it in £s why would you convert it into (US) dollars?

Because I don't earn my money in £s. Not yet, anyhow. I haven't moved yet.

And I imagine it'll be more than a few years before I forget that I could get boneless skinless chicken breasts for 50p the pound in my local deli.

For that matter, just don't do the currency conversion in your head when you shop for meat, 'K? It's bad enough if you think to yourself "those prices are in dollars." You'll scream if you double it.

Totally great advice! One of the first things every newly minted expat has do - throw out the mental calculator! Otherwise you would never buy a thing here and that means you'll never get integrated. Just accept the prices for what they are and pretty soon you'll adjust to the cost of living being 'normal'.

Totally great advice! One of the first things every newly minted expat has do - throw out the mental calculator! Otherwise you would never buy a thing here and that means you'll never get integrated. Just accept the prices for what they are and pretty soon you'll adjust to the cost of living being 'normal'.

Yep.  There's no way I'd be able to purchase anything if I did that.

If you earn your money in £s and spend it in £s why would you convert it into (US) dollars?

I couldn't agree more. And yet it's something that people insist on doing. It's really not even a good means of comparison since it's dependent on whatever the exchange rate is that day....

When I first moved here I mentally converted prices as a means to get to grips with the value of things - but I soon found that was a mistake. Prices don't translate as simply as you assume they would (otherwise things would be incredibly dirt cheap here!! Can you imagine if things were priced at the US value?? That would be great!). Even moving from sterling to the Euro down here is maddening as everything here appears to be even more expensive than it is (and it is expensive here)!

The only time I ever bring out that calculator when shopping is when I feel tempted to buy something from one of those expensive online shops. You know, root beer, peanut butter, pumpkin etc. I did so once and have since made my pumpkin pies every year from scratch. And I do mean SCRATCH! ie starting with a pumpkin which I get at halloween and save until December hehe. My sister kindly sends my kiddies a huge envelope stuffed with kool aid packets once a year and apart from that we do without unless I happen upon some familiar food in one of the local shops. Maybe I'm just cheap!

Maybe I'm just cheap!

Definitely not! When I was in the US, I'd ration myself as to how often I could buy a Wispa bar from the British import shop! 

I can just say, you will adapt. I started out bringing a ton of food from the US (whatever I could bring in the luggage or have shipped) and substituting the best I could with items in the UK. After 2yrs, I realised that I rarely craved or needed the US items I wanted so badly when I moved there. I had adapted to their food and the shopping. I started to want and crave beans and chocolate digestives. I adjusted. Don't get me wrong, I still dreamt about my pancake syrup and was upset when my mom forgot to bring it on a visit, but again, I adjusted.

I'm lucky because I cooked vegetarian meals back in the US and that's what I do here.  The only things that are hard to find are some of the Japanese things like miso and seaweed, etc.  I can live without it and I'm sure if I look really hard I can find those items.

It's the ready made convenience and junky things that are hard to find here--and the natural food market versions (which are still junky) are harder to find, but I'm better off without that stuff anyway--health-wise.

I do miss Cheeze-Its (or Nips--I forget now which one I like better!) but my sister mailed me some  .  And now I can find Reese's PB-Cups in the UK, so I'm pretty much good to go on that front.

Also, I've found that Cheesey Oat Cakes are a good and healthier substitue for my beloved Cheeze-Its (Nips?).

So you will find substitutes, and hopefully friends from the US will send you the occasional care package.  It's fun discovering new stuff, too--like all the Indian stuff--curry sauces and whatnot which I never noticed back in the US.  I love Indian food (never cooked it much before) and so does my hubby so that has been fun learning to do.

The only thing I've taken from this thread is... Whoa, you can BUY cornbread in the US?  Like, actual bread, and not just the ingredients?  Otherwise, you just need some time to figure out the shops and the packaging.  Most stuff is here.. somewhere.  A lot of shops have stuff either hidden, available on order, or just labeled in their language/stocked in a section that doesn't make sense (to me).  Ex: the pot scrubbers and garbage bags are in the pet food aisle, not with cleaning stuff in our supermarket.  Japanese rice is in with health foods.. not with the other rice.  Miso is in the exotic import section, tofu is on shelves, not in the fridges.. veggie mock meat stuff is in the frozen meat dept.  Oh, and the 'help' desk doesn't seem to be about helping people find stuff...

Our local butcher sells a lot of fresh herbs and vegetables, but they're all in the back.  The convenience store can get almost anything you'd like, but you have to ask.  

The cracker situation is dire here, though.

The cracker situation is dire here, though.

Pretzels are hard to find, too.  You can find basic pretzels but no cool ones like Newman's Own salt and pepper pretzels or Harry's broken up burnt pieces of pretzels or any of the "Dutch Style" big fat pretzels.

I haven't read this entire thread but I've seen Oscar Mayer bacon at our big Sainsburys, Bisquick at all of our Tescos and tomato juice everywhere.