Chapter 240: Purchasing Things
"Political Commissar Wei, do we go to the grain station to buy our food?"
"No, the family compound will purchase it in a centralized manner. You can go to the canteen office to buy it at the beginning of each month." Political Commissar Wei said.
In the past, the family members went to the nearby grain station to buy food, but according to many family members, buying food is very difficult. Buying food once is almost like going to war, and there are all kinds of problems with the food bought back.
Finally, with the approval of the leaders, the food for the family compound will also be purchased by the troops in a centralized manner in the future.
"The electricity and water bills will be posted on the notice board of the family compound in the early morning of each month. You must go to the management office to pay the fees before the 15th of each month. The electricity fee is 2.2 yuan per kilowatt-hour, and the water fee is 1.3 yuan per ton."
The family of Captain Lu is said to have come from the countryside, and Political Commissar Wei reminded them of this for fear that they didn't know.
Some family members didn't know this before, and thought that water was free, so they used it as much as they could. When they paid the bills, they found out that they had to pay a large amount of water bills.
"The family compound also has a nursery, and the childcare fee is 3 yuan per month. If you need to send your child there, just go to the management office to go through the formalities."
After Political Commissar Wei explained everything that needed to be explained, he took the young comrade away, and Su Mo and Su Tingqian sent him out together.
"This unit can help you buy food, which really saves a lot of trouble." Su Tingqian said.
"It's hard to buy food here. Basically, the grain station only sells food in the first few days of the month. After the 10th, there is basically no food for sale. Those people in the staff building have to go there to line up in the early morning every time they want to buy food."
They didn't know when they first came here, thinking that they would go after the peak at the beginning of the month, but the grain station didn't sell any food at all. Fortunately, the school has a cafeteria.
After that, the two of them stopped cooking by themselves. Although eating in the cafeteria is more expensive, it saves a lot of trouble.
After packing up, Su Mo took a few people to the cafeteria of the family compound.
The canteen of the family compound is also a bungalow, not very big. Now it is dinner time, and it is Sunday, so there are still many people, but most of them take lunch boxes to take home, and not many people eat inside.
Su Mo's family has no bowls and chopsticks except for the lunch boxes they brought on the train, so they have to eat here.
Su Mo went to buy meal tickets first, which is similar to the canteen of the Red Flag Commune, but the price of meals is slightly higher than there.
The meal ticket of the commune canteen is 1.5 cents per catty, and here it is 1.6 cents per catty. Vegetables are 5 cents per serving, and meat and vegetables range from 1.5 to 40 cents.
There are three kinds of staple food today, rice, porridge and sweet potatoes, unlike the north, where there are steamed buns.
Rice costs two taels of meal tickets per bowl, porridge and sweet potatoes cost one tael of meal tickets. Su Mo ordered three bowls of rice, two bowls of porridge, and two servings of sweet potatoes, and asked Su Tingqian to take them over first.
She ordered stir-fried pork slices with chili peppers, stir-fried pork with winter melon, soy sauce chicken, steamed spareribs, and steamed fish with fermented black beans.
Stir-fried pork with vegetables was 15 cents per serving, soy sauce chicken was 35 cents, steamed spareribs was 30 cents, and steamed fish with fermented black beans was 25 cents.
A meal cost 1.36 yuan, and there were four adults and two children. The dishes didn't look bad.
The dishes here are all packed in one serving and one plate. You can take them to the cafeteria with a ticket or pack them up in a lunch box. When you are done, just put the plate in the recycling area.
The four adults shared the rice and sweet potatoes, and the porridge was for the two children. They ate it with fish and chicken shreds, and the two children also enjoyed it very much.
While Su Mo was getting her meal, she took a look around. This canteen should be used by the army to find jobs for their families. Su Mo saw that all the employees were women, and many of them were working with their children on their backs.
She also saw that there were several small tables in the back kitchen, and several children were sitting there eating by themselves.
Su Mo wondered in her heart, if she could handle her job by herself and not take up the quota for transfer, could she give the quota to Lu Xiaolan and let the army arrange for her to work here?
This way, she could work and take care of the children at the same time.
She always believed that it was better for people to have their own jobs, so that they would have the confidence to do anything.
If she could find a job, she would send her two children to the nursery when they were one year old, and Lu Xiaolan would work here, and she could just go over to take a look when she was not busy.
After dinner, several people went to the military service center next door to buy things.
There were quite a lot of things to buy. Su Mo didn't bring any daily necessities with her because she would have to live in the house in Lujia Village.
There was only one cupboard and a coal stove in the kitchen, so she had to buy new cooking utensils.
Su Mo asked for a 24cm aluminum pot, which could be used for cooking rice, porridge, and soup. She also asked for a kitchen knife, a cutting board, 6 fine porcelain bowls, 10 rice bowls, a pair of chopsticks, and an iron frying pan for the coal stove.
Aluminum pot 5.59 yuan/piece, kitchen knife 1.66 yuan/piece, cutting board 0.3 yuan/piece, vegetable bowl 0.21 yuan/piece, rice bowl 0.1 yuan/piece, chopsticks 1 cent a pair, and iron pot for cooking 0.98 yuan/piece.
The kitchen supplies cost 10.89 yuan, plus 2 industrial coupons.
Su Mo was also shocked when she heard the price of the iron pot, because in the novels she had read, iron pots should be very expensive. She confirmed it several times, which made the family sister who was selling things a little impatient.
Su Mo really hasn't bought an iron pot since she came here, so she really didn't know this.
Lu Xiaolan felt a little embarrassed, and hurriedly pulled Su Mo over and said, "Third sister-in-law, this kind of small iron pot is priced at this price, and ours is the same."
It's just that they are often out of stock. Every time an iron pot comes, it will be bought within three days.
Because this kind of small iron pot is actually not durable and is easy to get holes after long-term use, most people will keep an extra one for future use.
After buying kitchen supplies, Su Mo continued to buy daily necessities, such as oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, toothpaste, toothbrush, paper towels, soap, etc., and also bought a few enamel pots, two enamel washbasins, two thermoses, two buckets for bathing, and 3 bamboo mats for making beds.
This trip, she spent nearly fifty yuan to buy all the missing things.
The military service center does not sell beehive coal. You have to go to the coal station to buy it. You have to pay 20 cents for the delivery fee, and the coal station master will bring it to you on a tricycle.
The elder sister of the service center also carefully told Su Mo how to get there. "It's not too far. It only takes about ten minutes to ride a bicycle."
Su Mo thanked her, took the things home, and went to the canteen with Lu Xiaolan to buy this month's food.
Now all that's missing is the beehive coal for burning.
In the family compound, each person is issued a beehive coal ticket per month, the kind with 25 pieces. Political Commissar Wei gave Su Mo 4 tickets in the morning, probably one for each of the three adults and one for the two children.
"Mom, do you know how many beehive coals we need to burn in a month?" Su Mo asked.
"I see those people in the staff building cooking three meals a day, so they can save money and change three coals a day." Mo Yurong said.
That's 90 per month, but now she only has 100 per month. If she doesn't control it well, she might exceed it.
Su Mo is a little bald. When she comes to the city, she still has to worry about not having enough firewood.
Life is really not easy for people in this era. They have to plan everything from food, clothing, housing, and everything else, and they can only make do with just enough.