"My girlfriends mom fled from a communist country in the seventies and she still has some behaviors left from then. She has an allotment to grow things, all Swedes there grow strawberries, herbs, fancy stuff that's expensive to buy or that are nicer fresh. She grows regular potatoes and onions mostly. I try to explain that onions and potatoes are very cheap and it would be better to grow maybe rocket, cilantro, oregano or something, but no, potatoes is a "good base food" so she keeps at it. She is also very "economic", never any restaurant food for instance, "we have food at home". My girlfriend told me about when she was a kid and they drove for like two days to eastern Europe, and they would bring sandwiches from home and sleep in the car every summer, and then stay at relatives, pick mushrooms and berries that they brought home, and of course buy all the staple goods that where cheaper there, and really fill up their car with so much c**p. Like powdered soups and sugar and jam."