Hi all,
Scrubbyfish, I'm on Vancouver Island and our prices look really similar to yours. If your shopping options are limited in terms of what stores are close by, then sale days and flyers are your friend.
I just wanted to put out there, though, that we get some great deals by buying in bulk through co-ops/wholesalers/whole food stores, and do pretty well directly from farms too. If you have a chest freezer, it's something to start looking in to, especially if you're in a rural area. Am I remembering right that you're on the sunshine coast?
So, for example, at our local community farm store (natural hippie food store? Not a chain store, I suspect that's important), you can order in bulk bags. I bought a 50lb bag of organic rolled oats for about $35, and I've seen the non-organic ones at Country Grocer (local chain) for $25. Another local bulk store does a once-a-year wholesale order that customers are allowed to piggyback on; our best deal was a 5kg bag of cashew pieces for $52 (just over $1/100g as opposed to $2/100g at the grocery store bulk section). We also bought a big back of dry black beans, basmati rice, etc.
We buy a half pig from a local farmer each year, and although prices are going up, it still works out to about $5/lb. While that's higher than the cheapest cuts might be at Walmart, it's also way cheaper for the more expensive cuts, like bacon, etc. Plus we render the fat for lard (it's easy!) for baking/cooking.
Although we also have a garden, which helps a ton in keeping produce costs down, we've also found the cheapest quality produce (by FAR) at the farmgate of non-certified but generally organic farms. You do have to price shop a little as these can really vary. But there's a farm we visit periodically that we could buy massive bags of produce for like $25 that would do us for a couple of weeks. CSAs vary in value as well. And there are a few "barn market" -type stores around that also sell produce way more cheaply than the grocery stores.
Last, if you have any agricultural area around, we also used to do well at UPicks during the summer seasons, to keep fresh berries, etc in the freezer all year. Now that Costco carries more organic frozen fruit, this may be less of a deal, but if you don't like Costco, it might be worth it.
Over the years we've been adding more and more of these bulk, non-store staples to our pantry, and it really adds up. And the best part is (well except for supporting local food!) we really don't have to do regular grocery runs anymore. Which is PRICELESS. We still go buy milk, etc, but when we run out; we have a pantry full of staples to draw on, so we don't have to spend our Saturdays running around shopping.
I know these aren't options for everyone, but it can really be worth spending some time finding out what's available in your area.