It is sold by weight
One aspect of Italian retailing which I find very comfortable and economical is that if you are a single, or small couple, you are never forced to buy ten overpackaged peaches or tomatoes, or a whole lettuce, or a whole loaf! It is entirely acceptable in most places - including quite large supermarkets - to ask for two slices off a loaf, a couple of slices of prosciutto, one tomato, two potatos - etc etc. So there is no waste. I use one wonderful supermarket where they have "salad" - green leaves, all the same price, so you can pick yourself a green salad of seven or more different varieties of leaf, and if you have only bought seven leaves - fine. That is allowed. If I want one thin slice of pork loin to do a fancy Chinese recipe with, my meat will end up costing something like 1/2 a euro. If I want to do something elaborate which calls for 200g of minced pork, 150g of minced beef, 50g of chicken liver, I can buy these ingredients in these quantities - at the same price as if I were buying a kilo of each
Steel wool - (is anybody young enough to have heard of this stuff?) - in the UK is an overpriced box of 12 Brillo pads - (I guess that is a couple of euro expenditure:) no - you just go to the ferramenta who sells it by the kilo, and if you just need 20grams it costs a few centesimo. I agree it is a bit of a culture shock to pay for heavyweight polythene rubbish bags by the kilo - but you get used to this!
So - this is one small aspect of doing Italy on a shoestring - remember: almost everthing is sold by weight, and there is not a minimum weight :) (My huge local coop often has offers on crockery....sold by the kilo!!)
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