Eat on a Budget

There has been a lot in the media lately about how families are finding it difficult to make weekly wages stretch further; in a sense pay more with the same or less! 

I wanted to share with you what my general grocery bill for the week looks like. I too am on a budget, but I wanted to demonstrate that even though we are trying to eat a special diet in our home our food bills are still quite low. 

This bill is from Coles Online - if Aldi delivered my food straight to my table for free at 7am and rewarded me with Flybuys, gave me free samples and upgraded my items if they are out of stock of my usual I might consider buying from them, but they don't so there we are. 

Your reasons for shopping elsewhere may be different to mine, and that's cool, I'm not endorsing Coles over any other grocery store. In my opinion despite recent media attention they are all a much of a muchness in the price department.

Why do I say this? I mainly buy staples and pantry basics, and Coles has price matched theirs to Aldi anyway. And even beat them in some items i.e. spaghetti pasta. I do prefer Coles for two other reason however, they are Australian owned and their products have less additives and preservatives than the South African owned Woolworths. And that's important to me too.

So, on today's grocery bill I have everything I need to make my meals and and school lunches for 6 people for the next week. It doesn't include meat however, as I buy this every 4 months from the butcher as a side of beef. It does have bacon and tuna however. My total bill was $109.52 and it includes loads of fruit like pears and oranges as these are in season and cost just $1.60 and $1.70 per kilo respectively. I also added potatoes, apples and 14 litres of milk - yes we drink and bake with a lot of milk!

There is butter, sugar, eggs, cream, bread, milk, pasta and tuna. I added to my baking goods with Baking Powder as its getting low and of course I needed nappies and tissues (it's that time of year after all!). Milo was on special too so I bought a large 1.25kg tin for back up. I could have even lowered the bill further if I hadn't succumbed to my chocolate cravings, didn't buy a lemon but thought it would look better in our Coronas when our visitors come for dinner Saturday night (yes I'm also feeding another 3 people Saturday), and not bought the bananas, which weren't on special but its nice to have on our pancakes.

All these items simply top up my basics pantry to create all my meals. Next week I may need some frozen vegies or berries for instance, top up my flours but again my bill will be roughly the same. In fact I get upset if my bills go over $120 a week. So, what could I possibly be cooking for that little, well here is my meal plan:

- Friday - Schnitzel and Salad (salad from garden and last weeks onions, eggs).
- Saturday - Paprika Chicken, Rice and slaw and pear crumble for dessert (with Corona and lemons of course!)
- Sunday - Roast Pork with roast vegetables and gravy (made from scratch).
- Monday - Pork Sliders with Coleslaw (using left over roast pork)
- Tuesday - Thai Fish Cakes and Salad (using tuna)
- Wednesday - Steak, Mash and vegies
- Spaghetti Carbonara with Peas (using pasta, cream and bacon).

I'll also make Whole Orange Cake, biscuits, popcorn and muffins for lunchboxes. I'll make pancakes, bacon and eggs and french toast for breakfasts. Leftovers, BLTS and toasted surprise sandwiches for lunch for those of us who are at home. The Milo will be the only other drink besides milk and water that my children will drink and will be sprinkled over the occasional bowl of Peters Vanilla Ice-cream.

All of these foods are additive free, mostly low in fat and sugar, are made from wholefoods and I know what is in absolutely everything. So you see, by buying ingredients I keep my bills down and the emotional meltdowns as well!

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