I just spent $150 for a week but that was going through the fridge/freezer/cupboard and making sure everything is used up this week.
Guess I will have to wait and see what the following week is like.
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I just spent $150 for a week but that was going through the fridge/freezer/cupboard and making sure everything is used up this week.
Guess I will have to wait and see what the following week is like.
goodwork!!
Since we have moved from Melbourne (where grocery shopping was much cheaper) to rural NSW our weekly shop has increased from about $180 to $200 per week. This is for 2 adults, 1 teenager (she eats more than me!) and 2 children... but that includes bathroom and laundry items.
I mainly cook from scratch. We don't eat red meat. We do eat fish and poultry. My sister often gives us excess produce from her hobby-farm sized garden: watermelon, zuccini, squash, chillies...and also the occassional carton of eggs from her chooks.
I don't do a weekly meal plan but instead I (daily) assess what's in the pantry/fridge that really needs using up and make sure I use it. I have worked as a chef's assistant and am a pretty good cook (if I do say so myself!) and maintain a very high rotation of our food stocks. Very little is wasted... food is rarely scraped into our bins or goes off in our fridge. This is a VERY important aspect of saving $ on food... just make sure it's not wasted!!! My mother will agonise about which is the cheapest tin of beetroot on the supermarket shelf BUT then she will shove it in her fridge and forget about it until she finds it mouldy at the back 6 months later... crazy! :shakehead: I have a policy of making sure i can clearly see everything in the fridge so nothing is ever forgotten. That's where the big savings are made ;)
We also aren't big eaters. We use old fashioned sized crockery... (don't look confused!)...and compared to the serving sizes of most of our friends and family (who use modern super-sized crockery) we apparently "eat like sparrows". But we aren't fussy.... far from it... our kids eat what we eat and turn their noses up at most "kids' food" like Kraft processed cheese, they prefer Castello Blue! We have expensive tastes (we have smoked salmon about once a fortnight for eg)... but it's quality not quantity.
We have at least one vegetarian meal per week but that's not for savings reasons... just personal preference.
I also make everything from scratch as well.
I think our main issue is our potions, I've basically bought 1/2 of what I usually would with meat.
We eat a lot of fresh fruit and veg, it seems to be the killer for us, the shop seems so cheap until they start ringing the fresh stuff up.
We also tend to waste a bit, but that has improved dramatically.
We have 2A3C and we spend on average $350-$400 a fortnight (thats including extra staples such as milk and bread throughout the fortnight). It varies depending on what needs to be bought.
I cook mostly from scratch. Meat, veg and milk are our biggest expenses. We eat alot of fruit which can get expensive. We buy alot of things ie healthcare and laundry products only once a month or less. One kid is toilet trained, one is in pull ups and one uses cloth 80% of the time. Alot of our meals are pretty basic and feature in our meal planning on a regular rotation.
We've been trying to curb our grocery bill so Ive really been pushing eating leftovers on nights Im at work or getting Dh to take it to work for lunch. We used to have a bad habit of leftovers being left to rot in the fridge which is so wasteful. Same goes for fresh produce, so now I buy only what I need and no more. When we move I definately am going to try my hand at planting a vegie garden.
Im glad you posted this thread, Ive gotten alot of idea's on budgeting from the replies, thankyou!
Have you got access to a fresh food co-op??? Have you got any friends with an ABN that would like to buy boxes of apples, potatoes etc togther and split it??? Also fruit and veg wholesalers generally sell to the public alot cheaper. Try shopping for fresh stuff away from supermarkets. Side of the road veg shops can be found also.:
Just a few ideas for you to consider!!!
We spend $200-250pw for 2A & 4C (including one teen) and im at the shops almost everyday so if you take that into account its probably close to $300
I just had to come on and say I was at the supermarket yesterday & I was chatting with the lady in front of me, she had an overflowing double trolley with $500 worth of groceries which she said feeds 2 adults and 2 pre-teens for a week OMG!!!
mine again this week was $150 for the week
Thanks to this thread I did some careful planning about what I was going to buy and then went to Aldi for the first time since I was a student this weekend. I followed it up with woolies because I couldn't get everything I wanted, but my shop was much cheaper than normal - $140. I will probably get a couple of extra things during the week, but not much I reckon we'll come in under $200 and usually it's over $300.
Edit: lol, just realised that I'd combined this and the Aldi thread that's currently on the go in my head so half the stuff I'd written wasn't relevant :D I've just come back in and deleted the non-relevant stuff!