Need ideas - how to reduce grocery bill

[Pretty Butterfly]

I need to learn how to do this! I don't get how bi carb or vinegar is going to get my shower clean

I do use vinegar on our floors if I'm not using my steam mop. I do buy surface cleaner, loo cleaner, window cleaner (tried vinegar and it just didn't work??). I don't buy these very often though, maybe once every few months.

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I have half vinegar,half water in a squirter for surface, windows, mirrors and loos etc. I use different cloured microfibre cloths and its streak free..

In the shower i use hot water with vinegar in a bucket with a squegee (sp? brain freeze!) and just scrub with the soft side and sqegee off... clean and spotless....For the bath and loo, sink etc I sprinkle on bi carb, tip on vinegar, it fizzes, and then clean..

[Bathsheba]

Cooking from scratch: Don't feel pressured to follow recipes too religiously. Learn to "make do". If the recipe says "hazelnuts" feel free to throw in whatever nuts you have... the ones that you have had the longest as a priority (rotating your pantry is a valuable habit!). If the recipe says lime juice then try lemon or orange or even mandarin if that's what's sitting in your fruit basket... a certain amount of experiementation within "families" of foods is a good thing. When I make a fruit cake I take note of the total weight of dried fruit in the recipe.... and then happily substitute! So instead of using currants, raisins and sultanas I might throw in dates, crasins (dried cranberries) or even pitted prunes! rather than going out and buying exactly what it says. I can safely say I haven't made a failure fruit cake!

At least grow a herb garden... fresh bought herbs go off soooo fast and buying a whole bunch is usually a total waste. Grow from food scraps and seeds if you can rather than buying seedlings. Most herbs "go to seed"... and when this happens just bend the plant over (when it's looking almost dead ie the seeds are dry and mature) and dig it in... water well and voila! You'll have a whole new crop come up! For free!

[christy]

Well everyone has covered heaps...

We buy no name brand stuff for our basics like rice, pasta etc etc... Aldi is actually really far from our house, so we have to do it a bit differently.

We have a family of 4, and the girls eat quite a bit, and have food intolerances so we can't buy anything with milk, banana, almonds, or oats in it which is actually quite hard. I cook from scratch, and do a bake up weekly.

Our food budget is $180/week. We buy our meat from the butcher, we buy our fruit & veg from either the markets or the local green grocer. Everything else is from a big shop. We have to buy 10 litres of rice milk a week. That from Coles is $22 and from Woolley's is $25. Its no easy task. If I go to Aldi, its $10 in petrol and doesn't have all that we need because of the allergies... so we have to go to a major shop or health food shop to finish the shop which is hard.

I don't use cleaners, I use bi-carb and vinegar. I also use soap nuts to wash our clothes in and in the dish washer (with vinegar).

Its hard because we sacrifice a bit of $$ for being allergic and chemical free, but its the only way we can do it. Sometimes it can take me a full day to do the shopping, or it has to be cut down into 2 days and I'm still not allowed to bring M to the shops... so that makes it all fun.

[Willow]

Christy - I can imagine how hard it is for you guys We've had DS dairy free so far which means buying lactose free milk for him from coles (although he is b'fed, he has a cup of milk a day and also has it on his cereal etc) and it's expensive! We are slowly trying to reintroduce dairy and see how he handles it (gave him horrible diarrhea in the past). We've tried a bit of yoghurt here and there and so far, so good (this was the biggest culprit in the past, days and days of diarrhea after the smallest amount). It also means snacks for him can be tricky because for DD it was mainly fruit, dried fruit, cheese and yoghurt.

We're hoping that as he approaches 18 months he may be able to tolerate it better - here's hoping!

[rosehannah]

Things that work for me are, doing cupboard/ fridge challenges for a week every month or so, this is where I don't buy any thing unless urgent and simply use only the thing in the house, it is quite challenging but fun as you get creative. This has lead to some family favorites being created.

I am lucky enough to live on 6 acres so I am able to grow alot of our staple foods like potatoes, pumpkins, peas, carrots, the list goes on so this cuts down heaps on the fuel costs and fruit and veg. costs. As Bath said taking the time to collect seeds keeps costs down to a minimum.

I am also fortunate to have great family, friends and neigbours who all share there excess foods amunst each other, for example my SIL keeps chooks and I get my eggs from her, I harvested quite a few kg of spuds recently and shared some with her, this happens all year round and I find that we eat mostly thing that are in season. I know not everyone can do this but it may trigger you to think about other ways of "shopping." Along the same lines, friends of mine in Brissy go shopping at the bulk outlets and save by dividing up the tins, loo paper etc amongst themselves. This seems a bit more involved but works for them.

I also clean using vinegar bi- carb, tea tree oil eucalyptus oil and lavender oil I mostly only buy powder for the dishwasher and liquid for the clothes, I have some bottles of cleaning chemicals still in the cupboards that I bought from my old place 3 years ago.

I look forward to following this thread to see what other great ideas are out there.

[Willow]

OK, so sounds like cutting out cleaning products and using alternatives is one thing I could do. I have all of that stuff here now so I might give it a go this week.

Also baking is something I could really do.

Bath - part of my problem with baking is exactly as you said; I'll find a recipe but then only have half the stuff i need in the cupboard and I am not one to go to the shops and spend more money mid fortnight. So what are the basic staples you would suggest I have in the cupboard? I usually have plain flour, sr flour, brown sugar, cocoa, icing mixture, bi carb soda and at least sultanas if not other dried fruit. I was also buying butter (we usually use marg) and cream for a while but haven't recently. What else would you suggest?

[AnyDream]

I have found Woollies (where I used to shop) to be getting more and more expensive, whereas the independent chain that's locally owned and "used" to be dearer now seems to be giving far better deals. It annoys me no end that all the Woollies "specials" these days involve buying multiples. Needless to say I am now shopping elsewhere.

One of the things I find works for saving $$$ is to deliberately plan a couple of "slummy" dinners - this might mean Sunday night is toasted sandwiches or a pot of soup. Also planning a couple of dinners a week around cheap ingredients like rice, tuna and whatever veggie is on special that week.

Also using small quantities of more expensive deli ingredients (like olives, fresh herbs, crisped bacon strips, marinated veggies) can really add flavour and interest but are relatively cheap. Ie a homemade pizza done with chunky roasted veg, herbs and a few strips of really good quality prosciutto is cheaper (and nicer) than one done loaded up with ham, grated cheese, etc.

My latest strategy is only to buy fruit & veg for the next couple of days or so. It means that you shop 2-3 times a week - and can really concentrate on buying the seasonal specials. It has really cut down on wastage in our house as we are forced to use what's there instead of always having the oversupply we get when I try to shop for the whole week at once.