So, wish me luck, I'm aiming to spend $150 per week on groceries including nappies, cleaning stuff, toiletries. Being strict as DP and I are going down the separation path so money will be tight.
This is from someone who used to chuck smoked salmon, brie, dips and pate into the trolley with gay abandon (Actually worked out I was spending at least $64 per month on smoked salmon and brie alone, not to mention the other stuff).
So this is my budget (for me and two DDs):
$23.50 nappies/wipes
breakfast cereal $6.50
bread $10 (two loaves)
sandwich fillings for lunches $20,
cleaning/laundry/toiletries $$25
milk $14 (allowing 2 litres per day)
Dinners $70 (working on $10 dinner per night)
I reckon there's a bit of leeway in the dinners e.g.. spag bol, chicken cacciatore is about $4-$5 per family dinner. Plus I might be overestimating how much bread/milk we use.
Might get a bigger freezer so I can cook more in bulk.
We are a family of 5 and our budget is $160 a week. Its def doable!!!!
We dont have to buy nappies though. We buy the $1.50 bread as we go through a loaf a day, homebrand milk cause we use 12-15lt per week. I buy fruit and veg from the fresh food places not super markets as they are more expensive
Homebrand and genric is our friend!!! but the girls never miss out on special treat foods and I always shop where the specials are!!!!
We dont need to be very strict but for me its habit, I walk around with my list and phone calculator and add up as I go. When i was a single mum I HAD to stick to a budget and well now I like too!!!
Sorry to hear about the separation path. Hope everything goes well for you and yours.
As someone who has been on a very tight budget in the past (and about to embark on one again for an entirely different reason), here are some tips from me to you to share:
Bread: check out the bakery department in the two big supermarket chains. Quite often they have two loaves for $5 and it's nice (nothing added) fresh bread. They also have the buy two for the price of 1 rolls. I buy up big and then freeze what I don't use straight away - either that or make up rolls/sandwiches for lunches and freeze them.
Sandwich fillings: we bought a sunbeam slicer. Okay, so the outlay was a little exy (arund $200) but I now buy a corned beef, cook it up and then slice for cold meats. Also great for slicing up cheese - you get more slices out of a block.
Cleaning products: buy up when on special. You might have to go without something else that week but it's worth it in the long run. I spent $50 on washing powder in March last year and used the last of it the two days after Christmas!
Nappies/wipes: if you don't mind washing consider cloth. I bought some of the AIO nappies on ebay (a non-brand) and got 10 nappy covers and 15 inserts for $30. They've been great and easy to wash and dry quickly. Consider buying some muslin and hem it up to make some cloths that are soft on bottoms and easy to rinse out and use again instead of wipes. Either that or again buy in bulk and not week to week.
Breakfast cereal: Weetbix are only $5 for the really big packet in the two big supermarket chains. If one of those lasts in my household for two weeks, I'm sure it would in yours! (I have two teenagers, a toddler and husband who would die without them).
I have a million recipes (pasta, mince, chicken, vegetarian) that fill the belly and are tasty (and usually large enough for leftovers to cover another meal).
I will do this with you! Although we are only a family of 3, we spend waaaayyyyy to much a week on groceries. I really have no idea how we do it, I think I need to stop procrastinating and write some meal plans and start doing the bulk of shopping online to stop me buying random thins I *think* we need. We buy nappies as well, I was using cloth but DS is a gorgeously chubby and none of them fit him anymore (nor the million brands I have tried), so we are stuck using sposies as they are all that fit him.
Fionas, I didnt find the $120 challenge very helpful either, its quite hard to navigate and her book was a bit useless. I thought it would have some meal plans to follow and some nice healthy, quick and easy recipes but it wasnt like that at all.
Cass, dont have a way to share those recipes at all? hehe
Shan - I'm pretty good at meal planning for a couple of days at a time but I really need to plan for the entire week and go shopping once. Also, need to go without the kids. It's too easy to get sucked in to buying them a comic/whatever for 2 minutes peace.
I've got things I will compromise on (some frozen veggies instead of fresh) and things I won't (have to have grainy bread). Also, we live in a small town with one supermarket so to buy some things in bulk (like laundry powder) would mean driving quite a distance. Once I've factored in petrol, it might not be worth it. For now, I'm happy buying the $4 staying down special instead of the exxie ones which I reckon will last me a month.
I've been scouring the specials in the catalogues and it's amazing how much you can save on everyday items.
I'll post my meal plans when I start doing this properly.
If you can visit Aldi, most of the products are made by the same companies that make for the other big 2 chains. And most of the fruit and veggies are from local growers so kind of supporting communities.
Aldi is a fair way from us and I'm not sure it's cheaper than buying the staying down prices TBH. It's a lot cheaper for packaged things but we don't buy a lot of those anyway. Not sure - will compare in catalogues.
When I start doing this, I'll do a bit of shopping around in terms of markets/greengrocers for fruit/veggies. I may be able to buy my smoked salmon yet!
I started this after starting using budgeting software (YNAB) - but unfortunately started in December and we had visitors so we went over but December was a 4.5 week month really and we only went over by one week worth so maybe didn't do so bad.
I also find it hard to plan more than a couple of days in advance. I tried online shopping in an effort to spend less - but once took into account delivery costs then I don't think it saved me any money. I can get to Aldi quite easily but I don't find I want alot of what is cheap and if anything am tempted into buying stuff I don't need.
For your smoked salmon if you wanted to make a trip to Melbourne every now and again I have heard good things about the smoked salmon at Costco!
I actually find I spend less if I only buy when I need something - buying in advance when specials are on only saves you money if you then actually use the thing and more often than not I forget, tastes change etc etc.
I put everything on credit card and pay off each month, including all childcare costs and health insurance this means I make about $300 a year in Caltex vouchers for petrol which I exchange my credit card costs for. That is about a third of my petrol costs a year.
We only have a small freezer e.g. one that is just a third of normal fridge (bottom half) and we do still cook in bulk alot - DH makes up all his meals for lunch time for probably 3 weeks in one go - but adds rice or pasta the night before.
I think it's totally doable with meal plans and a shopping list...aldi is so much cheaper than the others. But I mean if you shop smart and aren't fussed on 'name brands' it's achievable!
It definitely can be done, you don't have to go home brand either. We are 2 Adults and 3 Kids. I am buying just night pull ups at the moment.
I am spending $150 a week on grocery and fruit and veg at the moment. The only home brand I buy is OJ as that is the one my boys like and Milk. I shop to a list, add things to my list through the week as we run out.
I meal plan, my pantry staples are up to date so I can make a meal up just using pantry staples if need be. On the weeks my pantry stores are up to scratch, I do get some smoked salmon
It could be worth your while taking a trip to Melbourne say once a month and got to either the Vic or Footscray market to stock up on meat and fish.
I'm a 'brie and smoked salmon' shopper, too, and I'm lucky in that we don't have to operate on a strict budget. But I'm curious at the comments suggesting farmer's markets and meat and fish markets - In Perth they are most certainly not the cheap option. They are often very fresh, and organic, and great in other ways - but not cheap.
There is one thing I can suggest that may well make a big difference to your budget - add a few vegetarian meals to your week - homemade hummous for lunches, vegetarian chili or lasagne or bolognese for a couple of meals a week will cut down the amount of relatively expensive meat you eat, and may well help your health, as well. (If it leaves $$ free for smoked salmon, well, oily fish is far better for you than fatty meat, isn't it?)
My budget is $270-$300 per fortnight for a family of 5 - which includes cleaning products etc.
I do my bulk shop (about 90%) at Aldi and use the Aldi smartershopper website as they have all their goods and the prices on it so I know how much I'm going to spend before I walk in the door. The remaining groceries I get from Safeway/Woolworths and I do the same get onto the online shopping site and put in everything I need (which is generally more expensive than in store prices) and so I always know what I will spend on groceries with a buffer for the overestimating at Safeway. I purchase my fruit and veg from a cheaper bulk green grocer and find we still eat well as a family on the budget I have set us.
I found shopping fortnightly better though as when I would shop weekly I would always spend in excess of $200 a week so making a change to fortnightly has also helped us cut down our grocery bill as well. I always by in bulk where possible and the only things I need to top up during the 2 week period are generally fresh milk and fresh fruit.
We just bought
52 finish powerball dish tabs
A bottle of harpic toilet clean (with the curvy neck)
A 64 pack of huggies bum wipes
500mls of Biozet laundry dtergent
A 20 pack of penline biro's
An english brand dishwasher cleaner (the one you put in the dishwasher while its empty and do a hot wash)
2 cintronella candles in cute terracotta pots
6 shower scrubby puffy thingies
Allll for a grand total of
$25.92!!!
At woolies or coles, the 52 finish powerball tabs would have cost this alone.
$150 Grocery Spend Per Week
(Actually worked out I was spending at least $64 per month on smoked salmon and brie alone, not to mention the other stuff).
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