This weeks menu

I thought i would share with you today our menu for the next week. It often gets hard to think up new things to make for dinner and i like to read what others have on their menu plan for the weeks as it gives me ideas of what to put onto mine.
Our menu starts on a Wednesday as that when shopping day/pay day falls but that will soon be changing as hubbys pay day is changing next month.

Wednesday: Tuna patties, salad and chips. I make the patties with 2 tins Aldi tuna which is under $2 a can. This is a cheap meal for the 6 of us and leftovers for lunches.

Thursday: Chicken breast schnitzel and veges. I use 4 breasts to feed the 6 of us.

Friday: Homemade hamburgers in rolls with all the trimmings. Using homemade bread rolls and 500g mince.

Saturday Chicken pasta bake for 5 of us using 2 chicken breasts and Cabonara for Hubby.

Sunday: Easy dinner as its usually only 4 home so we make something from pantry items.

Monday: Tuna Pie with potato on top. With 2 tins Aldi tuna which is under $2 a can and mixed frozen veges. I will make something else for hubby as he doesn't eat tuna pie.

Tuesday: Fried rice and Chicken and corn soup using chicken bones for the stock. I make rice once a week as hubby gets rice form work and i have around 50kgs in the pantry.

 Please feel free to post your menu below and share you meal ideas. :)

Bargain find

Hubby and I have been wanting a king size bed now for a long time. We have looked at them many times in stores and found that they were to expensive for our current budget (around $1500 plus bedding). I have kept an eye out for deals on beds on Ebay either new, seconds, or second hand any of these we would be happy with. I was not trolling Ebay daily for a new bed but just when the idea would come to mind i would have a bit of a look to see if there was any good deals and also it had to be in a reasonable traveling distance for pickup. Last week i came across a King mattress and base set within a distance that we could drive with our trailer and bring the bed home if i won the auction. The set listed was a Sealy Posturepedic Royal Jewel. The set was 10 years old and the auction stated that it had always had a waterproof cover on it and that the set was in very good condition. The starting price of the auction was just 99c. I put the auction on my watch list to show hubby the set and to discuss bying it. I asked the seller a few questions about the set and was still a little undecided on buying it. The time came for the listing to end and it had still not had any bids and it was still sitting at 99c. I had asked the seller another question 10 mins before the ending and she answered straight away which was good as i knew then she was also on line. I the asked another question about 5 mins before ending but she didnt answer straight away so i decided not to bid, the auction then ended strangely without a bid. Just after the auction ended the seller emailed me and asked if i was interested in the bed and if not she would re-list it. I told the seller that i would let he know as soon as hubby came home from work. He said the we could go over on the weekend and take a look and to ask the seller how much they were wanting for the bed. The seller soon replied and said that she needed it out of the house and if i wanted the set i could have it for 99c. So i told her that we would take it and would be over on the weekend to pick it up. Hubby and I couldn't help wondering what would be wrong with the bed as the seller was giving away a king bed set for free and hubby kept telling me that it must be junk but he would take me to have a look and get it on Saturday if it was any good
.
So to close this long story we have now got a wonderful big comfy bed for the cost of traveling, a box of chocolates and $20 that i gave the lady just to say thanks. I have had to spend a couple of hundred dollars on bedding to start with and i have grabbed some more new bedding needs from Ebay less than shop price. But in the end i have saved a huge amount money on the bed and i am grateful for the kindness of a stranger for being so generous.

Trying to spend less on food. UPDATE week 4 and bulk buying

Finally i have sorted through all the dockets and have been able to tally up the final amount spent on the past 4 weeks for meals. This was including also all the food for our dogs, chickens, ducks and indoor birds.
The total from the week 3 post was up to $475.74. The final weeks spending was $187.12 so the grand total for feeding a family of 6 and pets has come to $662.86. Not as cheap as i would have liked but it did have some expensive takeaway meals as posted in past weeks posts, but there has been a stop put to it being a regular fortnight treat.


On Saturday 12 May hubby and i decided to go to the Shepp Cannery Surplus Outlet in Ballarat. We couldn't believe how cheap that place was. I was able to grab a lot of bulk goodies for my stockpile and the amount spent here has not been added to the monthly food total above as these staples are used over time.
This is what we came home with:
12x 825g tins of SPC spaghetti         @$14.00
24x 400g tins of whole tomatoes       @ $12.00
8x 1ltr apple and mango juice bottles @ $2.40 (for the whole box)
12x 410ml cans of creamed corn       @ $10.00
6x Gravy flour                                  @ $3.60

These bargains have filled the pantry and we will be using these staples over the winter, especially with lots of pasta sauce and tomato soup on the winter menu that i make from scratch using the tin tomatoes.

In my next post i will add up the current month of  food shopping and let you know what changes i have made and see if i have done better or worse this time. I have not added anything up as yet so i also dont know my self how i have been going with the budget.

Q & A

What i thought i would to today is put in a Q&A post. Feel free to post any questions below that you want to ask or even some ideas you may have and i will answer your comments by adding them to the blog early next week.
I also plan on finishing the posts about how i went week 4 of my monthly shopping, once i sort through all the dockets and also about mt visit to the SPC clearance center in Ballarat. I will also let you know how im going this month with the shopping and what changes i have made.
Have a great long weekend :)