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.
Showing posts with label food budget.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food budget.. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Friday, June 08, 2012
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 :)
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 :)
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Trying to spend less on food. UPDATE week 3
Im back again to let you know how my budget is going for the food shopping for the month.
I am finding now in week 3 that i am running out of a lot of the pantry staples and have had to restock some of them.
Since my post last Thursday i have had a few visits to the shops for lots of fresh fruit as it seems this week they are all eating me out of house and home when it comes to bananas and apples. I also ran out of my supply of plain flour for bread making so i had to re-stock that too. The total this week is more than i would have liked but it is for the essential items needed for meals. So the total this week is $126.56 plus the takeaway on Saturday was $34 and not $25 as i had hoped for as they all decided they didnt want pizza but wanted fish and chips instead. Adding that to the total for the week comes to $160.56
The running total for the month so far is now $475.74.
In the next week im going to have to buy a new bag of chicken feed and that will be around the $20 mark so that will also be added into next weeks total.
I am finding now in week 3 that i am running out of a lot of the pantry staples and have had to restock some of them.
Since my post last Thursday i have had a few visits to the shops for lots of fresh fruit as it seems this week they are all eating me out of house and home when it comes to bananas and apples. I also ran out of my supply of plain flour for bread making so i had to re-stock that too. The total this week is more than i would have liked but it is for the essential items needed for meals. So the total this week is $126.56 plus the takeaway on Saturday was $34 and not $25 as i had hoped for as they all decided they didnt want pizza but wanted fish and chips instead. Adding that to the total for the week comes to $160.56
The running total for the month so far is now $475.74.
In the next week im going to have to buy a new bag of chicken feed and that will be around the $20 mark so that will also be added into next weeks total.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Trying to spend less on food. UPDATE week 2
Its been a week since my last post about trying to spend less on food. I am back today with an update for the week.
I have been back to the supermarket for some things as some food items had run out, i also needed some fresh fruit and vege and as always the Sunday afternoon trip to the supermarket to buy the lunch meats for the week. Lunches are always made at home so that saves money and it healthier for everyone too.
So last week i has spent a total of $240.14 for most of our food for the month. So there was some foods i didnt buy enough of (such as needing 2 more packs of puff pastry) as i should have done a more thorough menu check and counted up how much of everything i really needed for the month but this monthly shopping is all new to me and im sure over time i will get better at it. So the total i have spent in the last 7 days comes to $75.04. this does include hubby's weekend soft drinks and a pack of chips for him too. Included in this amount too was a the few things i had left on the shopping list that i need to get from IGA and Foodworks last week that i didnt get on shopping day.
So the total spent now is $315.18 which im happy with at this point. I would normally spend at least $600 a month on food shopping (not including takeaway twice in the month) and this should come in at being less than that even if i do have to spend another $75 in week 3 and 4 for food top-ups.
I still have loads of milk and flour (for bread) left in the pantry so at this stage that wont need re-stocking. We will be having takeaway for dinner on Saturday as this gives me a break from cooking one night a fortnight, this should only be $25 as we get a great family feed at our local pizza shop including garlic bread and soft drink for this amount.
I also made a batch of dog food up this week with some Chrisco Hampers sausages that we didnt like, lots of mixed frozen veges and rice. This was frozen in portions in muffin trays that way i can take out what needed each day for Howard and Bessie's dinner, i ended up making 24 portions. They have this served with some dry dog food on the side.
Thats all i have to update this week. I will update my progress again next week. :)
I have been back to the supermarket for some things as some food items had run out, i also needed some fresh fruit and vege and as always the Sunday afternoon trip to the supermarket to buy the lunch meats for the week. Lunches are always made at home so that saves money and it healthier for everyone too.
So last week i has spent a total of $240.14 for most of our food for the month. So there was some foods i didnt buy enough of (such as needing 2 more packs of puff pastry) as i should have done a more thorough menu check and counted up how much of everything i really needed for the month but this monthly shopping is all new to me and im sure over time i will get better at it. So the total i have spent in the last 7 days comes to $75.04. this does include hubby's weekend soft drinks and a pack of chips for him too. Included in this amount too was a the few things i had left on the shopping list that i need to get from IGA and Foodworks last week that i didnt get on shopping day.
So the total spent now is $315.18 which im happy with at this point. I would normally spend at least $600 a month on food shopping (not including takeaway twice in the month) and this should come in at being less than that even if i do have to spend another $75 in week 3 and 4 for food top-ups.
I still have loads of milk and flour (for bread) left in the pantry so at this stage that wont need re-stocking. We will be having takeaway for dinner on Saturday as this gives me a break from cooking one night a fortnight, this should only be $25 as we get a great family feed at our local pizza shop including garlic bread and soft drink for this amount.
I also made a batch of dog food up this week with some Chrisco Hampers sausages that we didnt like, lots of mixed frozen veges and rice. This was frozen in portions in muffin trays that way i can take out what needed each day for Howard and Bessie's dinner, i ended up making 24 portions. They have this served with some dry dog food on the side.
Thats all i have to update this week. I will update my progress again next week. :)
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Trying to spend less on food.
I have for a long time always planned a menu for 2 weeks and went shopping with a shopping list. I would put together the menu going by what was on special at the supermarkets. We have 4 supermarkets here all in the path of me driving into town and home again, so i don't have to make any special trips from store to store. We have Aldi and Coles in the same shopping center and on the way home i pass Foodworks and IGA.
Most of the food shopping is done at Aldi which is where i go first and then onto Coles. If the other 2 supermarkets have anything that catches my eye i also stop at them on the way home.
Last Tuesday when putting together the menu plan i challenged my self to shop for the month instead of every 2 weeks. I know that i will be having to pick up fresh fruit and veg and a few forgotten things in between shopping trips, but it will teach me what to buy more of, as monthly shopping is all new to me.
Firstly when it came to planning the new menu i put together a printable menu plan for the 4 weeks, which mine starts on the Wednesday. I did the menu plan in grid form with 7 days across and 4 rows long with each day of the week falling on top of the same day. I then put together a master shopping list using excel and put everything down on the list that we buy as a regular purchase, this will need some tweaking as i did forget a few items but as i remember them i have been updating the list.
I then went "shopping" in my own freezer and wrote down all of the meats i had in there to use as meals. I also went through the pantry to see what was there to use up and to also check what was needing to be replenished. I then sat down with my new printed menu and filled in all the meals. It was not has hard as i expected and with each day of the week on the chart being on top of the same weekday i was able to be sure i was not repeating the same meals to often. For example each Thursday is pasta night but each pasta dish is different to the week before. I had also put together a list of meal ideas in the past which i referred to when putting the menu together so to avoid mental blanks. We also have a takeaway night once a fortnight which is on Saturdays to give me a break from cooking.
So on Tuesday afternoon with shopping list and menu on my clip board i headed off to the supermarket. My normal fortnight shopping budget was around $250 which feeds 6 adults/teenagers and my 4 pet birds, chickens, ducks and 2 dogs, plus a top up in the second week of around $50 or so.
This is my shopping tally so far:
Aldi $141.05
Coles $62.15
I am pretty happy with that. I did have a good amount of meat in the freezer as i had a couple of kilos of mince, 3 trays of sausage meat and 20 chicken breasts from a recent visit to a discount butchers called Tasmin Meats, which had cost me all up a total of $34.64
So the running total so far for all the shopping that i have done is for the month is $240.14 which is around the amount spent of a fortnights shop not adding in the top-up i would do in week 2.
I will keep updating and add in any further spending including the takeaway meals as i go until we see the final tally at the end of the 4 weeks.
Wish me luck! :)
Most of the food shopping is done at Aldi which is where i go first and then onto Coles. If the other 2 supermarkets have anything that catches my eye i also stop at them on the way home.
Last Tuesday when putting together the menu plan i challenged my self to shop for the month instead of every 2 weeks. I know that i will be having to pick up fresh fruit and veg and a few forgotten things in between shopping trips, but it will teach me what to buy more of, as monthly shopping is all new to me.
Firstly when it came to planning the new menu i put together a printable menu plan for the 4 weeks, which mine starts on the Wednesday. I did the menu plan in grid form with 7 days across and 4 rows long with each day of the week falling on top of the same day. I then put together a master shopping list using excel and put everything down on the list that we buy as a regular purchase, this will need some tweaking as i did forget a few items but as i remember them i have been updating the list.
I then went "shopping" in my own freezer and wrote down all of the meats i had in there to use as meals. I also went through the pantry to see what was there to use up and to also check what was needing to be replenished. I then sat down with my new printed menu and filled in all the meals. It was not has hard as i expected and with each day of the week on the chart being on top of the same weekday i was able to be sure i was not repeating the same meals to often. For example each Thursday is pasta night but each pasta dish is different to the week before. I had also put together a list of meal ideas in the past which i referred to when putting the menu together so to avoid mental blanks. We also have a takeaway night once a fortnight which is on Saturdays to give me a break from cooking.
So on Tuesday afternoon with shopping list and menu on my clip board i headed off to the supermarket. My normal fortnight shopping budget was around $250 which feeds 6 adults/teenagers and my 4 pet birds, chickens, ducks and 2 dogs, plus a top up in the second week of around $50 or so.
This is how it all went.
So far i have only been to Aldi and Coles, but i do have a couple of non-urgent things still left on the shopping list that i will pick up at the other 2 supermarkets in the next few days.This is my shopping tally so far:
Aldi $141.05
Coles $62.15
I am pretty happy with that. I did have a good amount of meat in the freezer as i had a couple of kilos of mince, 3 trays of sausage meat and 20 chicken breasts from a recent visit to a discount butchers called Tasmin Meats, which had cost me all up a total of $34.64
So the running total so far for all the shopping that i have done is for the month is $240.14 which is around the amount spent of a fortnights shop not adding in the top-up i would do in week 2.
I will keep updating and add in any further spending including the takeaway meals as i go until we see the final tally at the end of the 4 weeks.
Wish me luck! :)
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