today we're going grocery shopping. it usually takes a while. during the day, i write up a list of everything we need, and get the pile of green bags out (note for non-aussies - a lot of our grocery stores now sell re-usable bags you can use instead of using the plastic ones. theyre usually green, and are referred to by many as 'the green bags', even though they DO come in other colours - our 'cooler bags' - like a collapsible coolbox - are blue), and then when hubby gets home sometime before 6, we head to the stores and do the groceries.
there are 4 places we go in a normal week. woolworths first, because thats where the ATM is, then aldi, harris farm markets (green grocer) and the butcher. these last three are all next to each other, and woolworths is between them and our house, so it works well.
at woolies i pull out our weekly grocery money, and then we start to shop. which is fairly easy, despite the million different places we go, because i know what needs to be bought where, and write my list in 4 parts. some things arent set, we just get them wherever theyre cheapest, but i know which ones those are, and will buy them if theyre super cheap, even if they were written down in a different part of the list.
the only thing that bugs me is the cost. i budget $200/week (which will sound insane to any random americans who drop by, but what would your weekly grocery bill look like if there were NO COUPONS?) and usually we come in under. sometimes we go over, but anything that doesnt get spent stays in our grocery envelope, so i never have to pull more out of the machine. and every few weeks (usually around 5-6) we end up needing practicaly nothing (mainly milk and fresh veg), and just stay at woolies because the extra cost of petrol, though minimal (and the bother), wouldnt be worth it - we usually end up spending less than $80. one week it was about $40. this is also the week i usually ignore the green bags, so we have a stock of plastic for the small rubbish bins in the bathroom and bedrooms. why buy, when you can re-use the plastic grocery bags?
ive been trying to get our costs down, but i just cant see it happening. we waste hardly anything, often have leftovers for dinner - at least once a week, more for the child if hubby and i are having chicken - and i always check the catalogues first to make sure i stock up on cheap stuff, and avoid luxuries if theyre full price. now that my morning sickness is well and truly gone, and my energy seems to be increasing a little, oddly enough , i can get back to baking bread (yeast was SO BAD), but that will only save a couple dollars a week, and may have to stop again soon anyway if my wrists get any worse. kneading can get achy. we only buy name brands if theres no alternative, or the homebrand alternative tastes disgusting/flat out doesnt work (like the cheap toilet paper.. no thankyou. im sticking with my quilton. its not cheaper if you throw out the whole 8 rolls and have to buy new stuff.)
i guess im stuck at the magic $200.. ugh.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
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TOTALLY, 100% IN THE SAME BOAT!!!
I remember fondly the days when we were saving for a house deposit and seemed to manage quite well on $150 per week for a family of 2 adults and three young kids. These days if I could come in under $150 I think I'd have to buy champers with the remaining cash to celebrate, cause it won't happen again for a while...
I know it's all about careful planning, yada yada. Like you, we don't eat elaborate meals and stick mostly to chicken, mince (beef) and roasts but it's the rest of the stuff that kills us - dairy is phenomenally expensive right now (seriously? $7+ for a 600g bag of NO NAME cheese?), and fruit and veg is totally cheaper at a stand-alone F&V store but Woolies is right down the road and the F&V place is a 10 min drive away - hard when you don't drive (though I guess we're evening it out without a second car/registration/petrol? yeah, I'll tell myself that, LOL).
Bread - the only thing that has worked consistently with my breadmaker is Laucke mix and on a per-loaf basis its only cheaper by a few cents...for those few cents I'll pick up my fresh-sliced loaf from Woolies - noticed how you get 20 slices out of that loaf and like ten from homemade ones? I guess I could experiment with handmaking bread but to be honest, I'm never going to be 'THAT' mum. I'd rather spend my time in the kitchen on fun stuff like cupcakes :P Having said that, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the smell of fresh-baked bread and eeeeeeeevery so often will throw a loaf in the breadmaker (or do it by hand) as like a 'gourmet side dish' or something.
Our budget is something like $300 at the moment but that pays for all groceries, paper products, non-prescription medication, small household items (like the sort of stuff you can buy at the supermarket, even if we don't get it from there), cleaning gear etc. The first $50 is a household 'float' amount which goes into a separate bag for things that always crop up - excursions, casual days at school, you know the drill. So I don't have to set the full $50 aside each week, just top it up to $50. So some weeks I might come in at $250. Oh, and that's for two adults, a ten year old who EATS like an adult, and two moderately-hungry other children. And lunchbox snacks. I should bake more but I find it hard to garner the enthusiasm :P Commercial snackfood is a rip-off though, so I should try harder. Love to get that down to $250 for everything, so 'round $200 for groceries and everything else listed. Never seems to work though.
Cheers,
Lizzie
milk kills me.. i HATE the days we've run out and i ahve to go to the chemist to get some.. $5.40 for 2L??? good golly... cheese is not so bad. aldi has blocks of it pretty cheap and we have multiple graters, so we just do that.
i figured out that the bread is quite a bit cheaper if i make it myself. 1/2 wholemeal (made from just flour/yeast/water etc.. not a prebought mix) costs about $1.00 for 2 loaves, whereas even the cheapest stuff from aldi is nearly $2.00/loaf. so its about 1/4 price, but it still only comes out to a couple dollars a week savings. we dont have a bread maker, and i actually find the kneading and stuff theraputic.. and the kid likes to help. i usually tear off a roll sized piece and let him knead his very own roll next to me. he LOVES it.
and homemade rasin toast is SO much nicer than store bought... oh man now i want to go bake. why does it have to be so late in the afternoon?
never noticed the slices thing though.. possibly because my loaves are the same size as store bought?
we also tend to stock up on meat when its cheap.. but this is only possible because we have a frezer bigger than my washing machine. if we just had the little one on the fridge, it wouldnt work.
i dont even think the fruit and veg is necessarily cheaper at harris farm, but its BETTER. i throw less out, because it lasts longer, and has less bugs in it, so it ENDS UP cheaper, even if it wasnt to begin with.
Yeah, that makes sense. Hey, why don't you post your bread recipe?
Think the slice thing has to do with my breadmaker and the fact that I never can slice those loaves as thin as store-bought.
I WANNA BAKE BREAD!!! Lets have a bake-off! :P
Cheers,
Lizzie
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