As the effects of being on one income begin to kick in, we have been looking at ways as a family to save money in every area we can! When it comes to being frugal with your money, groceries is one aspect of your budgeted money that you can save money on quite easily.
A friend told me about a great website: Stay at Home Mum which has fantastic ideas on how to save money and survive on one income. After having a quick browse on the site, and reading that this lady does her grocery shop monthly, I thought I would see if we could make that work for us too. This woman, being over east, has Aldi which she shops at - which is a huge discount store where you can buy in bulk and save alot on groceries amongst other things. Unfortunately, Perth doesnt have an Aldi but I can still look around for bargains.
It took some time, but I started by going through my fridge and pantry and making an inventory of the things that we already had. From there, I researched different recipes I could make to utilise these ingredients, so as not to waste anything. For example, we had some left over polenta in quinoa in the cupboard, so I did a google search for Quinoa and Polenta recipes and came up with a couple that are going to be used this month. I then needed to make up the rest of the meals. There was no flashy meals, just the basics. Before, we used to eat rather extravagently - I love looking up recipes and trying new things, but it can get expensive! We would eat Salmon, Lamb Chops, Roasts, Steaks....alot! Being on a budget we had to get back to the basics- what we grew up on with our familys! Spaghetti bolognaise, Tuna casserole, Fish and Salad, Sausage and Mash etc.
After I had my meals list, I went onto the Coles Online website to do up a grocery list. When Miss D was younger, I used to get my groceries home delivered through Coles a bit. It really helped me out as it meant I didnt have to juggle having a small baby at the shops with me (whilst Mr O worked). But it was a luxury. And it is $10 (for delivery) that we could easily save. I didnt put my fresh fruit/vegetables into the coles shopping list as I know that I can get them much cheaper at the Spud Shed. When I was doing up the list on the Coles website, I sort all my search items by Unit Price - this means, I can see what is the cheapest/best value product. This helps out alot as it saves me having to look at all the price tags in the produce aisles to find which one is best value for money! There are so many different options out there sometimes it can be hard to sort through - but this function online does it for you which is great!
Once I had my list, I printed it off and went down to Coles the next morning - first thing! As I went through the aisles and started picking up my items, I was noticing that the prices I had on my online shopping list were more expensive than the actual produce I was picking up - same brands and all! I made a note of the price differences on my shopping list to compare when I got home...and I was shocked! After going through it all, I realised that I made a saving of $12.72 just by shopping at Coles myself, rather than getting it home delivered. This saving wasnt becausee things were on special or anything - these were the stock standard everyday prices at Coles - just online, for some cheeky reason - they have the 'standard price' as a couple of cents more! It certainly adds up! I also saved $10 by not getting it delivered, and saved another $11.89 by realising once I got in the store that some things were on special - eg. I picked up a carton of cream for 50c, and 3 x cartons of eggs for $9.00. So all up, I saved $34.61 by shopping at Coles rather than online! Crazy hey! The total spent at Coles was $365.26 and this included groceries for our monthly meals, Dog food for a month, along with extra items we were low on in the pantry (ie. $20 for a 4L olive oil, $18 for a large coffee tin etc).
I cooked up a HUGE batch of cookies from this recipe off the SAHM website and made different variations of them by adding different things we had in the pantry. These cookies cost less than $5 to make and I got 230 cookies out of it! I have frozen most of them to use through the month when we need them - they are DELICIOUS and again, are saving us money on buying cookies from the shops!
At the Spud Shed, I spent $60 getting fresh fruit and vegetables for us and our meals, but also enough to puree up for Miss D too. And we spent $100 for a month worth of Formula and $46 for 1 month worth of nappies.
All in all, I think we have done quite well. I was concerned about getting enough fresh fruit and vegetables to last us a month, but things like potatoes and onions tend to last a long time, and we bought a heap of frozen vegetables too to get us through and add to our meals. As for things like milk, cheese and yoghurt, we bought enough for the month and have frozen them to get out and defrost as we need.
Much love
Daughter of the King
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Glad your savings plan is going well...thanks for the link to the recipes and also to the biscuits...made a big batch this afternoon and filled the freezer ready for school going back. x
ReplyDeleteHi Bron!
DeleteHope you enjoyed the cookie recipe! I found them to be DELICIOUS! Next time i make them i will be making them all as jam drops - they were our favourite by far! I found they froze really well too and we just bought out a handful from the freezer as we needed them! For August, im going to be making our favourite Choc Chip Cookies from a recipe i found online! Ill do a blog post about them - they are amazing!
How is it going? Crumbled and grocery shopped? Takeaway?
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous
DeleteSo far so good! We havent had any takeaway and havent had to make any trips to the supermarket! The frozen milk has gone ok, and we also froze margarine, which turned out ok. I wasnt all impressed with how my greek yoghurt turned out after defrosting, but its not too bad! We still have lots of meals left and plenty of leftovers meaning next months shop should be less $$. The snugglers nappies have been ok - even overnight they havent been too bad.
I wasnt very impressed with my fruit and veg from the Spud Shed, its never the best quality - bruised apples and the potatoes were nowhere near as nice as the ones from Coles. For our August shop, ill be comparing prices of fresh produce to Coles and seeing if it makes much of a difference!
Check the dates on things as things like marg and cheese etc have a good long useby so you may not need to freeze.I find the same things with the spud shed it is worth getting stuff from coles if it lasts for longer.another tip I shop at coles monthly and spud shed fortnightly getting milk bread and fruit and veg.milk usually lasts fortnighly and I get yoghurt to last me to the end of the month.always set my budget and stick to it.goodluck jayne aka anonymous
ReplyDeleteGood on you Danica! I don't know how you've managed to not go to the shops that whole time- very impressive! I used to do once a week grocery shopping when I worked fulltime and took a lot of preparation with meal plans etc so I can't imagine how organised you'd have to be for monthly shops! Baking a bit batch of cookies is a great idea too :)
ReplyDeleteI switched E from huggies to Woolies select nappies about a month ago because people had recommended them (I also use their wipes) and have found them quite good. Will have to give Snugglers a go too. I'm still using huggies at night though- and he even soaks through them sometimes!
Do you have markets near you? I try to get my fruit and veg at the wanneroo markets and it is so much cheaper than the big grocery stores and I find it great quality and lasts much longer too. I've only ever bought meat at the spud shed and haven't been too impressed with the quality :(
Steph x