Lightening Online

One of the things I find most challenge when it comes to being frugal with groceries is finding the balance between money well spent and money wasted.

As many of you already know, I’m currently on a mission to make use of money we’ve already invested in food, so that it doesn’t go to waste.

While I’ve been menu planning to this effect, there is another aspect to this that I’m starting to look into.

In the past I have tended to purchase in bulk in order to save money. This might be purchasing a bulk number of items when at a good price or buying in a bulk size to get an overall cheaper “unit price”.

This works well when everything is going well.

It doesn’t work so well when the wheels fall off the wagon and stuff gets left languishing in the cupboard or freezer.

After Christmas I’m going to do an audit of what I have left and actually plan to make use of what we have. Right now life is starting to get busy and I need to be mindful of what I can and can’t manage right now. It’s also a little overwhelming right now because we really do have too much stuff on hand. Another 6 weeks of doing what I’ve done for the past 3 and we should see a little bit of a dent in that stuff.

However, there are a couple of things I already know I have way too much of:

1. Bread Mix

This comes in a large bag and I don’t usually make bread over the summer. I’m trying to take advantage of the cooler weather now to use this up. The kids are enjoying home made bread, particularly as it’s been a while since I’ve made any.

2. Milk Powder

When I’m making yoghurt on a regular basis, we go through milk powder quite quickly. This has gone by the by in recent times and I have quite a bit on hand that I picked up at a particularly good price. So, I’m going to focus on using as much of it up as possible in the coming weeks.

We don’t drink it but I do use it in cooking.

I’ll let you know how I go using these 2 items in the coming weeks.

LAST WEEK’S GROCERY SHOP

I ended up spending $84.55 in last weeks grocery shop. That’s the most I’ve spent since beginning this challenge. However, it was all “real” food (with the exception of toilet paper - we don’t usually eat that! ). I’m looking forward to the garden reaching a stage of supplementing our diets again as fruit and veg has become a large expense once again.

I currently have $203.85 saved in my “grocery surplus” fund which I’m going to transfer to our “holiday fund” and begin again with my $130 per week cash amount.

THIS WEEK’S MENU PLAN

I’m not feeling particularly creative this week so my menu plan is rather uninspiring but here it is:

Monday - Quiche (didn’t end up making one over the weekend).

This goes well with homemade potato wedges and I’ll make enough that DH and I can have some for lunches a couple of times through the week.

Tuesday - Spaghetti Bolognese

Like it or not, we have a lot of mince to get through as well as some frozen grated vegetables so I think this, along with tacos and lasagne is going to feature prominently for a while. The kids love it and it’s easy for them to eat so it works well as a family favourite.

Wednesday - Take Away

I have a hair appointment and then need to pick kids up from various places in town around 5.30 so we’ll take the easy option this night. It’ll be a hot chook, chips and salad so not too expensive as far as Take Aways go.

Thursday - Chops

The joys of being a sheep farmer. Plenty of chops. LOL.

Friday - Homemade Pizza

Saturday - Tacos

Sunday - Toasties

We like to go simple on a Sunday.

For what it’s worth, that’s where I’m at with groceries for this week.

I know some of you are joining me in the challenge to use up what food you’ve already paid for. Feel free to share how you’re going in the comments section below.

Things that mysteriously made their way in to my trolley uninvited this week:

2 x Double Choc Tim Tams

1 x 10pk Bulla Splits

1 x 8pk Bulla Double Choc Ice Creams

1 whole pineapple (at least that’s 1 healthy “extra”)

In my defense, they were all on special!!!

Grocery spend for the week: $57.30

Amount now in grocery “kitty”: $157.40

I was going to wait until the end of the year to transfer my accumulated savings into my BHAG account but I think I might empty it at the end of this month (or maybe most of it) and start again. I don’t really like carrying too much cash around with me.

Menu Plan For This Week:

Monday - Homemade Pasties with potato wedges and vegetables

Tuesday - Chicken Pieces (haven’t decided exactly how I’ll cook them yet)

Wednesday - Fried Rice

Thursday - Roast Lamb in the Slow Cooker

Friday - Hamburgers

Saturday - Quiche

Sunday - Leftover quiche

Shopping List so far:

bread

milk

fruit & veg

margarine

I think I’m going to like Mondays for the next 2 months. It’s kind of exciting using cash for groceries when I’m used to using plastic. I usually use plastic for a number of reasons - one of them being I find it hard to track various amounts of cash in my purse. However, I’ve been using a plastic zip lock bag and just throwing that in my handbag when I go into town and that’s working well (so far - it has only been 1 week).

Week One Progress

Total Spent: $45.30 leaving me $84.70 in the “kitty”. Yah!!!

I did deviate from my shopping list a little and bought damper rolls (on special), yoghurt (on special - MUST get back to making my own), garlic bread to have with the pizza (yum!) and some pastry sheets.

Didn’t buy any of the salad items (didn’t need) so other than that it was milk, bread and bananas.

We did deviate from the menu plan a little (which is pretty normal and not really a problem). Spag bol sauce ended up feeding us for 3 meals instead of 2 so we had lasagne one night (with enough left over for lunch the next day - yum!!!!)

Week Two Menu Plan

Monday - Lamb Chops

Tuesday - Steak and Mushroom Soup in Slow Cooker

Wednesday - Fried Rice

Thursday - Chicken Pieces

Friday - Hot Dogs with cheese and bacon (Lleyton’s favourite)

Saturday - Meat Pie

Sunday - Quiche

All served with veg/salad depending on whether and my mood.

Week Two Shopping List

Fruit & Veg

(Bananas are getting expensive again - hope that doesn’t last too long.)

Milk

Bread

Anything else that jumps into my trolley Good specials if I think we’ll use them in the next couple of weeks.

Image via WikipediaI have $130 in my newly labelled “Grocery Money” snap lock bag. The Challenge? To see how much of that I can hold onto between now and next Monday.

Including today, there are 9 Mondays left this year. That gives me $1170 in Grocery Money in total. I wonder how much of that I can hold on to? Quarter? Half? None? LOL. Better NOT be none!!!!

Bear in mind I have not been tracking my grocery spending over the past few months so I have NO idea how far $130 will go, even with my pantry/freezer challenge.

The Plan?

1. Menu Plan (see below)

2. Avoid Specials Brochures that encourage me to buy stuff we don’t really need anyway

3. Shop with a list and STICK to it

4. Don’t let DH loose in the supermarket!

5. Blog it to keep me accountable.

This Week’s Menu Plan

Monday - Spaghetti Bolognese (already in slow cooker)

Tuesday - Tuna Patties (have 12 tins of tuna I bought at $1 each to use up)

Wednesday - Tacos (makes use of the leftover spag bol sauce)

Thursday - Chicken Patties (no idea how I’ll make these yet - have chicken mince, will experiment)

Friday - Homemade Pizza

Saturday - Chops and Vegies (chops in the slow cooker with french onion soup mix)

Sunday - Pasties

Shopping List

lettuce

tomato

bread

milk

fruit

Already have: meat, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, frozen veg, pasta, cheese, taco shells, pastry, swedes