So I’m going to tag along here. We are a family of 4, two girls 13 and 17. At the start of last year we were spending $1300 a month for groceries, including all household products, cat and dog products too. We cut it down to about $1100, some months were less. But since the start of this year I’ve completely changed the way we eat. So our new goal is $880. Last month was $920, I was due for a $30 off with store card but for some reason it didn’t go through so I blew my limit well and truly.
We have $400 in gift cards from our credit card rewards, but I don’t deduct those as I don’t want to over spend because of free money.
Last month we splashed out and bought the cheapest bar size freezer we could find. The top two drawers fit 15 takeaway containers each, the bottom I use to store beans I’ve cooked up from dry and packaged into can size amounts.
We are eating less meat, and I love the website ifoodreal, she has lots of less meat recipes. 500g of protein serves 7 meals now, 4 of which go into the freezer for ‘fakeaway’ a couple of nights a week. I also sometimes only half fill the container and they go into the top drawer for lunches. I add beans to just about everything , which my youngest isn’t too impressed about, but she is getting used to it.
I always thought it was expensive to buy fresh produce, and used a lot of canned and frozen veg, but we have mostly been eating fresh stuff in the last six months and our bills have been so much cheaper. I only shop once a week, and we have to make do if we run out of something. We have run out of bread, and had to make tortillas for lunch wraps!
Dinner this week we’ve having two containers of leftover spaghetti sauce on baked potato with Greek yoghurt, tuna broccoli pasta salad, leftover chicken curry with rice and homemade chapatti bread, lazy cabbage rolls from food real site (will have some leftovers for freezer), choice of ‘fakeaway’ from the freezer, chicken fajitas with homemade tortillas.
Sorry for the novel! I’ve got a lot from reading what others are doing to cut costs, so wanted to share mine. Now I’m off to see if they sell instant pots in Australia.