We have three adults at home, as our eldest (23) is back with us. Sometimes we are 4 when the youngest (18) stays with us too. We have only once in the last 6 months scored $800 for a monthly food budget, and generally run to about $1000. A couple of things in this:
1. We got though a fair bit of coffee as a family and buy quality organic, so about $50 per month home made coffee for us.
2. We have only really the big two to shop in, as Aldi will only open in Geraldton later in 2018.
3. I am buying more fish than previously, Basa is $7.00 a kg from Coles at the moment. Very cheap protein and cooks like snapper.
4. We have reduced our meat intake, and bought cheaper cuts.
5. Our local greengrocer is not significantly cheaper than Coles, and the quality is often rubbish, which doesn't make it worthwhile.
I hate to think how much we were spending before we started to check our expenses in June 2017. $30 on steaks for dinner on a Friday night were not uncommon (at home). Oh, we spent $1300 last month, but a lot of that was Christmas extras, like hams, turkey and extra food for extra mouths to feed. We haven't needed to shop for anything much other than milk since Christmas though... Lots of left overs!
I thought I would update this, as we have been careful with our purchases of food recently, and my wife is a bit more on board than earlier.
February was $760 on food, $350 on non-food (wow), and $580 on eating out. My daughter and I drove across the Nularbor and bought meals.
March is shaping up as $700 on food, $200 on non-food groceries, and $200 on eating out. The eating out figures also includes any alcohol or home brew supplies.
I would think that $700 for food is more than sustainable for 3 adults if we tried a bit harder. We are not really feeling like we are ever short on good quality food.
Some cheap ideas:
We do a lamb roast on the BBQ, a butterflied hogget leg for around $30 on a Saturday night often. There is enough meat for Dinner for 3 that night, and 3 more meals afterwards. Later meals re-use the meat in wraps, which is lettuce, cheese, reheated meat with garlic, tomato, and greek yoghurt. Wraps are each 1/2 cup of plain flour, a half teaspoon of baking powder, some paprika and some water. Roll out and throw onto a hot BBQ plate. Turn when it bubbles and don't over cook (1 minute all up)
Coles basa fillets are $7 per kg. Lazy meal, get a packet of coles chips ($2 per kg), bake them for 45 minutes and fry the basa in a little butter in a large pan for about 4 minutes each side. Serve with greek yoghurt. 3 can eat for $5.
Basa fillets can also be used in curries. I use the recipe from here:
https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/keralan-fish-curry/ We do 1 kg of fish, substitute spring onions for shallots. We get a number of meals out of it, with a bed of basmati rice under the curry. Last time it was dinner, and then lunches for 2 for 5 days. We make ours hot.
Chicken drumsticks from coles are $4 per kg. A little seasoning like cajun or portugese chicken and half an hour in the oven, and you have a tasty meat to have with baked potatoes, baked onions, baked pumpkin and peas.
Lastly, I have used this coles unerd $10 meal to great effect. I space out the meat with a bit more pumpkin and penne, but I love it!
https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/curtis-stones-penne-pasta-pan-roasted-butternut-pumpkin-pork-sausages/tn45T04uGive some of them a go. And please share your cheap Australian recipes, as I am always looking for more to add to the repertoir.