Help cutting down the food bill

DH wants to add no meat meals several times a week, I am all for that, not sure about the kids.

I do some meals with little or no meat. Winter is good for soup once a week with fresh bread. Sometimes I make corn and bacon fritters and that only uses about 2-3 slices of bacon so a pack of bacon goes quite a long way. Or I make up a tomato sauce with a few slices of bacon to put over pasta. According to the 'experts' we don't need as much meat as we tend to eat and we don't need it every night

Special k - yup it is. We have the same thing with 2 kids, 2 adults and 1 cat. Daniel has night nappies and Alex nappies, plus formula and we spend about $150 a week if you average it out and I get protein powder which is $35 a tin. The odd ocassion its more if we need to get razor blades cause those things are bloody expensive

Our budget is $60 per week for 2 adults and a 1 yr old, plus takeaways once a fortnight. We only buy free range eggs too. No nappies or formula as using cloth nappies and breastfeeding. I do miss the luxuries such as ice cream and nice drinks but we just can't afford them!

Thought I might come on here & say about how to make cheap jam, not sure if anyone has put it across before.

2 large cans of fruit @ 2.15 each
750gm sugar $1.65
1 pkt of pectin/jam setting mix $2.12
1 teaspoon citric acid (100gm = $2.64) approx .13c

$8.20 I get 5 1/2 jars so $1.49 a jar

All you do is drain the fruit, puree up, heat & then add the other ingredients & bring to the boil for 5 mins. Cool & put in jars

So after reading all of these tips I started to really knuckle down on the budget for me and DP as now that I am up the duff with complications im on the sickness benefit.

Our total grocery bill for the month was $276, and we ate so well! Salmon and everything, this included feeding the dogs but excluded the horse.

DP still is sneaky and will buy his lunch every so often snacks and powerades so I have no idea how much to add on top of that.

I dont hit him up about it though because he has cut down heaps (used to buy everyday) and he pays all the bills, and manages to put away savings each week so I amm happy.

This week im going to do a big shop and include some baby items that I am going to start stock piling each week.

A tip from me is if you have animals (I have heaps of dogs) Chicken frames and Coprice bulk dog food is amazing.

I buy one 90kg bag from an outlet feed store for $7 and chicken frames for about 50c each from mad butcher. 1 Chicken frame means you only have to give them 1 scoop of coprice (working dog is higher calorie and same price so feed less) the 90kg bag lasts me about 3 months, and a chicken frame every secound day is about $14 a week for me.

If you only had one dog this would last you much much longer. Just dont cook the chicken frames.

I also use any leftover rice and free range eggs (free from my mother) with bulk peas and make a huge mash up of rice, eggs and peas and give this to the dogs about once a week or if any have coats looking lacklustre.. this keeps them really healthy and I find is really cheap. If you cant get free eggs then any old rice/pasta will do.

that might be a bit spoilt to some but I have some competition dogs so have to keep them in top nick without forking out for science diet or something.

lsttcdiver wrote: I have read through this forum a few times now and have managed to cut my weekly food bill down from $250 to $100 for me and DH, the funny thing is he says he hasnt noticed, in fact he thinks we eat better.

how did you manage that?

jazzy for me planning is everything, I check my cupboard then I plan my meals for the week. So I write out each meal and the ingredients I need to make it. Then I write next to each ingredient how much it usually costs rounded to the nearest dollar. As I go through the list I often adjust my meal plan to utilise an ingredient more than once, ie: this week we are having beef stroganoff so we are also having tacos, quiche and an apple cake so I can justify the luxury item of sourcream!

Then I only buy what is on the list! Though I do get some things that are on special if there is any money left over, this week it was canned tomatoes.

I have started a veggie garden and plan to use what is ready there (not much currently with the funny weather!) and bake twice a week. I still buy real butter and managed to add razors, batteries and a new clip it container to the shop this week without going over budget.

I'll give it a few weeks and and then try for more of a challenge! Anyone got any more tips to share?

If you keep razors in a bit of any kind of oil they last so much longer.