Tonights cheap dinner

Tonight I made myself a super cheap dinner. A cheese and bacon omlette. Yesterday Mr6 and I stopped at a meat, fruit and vege shop to get a few bits and pieces of f & v and while there I noticed a pack of bacon offcuts - $8.99/kg so grabbed one of those too as they looked pretty lean and tasty. Yesterday Mr6 and I had bacon butties for lunch and then tonight I split the rest of the pack. I managed to get 3 servings for either dinner or breakfast and 3 serves of singles for omlettes. I think that is great value for $9. It's one of the ways I try to stretch my budget making money go further. Let's face it our grocery shopping is more often than not the place with the most discretionary spending. Regardless of the size of the grocery budget you will almost always see "wants" as well as needs in people's trolleys. I know even though my budget is extremely tight there is always at the least a block of chocolate in my trolley. And that's before taking into account things like boneless chicken meat and lunch box treats for the lads.

The only way this can be done with my tight grocery budget is to shop smart. My favourite bacon at the butcher is close to $20/kg. It is super yummy but I find it hard to use for large quantities at that price. A small amount for flavour in a dish or an omlette not a problem but a feed of bacon and eggs or bacon and egg pie? Wow that starts to get exy. So I compromise by using the good stuff when I need small amounts and the cheaper stuff for larger serves. Also by shopping to the specials I find I have room for the treats.

I have tried menu planning but I don't like it. Lol I don't like being told what to do even if I am the one who wrote the plan. I know a lot of people do this and swear it saves them money. I find shopping to the specials is the way for me.

With this plan I keep an eye on the weekly specials the supermarkets advertise and when there is something good I get a few extras. This works well with non perishables but I also stockup on things like cereal we use a lot of. It's amazing how much you can save simply by keeping your eyes open for the bargins - give it a go if you don't already. Odds are if you are paying full price you are paying too much.