Eating well on a budget

Well over the last 10 days I have proven that you don't have to head to the supermarket every few days to feed your family well. Other than 4 litres of milk and a bunch of bananas I have stayed away from the supermarket. It is amazing how much food I have in my freezer and that's without even touching whatever is lurking at the bottom of my freezer.

Tomorrow though I am heading to the shops. Realistically I could just head to the fruit and vege shop and forget all about the supermarket saving even more money but there are a few things on good specials this week and I don't want to miss them and risk paying full price later.

We have eaten well over these 10 days including lots of fruit and veges. And meat with almost every meal. One favourite which we ate last night is homemade chicken nuggets. These are just 1 chicken breast cut into cubes and crumbed with flour, egg and breadcrumbs. Makes 1 breast look like a lot and stretches it a lot further than cooking one whole. Add homemade wedges and steamed veges and presto - a meal on a bugdet.

One of the areas which helps our food budget the most is breakfast. Breakfast is compulsory for all members of our household. And luckily we had never introduced expensive cereals in our better off days. So the boys are happy with weetbix, ricies and cornflakes mixed together or porridge. I add stewed, canned or fresh fruit to the mix and they love it. We also often have toast to follow. Well I have toast everyday and they have it more often than not. I also drink a large glass of milk each morning. So our breakfast is super healthy and cheap and fills us up for the morning. It's amazing how much expensive cereals cost nowadays and how much of them you have to eat to feel full.

Chocolate cake? What chocolate cake?

Can somebody please refresh my memory? I'm fairly certain I baked a chocolate cake on Sunday and that I posted I would freeze half of it. Hmmmmmm well something called kids, workmates, parents and myself happened to that. Even my X husband stole a piece. Now it's not quite all gone yet but will be tomorrow and not a slice made it's way to the freezer. This would have to be the most delicious cake I have ever made. I'd be thinking next time I have the urge to bake it it would be smart to double the mixture and then I just might have a chance to freeze some. My favourite way of eating it so far is with ice-cream.

Other than the cake disappearing faster than planned my $30 grocery challenge is going fantastic. I still have the whole $30 in my bank account which is better than I expected. I had a quiet weekend so used my sanity money to buy 2 litres of milk - $2.50 and 8 bananas $2.20 and that is all I have spent on groceries. We will just make it until Friday for fruit and veges and I found another container to mix powdered milk in so all good there too. It's amazing how much further you can stretch when you have too. I was tempted to try and make it last until next Tuesday but that will be pushing my luck and there are a couple of specials I really want to pick up this week.

Also this weekend with the groceries I will be doing something I don't often do. I generally shop at my local New World because it is close, clean, easy to find things and the fresh produce is a great quality. They have good specials but the items not on special are more expensive than Pak n Save. This week I was torn between Countdown and New World as they both had good specials on items I need this week and was trying to decide which one to go to. I have decided to go to both. New World is always handy and never out of my way which would usually be the deciding factor. However when I thought about it the boys will be at my parents while I work on Saturday and they live close to a Countdown so it's not much of a detour to go there as well. Will just have to be super careful that going to 2 supermarkets doesn't get the spending over budget.