budget

So I promised I'd let you know what my plan was, for the next four weeks.  Not being able to upload my spreadsheet I will attempt to re-create it somewhat to give you an idea of what I do in prep for the month ahead...

There are three options for brekky...one option per day

Meal                      Ingredients             Other non-essesntial options               notes

Breakfast - Kids
Pancakes                 List all essential      other things such as toppings                 notes like - make
Weetbix                   ingredients here      that aren't essential such as banana        double batch/lasts
Fruit & Yoghurt      plus quantities                                                                         4 days etc

Breakfast - Other
Ben - Coffee
Fran - post workout smoothie (can't go without - note I have about 2 months supply of frozen berries, bought at a huge discount - paid 69c/punnet...sheer luck, if fresh berries are too expensive by the frozen ones and divide up)

Morning Snack
(there are 5 things to make, 2 options per day 1 must be a piece of fruit.  Note some of these things can be prepared ahead...cookies for the first week, at the beginning of week 2 make chips, make the muffins in week 1 for week 3 as they freeze well and you use the up the bulk fruit before going off, avo dip can be made in advance keeps for a week in fridge or put in freezer, carrot sticks can be cut and put in separate servings and will stay fresh for about a week).

Fruit
Grain free raisin cookie
mini apple & blueberry muffin (made with almond meal, can be made with oatmeal)
Home made sweet potato chips w/ avo
Carrot sticks w/avo

Lunch (comes with a little spinach and pumpkin salad and carrot sticks or cheese cubes)


Salad sandwich w/caramelised onion and beetroot (homemade sour dough)

Chicken, lettuce and avo wrap
(sorj wrap....out of all the pre-made wraps these seem to have the least amount of ingredients and things I don't know)...ps. there half price at woolies this week so I purchased twice as many to get through 2 months)

Homemade jam (fruit & honey cooked together) sandwich

Organic peanut butter sandwich (weekends - no nuts at school)

Leftovers if any

Afternoon Snack

Cheese cubes
Fruit and nut slice (homemade)
Carrot sticks w/avo
Sliced fruit

Dinner (Each will get eaten approx twice in the month...some variations may occur depending on vege patch supply and what is cheap at little fruit/veg guy)

Bolognese (bolognese sauce served on flat mushroom w/ feta or homemade pasta for hubby)
Honey mustard chicken (serve w/asparagus and green beans from vege patch)
Eggplant lasagne (use eggplants from vege patch)
Chicken Ceasar (avo dressing - use frozen avo cubes from previous bulk purchase)
Grilled lamb chops (serve w/ spinach, mash pumpkin and feta)
Nachos (grill eggplants and sweet potato for chips)
Homemade pork sausages
Chicken Schnitzel (pajama sauce)
Sweet potato pizza subs (filled with eggplant, bacon from last month - still frozen, onion etc)
Roast lamb (served with mixed oven roasted veges)
Honey cashew chicken (w/ barley)
Easy Peasy Pork Patties (w/salad - lettuce, tom, cucumber from garden, plus spinach and feta)
Lamb Chops (serve w/ vege cooked in pre-home made tomato sauce)
Lamb wraps

Dessert (not often but make one for each week and freeze)

Homemade frozen yoghurt/ice-cream
(organic natural yoghurt, banana, honey, cinnamon, berries)

Other items
Toilet paper
Cleaning stuff
Toothpaste
Dog food
Chicken food (extra seeds to go with fruit and grass) etc etc

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25/01/2013 - The Low Down on the Grocery Budget - and I mean all groceries...toilet paper, dog food the lot!

So I gave you a rundown on the fruit guy the other day...following is my grand total spend for the day, what's left and what's to come.

Fruit & Veg - $80.50 (some fresh for the week and the rest will go towards meal prep for the following three weeks)

Meat - $79.00 for the whole month, that got me 1/2 a lamb (almost 8kg) , 2kg of chicken breast and 2kg of beef mince

$138.00 at Woolies for cleaning items (borax, tea tree oil etc), flours (spelt), almond meal and feminine products

Honey - $12 for a kg (it's cheaper - $9, when you bring your old containers back and refill)

So having spent $309.50 I'm well on track to sticking to my $480 budget for the month.  The $170 difference has been split into three envelopes and will be used weekly to top up fresh milk and fruit.

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 23/01/2013 - Shopping Day!!!!

Today I went back to all the places I found on Monday and here's out I went

Granny Smith's 12kg for $12
Onions 10kg for $8
Sweet Potato 20kg for $18
Mangoes 4 for $8
Pumpkin x5 for $5
Giant box of Roma Tomatoes somewhere around 15kg for $20
Grapes 1kg for $3.50
Lettuce x 3 for $2
Box of Garlic $5

The more you buy the cheaper it gets so if you don't have the freezer space big enough to cook/blanch and freeze then it's well worth finding some people to chip in with!  Mind you the per kg prices were still cheaper than the supermarket (except the grapes) and the fruit is so much nicer - it's this mornings pickings!!!

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Those who follow my fb page will know that I spent a couple of hours this morning driving around trying to find local producers to buy all our food.  Years ago I used to go to farmers markets, but more recently I have been using bigger chain stores and a local butcher.

What was the problem you ask? First it took me up until a year ago to realise that I wasn't very healthy.  Second even after I noticed I did what most people do and concentrated on losing weight and counting calories however this still meant I was eating lots of processed stuff.

About 5 months back I decided I really wanted to support local, eat whole/real foods (and...try Paleo, while I'm not strict to Paleo...it is a great resource and source of information and inspiration).

I've upped my exercise from just walking to doing Crossfit style of bootcamp (that's the best way to describe it...google it...it's amazing - I now have a purpose...lol) 3 days a week plus see a personal trainer....yes the budget is really tight but I've cut back in other areas and the gym I go to doesn't do contracts that sign you up for life etc.

So a little off track there...here's what I found this morning - my top three

An amazing honey guy (husband and wife team...I'll post their names when I get permission), Blue Mountains Honey (the original one not the one that you buy in tourist areas) on the Northern Road.  They have their own bees and the honey goes straight to the jar...ps they have some other great items including passionfruit butter and chutney's if you like that sort of thing.  Now here's the thing the honey ranges from about $8-12kg but it's real...there's nothing fake in it and it tastes amazing completely different to the no name brand stuff I used to buy.

....ohhh and did I tell you they sell blocks of pure bees wax....perfect for the homemade lip balm...recipe can be found at The Elliot Homestead (an amzing blog worth reading... http://theelliotthomestead.com/2010/11/chapstick-baby/ ).

So that led me to a little fruit guy...he's little and so is he's shed but he has the most amazing fruit and veg (Elizabeth Drive, he's next door to the place you can buy live goats and sheep).  Anyway...so I say how much are the Granny Smith, he says $3/kg how much do you want?  I say a whole box, he says ok $2/kg.....onions are $8 for 10kg...which I can chop and freeze or share with others.....grapes are $3.50/kg, pumpkins are a $1 and everything gets cheaper if you buy it by the box....I know it can be difficult but if you have someone you can split with it is worth the journey and if you don't it still worth the journey (it's 20 minutes away) you can alway freeze, pickle, bake....the possibilities are endless!

This leads to my final place not far down the road...Nando's...and I don't mean chicken..well they sell chicken...but it's a family owned butcher.  Where do I start...we are making our own sausages this week and he sells the casing...woohoo $1/metre...which is enough for about a kg of sausages (there was a deli near my mum's house but they were between $3-35/m depending on brand, some were synthetic).  So what else can you buy (prices may change) 2kg of best mince for $10, lamb grillers $12/2kg (I paid $12 for 1kg last week at another place), legs of pork $3.99/kg, a WHOLE lamb for $95 (minimum weight of 14kg...which equates to less than $7/kg) - THIS WOULD BE A GREAT ONE TO SHARE!  And 4 litres of olive oil for $14.99.

I'll leave it at that...but if you have time to explore it is so worth it!!!! I might even get in under budget :)