The End Result - I even surprised myself!

$116 under budget.... yup that's the result for this fortnights shopping.

Albeit it may not be a very true reflection as there are four days completely removed from the equation. But hey it makes the bank balance look good, and makes me feel like the extra work I put in is worth it!

A note on my satay from last night, it tasted pretty good - not very satayish but yummy just the same. when I told my sister what I'd put in it she yelled down the phone "WHAT! Where did you get THAT recipe?" response "my head..?" she then proceeded to give me a true Indonesian Satay recipe which she is going to write out for me on the weekend...then I shall share it!

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Another Shopping / Pantry Tip

Whilst the shopping to a list and meal plan is the best way to save yourself money / time there is also another nifty tip that for me works well and go hand in hand with this process. I have certain grocery items that are just in the pantry - as I am sure we all do - sauce, dressing, mayo, plain crackers, pappadums, curry powder etc Rather than try and remember what you need each week / fortnight - attach a piece of paper to your fridge or your cupboard and when you run out of something whilst cooking write it down. Make the list a permanent fixture in your kitchen so this tiny tiny task also becomes a fixture.. you'll no longer have 3 bottles of tomato sauce and no BBQ. French dressing but not italian, curry powder but not mustard powder and all types of pasta instead of 5 packets of fettucine!!!

Never underestimate the power of cake.

On Friday evening, I made cake. I took a 70-cent packet mix, added about 50-cents worth of milk, maybe 10-cents worth of butter, and an egg, beat it to death, baked it and voila cake. We iced it with another 5-cents of butter, a splash of milk and a cup of icing sugar and topped it with hundreds & thousands. So, let’s call it a dollar fifty? $1.50. I made the cake for no reason other than it was Friday and everyone was a bit urgh. And I thought well, cake makes everyone happy! When that cake was ready, we were taking advantage of the oven being on and pre-heated to cook dinner, which would take about 40 mins. So ya know what, we ate cake before dinner. Do you know what that does to a family? It was the cheekiest thing we’d done in ages, we felt like we’d broken the rules of the world and boy did we smile about it. Dinner came and went; everyone was far more relaxed than they were just an hour or two earlier. We sat at the table and pl...

The Biggest Change I Ever Made...

...and the word change in this sentence has two contexts - I made a change to my life and consequently now receive MORE change at the supermarket!! There are many age old theories and also plenty of new ones regarding how to save money with your groceries. One that I have never applied nor followed is the art of making a meal plan and thus a shopping list....and then sticking to it. For the last 2 - 3 months, that is exactly what I've done and by geez has it worked. Combining the meal plan and shopping list with some other tried and true shopping tricks I have kept my grocery budget and we have eaten beautiful, yummy food every day and every night. This week for me is shopping week so as I complete each step I'll blog it and hopefully you'll see how it actually works. Before we begin, below are my KEY shopping tips to save money that I undertake every shop (for me this is fortnightly)... and because I'm all about sharing my personal grocery budget for a fortnigh...

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