Eat Well, Save More: Feed 4 people for $80 a week

By Cath Armstrong

Thrift queen Cath Armstrong reveals how to feed four people healthy food for less than $80 per week, with menus, strategies, tips and 100 recipes for the savvy shopper, this book will help you strip thousands of dollars from your grocery bill.
Slash thousands from your grocery bill!In the current economic climate many Australians are on a limited budget. In EAt WELL, SAVE MORE thrift queen Cath Armstrong demonstrates how you can feed four people with healthy, delicious food for only $80 per week. this book will help you:• slash thousands from your grocery bill• organise, maintain and improve your household budget• become a brilliant menu planner• develop canny shopping habits• make three meals and two snacks a day for four people for less than $80 a weekFull of clever strategies, tips and tricks, EAt WELL, SAVE MORE also gives you 100 easy recipes to help you make nutritious cost-effective meals for a fraction of the cost of your usual grocery bill.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: Jun 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9780730499688

Cath Armstrong

Cath Armstrong appears regularly in the media and is a regular commentator on ABC Local Radio and Radio National. She has featured on Today Tonight, A Current Affair and Sunrise on a regular basis over the years. Cath has been published in many Australian newspapers and magazines including Woman’s Day, The Age, Courier Mail, Practical Parenting and others. Cath is also a frequent guest speaker at relevant events, including the CPA’s annual conference. Her website is subscription-based and extremely popular. Cath is the authorof DEBT-FREE, CASHED-UP AND LAUGHING.

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1. $80 A WEEK – CAN IT BE DONE? YES, IT CAN!

Feeding the family has become more of a challenge than ever, even for those who don’t stick to a rigid budget. If you are shopping for groceries on a budget the task can seem impossible.

Don’t despair; instead, take heart, because it can be done. I shop for my family of five once a month – with fortnightly top-ups of dairy and fruit and vegetables – for under $400 and that includes toiletries and cleaning supplies. For a family of four, the bill would be about $320 per month. Now remember, I’ve been doing this since 1993, so I have lots and lots of experience. If you are just beginning to work on your grocery bill, give yourself time. Once-a-month shopping, or being as cutthroat with the prices as I am, might not be for you yet.

When it comes to grocery shopping I have a very strict routine and it very rarely varies:

Pantry, fridge and freezer inventory

Meal plan

Write a shopping list:

– use inventories and meal plan to work out what’s needed

– use a Price Book and catalogues to find best prices

– write up a list in order of stores to go to

– don’t be afraid to try generic brands

Hit the shops

It’s a simple system and it works for me and it can work for you too, regardless of the size of your family. Whether you are a family of six, a couple or single, the process is the same: inventories, meal plan, shopping list and hit the shops. The only difference is in the quantity of the items on your shopping list and the total at the register.

Just a note: there is no hard and fast rule to calculate your grocery budget. Some people work on a percentage of income – ideally no more than 10%, or a dollar amount per person – $5 per person per day (a family of four would then be spending no more than $140 a week on food), or even a blanket amount of $100 a week, regardless of the size of the family.

What it all boils down to is spending however much it takes to feed your family and keep them healthy and happy and full without going into debt.

Getting Started

I discovered way back in 1993 that I was buying the same things over and over. The same grocery lines, the same toiletries and cleaning products, the same meat and basically the same fruit and vegetables. The only variations came with a change of season: in summer I bought more salad and vegetables; in winter I bought more casserole and stew types of meat. Realising my buying habits was the inspiration for the once-a-month grocery list.

The night before shopping day, I do a quick inventory of the pantry, fridge and freezer to see what basic supplies we need and add them to the shopping list. Once I know what’s on hand I can do a meal plan for the month, using up what is already on hand and filling in the gaps. I only plan dinners – breakfast and lunch are simple meals for us and while there is variety, the ingredients are basically the same. Having set meals for breakfast and lunch saves a lot of time too. You don’t have to think very hard – just remember what day it is and the rest is easy. It also means that everyone can fend for themselves. They don’t need you to tell them what to eat or to get it for them. In fact, on the weekend you might get your breakfast and lunch made for you!

For breakfast we have a choice of wheat biscuits, ricies or rolled oats. At the weekend, when we have more time, pancakes or French toast are our favourites. Because breakfast is the same week to week, I know to automatically add 4 packets of wheat biscuits, 2 of ricies and 2 of rolled oats to the shopping list.

During the week, we have a set lunch menu. Years ago, we all sat down and decided what we’d have for lunch and it works for us. Everyone knows what they will find in their lunchbox:

Monday: Everyone buys lunch. It’s a once-a-week treat and works well to stop us feeling deprived for the rest of the week. Fruit for snacks and drinks are brought from home.

Tuesday: Sandwiches using the leftover meat from Sunday night’s roast. If there’s no leftover meat, then Tuesday is cheese and Vegemite day, with a muffin from the freezer and fruit for a treat.

Wednesday: Focaccia pizza. I spread focaccia (or bread rolls or English muffins) with tomato sauce, sprinkle it with herbs and top it with grated cheese, then grill it until the cheese is bubbly and melted and wrap in foil to stay warm. Fruit from the bowl for snacks to fill them up.

Thursday: Sandwiches. Egg and lettuce most of the time.

Friday: Sausage rolls or pasties, depending on what’s in the freezer. Also a muffin or slice of cake and fruit.

Saturday: Soup and toast in winter, salad rolls in summer.

Sunday: Baked beans on toast or toasted sandwiches (cheese and tomato, spaghetti, meat and cheese, etc).

With breakfast and lunch covered, it’s time to work out what’s for dinner. A quick and simple trick that can really speed meal planning up is to assign a type of meal to each day of the week.

Sunday: Roast

Monday: Pasta

Tuesday: Fish

Wednesday: Mince

Thursday: Takeaway (either bought or from Mum’s Kitchen)

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Soup and sandwiches

If you do this and nothing else you at least know what to take out of the freezer in the morning. You can spend the day thinking of ways to prepare it if you need to.

The next step is to actually assign recipes to the meal, e.g. roast stuffed chicken, lamb with rosemary and garlic, pasta with Bolognaise sauce, etc. Doing this helps with your shopping list – you’ll know exactly what ingredients you need to cook these meals. Check your inventories to make sure you have what you need and add anything that has to be bought to your shopping list.

When you’ve mastered these two steps, you can get adventurous and assign new recipes to the meals. Start with one new recipe per week and aim for a day when you know you’ll have time to spend in the kitchen – a Sunday night dinner could become a regular new weeknight recipe.

To learn more about meal planning, see Chapter 2.

The Shopping List

When it comes to buying groceries on a budget, I find a Perpetual Shopping List (see Chapter 6) essential. I keep a blank shopping list on the kitchen notice board and, in theory, when something needs to be replenished it is written on the board. Remember, I live with three teenagers so it doesn’t always work out that way, hence me doing the inventories. I always shop with a list as I like to get it all in one hit, and if I miss something, it has to wait until the next shop.

Once the meal plan has been worked out I can add to the shopping list. I write down everything I need, making sure I include the quantities. Unless it is something really important I’m not brand precious. Remember, flour is flour, sugar is sugar and there is bound to be one brand on sale most of the time.

I rely on my Price Book (see Chapter 3) to make sure I’m getting the best value for money, but when you’re just starting out on your budget, use junk mail catalogues or hop online to find the specials available. If you have something on your list that is on sale, make a note of the price and the store on your shopping list. I also check catalogue prices against my Price Book and, if it’s a great sale price, I add some to my Stockpile (see Chapter 10) too.

I mentioned earlier about not being brand precious, but there are two things I buy that I won’t change brands on: my coffee and salad dressing. These will always be the one particular brand regardless of how cheap the others may be, so I keep a careful look out for a good sale. For all other things, I keep an open mind and you should too. At best you’ll save yourself some money and at worst if you don’t like it, you can go back to your regular brand next shop.

To make shopping day easier, have your shopping list split into sections. Splitting by store seems the easiest method: listing what you are going to buy under each store means you won’t miss getting anything and you’ll save time not having to search through a long list to find things.

Hitting the Shops

Over the years, friends and family – and yes, complete strangers – have asked me how long it takes to do ‘all that shopping’. Well I can tell you that it takes me about three hours every fourth Friday, and that includes packing it all away.

If the thought of going to two or three different shops puts you off, it shouldn’t. Most Australians live reasonably close to at least one large shopping centre and most shopping centres have at least two supermarkets in them. It’s easy to whizz through one, take that load back to the car and then whizz through the other one, especially if you are working off a list.

As you push your trolley up and down the aisles, check the prices of various brands. Before you add something to your trolley do a quick scan of the other brands and your Price Book – you might find a better deal. This is where having a little calculator and unit pricing helps. Unit pricing helps you determine the best deal and it’s the one thing supermarkets have done in recent years to really benefit customers. It makes comparing brands so much easier. The calculator will also come in handy for adding up the cost of multiple purchases of the same item and total your grocery list as you shop.

Keep your eyes open for markdowns and store-only specials. For example, stocking up on legs of lamb for $6.99/kg is worth it – if I have the money in my slush fund – because I know I’ll use them up. If you have chicken fillets on your list but the Marylands are a great price, you might need to be a little flexible with your meal plan. Just think of the dollars you are saving.

For specials, pencil the advertised price next to the item on your shopping list and check your docket before you leave the store. If there are any discrepancies, and sometimes there are, go to the service counter and get them fixed. Depending on the store’s policy you may end up with at least one item free – but remember that not all stores adhere to the Scanning Code of Practice.

Where I Store Things

People look at me like I’m a madwoman when I tell them I shop once a month and I have been asked over and over where I store it all. I can tell you that a month’s worth of food isn’t really that much.

Putting it all away is the hardest part of the whole exercise, but it only takes about half an hour. I have a pantry and a fridge in the kitchen and a store cupboard and a chest freezer in the laundry. Everything fits in. And I don’t have to unpack groceries for another four weeks.

Bread goes into the little freezer over the fridge so it doesn’t get squashed and bent out of shape. I keep pastry sheets, spices and stock cubes in there too.

The door of the fridge holds four bottles of milk, plus cream, sour cream and salad dressings. Eggs go on the top shelf of the fridge along with butter and cheeses. The top shelf also holds three containers: one for beetroot, one for pineapple slices and one for pickled onions. I keep jams, mustards and pickles on the top shelf too.

The second shelf holds containers of sliced meat for lunches and leftovers. The third shelf has Tupperware containers holding fruit and vegetables, as do the crispers in the bottom.

Meat is packaged up in meal sizes and double wrapped in freezer bags or vacuum sealed and then stored in the chest freezer. Frozen vegetables are kept in the basket in the chest freezer, along with a spare bottle of milk.

Because I shop once a month and have a stockpile of groceries, most grocery items are kept in the kitchen pantry or in the store cupboard in the laundry until they are needed in the kitchen. In the pantry I keep the things we use every day – cereals, spreads, baking supplies, oil and so on.

In my kitchen dry goods are put into the freezer, in the packaging, as soon as they enter the house. I do this to kill any weevils that may be in the foods. Leave your dry goods in the freezer for at least 72 hours to kill any bugs and bug larvae that may be in the packaging and contents – you don’t need to rewrap or change the packaging, just put it in the freezer. Once they come out of the freezer they are either stacked in the store cupboard or used to top up a canister in the pantry.

I prefer to decant everything into labelled canisters, rather than keep open packets on the pantry shelf. Open packets are an invitation to bugs to have a party – at my cost. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on canisters. Coffee jars or formula tins are a uniform size and stack neatly and, best of all, because they are recycled they are free. Ask friends and relatives to keep them for you to build your supply quickly. When a canister is empty, it is washed and dried and refilled from the stockpile and I make a note on the appropriate inventory, ready for making up my shopping list. If you’re not going to use the food immediately, jot down the use by or best before date so you know to use it up before it expires.

All up, I spend three hours and around $300 every fourth Friday to buy enough groceries to keep my family going for a month. Is it worth it to me? Yes. Even with a fortnightly top-up of milk and fruit and vegetables I’m only adding another $100 to my budget and another hour in total to shopping time.

Four hours a month is probably less than the time most people spend grocery shopping and I’m saving hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year into the bargain.

As you work your way through each chapter, take what works for you and your family and use it. Of course, $320 a month is just a general guideline for a family of four (although there are families all over the country who have taken up the $300-a-month grocery challenge) – prices will vary from month to month, store to store and even state to state – and couples and singles will probably discover they can spend far less on groceries by following my example. It’s also important to remember that bulk buying is an important part of sticking to the budget.

You don’t need to imitate my shopping plan precisely to get a result and I don’t recommend you do so. What works for me and my family