As you can tell from my blog post about the Grocery Shopping Minefield, I have been thinking a lot about grocery shopping lately.
The thing is, and I am ashamed to admit it, over the last year and a half my grocery costs have got increasingly out of control. I am spending significantly more than I want to each week.
I know it's partly that Australia has the fastest rising food prices anywhere in the developed world. It's also partly that that I have four very hungry growing children, three of whom are boys. And that for most of the past year and a half I was unable to grow my own vegetables because we were renting. While I menu-plan, I do like to try out new recipes regularly which often involves buying new, non-frugal ingredients. Also, I now work four days a week, which cuts into my food preparation time and makes me tired, thus more prone to 'easy' solutions. Sometimes I think, "if only we had grocery coupons in Australia" or, "if only there were more shopping options, such as Aldi, in Adelaide".
However, while all these factors have contributed to my rising grocery bills, they are really just excuses. Ultimately management, or lack thereof, is making the biggest difference to our food budget.
One answer, I believe, is to return to vintage-style cooking, on the principle that people ate very well in the past with few of our processed ingredients. This approach has the added benefits of cutting down on packaging and waste, and enabling me to buy mostly unprocessed locally-grown products. It also has the benefit of giving me an excuse to trawl through some of my vintage cookbooks.
I am going to draft a couple of 'vintage' weekly menu plans over the next few days. I hope you'll come back and tell me what you think of them.
The thing is, and I am ashamed to admit it, over the last year and a half my grocery costs have got increasingly out of control. I am spending significantly more than I want to each week.
I know it's partly that Australia has the fastest rising food prices anywhere in the developed world. It's also partly that that I have four very hungry growing children, three of whom are boys. And that for most of the past year and a half I was unable to grow my own vegetables because we were renting. While I menu-plan, I do like to try out new recipes regularly which often involves buying new, non-frugal ingredients. Also, I now work four days a week, which cuts into my food preparation time and makes me tired, thus more prone to 'easy' solutions. Sometimes I think, "if only we had grocery coupons in Australia" or, "if only there were more shopping options, such as Aldi, in Adelaide".
However, while all these factors have contributed to my rising grocery bills, they are really just excuses. Ultimately management, or lack thereof, is making the biggest difference to our food budget.
One answer, I believe, is to return to vintage-style cooking, on the principle that people ate very well in the past with few of our processed ingredients. This approach has the added benefits of cutting down on packaging and waste, and enabling me to buy mostly unprocessed locally-grown products. It also has the benefit of giving me an excuse to trawl through some of my vintage cookbooks.
I am going to draft a couple of 'vintage' weekly menu plans over the next few days. I hope you'll come back and tell me what you think of them.
7 comments:
I'm down for that too - back to basics and learn to be smart and clever with our ingredients. I still divert here and there but I certainly try to 'make it from scratch' as much as I can (can't resist the odd cheaty recipe though, can you?) xx
Sounds good to me Kate.
I need to stick to basic cooking like my mother and grandmother cooked for us.
I will follow your menu's with interest.
Take care,
Tania
I know it's difficult what with moving, but that's why I love my pantry so much. I bought canned veggies at 50 cents a can (normally $1.49) and pasta when it was on closeout at Costco. The nice part of a pantry is being able to buy food when it fits your price range and pass it by when it's just too much. It does take some start up costs, but it's really not TOO much more than a normal grocery trip, and once you get set up, it saves a lot of money.
Hope you will skip most of the lard, though! My idea of vintage is actually a bit older -- look at peasant cooking. Lots of vegetables, and pulses, eggs and cheese instead of meat. They are usually a bit starchy due to the need for manual labour back then, but otherwise pretty good.
Kate, I look forward to checking out your menus and recipes. We have had to re-evaluate our grocery situation as well, because not only are we spending too much at the market, we are eating out entirely too much!
Have a great week!
Jen
I found the same thing Kate. Working four days is tiring and you don't have as much time to prepare the meals you want to.
This year I've gone backwards a little in the sense that I'm working two days (spread over four) and I've decided that I really can deal with going to Aldi AND Safeway, so my shopping bill is quite a lot less. Although there is no Aldi close to me, there is one close to where the girls do Girls Brigade, so I go during that little pocket of time.
I also get the kids to do some of the baking. Something I don't enjoy and so am inclined to rely on crackers for lunch boxes instead of something homemade.
You're so right...it's all about the planning.
Excellent!
Looking forward to the menus! :)
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