hi can i please have yr dishwasher powder. I make the rest but have finally saved enough for a dish washer and would like to make my own powder/ liquid.
sapphirez,
Aug 21, 7:31am
I need to start budgeting and cut down on what i spend on groceries. I was wondering what weekly grocery list people have if they on a budget?
kob,
Aug 21, 6:55pm
well for a start you need to have loo rolls, toothpaste, soap & shampoo( cheapest avaliable) then for meats depending on your budget you can make great meals with sausages, mince bacon ends and pork pieces, veges i always found bagging your own vege was cheaper, cause if your doing a menu plan which i suggest you will know that you need 4 carrots, 1 kumera, 12 potatoesand frozen peas ar eonly $2. 20 bread there are always deals around the place same as milk... ... . if you kids are at school and need lunches try making your own yoghurts & muesli bars def do your own baking so you would need to build up your store cupboard, and theres nothing better than hot porridge for breakie it s filling and cheap, thats a good start, about $80 should cover that maybe more, and of course if you have heaps more to spend you can grab heaps of other things
sumstyle,
Aug 21, 8:40pm
The Nutrition Department of the Otago University does an annual study of the cost of groceries across NZ each year, and puts out the info to show a range of prices depending on where you live and how old you are.
We use this info at work when looking at people's budgets, and find it quite helpful as often people have no idea how much they spend on food and non-consumables (such as toiletries), or they do not realise that their spending can be reduced with a certain amount of forward planning and self-control.
catsmeat1,
Aug 21, 8:53pm
This is the page from Otago University http://nutrition. otago. ac.nz/__data/assets/file/0016/5830/In formationPackage2010. pdf Great guideline!
mistrycelebrity,
Aug 21, 10:41pm
great ideas from kob. i wouldn't add much to that except:
- try to make a folder of 7 - 14 recipes you can make with cheap meats and veges
- buy veges that are in season as they are usually cheaper, avoid veges that are expensive and out of season eg sometimes a cucumber is 99c and sometimes it is $4,
- try to shop half an hour before the store is closing to get all the end of day mark downs on meat etc.
- I try to never buy meat that is over $10 a kg, unless it is for a special meal. Try the frozen section, sometimes a 2kg bag of frozen chicken pieces is $10.
- sign up for the 'simple savings' newsletter, lots of handy tips emailed to you each week
- make a grocery checklist and print heaps off or photocopy a whole stack, tick off what you run out of
A weeks budget grocery list could be something like this:
= $70-90ish should cover all bases, you won't need to buy everything once a week
sapphirez,
Aug 22, 6:51am
Thanks for all your ideas and tips, they are great :)
duckmoon,
Aug 22, 6:59am
Also, if you can make it - don't buy it.
I have stopped putting a pasta sauce over pasta, rather frying some onion - adding a tin tomatoes, and some herbs... Cost 69cents for the tin of toms...
Also, I don't purchase cleaning products anymore - rather than spray and wipe - i have a spray bottle, - filled with water - plus 50 drops of lavendar oil...
darlingmole,
Aug 22, 8:28am
hey mistry ~ couln't help but have a wee laugh when I read you only budget $5 for milk and $4 for bread ... . Perhaps for a family of how many? We have 9 at home (use to be 6, then 10, now 9 and hopefully 7 by Christmas? ! )
Budgeting depends on family sizes right (no question mark this time) and we eat as much budget/home brands as humanly possible. Always seasonal vegetables/fruit, always have flour and sugars on the list, soup twice a week, egg/beans/chips at least once, pasta once and in fact meat is thin on the ground. I find having puddings (fruit crumble or bread'n'butter pudd)really helps with the food bill and fills up hungry kids and is infact pretty healthy and user friendly
kuaka,
Aug 22, 8:52am
darlingmole - yes, I smiled at that too! $2 for toothpaste, when the cheapest I can get is $2. 99, $15 for veg and $10 for fruit doesn't go far, when this week they want $1. 99 for a microscopic broccoli head, $1. 99 for HALF a cabbage, or a tennis-ball sized cauliflower, and oranges, kiwifruit, apples, bananas are all in excess of $3 kg. Then meat, don't get me started on that. I have complained in other threads about the cost of meat. El cheapo cuts like scungy old lamb neck chops are $13. 99kg (my sister in the UK buys fresh NZ LEGS of lamb cheaper than that), $13. 99 kg for mince, and $10. 99 kg for sausages. This week the rump steak, chuck steak and gravy beef were all the same price ($10. 99kg), so I stocked up on rump. Even the cut turns her nose up at gravy beef because it is usually so fatty and gristly. Milk is $4. 50 for 2 litres, and you just about need to take out a mortgage to buy a large block of cheese. Okay, I do like tasty, and won't waste my money on the stuff that tastes like soap, but even so, the soapy variety is $10. You haven't mentioned essentials like tea bags (and believe me they are an essential for me)
jtonkin,
Aug 22, 10:20am
kuaka - try the Gravy Beef in the Crock pot. Pure heaven, falls apart in your mouth and cheap for a large family!
andrea1978,
Aug 22, 10:51am
I'm guessing that these are estimates? Cheese is about $11kg now on special, pasta (budget) $1, 04 for a 500g packet, rice is regularly about 2. 69 per kg (I buy Jasmine, but even plain rice is about the same), butter is 3. 89 or 3. 99, milk has gone up to about 3. 45 for 2L now, bread, well it depends what you buy - i'd say average is about $3 per loaf (I don't buy white), fruit, veges & meat seem to be very conservative price wise as well, but i guess it depends what you buy and how many people there are in your family.
kuaka,
Aug 22, 10:53am
jtonkin, I've tried it before, but since my crockpot died (I haven't replaced it yet), I can't see any point in paying the same money for gravy beef or chuck steak as for rump steak (they were all $10. 99 kg this week) but normally the gravy beef and chuck steak are $13. 99 kg at my supermarket and we don't have a butcher here, so not really much choice (and there's only two of us)
frances1266,
Aug 22, 8:47pm
Asian supermarkets often have cheaper products. If you have a Bin Inn in your area you can buy small quantities of items. TVP which can be found in both of these places is a cheap substitute for meat. Either add it to a dish to stretch out meat or use instead of meat. With the right recipe you wont tell the difference. Pulses are good, there are delicious recipes for pulses that everyone will enjoy.
stompy,
Aug 22, 10:50pm
Gosh I cant get pure butter under $5 to $6 I don't like the mixed stuff nasty.
elliehen,
Aug 22, 11:13pm
If you want to cut down on your spending, there are two things you can try.
+ Cut down on the number of times you go shopping - once a fortnight is best, but with children you may need to shop once a week.
+ Once you've done your shopping, make it a family rule that if you run out of something, you must 'make do' with something else- it IS possible.
ruby19,
Aug 22, 11:55pm
I make sure I have the staples in my pantry. For us its pasta, rice - basmati & aboria , cous cous, herbs spices, which are much cheaper if bought from asian supermarkets or binn inn style stores. Tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, cheese, cream and the in season veggies, and then I buy the meat that is on special. I go shopping when I run out not on a special day, so my shopping this week might last me 10 days so I will go back then. I make a rough list of what I am making, ie this week we have lasagna, a risotto with chorizo, potato & leek soup and savoury scones, some nice steak with a creamy mushroom dish and veggies , calzones with roasted veggies & feta- home made with some h/m wedges, chicken parmigania, roasted potatoes & salad. I will also do some baking for the lunches, and perhaps some, cheese & onion rolls. But I know that out of my groceries I can still whip together other soups, a veggie bake, falafel kebabs, other pasta dishes, a risotto, plus a few more if I really had to. These are meals our family enjoys, and are quite simple to throw together.
kuaka,
Aug 23, 3:10am
oh ruby, how I wish my man would eat that sort of stuff - it has to be meat, potato and 3 veg otherwise he would think I was trying to kill him off!
stompy,
Aug 23, 3:31am
that gave me a good chuckle.
ruby19,
Aug 23, 4:19am
Kuaka, i don`t eat meat, so I think they are thankful they get any! As I am the cook of the house, not that I don`t wish I could have the odd night off. To be honest though I think when I first met my partner he wasn`t too keen on the veggie dishes, mind you I couldn`t cook either! Now some of the families favourites are the meat free dishes, not that I don`t cook meat, the above ideas are probably a bit lighter on meat than normal, but they don`t complain. Also I can never make enough soup in our house, it is something that is asked for all year round.
anne1955,
Aug 23, 7:22am
Hi Granted I haven't read all the posts... but often the cheaper cuts of meat are not that any longer... What I mean as cheap mine sausages etc are not often that cheap... and some of the what you might think more expensive are actually cheaper. I get large pork hocks from Countdown for under or around 5. 00 they roast just wonderful and feed 3 1 male and two others. . Pork fillets are just so under rated... no waste at all. . I often stuff them with what ever you fancy and a quick roast especially for a working female... or the cut with now waste to snitzel (sp) egg and breadcrumb and make the best sweet and sour pork...cont... . .
anne1955,
Aug 23, 7:29am
Now for that something special in sweet and sour pork... cut fillet into small pieces egg and cornflour well worth the effort and makes the meat go so much futher when feeding a family... any egg and cornflour left over do it to pineapple pieces and fry them as well... making sauce in a seperate pot and not mixing with vegies or port etc to end... Cont...
anne1955,
Aug 23, 7:32am
Simple soups made for a real meal... put scone dough on top when cooking... make mini meat balls when making for another meal. . and toss into a tomatoe based soup... I use King Soup bases and just add ends of things depending on which one and make big meals from it... use left over cream to make quick simple scones... oh I could write a book... :)
kuaka,
Aug 23, 9:09am
anne, I use King soups too (at least I used to) haven't done this year - not sure why really - actually, no that's not true. I always used to simmer the soup on the stove top for hours on end, with the element set as low as it would go. Now I have gas, and I'm not keen on leaving it unattended on low in case it goes out. We used to have the soup for lunches through the winter - there's no way my other half would consider it a meal, no matter how much extra "stuff" I added. Sadly he's a meat, spud and veg man (and he'll be 80 next year - I don't think I'm going to change him).
bcjordan,
Aug 23, 10:31am
visit your local bakery around 4-5pm before they close they have muffins /breads/cakes etc made that day ! you can freeze or eat within two days at cheap.
Soups and Curries are good swap n change flavour / veges / meat Rice and Pasta - hot n cold for a lunch or dinner Potatoes - Baked , Mash , scalloped , boiled Dont forget Dried and Canned fruit.
Since the public registrations are closed, you must have an invite from a current member to be able to register and post in this thread.
Have an account? Login here.