Feeding a family in this day and age is SERIOUSLY expensive 💸 😳

Living in an allergy home is even more costly – regular trips to (very expensive) allergists, dermatologists and doctors, regular updates of asthma medication, adrenaline rescue pens and stocks of antihistamines for every place they go. Creams, creams and more creams. My goodness it adds up quickly.

Then there’s the groceries ….. no options for $1 bags of pasta or flour or cheap bread. Allergy friendly options are often 8-10 times the price of standard items. And then there is the pressure of wanting to buy foods that are locally or ethically produced.

And then add in feeding multiple, LARGE, active teenage boys 😱 HOLY COW – Do they EVER stop eating?!?! 

Don’t get me wrong – I am so very grateful  that my husband has a stable job, as do I after 10 years with one income. We actually have many allergy friendly options in shops and that we are able to access the specialists we need to care well for our children. We are FAR better off than many.

I remember many years ago now (about 2011), following a friend do a challenge that was ‘Feed your family of 4 for $150 a week’ and it just made me giggle. She did it. I was so impressed. But, no way is that ever going to happen in this house. There are 6 of us and many many foods that we need to avoid or substitute. Not to mention it is over a decade later and food prices only continue to rise.

In 2018, we looked very carefully at our food budget, and I realise that, even though I wrote a menu for a fortnight and was a pretty good budgeter, I had fallen into into the trap of ‘just popping in’ to the supermarket to pick up some extra things for baking, or things we’d run out of …. and I had suddenly spent another $50 … how does that happen?!?! Eek!

I grew up watching my Mum take out the entire grocery budget in cash once a fortnight and when it ran out, that was it, we had to wait. And my Dad had literally sat me down with a pen and paper and taught me how to budget. What had happened to those lessons I’d learned?

So with 1 income (at the time), 4 kids who were expensive to feed, ever increasing costs, a husband who requested meat for lunch and dinner 6 days a week and a desire to eat well with minimally processed foods, I set myself a challenge:

Menu plan for a month, write my grocery list for a month, 1 big, careful shop and then that’s it – no going back.

Scary Stuff – but I did it AND I loved it! After a while I couldn’t actually imagine doing it any other way. Plus it was kind of amusing to watch the stares at my trolley in the shop 😆

*2024 UPDATE* Due to the ever growing size of my eating machines, I mean, children, I can no longer shop for a month at a time. I do not have the physical space in my home … when between 3 of them, they drink 3L of milk a day … no one has space to freeze 30, 3L bottles of milk 🤪 So still with the same principals, planning and menu, we have moved back to once a fortnight.

So, I’m not trying to convince all of you to shop for a month at a time – in fact, I know that some of you, (like me, in this 2024 update) don’t have the space …. I am incredibly fortunate that my Nanna gave us her old freezer for the garage, which made this process possible for us.

But the general ideas I think can work for everyone – so, after being asked about a squillion times for my tips, here is what works in our home:

• Check what is in my pantry and freezer – write a list out – don’t be vague about it!
• Write a menu (whether that be for a week, month or more), and use up what you already have for those meal plans. Plan to use similar ingredients for multiple meals. Take into account what else you have on in the evenings …. it’s no good planning to cook a 3 course meal if you’re only home for 20 minutes in between activities!
• Shops in different places for different things if you are able (obviously this will be different depending on where you live).
• Meat, milk, honey, eggs, cheese and fresh fruit and veg might come from the farmers markets. Local, cheaper and often much better quality.

You can buy flours, nuts and seeds, salts, oil, vinegar, coconut aminos and yeast etc in bulk (my favourite online places are 2 Brothers Foods and Weigh N Pay). Or even at bulk buying places like Costco if you have access. 

 

 

Buy your packaged goods from one place (and use the rewards system to your advantage!). I currently shop mostly at Woolies. For us this includes things like tinned beans and legumes, coffee, plain cereals, frozen berries, Nuttelex, UHT milks (Oat, almond, and soy), pasta, rice, rice crackers, dried beans, dried fruit, specialist cheese, vegemite and all toiletries (this includes sanitary items, everything for washing, cleaning and use in the kitchen).

Toilet Paper is delivered by Who Give a Crap (good for your bum, the environment AND your budget!!).

Our coffee pods get delivered by Urban Brew, because they are tasty, cheaper on subscription AND compostable. We  use keep cups and almost never buy coffee out.

Admittedly, when I get the groceries home – it takes a significant amount of time to put it away, so you need to factor that in. BUT then it is done for the month (or fortnight)!!!

A note about Meat: In the past few years, my carnivore husband has realised that you can actually have delicious, filling meals without meat 😉 So we have significantly decreased the amount we eat. When we do eat meat, it is not the main focus of the meal. Instead we bulk out everything with veg, lentils and mushrooms as much as we can. It is relatively easy to get enough protein in the western world … but as a nation we’re not as great at eating enough veggies to provide enough fibre for our gut and healthy functioning …. so this way of eating meat really helps – both our guts and our budget (and the environment). And it also means we don’t need quite as much freezer space to store it all!

The things that people have told me that they ‘pop’ to the shops for are bread, milk, yoghurt and snacks for the kids:

• Our dairy milk gets stuck in the freezer for the week. I get the new one out at night when required and it defrosts overnight in the kitchen sink. The UHT milk we buy (soy, oat and almond) is used to drink, bake and make E’s yoghurt as required.
• And bread – I used to bake it as it was required, but I just don’t have the time now! If you’re not into baking it, or you don’t have the time (or desire!) …. just buy what you need and freeze it. 
• Making your own snacks is SO SO much cheaper than buying them in store. Less processed, fewer additives and preservatives, less sugar and more nutrients too! Let the kids choose what kind of muffins, slices, biscuits and muesli bars they want to make with you! Freeze them ready to drop into their lunchboxes each day.
  

  

 

Fruit  and veg are the only exception to my no-returning-to-the-shops rule.

• I buy in bulk, blanch and freeze some things when they are on special (think green beans and cauliflower etc)
• some things, like green peas, I just buy frozen to start with.
• I deliberately overbuy bananas and avocados to freeze ready for baking and smoothies.
• I try to buy the veggies I need for my meals that week so we don’t waste. I work at being creative with what we have and don’t return to market for more until we have really used all we have.
• Don’t be afraid of frozen or tinned fruit, veg and tinned beans – they are an AWESOME, and just as nutritious alternative and SO much kinder to your budget.

 

 

Consider this fair warning …. If you shop like this, people tend to stare …. and they don’t even try to hide it. I’ve had all sorts of jokes and comments about the coming apocalypse and having a dozen children etc etc. Mostly I just smile – sometimes I tell people that it’s for a family of 6 and we only shop once a month … then they just look even more shocked!!

So where do we put it all? It goes in the fridge, freezer, pantry and …. the (now jokingly called) ‘Apocalypse Cupboard’ Under our kitchen bench. The store of toiletries (think tissues, detergent, tooth paste) all goes in the laundry cupboards. By the end of the month, they are all pretty empty and it makes it easy to start again.

If any of you are still reading, well done, and yes, I realise, as my husband lovingly tells me, I am a bit of a freak! I also love numbers so I broke down our expenditure and this is what I have discovered:

In 2024, it costs our family, on average, about $10.35 per day, per person to live (this has increased by about 25% over the past 8 years). I suspect 2 very large teenaged boys skew this data a bit! It works out to about $435 a week for 6 people. Not remotely close the to that 2012, $150 a week challenge 🫣 This cost is all of our food (every meal, snack and coffee), all of our toiletries, washing goods and consumables etc etc.

Some of my other ways for making our budget stretch are:

• Cook in bulk and deliberately freeze meals
• Plan to buy ingredients that can be used across multiple meals 
• Again – don’t be afraid of frozen or tinned fruit, veg and tinned beans – they are an AWESOME, and just as nutritious alternative and SO much kinder to your budget.
• Try growing some of your own (even if it just some fresh herbs in pots!),
• Don’t throw out fruit that is a bit sad – use it to made a dessert crumble or stick it in some baked goods. Veggies past their best can be turned into a soup, or collected in a freezer bag until you have enough to make stock. And,
• Have a go arranging homegrown swaps with like-minded friends – some communities have dedicated Facebook groups for this. We have swapped propagated plants and excess veg, or homemade flavoured salts and oils for honey, eggs, lemons, chillies, garlic etc – awesome for encouraging others and building community too!

So – that’s how we do it in our family – I’d love to hear if you have any other tips for making your budget work!