5. THE PLAN TO SLASH YOUR FOOD BILL BY 75% IN JUST FOUR WEEKS

Each time I do my grocery shopping I am in awe of what the shoppers around me have in their trolleys, and at the prices they pay! It’s nothing unusual to see someone hand over $200 or even $300 at the checkout without batting an eyelid.

Each time I witness this exchange I am proud of my trolley total, always under $90 for the week. I remember not so very long ago thinking that I’d have to increase the grocery budget, that $90 just wasn’t enough. Then I realised that I could trim that figure and still have the things we wanted and needed. I just had to go back to basics, the way I shopped when Disaster Struck.

When I first started to really try and trim our grocery budget I started off small, trimming just 10% from each food bill. Before too long the savings were three, then five, then seven times that amount. I had managed to trim our grocery bill right back, to just $200 a month by the end of 1993. I had to increase it to $300 a month in 2002 and again to $400 a month mid-way through 2009, simply because the boys were growing and eating me out of house and home. I can’t put all the blame on the boys – inflation may have played a part in that too. Food costs have been constantly on the rise, going up over 40% in the last decade, making it even more important to meal plan and shop wisely! It’s been sitting easily at $400 a month ever since.

Here’s the plan to slash your food bill:

Week One

1. Do a complete fridge, freezer and pantry inventory (see templates in Chapter 5: Pantry Inventory). Note what you have and use these ingredients to menu plan for the week. Include breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks. Make up a shopping list adding only the ingredients, toiletries and cleaning products that you need. Use one of the online shopping lists to calculate the total cost. You’ll find a shopping list on any of the major supermarket websites. Take your grocery list and enter the items and quantities from it, noting the prices against your Price Book as you enter them. Make any adjustments (change of supermarket for cheaper prices – this is where you use your Price Book to find the best price, quantities, sale cycles, etc) and transfer the information into your shopping list. It will automatically total your shopping list for you. Take just that amount of money with you, plus $5 to cover fluctuations in produce costs.
2. Do not buy bottled water – your tap water is just as good, if not better, and much cheaper. Do not buy cordial or soft drinks. If you really need a flavoured drink, make up some old-fashioned cordial using real fruit. Cut back on the tea and coffee too. Perhaps you only need one variety of each – after all, you only drink one cup at a time. You’ll not only save some money, you’ll save kilojoules too.
3. Absolutely no pre-packaged snacks – crackers, chips, pretzels, nuts, dips, lollies, etc. I am not saying you can’t have these things; instead use the food you have to make your own snack foods. Try veggie sticks with peanut butter or Vegemite, or pita crisps – dry pita bread in the oven, then break into chips – or thinly slice potatoes, spread them on a paper towel on the microwave tray and cook on high for two minutes, turn and cook a further two minutes for delicious homemade potato chips (watch them carefully, they burn quickly). The chips are done when they develop brown spots and are crisp.
4. Take your list and your cash with you when you shop – leave all your cards and other cash at home. Stick to the list, resist all temptation to stock up or add things that are on sale. You are on a mission to cut your grocery bill, not increase it.

Week Two

1. Do your inventories and meal plan. This week, plan three meatless meals. Meat is expensive and is not necessary every day for good health. Recipes such as Cream Cheese Patties (see p160), tomato and onion quiche, and vegetable soup are so tasty no one will realise they are meatless and they’ll save you at least $30. Lentils, chickpeas and beans are cheap, tasty and easy to prepare. Try at least one new recipe using one of these items as the main ingredient this week. As you make up your shopping list, look for items that are on sale and replace your regular items with the ones on sale.
2. While you are making up your shopping list, look for items that do the same thing and cross one off. A good example is block cheese – it can be sliced, cut into chunks and grated. Or white vinegar can be sprinkled on chips, used in dressings, added to milk to sour it for pancakes, used for cleaning the bathroom and floors and as a weed poison. You can then cross buttermilk or sour milk, salad dressing, bathroom and floor cleaners and weed killer off your list.
3. Take 10% off the amount of grocery money you budgeted last week – not off the total you spent, but off the amount you could have spent. That’s your grocery budget for this week. Hit the supermarket, butcher and greengrocer with your list and your cash. Remember the Don’t Buys from Week One. Before you get to the checkout, go over the contents of your trolley and cross-check them with your list. If any strays have miraculously jumped into your trolley, take them out and put them back on the shelf. If it’s not on the list you don’t buy it. You’ll just have to remember to put it on next week’s list.

Week Three

1. Do your inventories and meal plan. Research the cheapest places to buy the things on your list. Check out markets, greengrocers, butchers, discount supermarkets and health food stores. Make up your shopping list so you know how much cash you need. Cut another 10% off your grocery budget.
2. Take a calculator with you when you do the grocery shopping. The total on your calculator should be the same as the one on your list, or you should be able to easily see where the differences are, i.e. the price of fruit and veg, meat, etc. Those two totals should be the same as the one on the end of your supermarket docket. If it’s not, you need to work out what went wrong.
3. Do your trolley review before you head to the checkout. Anything that’s not on the list goes straight back on the shelf. For the rest of the items in the trolley, ask yourself if each one is really needed. Put back anything you hesitate on or decide isn’t necessary.
4. Clean out the fridge once a week, making soups, stews, pie fillings and salads with the odd bits of food. Try to use everything in your fridge before you need to throw it out. That’s just money in the bin.

Week Four

1. Continue with the fridge, freezer and pantry inventories. Make up your meal plan using what you have on hand.
2. Make up your shopping list adding only things you really need in the quantities you need and replacing brand-name items with low-cost generics. If you don’t like the generic you can switch back to your brands, but you’ll never know how much you can save if you don’t try them.
3. Replace any packaged or convenience foods with the ingredients to make them from scratch. Cooking from scratch saves you a lot of money at the supermarket. You’ll also know exactly what you are eating and be limiting your intake of preservatives and artificial colours and flavourings.
4. Get your grocery cash; remember it’s 10% less than last week. Hit the supermarket armed with your detailed list and your calculator. Do your trolley review before you go through the checkout and put back any stray items.

By now your weekly food budget has shrunk by around 35%, just from paying attention to what you are buying. With the tweaking you have done, you might even have lowered your grocery bill by up to another 40%! Keep reducing the grocery money by 10% each week until you find you can’t buy enough food or the right kinds of food to keep your family happy and healthy. Once you reach that point, just increase the amount by 10% and you’ve found your sustainable grocery budget.

You may find that you are saving much more than 75%, especially by switching to cheaper brands, buying locally, and buying double- or triple-duty items.

Every change, no matter how small, will impact on your budget and when they are added up you will see the real benefit of each little action.