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Dear Cath - December 2018

Q. How do you keep to The $300 a Month Food Challenge with kids and whilst working full time? Making everything from scratch must be very time consuming. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you. Danielle

A. Hello Danielle, The $300 is a guideline only. My grocery budget for 2019 is going to be $320 a month for the five of us. I can stick to that because we eat simply, I shop carefully and in bulk, buy ingredients instead of convenience and plan all our meals. I also live in a capital city surrounded by supermarkets, butchers, green grocers and markets where I can shop for the very best prices. 

So, firstly, what are you buying? Buying ingredients and MOOing is not only cheaper, but healthier. Often there will be little things on the shopping list, like one or two bottles of soft drink. Even a seemingly cheap and innocent generic 80 cent bottle of soft drink has the potential to put you over budget. 

If you're really trying to stick to the $300 a Month Food Challenge, it's these insignificant purchases that will put you over budget.

Secondly, do you have a grocery budget at the moment, or do you shop and pay whatever the total is? Trying to trim the grocery bill without a spending limit (budgeted amount) is like trying to stop the tide from coming and going. You can talk about it all you like, but until you put a sea wall in place that tide will still come and go, and so without a budget in place you'll continue to just spend money on groceries.

I suggest you grab the inventories from the Tip Sheets page and do a thorough pantry, fridge and freezer inventory. List everything you have, and how much you have of each thing. Don’t forget herbs and spices, foil and clingwrap and other incidentals you buy as a part of your grocery shop - you don't want to buy them if you don't need them.

Use those inventories to create your meal plans. Download the What's for Dinner meal planner and fill it in. It has spaces for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Use the food you already have to make up your meal plan. Try to use only the ingredients you already have so you don't need to buy anything.

Repeat the process until you have used all the ingredients you have on hand. How many weeks can you go without shopping? Bank that money into your home savings account so it doesn't get frittered away. 

Here are some tips to help you stick to the $300 a Month Food Challenge:

1. Stop buying snacks. This means no more chips, biscuits, cakes, soft drinks, lollies, popcorn, mud cakes, donuts, lamingtons - you get the idea. 

2. Shop at one store. Don't go running from store to store. I shop at Aldi (and no, I don't have any affiliation with Aldi other than I like to shop there). Aldi will save you money, fill your trolley with real food and because of the limited range, keep temptation at bay. If you don't have an Aldi, you'll have a supermarket that will offer basic groceries and sometimes have great specials you can stock up with.

3. Shop once a month. Seriously the best shopping decision I ever made. Saves time, money, energy, petrol and stress. And you will find places for a month's worth of groceries, trust me. As you're working fulltime, the extra couple of hours a week will be a huge blessing. It doesn't take any longer to shop for a month than it does to shop for a week. It make take you 5 - 10 minutes longer to put it all away, but it's just once a month. 

4. Make a meal plan before you shop, using ingredients you already have and rounding it out with things you'll add to your shopping list.

5. Write a shopping list. Keep a whiteboard on the side of the fridge or a pad in the pantry. Every time you realise you need something add it to the list. Train the family to do this if they're old enough and save even more time.

7. If it's not on the shopping list and you don't absolutely need it, don't buy it. Learn to substitute with what you already have.

I don't make everything from scratch, but I do pick and choose what convenience products I pay for. The things I do make from scratch are quick and easy to make, and use ingredients already in the pantry. For instance, It doesn't take any longer to make a pizza from scratch than it does to order it and wait for it to be delivered, but it does save you about 95%. The same with cakes, and muffins. It takes no longer than 5 minutes to make a simple cup cake batter, another 5 to put the batter in the patty pans and then while they're in the oven you can clean up and get the icing ready - about 12 - 15 minutes. So in under 30 minutes you've made 2 dozen cupcakes and saved $55 over buying them. 

Putting an extra serve or two of tonight's dinner in containers for tomorrow's lunches saves you buying lunch at work - saving at least $10 per lunch per day. It didn't take long - perhaps 3 minutes? But the impact on your total spending will be huge - around $2,600 a year!

It takes me about 20 minutes to make a year's worth of Cheapskates Washing Powder, and it saves me around $110 a year. Making Miracle Spray, which is the only other cleaner I use, takes about 3 minutes two or three times a year, and saves well over $300 on other cleaners. 

Saying making things from scratch takes too much time is a misnomer because how long is too long? When you MOO you may be making something at home, but you won't be wandering around a shop looking for it. When the time you spend MOOing saves you money rather than costing it, it is well worth the few minutes.

Your grocery shopping circumstances will be different to mine, and to everyone else's, so what suits me may not suit you.

Choose the things you can do to trim your grocery budget and work with them.

​And never stop trying to trim that budget until you reach a spend level you are happy with and can maintain.
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  • Home
  • Join the Club!
    • Twenty Reasons to Join the Cheapskates Club
    • Gift Memberships
  • About Us
    • Cath's Story
    • Ask Cath
    • Glossary of Cheapskating Terms
  • Forum
    • Current Forum Discussions
    • How to Use the Member Forum
  • Inspiration
    • Getting Started
    • Handmade Christmas Central >
      • Handmade Christmas 2025 is about to start
    • 31 Days of MOO Index
    • Articles
    • Back to Basics >
      • Back to Basics
      • Back to Basics Index
    • Housekeeping Routines
    • Budget Renovations
    • Saving Stories
  • SAVING REVOLUTION
    • 2025 Saving Revolution Index
    • Saving Revolution Resources
  • Recipes
    • Recipe File Index
    • Meal Plans
    • Add a Recipe
    • $300 a Month Food Challenge >
      • $300 a Month Food Challenge
      • The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
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