How To Halve Your Grocery Bill – Hawkes Bay Today

here is a cool story from the Hawkes Bay paper. Reporter Jolene Williams gave me the following list and I slashed it to bits and made it like how we shop, saving about $92 (and I was lenient).

Budgeting guru Lyn Webster can preventabig wad of your cash
from disappearing into supermarket tills, writes Jolene Williams
OUR SHOPPING LIST
*********************************
Jolene Williams shopped at Pak’nSave in Hastings for a family of four.
Lyn Webster immediately struck off items that never make it into her
own family’s trolley and suggested where improvements could be
made to maximise value and minimise cost.
2x Lettuce ………………………………………….$2.98each
Cauliflower………………………………………….$2.98
2x Brocolli for ……………………………………$2.99
3kg “Moonlight” potatoes ………………..$5.98
1.5kg carrots ……………………………………..$3.98
2kg apples …………………………………………$3.98
2x bunches of bananas………………………$3.49 each
2.4kg oranges…………………………………….$6.58
3x 2L of Pams milk……………………………..$4.08 each
6 loaves of Sunny Crust bread …………$1.98 each
2x blocks of Anchor butter………………..$4.18 each
500g Mainland cheese ……………………..$6.98
2x 6 pack Fresh’n’Fruit yoghurt 2 …….$3.48 each
12 pack Tasti nut bars ………………………$7.17
2x Sileni wine ……………………………………..$11.98each
6 pack Macs beer ……………………………..$13.98
2x 8 pack of Sizzlers sausages…………$3.34 each
1 whole fresh chicken size 16………………$12.52
428g Pak’nSave brand premium mince ….. $7.26
200g Pams bacon………………………………$3.58
750g Weetbix……………………………………..$3.48
12 pack Cottonsofts toilet paper …….$5.98
2x 20 pack of Budget nappies…………..$5.42 each
120g Colgate toothpaste ………………….$2.81
2x Budget canned tomatoes …………….$0.93 each
100g Nescafe coffee ………………………….$4.98
350g Farmbake cookies 450g…………..$3.21
70g Tasti cashew nuts………………………$1.64
2x 150g Bluebird chips……………………….$1.64 each
500g Pams jam………………………………….$2.84
550g Domio pasta sauce ………………….$2.98
1kg Budget long grain rice………………….$1.08
500g Budget pasta spirals ………………$0.51
TOTAL..$206.49
ITWAS a lean grocery list
handed to budgeting guru
Lyn Webster.Weshopped
at Pak’nSave, buying
mostly the cheapest brands and
taking advantage of specials.
And still she slashed more than
$92 from the bill, nearly half of
our $206.49 total. Some may
flinch at the cost-saving
measures. She wiped alcohol,
yoghurt, muesli bars, nuts and
chips clean off the list and had
tips for every other item.
‘‘You don’t need two
bunches of bananas,’’ she says.
Buy tinned fruit instead, often
for under $1, for school lunches.
Or bag your own fruit at
orchards for a fraction of the
cost. The oranges had to go, but
the apples could stay. Lyn’s not
big on variety. ‘‘Just get a few
fruit and vegies and that’s what
you have to have for the week.’’
Shop at greengrocers, or
better yet, grow your own.
Other savings could be
made buying meat direct from
butchers. She swapped the
whole chicken for boneless
cuts. You’ll be more conscious
of the cost because you eat
exactly what you pay for. She’s
sceptical of the sizzler sausages
and suggests ‘‘investing’’ in a
better quality meat, on special if
possible. ‘‘Buy bacon ends
[from the supermarket deli],
you don’t need whole rashers if
you’re making something like
fettuccini, where it’s cut up
anyway,’’ she says.
Have a couple of meat-free
dinners and bulk up dishes with
pasta and pulses. Rice and
pasta, they’re the goodies. Look
on lower shelves for the
cheapest brands.
Substitute the pasta sauce
for your own version from
canned tomatoes and add
onion, garlic and herbs. Buy
dried goods from bulk bin
supermarkets. Make your own
toiletries, cosmetics and
cleaning products. Use cloth
nappies. Bake your own
biscuits, muesli bars and bread.
The Warehouse sells 40 rolls of
toilet paper for $9.99.
Ask yourself if you really
need coffee. Lyn’s family drinks
only milk and water. Buy in
bulk. You can halve the per kilo
price of spuds if you buy the
10kg bag.
Treat butter as a luxury, buy
it on special and freeze it. If
you’re really feeling the pinch,
make it go further by adding oil
and water. Buy cheese in big
blocks on special. Go without
when it’s not.
Lyn could have made more
savings if the list had featured
more toiletries. Not a single
labelled product is in her family
bathroom. It’s all homemade.
The toothpaste costs about 10
cents per three weeks.
Lyn reckons she’s saved at
least $30,000 in two years by
changing the way the family
grocery shops. The Taranaki
sharemilker, recently relocated
to Whangamata, used to spend
$300aweek at the supermarket
to feed her family of three. That
was reined in to $100, then $75.
And despite two recent
additions to the family, they’re
not left wanting.
Lyn is known around the
country as a super budgeter.
She’s coming to Hastings next
week for a free public
presentation to demonstrate
how to make huge savings in
the supermarket bill.
Two years ago, her financial
situation reachedanew low
and she was forced to do
something drastic. The answer
was reducing her weekly
shopping bill.
In a society still coming to
grips with the recession, it’s
hardly surprising Lyn’s
budgeting advice has captured
the interest of national media
and average Kiwis.
Her weekly column for her
former local newspaper
brought in 50 emailsaday. Her
website received 14,000 hits
within about 30 seconds of her
second appearance on
Campbell Live. She also sells
recipes online, runs
demonstrations from home and
gives public demonstrations
around the country.
The cost of living is an issue
for many Hawke’s Bay families.
In March, eastern region
unemployment stood at 7.1 per
cent compared with the
national rate of 6.8 per cent. On
top of that,anationwide survey
by online company Seek found
the Bay had the second lowest
average annual salary. Wages
have risenapaltry 2.5 per cent
nationwide in six months and
are not expected to rise for the
next year, failing to offset
soaring food, fuel and
electricity costs. Lyn says our
spending is out of kilter. New
Zealand is stillawell-off
country, she says, although
some may be crying recession,
but chances are they still have
internet access, cellphones and
a car.
‘‘People say they’re
struggling because of the
recession but it’s your own
spending and I can teach that to
other people.
‘‘I can ease the pressure. It’s
ahard lesson . . . it wasahuge
culture shock for us for the first
couple of weeks, now it’s like
second nature.’’
There’s no way the family
can go back to their old ways,
she says. The kids Stevie, 13,
and Danni, 19, and now Danni’s
boyfriend Simon, have taken up
Lyn’s budgeting philosophies
with enthusiasm.
Like other families, they
argue in the supermarket. But
it’s likely to be the kids
debating which option offers
the best value.
■ Public presentation: 7pm,
June 15, Assembly Room,
Hawke’s Bay Opera House,
Hastings. Free admission.
Lyn Webster, website:
www.pigtitsandparsleysauce.
co.nz