Pig Tits and Parsley Sauce

Slash your grocery bill by living sustainably

My Weekly Shopping List

Many people have requested more detail on what we actually buy week to week to fulfil our $75 a week grocery budget. Of course we get whatever we want or need – providing the amount spent doesn’t exceed our self imposed limit. I an earlier column I listed a typical week and was amused to see it was very similar to a food bank parcel which had been published in a story on the front page of the local paper that week.
Since then we have stopped buying tuna on ethical grounds and replaced that with chick peas in recipes. Also remember we spend almost all of our budget on food items as most of our cleaning and cosmetic needs are catered for with Baking soda and the few simple recipes I make (see above to purchase recipes pamphlets if interested…. it will be $10 well spent.)

In our cupboard we aim to have the following and we top this up with the $75 a week budget when necessary. Toilet paper (40 rolls $9-99 from the Warehouse). We don’t buy pads and tampons as we have purchased the re-useable and environmentally friendly Diva cup. Ditto nappies – be use re-usable environmentally friendly cloth nappies. Cans of creamed corn, cans of tomatoes, pasta, rice, flour, raw sugar, baking soda, white vinegar, butter, cheese, milk (is free a bonus of being a dairy farmer as is fresh meat), chicken, fresh seasonal fruit and veges, (also we try and grow veges ourselves and pick fruit off trees whenever we get a chance), spuds, eggs (we have chickens but they are pretty useless), cooking oil, seasonings, pulses (lentils and barleys etc), chickpeas, canned fruit (ie: peaches and or pineapple), bread ($1-65 a loaf)…..
This is about it…. we are buying meat at the moment as we have just moved farms and haven’t got a beast organised yet… that is a bit of a shock,but we are using smaller portions and filling up with rice or pasta with the sauce/ gravy, so it is mince and sausages all round. Yum.

2 Comments

  1. Hey just a quicky – buy using a lot of fullers (pasta & rice etc)and cheaper bread do you worry about the overall value of health in the food that you are consuming? .. or do you take multi vitamins to compensate?

    I know that my husband and I would just balloon with weight gain consuming more carbs then proteins hence i try to limit pasta esp and bread as well – so i guess my budget is affected highly by this and steering more towards nutrient rich foods.

    Is this side of things a concern for you? or do you buy the cheaper option every-time – i.e canola oil vs rice bran or olive oil

    Thanks 🙂

  2. I guess we just can’t afford to be snobby about food or to buy into marketing in the guise of health benefit.
    We ensure there are plenty of fresh fruit and veges on our menu and I know these deliver more nutrients than expensive unnecessary multi-vitamins.
    I also know the breads etc we make ourselves are far healthier than any pre-packaged cakes and stuff we could have purchased. It is just common sense really.

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