How to stock your pantry

Your pantry, when properly stocked, can be a real lifesaver. It can become the place you turn to when you don’t have any meal options at the ready. It can also be ideal for quick baking projects. And a well stocked pantry means healthy meals are quick, easy and inexpensive.

I come from  a long line of pantry stockers. There was no chance we'd ever starve growing up. My mother's pantry was always full and she could whip up a meal with just two minutes notice and not even blink. She still has a fully stocked pantry and unexpected visitors aren't a problem.

So when we were married it was just normal for me to fill the pantry. Of course back then it looked a little different to what it does nowadays. You would have found boxes of cake and pudding mixes. Jars of pasta sauces and Kantong sauces. Packets of noodles and sauce and rice-a-riso. Boxes of biscuits and tins of soup. It was full of very expensive food with limited uses.

These days you'll find canisters of flours and sugars, jars of dried fruits and nuts, bottles of homemade sauces and jams, herbs and spices, baking powder and bicarb soda, vinegars and bags of potatoes and onions with pumpkins resting against the wall (the other veggies are in the fridge). It's still full, actually overflowing, but of inexpensive staples that can be used to make just about recipe I can find. It's a much better value pantry.

It makes me happy to hear that the old fashioned type of pantry is making a comeback, especially as food prices rise and the grocery bill puts a bigger dent in a family's Spending Plan.  It's not a hard thing to do, and it doesn't have to be done in one huge shop, you can stock your pantry slowly over a few months. As you use up the single purpose ingredients replace them with those that will do double, triple, or even quadruple duty.

It won't be long and you'll have a pantry full of staples and you'll be able to make just about any recipe you come across too.

There are essentially three steps to stock your food pantry. They include:

Step One – Defining Your Pantry Space

How much space do you have? Some homes come with a readymade pantry. In other homes you have to create your own pantry. In our home there is a walk-in pantry in the kitchen, well the door opens into it and I have to take a step to reach the shelves. I also have a 5 shelf unit and a double door cupboard in the laundry to supplement the limited space in the kitchen.

If you have to create your own pantry, consider using simple solutions. For example, you might buy a dresser at a garage sale or pick one up on Free Cycle.  You can also create a pantry with a few standing wire baskets. You might convert a shelf in the linen cupboard into a pantry.

Your pantry doesn't necessarily have to be in, or even close to, the kitchen. If you have space in a spare bedroom why not use it? Or perhaps you have space for a cupboard of shelving in the garage?

Anywhere that is cool, dry and pest proof will do.

Step Two – Defining Your Needs

What do you commonly need when it comes to pantry staples? For example, do you like to bake? If so then you’ll need baking basics like flour and sugar. Do you like to eat ethnic cuisine? If so then plan to have rice, noodles and spices in your pantry. Make a list of the foods you commonly eat and enjoy. Also take note of those times when you say, “I wish I had….”

The most common pantry items include, but are not limited to, the following:

· Flour - self-raising, plain, wholemeal, gluten, rice
· Sugar - white, brown, raw, castor
· Beans - kidney, borlotti,
· Grains - couscous,
· Rice
· Pasta - spaghetti, twirls, shells
· Canned items: tomatoes, beans, soups, fruit
· Oils - EVOO, sunflower, peanut
· Vinegars - white, brown, balsamic
· Spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, mixed spice, paprika, cardamon, corriander, tumeric etc
· Baking supplies: baking powder, bicarb soda, vanilla extract, chocolate, chocolate chips, coconut
· Dried fruit - mixed fruit, apricots, raisins, sultanas, craisins
· Nuts - almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts
· Onions
· Potatoes
· Garlic
· Condiments: mustard, sauces, mayonnaise
· Jams and honey
   
Step Three - Creating Your Systems

Once you have a list of items to buy for your pantry and you have a defined space it’s time to create a system for organizing it all. Now there are several approaches you can take to create your organization system. They include:

Readymade storage accessories: You can find tons of handy storage and organization accessories at specialty stores. Lazy Susan’s, can racks, spice organizers and bins and boxes all help you keep your pantry organized and your food fresh. These items, however, can be very expensive.

Personally I am happy to use Tupperware or Decor containers I've picked up at the op shop or from garage sales to hold packets etc. I also have a shallow container on the condiment shelf and all the sauce bottles etc sit in it. It just helps to keep the shelf clean and is to pull out and wipe over when the bottles drip (as they do when you have kids in the house). 

Make sure, if you choose this route, to establish a budget and create a plan for the items before you purchase them.

DIY storage: You can also create your own storage solutions. For example, jars and food containers can be recycled to store your pantry items. A simple example would be to use old peanut butter jars to store dried nuts and/or fruit. You can use paper towel rolls, cardboard boxes and other household items to create a system for organizing your pantry.

Labels: A label maker is a wonderful thing but not absolutely necessary when it comes to organizing your pantry. You can make labels quite easily on the computer, using sheets of sticky labels or by printing onto plain paper, cutting them out and taping them to the canisters. Labels are essential for identifying the contents of your pantry but they come in handy to keep it organized too. You can simply define certain areas of your pantry for certain items. For example, you might have a “baking” area, a “grains, rice and pasta” area and so on. You can then use boxes or dividers to help keep things organized. Of course once you've labeled the zones in your pantry you just have to teach everyone in the house to actually put things back in the right spot!

Identify your space, make a list and then create a plan. Once you have everything in order, it’s time to head to the supermarket or bulk food store to stock your pantry. Have fun and enjoy the freedom a well stocked pantry can provide.

Filling the Pantry One Thing At A Time To Stay Ahead Of Food Shortages

This week our pantry was boosted by five boxes of tea bags (Twinings Extra Strong English Breakfast - two mugs from one tea bag if you let it brew properly). 

I am fussy about tea (and coffee), so when the brand I like comes on half-price sale I use the slush fund to stock up. 

My tea was on half-price last week, so five boxes were added to the pantry. With everyone working from home, we are going through more tea than usual, and tea is one thing I wouldn't want to be short of. Even in hard times you need to have something you enjoy, one of those things for me is a nice cup of tea.

Back in March, when this pandemic/crisis/lockdown started Wayne and I had a talk and decided that we'd restock the pantry as we use things, rather than wait until the end of the year. 

Its working well to keep the pantry stocked, especially when quite a few of the ingredients we use are in short supply or still rationed. 

About three weeks ago I spoke of food shortages on You Tube, and there were plenty of people who can see what I see; but there were lots who questioned whether I was just scaremongering, or trying to boost ratings for the show or even trying to gain more business for The Cheapskates Club. Some went so far as to email me (shame both were using fake email addresses - my replies bounced back, making me think that it was just one person) and tell me in no uncertain, foul-mouthed terms that I was stupid, nasty, and a horrible person for spreading fear and telling lies. Hmmmmm.

Last night on 7 News, a main story was about the rice shortage (something I spoke about 3 weeks ago, and about 12 months ago) and how it will impact supermarket supplies. 

I don't tell lies. And I will never tell you something just to scare you. I speak from what I know, what I've experienced. I say it as I see it. I'll never tell you to rush out and spend thousands of dollars buying groceries. I will tell you to plan your shopping so your money buys more. I will tell you that it is just plain good stewardship and commonsense to have a stocked pantry to fall back on. 

And I will tell you that what you fill your pantry with, and how full you keep it, is up to you. All households are different. We all eat different things, use different toiletries and cleaning supplies. Some have pets. Some have children, some don't. Some are single person households, some are couples, some are families. Some live in the city, some in the suburbs, some are rural and some are remote. Some have special diets. Some can grow a garden. We are all different.

What is the same though, is that the steps to building a pantry are the same for everyone. And that's what I'll tell you. 

Fill your pantry one thing at a time, as you can afford it. If something on your list is on half-price, buy two. If something is on sale, buy one and put the difference towards something else to stock the pantry. 

Before you know it, you'll have your pantry stocked to suit you, and you'll be secure in the knowledge you will be able to eat and care for your family and home if money is tight.

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My No Waste Kitchen

A funny thing happens when you become a Cheapskate. You become aware of the food you eat, where it came from, how much it cost. You become aware of just how much you eat and just how much you waste.

It was the waste that shocked me way back when Disaster Struck. Before that day, I'd do the shopping and put food in the fridge or the pantry or the freezer and perhaps use it.  Then, on the next shopping day, I'd go to the fridge and find something growing in a container way back on the middle shelf. There would be hairy vegetables lurking in the bottom of the crisper and jars of indescribable in the condiment shelf. Without hesitation I'd toss them, sometimes container and all (those were the times I was just too scared to lift the lid in case the contents escaped and attacked me). 

The pantry was worse. I thought I was being a good housekeeper and keeping it in spic'n'span order. I'd wipe over the shelves and stack new tins neatly, pushing older food to the back at the same time.

The freezer was the great unknown. There were piles of mystery packages at the bottom, they'd been there so long the labels had come off (if there were ever labels) and the contents were really a mystery.

My first big shop, the very first once-a-month shop I ever did, I cleaned out that fridge. I emptied that pantry and wiped over every shelf. I even tackled the freezer with a hair dryer and a paint scraper (I do not recommend this method of cleaning the freezer at all - I was on a mission and in a hurry). What I found brought me to tears.

Food. So much food. And all of it past it. Past it's best before date, past it's use by date, just so old it was past it. What a waste. I didn't dare try to work out how much money went into the garbage bin that morning (I hadn't started composting yet), I was too scared.

I vowed then and there to never, ever waste food again. My kitchen became a "no waste" zone.

That was almost 19 years ago. The kitchen is still a no waste zone. I try to use every scrap of food, including the scraps so I get every skerrick of value out of it before it's thrown away.

Egg shells - rinsed, dried and then crushed to use around new seedlings in the garden or added to boiling water to soften and whiten linens

Vegetable peelings - (potato, carrot, pumpkin, onion, sweet potato etc) are composted either in the compost bin or the bokashi bucket

Wilted veggies - tossed into the stock pot for stock, soup or gravy, then strained and put into the compost

Tea bags and coffee pods or bags - tea and coffee bags are composted, coffee pods are emptied into the compost

Over-ripe fruit - mashed and used in baking muffins or cakes or puddings or frozen into cubes to add to smoothies

Banana peels - put into the ferns (they love them)

Fruit and vegetable leaves - cauliflower, cabbage, rhubarb etc. are composted

Celery leaves - used in vegetable soups or frozen and saved to make stock, then strained from stock and composted

Leftovers - leftovers are planned. They become lunches or single serve dinners or mufti meals for weekends.

Bones - from roast chicken or lamb are frozen and saved to make stock, then into the bokashi bucket.

Citrus peels - zested and frozen for cakes and icings or candied to use for a sweet treat or dried and used in pot pourri, or put into white vinegar to make citrus all-purpose cleaner

Syrup from canned fruit - we don't have tinned fruit in syrup very often, but I keep the syrups and use them in cake, muffin or pancake batters instead of milk (gives a beautiful flavour to plain cakes and pancakes) or frozen into cubes for smoothies

Pan juices from a roast - saved to make the best tasting gravy

Fruit peels and cores - composted; apple cores are used to make apple drink in summer

Fat drippings - clarified and used for cooking or put into the compost or bokashi bucket

Nut shells - composted

Stale bread/rolls - frozen to make breadcrumbs or croutons or toasted for garlic bread, made into mock chicken sandwich filling or stuffing for chicken or rolled roasts

Stale cake - doesn't happen around here very often but when it does it's either freshened up in the oven and eaten warm or warmed up and served with custard and fruit for dessert or made into an old fashioned trifle.

I'm sure there are other things we don't waste, as I think of them I'll add them to the list.

On my kitchen bench is a bucket for scraps, it gets emptied into the compost or bokashi every night as a part of the after dinner kitchen clean-up. If it has bones, meat or fat in it then it goes into the bokashi, otherwise I trot down the backyard and empty it into the compost.

So do you have a no waste kitchen? What don't you waste? Share, we want to know!

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Can you feed a family on a budget with just a few ingredients? Yes you can!

That was the question asked me yesterday and part of my answer. Of course you can feed a family on a budget - even a small, tight budget - and you can feed them well! And they won't have to go without treats or give up variety and flavour either.

The old joke about "101 ways to serve mince" might be clichéd, but there are so many delicious ways to prepare and serve mince and chicken and lamb and other beef cuts and fish and yes, even vegetables that won't cost a fortune, far more than just a 101.

Over the years I've learned that the trick to eating well and keeping the cost down is to keep meals, or rather the ingredients for meals, simple. Using pantry basics you can create thousands of different recipes. Think about it, they're not called "basics" because you use them once then shove them to the back of the cupboard to go stale.

These foods are called basics because they form the basis of every recipe.

When you have a pantry stocked with the basics you can leave so many compound ingredients on the shelves.

Take powdered milk for instance. Of course you can use it to make milk. But when it's combined with basic butter and sugar it becomes condensed milk. So you can leave that on the shelf. When you add 1 cup of powdered milk to 3/4 cup water you have the equivalent of a can of evaporated milk. So that's another can you can leave off your grocery list. Powdered milk, when combined with basic sugar, cornflour, vanilla and water becomes custard. Leave that packet behind too.

Can you see how basics work? You use them on their own or in combination with other basic ingredients to create the ingredients you need for your recipe.

Most of us use taco seasoning. The packets of taco/enchilada/burrito seasonings are almost $2 a packet and each packet weighs around 30g. When you combine basic herbs and spices that most of us have in our pantry, you not only have truly fresh taco or enchilada or burrito seasoning, but you've saved a bundle. Old El Paso taco seasoning sells for $1.95 a 30g packet. That equates to $65 a kilo! You can make the same quantity of taco seasoning for around 60 cents, less than a third the price! You can bet your bottom dollar that Mexican cooks don't buy packet seasonings, they mix their own to taste and save a fortune while doing it.

Ordinary white flour makes cakes, scones, biscuits and breads. But did you know it also makes great gravy? And can be used as a thickener in casseroles and stews? It also thickens pickles and chutneys.

So what are the bare bones pantry basics?

The absolute minimum in my pantry would be:

Flours - plain, self-raising, wholemeal, gluten cornflour
Sugar - just white. You can make castor and brown sugar very easily.
Rolled oats
Rice - white. Basmati as it's a lower GI and slightly better than other rices
Pasta - easy as it is to make, it's just as cheap and easy to buy. Spaghetti, lasagne, twists or shells.
Dried fruits - mixed fruit and sultanas, glace cherries and ginger
Dried beans and lentils
Nuts - peanuts for peanut butter, almonds, walnuts
Spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, turmeric, paprika, coriander, cumin, mixed spice, vanilla beans, vanilla extract
Herbs - mixed herbs, basil, oregano, rosemary, dill, dried onion, garlic powder, sage, thyme,
Powdered milk - skim and full cream
Vinegar - white, brown, balsamic
Sauces - soy, oyster,
Oils - olive, safflower, sesame
Yeast
Tinned tomatoes
Tinned pineapple
Baked beans
Eggs
Butter
Cheese - tasty, parmesan
Potatoes
Onions
Carrots
Celery
Zucchini

I do have other foods in the pantry, but those above are the bare basics. With those ingredients and a little beef, chicken, lamb or fish I can feed the family for months before repeating a recipe.

As you stock your pantry, try to choose foods that will do double, triple, even quadruple duty. Your grocery bill will go down, you'll be stunned at how much money you save, your pantry will suddenly seem bigger and you won't be wasting nearly as much food and money.

The lass that asked the question was amazed and then really interested and then excited about learning how to prepare yummy meals for minimal cost. It was so much fun talking with her and sharing little titbits of information. We only had 45 minutes together and most of that time was spent filming but by the time she left I'm sure she at least knew she didn't have to spend half her wage on food each week.

I know she was confident that she could have just a few basic ingredients on hand and still eat delicious meals.

So what do you consider a pantry basic? What ingredients are must haves in your cupboard?

Extreme Things I Do To Save Money (and they really work!)

Sometimes I forget that we are living the Cheapskates way, a frugal lifestyle, where nothing is wasted and we watch our money.

We have lived this way for so long, almost 29 years, that it is habit now.

I empty the little complimentary packets of sugar and salt into the canisters if I don't put them in the picnic basket.

I tip sauce bottles upside down and then top up the new bottle, then add a little water, shake and pour into gravy or soup or pasta sauce.

I save the hard ends of cheese to use in sauces (not often but occasionally someone will leave the bag open and then end goes hard). I put them in the freezer until I need to use them.

I use a silicone spatula to scrape every last bit of dough or batter from the bowl.

Add a little milk to mayo bottles to get it all out.

Put cooking oil into a little jar and use a silicone pastry brush to brush oil onto frying pans and grills rather than pouring it in; saves oil and therefore keeps more money in the grocery budget, and keeps unnecessary kilojoules off our waists.

Save soap ends to use in washing powder. It takes 125g of soap to make one batch of Cheapskates Washing Powder.

Use a teaspoon to measure the washing powder into the machine - the washing is clean, the washing machine stays in tip top shape by not overloading it with detergents, and I'm not wasting money by over-using.

Add water to an "empty" shampoo bottle, shake it up and then use it to clean the bath, shower, basin and toilet at least once, often two or three times. 

Dilute dishwashing liquid 50:50 with water.

Trim the bottom off the toothpaste tube and scrape every last blob of toothpaste out.

Turn appliances off at the wall. Exceptions: fridge and freezers. Only turn the power point on when that particular appliance is to be used.

In winter we close the blinds and drapes around 5pm to keep the warmth in the house.

I also wipe foil and reuse it, wipe over baking paper and reuse it until it crumbles.

Boil the kettle and fill the thermos, and use that for hot drinks during the day.

Wash and dry plastic bags - freezer bags, veggie bags, bread bags, ziplocks, sandwich bags etc.

Rinse milk bottles and pour onto the veggie garden to water and fertilise; tomatoes especially love the extra calcium, it helps prevent blossom end rot.

Save brown paper bags to use for draining fried food and lining cake tins.

Trim down the daggy ends of wrapping paper, iron and reuse.

Always take buttons and zippers off clothes before they are turned into rags.

Re-hem towels and hand towels when the edges become frayed.

Cut old towels into bath mats and hand towels, old bath mats into hand towels and face washers, old hand towels into face washers and cleaning cloths.

Save tea bags and reuse them, then dry them and use as firelighters or to add to the compost.

Save coffee grounds to add to pin cushions, the compost or to use as fire lighters.

We eat the leaves as well as the beets on the homegrown beetroot (try them wilted in a little olive oil and garlic, delicious). 

Save the leaves from bunches of celery, dehydrate and powder them to add to soups and stews for extra flavour and nutrition.

We eat the stems as well as the heads of the broccoli we grow. 

Dehydrate the turnip tops, and powder to make green powder to add extra nutrition to soups and casseroles.

Always, always put dry goods into the freezer for at least one week before putting them into the pantry. This kills any weevils or other bugs that may be in the flour or rice or oats or pasta or legumes so my pantry stays weevil free and we don't waste food. 

Save the dividers from the tea bag box to use as bookmarks.

Save jars and lids to reuse for preserving.

Save veggie peelings in the freezer to make stock.

Save the water from the steamer pot and use it to make gravy or add to stock, or to make soup.

Where I Store Things

People look at me like I'm a mad woman when I tell them I shop once a month and I have been asked over and over where I store it all (last week when we did the monthly grocery shop we had two trolleys!). I can tell you that a month’s worth of food isn't really that much.

Because I shop once a month and have a stockpile of groceries, most grocery items are kept in the kitchen pantry or on the store shelves in the laundry until they are needed in the kitchen. In the pantry I keep the things we use everyday – cereals, spreads, baking supplies, oil and so on.

Bread goes into the little freezer over the fridge so it doesn't get squashed and bent out of shape. I keep pastry sheets, spices and stock cubes in there too.

The door of the fridge holds four bottles of milk, plus cream, sour cream and salad dressings. Eggs go on the top shelf of the fridge along with butter and cheeses. The top shelf also holds three Tupperware containers: one for beetroot, one for pineapple slices and one for pickled onions. I keep jams, mustards and pickles on the top shelf too.

The second shelf holds containers of sliced meat for lunches and leftovers. The third shelf has Tupperware containers holding fruit and vegetables, as do the crispers in the bottom.

Meat is packaged up in meal sizes and double wrapped in freezer bags or vacuum sealed and then stored in the chest freezer. Frozen vegetables are kept in the basket in the chest freezer, along with a spare bottle of milk.

In my kitchen dry goods are put into the freezer, in the packaging, as soon as they enter the house. I do this to kill any weevils that may be in the foods. Once they come out of the freezer  (after at least seven days, usually longer if I don't need them in a hurry) they are either stacked in the store cupboard or used to top up a canister in the pantry.

I prefer to decant everything into labelled canisters, rather than keep open packets on the pantry shelf. Open packets are an invitation to bugs to have a party – at my cost. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on canisters. Coffee jars or formula tins are a uniform size and stack neatly and best of all because they are recycled they are free.  Ask friends and relatives to keep them for you to build your supply quickly. When a canister is empty, it is washed and dried and refilled from the stockpile and I make a note on the appropriate inventory, ready for making up my shopping list.

Storing a month's worth of groceries isn't difficult. My kitchen isn't huge. In fact it is quite small. I don't have an abundance of cupboard space, I just use what I do have to its full advantage.

With a little creative thinking you can easily find room in your home for your once-a-month grocery shop.

Putting it all away is the hardest part of the whole exercise, but it only takes about half an hour. Everything fits in. And I don’t have to unpack groceries for another four weeks.

How I write my shopping list

Do you shop with a list? If you don't you should. Without a list you don't have a hope of sticking to your grocery budget and getting all the groceries you need at the same time. No matter how good your memory is you will forget to pick up something, forget your best price or be in the middle of baking or cooking and realise you don't have a vital ingredient because you didn't have a list!

I found many years ago that I tended to buy the same grocery items over and over, there was very little change in what I bought. It was a real eye-opener for me, and it was the beginning of my perpetual shopping lists and the beginning of real money savings.

It was then that I wrote my master shopping list and each month after shopping day I run off a copy and stick it to the pantry door. As things are used up they are circled on the list. When I'm getting ready for shopping day I take the list, do a quick stocktake and add anything else I need to buy.  It is a perpetual shopping list.
 
You may find that you buy different grocery items in summer to those you purchase in winter.  I just made two master lists – one for summer, another for winter. I do so I have a summer list and a winter list.  My summer list has things like beetroot, pineapple and coleslaw dressing down for every shop. On the winter list they are down for every second shop. The winter list has soup mix and kidney beans on every list. The soup mix is only on every fourth summer list as we don’t eat much soup in summer.

I love my perpetual shopping lists. Everything I regularly buy is already on the list – I just need to tick the things we need and away I go! No more spending time standing in the kitchen wondering if I’ve forgotten to put anything on the list. And no more getting home, only to realise that I forgot to buy half the things I need for dinner next week.

My shopping list isn't like anyone else's. These days it's a printed A4 sheet. It used to be a spiral bound notebook. I prefer the notebook but it's too hard to stick to the pantry door! 

There are groceries I buy weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and yearly and the list is broken down into those categories. It sounds complicated but it's not - the sections are just listed in order down the page, with the groceries underneath.

Weekly: usually bought on a Thursday when I take Mum to do her shopping

Fortnightly: bought Monday morning straight after the school drop-off

Monthly: bought first Monday of the month, straight after school drop off

Quarterly: bought first Monday of the Month, straight after school drop off

Yearly: sometime in the week between Christmas and New Year when everyone is home to help - it's a big one!

Before each shopping day I check the list, do a very quick stocktake of the pantry, fridge and freezer to make sure nothing has been missed and off I head to Aldi and Coles (for the things Aldi doesn't stock) then to the greengrocer (if it's a fortnightly shop) and butcher (if it's time for a meat shop) and home.

A monthly shop takes about an hour and a half all up, depending on the queues. A quarterly shop takes about two hours all up. Once it's done and the groceries are put away, that's it. I don't go back to the supermarket or greengrocer or butcher until the next shopping day.

When I hit the supermarket, greengrocer or butcher I don't dawdle. I have my list and I get through it as quickly as I can. I'm in and I'm out. Shopping in sections like this saves me a lot of time, at least 3 hours a month. It doesn't take any longer to toss three or four of each item into the trolley than it does one. It does take about 5 minutes longer to get through the checkout. The biggest time saving is in the travelling and parking and checking out - it's done once a month and then that's it - no more supermarket for 4 weeks.

This is how I shop.

This is how I keep the grocery bill for my family of five to $80 a week, $345 a month or $4,160 a year.

It works for me. It may or may not work for you. Feel free to try it to see how it works. Be prepared though to have to make some radical changes to the way you do your grocery shopping. And be prepared for some fantastic savings off your grocery bill.

Don't Spend $200 at the Supermarket This Year

March is MOO month. It's the time to take back control of your grocery spending and an opportunity to say good-bye to supermarket reliance.

For a the hefty price (not) of a couple of hours in the kitchen I won't be spending a lot of money at supermarkets this year.

When I first consciously decided to live the Cheapskates way (coming up for 17 years now) the first thing I did was look at what I bought that I could make myself to save some money.

I discovered that cooking from scratch does save money and that it doesn't take any longer to put a meal on the table if I prepare it myself compared to ordering home delivery, going out for takeaway or even heating a pre-prepared meal. I can get dinner on the table in under 30 minutes and save around $20 a meal. That's a considerable saving each year, over $6,000!

I also discovered that homemade not only tastes better and often keeps better but because I control what goes into it, it is better for us as I am able to limit the artificial colours and preservatives I feed my family. A direct result, apart from the dollar savings, is that we are healthier. Our health costs dropped dramatically, especially with the Allan and Hannah, their eczema improved almost overnight and the need for expensive creams, washes and even washing powder disappeared.

I started small, baking cakes and biscuits from scratch. As I became more confident I started to expand: bread, breadcrumbs, yoghurt, cream cheese, cottage cheese, pasta, condensed and evaporated milk, salad dressings, mayonnaise, jams, lemon butter, passionfruit butter, peanut butter, pickles, relishes, chutneys, pasta sauces, tomato sauce, bbq sauce, worcestershire sauce, cordials, ginger beer, lemonade, pizza, pizza sauce, shake'n'bake, and more. These days I buy very little packaged or processed foods and just about everything we eat is cooked from scratch. And believe me when I say I am not a fantastic cook!

It really is easy. Take this week for example. We have had an abundance of zucchini in the garden. We had them steamed, stuffed, baked, raw and grated in pasta sauce. I've added them to meatloaf and rissoles. The kids have been munching on them as is or eating zucchini straws with dip and still they kept growing.

Yesterday I made a batch of  zucchini pickle. Nothing new in that, I make at least two batches each summer. It took less than an hour and there are now 12 jars of yummy pickle in the pantry, enough for sandwiches and rolls or to add to cottage cheese for dip until next summer. With what has already been made this summer I won't need to buy pickles for at least twelve months saving around $47 at the supermarket because I won't be buying pickles.

While I was in the kitchen anyway I thought I may as well cook up the tomatoes and capsicums and bottle some pasta sauce too. Again it is really easy - I simply put the ingredients into the crockpot and let it cook on low for 8 hours, until it was thick and aromatic.  Prep time was around 20 minutes. When it was done I poured it into sterilised jars, and used the microwave method to seal it. 

I'm not standing at the stove or the sink all the time. I can go away and do other things. Making pickles and pasta sauce doesn't take hours and hours of hard work but the benefits are huge. I didn't have to buy the zucchini, capsicums or tomatoes. Vinegar, sugar and spices aren't expensive ingredients. I did buy the onions in a 10kg bag from the orchard down the road for 30 cents a kilo a few weeks ago and used 1.5kg in the pasta sauce at a cost of 45 cents.  Yesterday's effort produced 30 jars of pasta sauce. I won't be spending around $100 on pasta sauce at the supermarket this year.

I was talking to my sister-in-law early last year and what she said stunned me. She has never, ever roasted a chicken. Not once in all her married life (and that's a long, long time). When she's made a meal using a roast chicken, she's bought one from the supermarket.

Now it can't get any easier than roasting a chicken so why would you pay twice the price to buy one? Especially when it's been sitting for hours. Eww.

If you have never roasted a chicken, or would like to know how to roast the perfect chicken, here's the steps:

1.Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2.Make sure your chicken is completely thawed if it's been frozen.Wash inside and out thoroughly and dry.
3.Take 3 cloves garlic and a lemon and place them in the cavity.
4.Put the chicken into a roasting dish.
5.Pour over olive oil, rubbing it into the skin. Be generous, a little extra oil in the bottom of the dish is OK but you don't want your chicken swimming in it.
6.Sprinkle liberally with salt, rubbing it into the skin.
7.Put it in the oven and cook for 2 hours, or a little longer, depending on the size of the chicken. A No. 20 is done in this time. Use a meat thermometer to determine doneness or pierce the breast and if the juices are clear the chicken is done.

Don't be tempted to skimp on the salt. It not only adds flavour but makes the skin delightfully crisp and golden. There is no need to turn or baste the chicken. Just put it in the oven and let it cook.

Roast your own chickens and not spend around $7 each at the supermarket.

For a long time I've been saying that the supermarkets are not our friends. That's the fiction they like to present, and they do it well. They don't make our lives easier or save us money or time or energy.

Since the 1960s supermarkets have taken choices away from homemakers and destroyed basic homemaking skills, all under the guise of making the Australian homemaker's life easier. Phooey!

What they've done is made the population reliant on them as the main source of food, toiletries, and cleaning products and they are making an attempt to become a one-stop shop with the addition of clothes and homewares.

It is getting harder and harder to find basic ingredients in both Coles and Woolworths. There are plenty of mixes and packaged products, pre-prepared biscuits and cakes, even complete meals. But try to find something as basic as flour or sugar or yeast or gravy powder and you'll be looking, no searching, high and low to find them. You will find them, but a very small, limited range, hidden away from the mixes and packets.

You have three choices:

1.You can give in and live your life according to the supermarkets plan
2.You can ask, and ask, and keep on asking, supermarkets to stock the items you need.
3.You can shop elsewhere.

Number three is my first choice.

I want to be able to buy the raw ingredients I need to prepare the healthy, tasty and economical meals I want to serve my family.

What's your choice?

Gathering the Fragments Catch Up

It's been a while since I posted here. Not that nothing has happened, but life gets busy and I have other commitments that absorb all, or most all, of my time.

But that doesn't mean I stop Cheapskating. It's when life gets crazy hectic and frantic that I need to stay focused and on track. It is so easy to "just this once" order takeaway for dinner or zip through a drive-through or buy new jeans instead of mending the ones I already have, I'm sure you get the idea.

It's times of crisis that I tend to become even stricter with our spending.

So since I last posted we've had a few trips to Sydney for family. Sadly, Wayne's mother passed away in March. Thankfully we were able to get to see her just a few days before she went to sleep.

Wayne and I finally managed to get a few days away. The only cost for this trip was the petrol, and it's a part of budget. Food came from home, and we free camped in our camper. We did spend a little in Bright for coffees and I had some fun in the op shops in Bright and Myrtleford, but that money came from our mad money, not our household budget.

The summer garden is finished. The last of the capsicums and eggplant are about ready to harvest. Tomatoes didn't do too well this year, but the beans were amazing and so plentiful there were more than enough to dry for seed next spring. 

The orange tree is loaded with fruit and it is starting to turn orange. Marmalade on toast is one of my loves, I can't wait to make more (last year's batch is gone already).

Looking to the future I've been hunting for canning jars, lids and rings. When I see them in op shops or on market place I snap them up. A home preserver can never have too many jars, lids or rings! I found lids and rings at Spotlight, a brand I'm not familiar with so I only bought one box to try. That may have been a mistake, when I go back there may not be any left. It's a risk but better than being stuck with things I can't use.

Hannah has bought a house, so we've been hunting for furniture. We have had fun shopping for furniture and all the other things she will need. Her best find so far has been an almost new Dyson upright vacuum cleaner for $50, and two tallboys and two sets of bedside tables, brand new, for $100.

The preserves shelf is full of jams. I've made raspberry, blackberry, mixed berry and strawberry with either homegrown berries or frozen bought on sale. I've sold 7 jars, that money went into the slush fund. There were enough zucchini to make a double batch of zucchini pickle, so 11 x 500g jars are now on the shelf.

I've dehydrated celery and zucchini, and peas/corn/carrots mix and carrots.

I've been restocking the pantry as things are used, instead of waiting for my yearly shop. I feel the need to keep the pantry stocked, so as we use something it is replaced. If I find something we use on sale, I buy as many as I can. 2020 was a hard year; I believe that 2021 and the years onwards are going to be harder and I like to be prepared.

I found the cotton yarn I use for the dishcloths online. Even buying from overseas, and the exchange rate and paying for delivery, it was $106AUD cheaper than buying it here, without delivery. Sadly, in this instance the cheaper option won.

A local discount store had lots of lovely colours of 4ply crochet cotton for $2, so I used some of the leftover craft budget from last year and stocked up. This is the cotton I use on tea towels, face washers, hand towels to trim them and $2 is a bargain - about a 75% saving over buying it from a wool shop.

Op shopping has been fruitful too. A Corningware baking dish for $3. A bunch of original Moccona jars and doyleys for $11. Large Tupperware lettuce container for $2. A crochet table topper for $3.

For the house I used cushion covers I had in the cupboard to make new seat covers for the kitchen chairs. There was some fabric leftover so I made a couple of new pot holders. Waste not, want not. I bought the cushion covers for $4 a while back, so I think that's a pretty budget friendly reupholstering project.

I've been making bread rolls for lunches. Cheaper than buying them and making them fresh each day keeps everyone happy. This is an old recipe, and uses mashed potato, but the rolls are so light and fluffy and delicious - no complaints about heavy bread with this recipe.

Made a loaf of raisin bread. Wayne likes raisin bread for a snack but a loaf is rather expensive from the bakery. I add extra spices and use mixed dried fruit and a diced apple (when we have apples - they're too expensive at the moment).

Zested and juiced 3kg limes from a neighbour. We like lime juice and zest in the rice for burritos and I use it to make lime butter (same as lemon butter to my taste, just a little paler in colour).

Found some card bases I use for the nursing home cards so we cleared the shelf. They have been out of stock for months and I was down to the last packet, so I'm very happy we could get more. Two packets for a friend and six for the nursing home.

We still catch the shower warm up water.

We still wait till the dishwasher is full before running it.

We still wait till there is a full load of laundry.

We still line dry or use the clotheshorses.

We still prefer to use the slow combustion fire for heating rather than run the ducted heating. Why not use the heat source that is paid for rather than have to pay again?

We still cook from scratch for most meals.

I have been craving roast lamb. Lamb legs are so expensive, way out of our budget, but I splurged for Mother's Day and bought one. It was hard - $44! At least we'll get a few meals from it. We'll get two roast dinners from it, either a shepherd's pie or sweet lamb curry (or both) and soup.

Our local Coles has a clearance section in the dairy cabinet and we always check it. We picked up three chubs of salami and 11 packets of bacon for $1 each - and all have plenty of time before they're out of date. The boys will use the salami on their pizzas, and most of the bacon has gone into the freezer for Muffin Surprise or quiche or pies.

I have started more lavender strikes. Some will be for the garden, some will be to sell in the spring. Lavender plants are around $8 each from the nursery so I'm keeping a lot of money in the garden budget and potentially making some too.

We still wait for cheap petrol day to fill up. Right now I'm keeping all the cars full, not letting them get under 3/4 full unless petrol is ridiculously expensive - I noticed yesterday it has gone up again to $159.9/litre here - ouch! Using the app I was able to find ULP for $129.9, so I filled my car.

I gave in and coloured my hair! I know, it took years to grow out, but I think the last 15 months muddled my brain and I went nuts one day and coloured my hair. Mind you the colour was $1 on the throw out trolley at Coles, so it was a bargain (of sorts!).

I have been wanting more mesh sheets for the dehydrator, but the mesh has been out of stock or too expensive. Last week I finally gave in and looked it up - Spotlight had them and a 30% off sale so off I went. So glad I did - yes, they had the sheets I originally saw, but they also had other sheets, same size mesh but 2-1/2 times the size on clearance for 50 cents each. You can bet I cleared the shelf. When I went to pay for them the lovely lady told me that as they were on clearance they were half marked price so my 10 sheets of mesh cost $2.50. Now there is plenty for the dehydrators and for the craft drawers.

Wow, when I look at the list, it's quite a bit. How have you been gathering the fragments to save money, time and energy?

Happiness Homemade: A Winter Shopping List

In our house the cooler weather, especially in winter, brings about changes in how we eat.

Over the summer we had lots of salads and barbcues and thoroughly enjoyed them. Most of our meals were cooked outside, either on the barbecue or in the slow cooker on the verandah.

Now summer is over, and the weather is cooling, making more comfort style meals to warm us on cooler evenings more appetising.

I've already made three big pots of soup (lamb and vegetable, Grandma's Chicken Soup and pumpkin). We had curry on the menu a couple of weeks ago and I made some naan to go with it. The curry used up some of the leftover lamb from the Sunday roast and I put the rest into gravy and froze it for another roast dinner. The bones are in the freezer too, waiting to make another pot of soup.

Hannah made a huge dish of pasta bake and we portioned it out into dinners and a few lunches. We usually have pasta bake with green salad (whatever salad greens are in the fridge).

Years ago, the changes to sturdier meals and more cooking meant the monthly shopping list changed slightly.

With my once-a-year shopping, I plan for these change, so, come winter time, we can have more tuna surprise and tuna patties without affecting the budget. And I've never been happier to do the bulk of my shopping once a year than I am now!

We use less pineapple and beetroot, and more tuna and tomato soup in winter. We eat less salad veg (and I won't buy tomatoes in winter, they're out of season here and far too expensive, so we rely on what I can grow in our little greenhouse) and the boys seem to wolf down more rice and potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli (especially if I make a cheese sauce) and silverbeet.

What I'm really saying is because of the way I shop, and the stocked pantry, my weekly shopping list only has minor changes to adapt to the change in seasons and the way we eat.

I still buy milk and a couple of loaves of bread each week (although with the stay-at-home restricitions the bread maker is getting a workout).

Meat and chicken stay the same. We eat the same cuts, prepared in different ways of course, all year round, so I'm always on the lookout for chicken and mince on sale, for roasting beef and corned beef, legs of lamb and steak (as a special treat). I did a late quarterly meat shop a couple of weeks ago to top up the freezer. Mince and chicken are on sale again this week, so I've made up a list and one of the boys will go and collect it for me. Then the freezers will be full again.

But the fruit and veg I buy change. More citrus, because they're in season and cheap and our trees can't supply enough at the moment; lots of parsnip (I never seem to be able to grow enough), turnips, pumpkin and definitely more potatoes.

This week the shopping list looks like this:
2 x 3L milk
2 loaves bread
potatoes
sweet potato (on sale for 69c/kg)
frozen veg - peas/corn/carrots (if I can get them - the supermarkets are still low on frozen veg)
cabbage (ours aren't ready yet)
bok choy
apples (our local orchard has beautiful apples 10kg/$6.99)

If potatoes are too expensive (my absolute top price is $1/kg, but I prefer to pay under 80c/kg) then we'll fill the gaps with pasta and rice.

The shopping list may change - it will depend very much on the fruit and veg prices when I get to the greengrocer (until the stay-at-home restrictions are lifted the kids are doing the shopping, after that I'll be back in charge).

But the changes are slight, and easily absorbed into our meal plan.

When Disaster Struck, I realised that most of us eat the same basic foods all the time. It's how they're used that makes the difference. Have a look in your pantry, then look at the meals you make. Chances are theere are no more than 25 - 30 different meals that all use the same ingredients in various combinations.

So when you ask to see my summer or winter shopping list, it looks pretty much the same all year round. Just a few adjustments to the basic ingredients, otherwise it's my stock once-a-year shopping list.

Happiness Homemade - Panic Buying v Stockpiling

My favourite investment is my grocery stockpile. I have a stockpile of groceries that we've been happily living off since January, and we'll continue to live off it for at least another nine months. Before that, we lived off our pantry for 12 months, and before that, another 12 months and so on.

I build our pantry with once-a-year shopping, and we live off it for a year.

Our pantry is worth twice what I paid for it and it's saving us money this year - a great return on investment, far better than anything the banks or stock exchange are offering at the moment.

 There have always been gloom and doomers predicting the end. Remember Y2K? Bird flu? Swine fly? Out of control meteors? Drought? Flood? Tsunamis? And now we have Covid-19 (Coronavirus).

And people are panicking. Going crazy clearing shelves of toilet paper, hand sanitiser, UHT milk, baby formula, nappies, pasta and oats. I'll fess up and say the oats made me smile. Don't get me wrong, I have oats in the pantry, and I use them. But I wondered just how many folk who were going crazy buying bulk oats know any way other than porridge to use them?

I've watched some of the TV shows about doomsday preppers, ordinary people stockpiling food, seeds, medicines and even ammunition so they'll be read for the end of the world or a future economic collapse or apocalypse. Some of them build underground bunkers and pack them full of water, canned and dehydrated food, medicines and enough ammunition to start a war.

So, do I line up with these extremists? Not at all. I find it entertaining but certainly not realistic or practical.

Our pantry stockpile is built to a plan. I know how much of each thing we need to meet our needs for the year. I keep an eye on prices to make sure I pay the lowest possible price. I keep best before and use by dates in mind and buy accordingly (not all the things I buy will be shelf stable for a year).  I make shopping lists, and inventories for storing what I buy.  And I only buy what we need and will be able to use within the 12 months until I do another yearly shop.

The other extreme is to not be prepared at all, however, which also is unacceptable. To me, building a reasonable stockpile of food, toiletries and cleaning supplies for my family is responsible. It’s insurance and for us this year it has paid off.

To me, food and household supplies in reasonable amounts are just as much insurance as our  Emergency Fund savings and the insurance policies that cover household disasters. These things give me peace of mind and assurance that I will be able to care for my family and our home no matter what life throws our way (we've faced long-term unemployment, chronic illness and now a pandemic).

My pantry stockpile may seem extreme; so what is a reasonable pantry stockpile?

Think about how you get paid. If you get paid weekly, plan to always have at least a week's supply of groceries, toiletries, cleaning supplies, medicines on hand. If you get paid fortnightly, try to always be a fortnight ahead, ditto for monthly. This then gives you a little wiggle room if things go pear-shaped.

For example, you get sick and can't get to the shops for a week or two. Yes, you can always do an online shop, but it will cost you more. Or there's a hiccup with banking and your pay doesn't arrive in your bank account. What if you were to lose your job suddenly? Knowing you will at least be able to feed your family and keep them and your home clean for a while will take a load off stress away while you look for another job. Or perhaps you live somewhere that's flood prone, or gets hit by the occasional cyclone - again, knowing you don't need to panic when the warnings go out takes away stress and gives you breathing room to prepare other things.

Done reasonably, emergency preparedness in whatever form it takes - grocery stockpile, emergency fund in the bank, insurance policies - is not whacky.  The peace of mind that comes from knowing you are prepared really is priceless and it's something everyone can enjoy.

And, I intend to do everything in my power to encourage you to follow my lead.

Extra reading:

HOW TO BUILD YOUR STOCKPILE

HOW TO BUILD YOUR STOCKPILE PART 2

HOW TO BUILD A STOCKPILE PART 3

HOW TO BUILD YOUR STOCKPILE PART 4

HYPOTHETICAL: A TRANSPORT STRIKE STOPS DELIVERIES

Gathering the Fragments 23 May 2021

What we did to save money, time and energy last week, and to use up what we have:

Went to card day and came home having learned a new card layout, and with a big tub of margarine (thank you Maureen and Joy).

Cooked corned beef from the freezer and used the leftovers to make Corned Beef Pie. It was a small piece, so not enough left for another meal of corned beef, putting it into a pie stretched it to another dinner and two lunch serves.

Cooked fish cakes to use up the soft potatoes in the pantry. One large tin of tuna, a large onion, a good pinch of herbs and an egg combined with six mashed potatoes made 15 large fish cakes.  Total cost: $4.70 To buy the same would have cost $42.00 from a local deli!

Made a big pot of chicken soup using up veggies from the fridge, MOO chicken stock and a half a small chicken fillet. This was lunches for four days, with toast.

Made choc coated peanut butter fat bombs and brownies for afternoon teas.

A yarn order arrived so I've been restocking the basket in the kitchen and the shop with dish cloths.

Used an app to find the cheapest fuel in our area. I used to top up once the needle hit the half-way mark, these days I'm topping up when it drops under 3/4 tank. Now that may seem like I'm always at the servo, but I don't drive very far or a lot, so it can take a few weeks for me to use that quarter of a tank of petrol.

Made a batch of Lunchbox Cookies using margarine a friend gave me and MOO condensed milk. That brought the cost for the whole batch down to $3.05 for the batch. I baked half the dough and froze the other half for later.

Made vegetable soup using up carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, potatoes, onions, spring onion, celery and beans from the crisper and a jar of tomatoes. I didn't have any stock in the freezer so I added two good tablespoons of Vegeta stock powder. It was delicious, and even though the days were a little warmer this week, it was still cool enough for soup for lunch.

Hannah and I shared a take-away meal on Thursday night. The boys were having pizza, and we don't like pizza, so we always have something they don't like. This week I was tired and achy and frazzled so we ordered a pasta dish from a local pizza shop and she went and picked it up. The serves are enormous, we both ate our fill and there was enough left for her lunch on Friday. So $14.95 made three meals. $5 for a take-away meal isn't too bad and it was a treat (and really, really nice pumpkin gnocchi).

A friend shared the instructions to make pot protectors, so I've been crocheting a set for Hannah, and a set for me. I'm going to use them in my Pyrex bowls and to separate my good serving bowls so they don't scratch or stick (as glass and Pyrex does occasionally when it is stacked).

We still caught shower warm up water.

We still ran the dishwasher only when it was full.

Laundry was done when the washing machine was full.

Washing was dried inside by the fire.

We kept the fire lit and the ducted heating off.

On sunny days I made sure the blinds were wide open to warm up the house, and closed them around 4pm when it started to get cool.

All our meals except for Thursday were made from scratch, using our food storage. All our breakfasts (pancakes, oats, muesli, McMums), all our lunches (toasted sandwiches, soup, ruebens, eggs on toast) and 6 of our 7 dinners. I kept a thermos of boiling water next to the kettle for tea and used iced coffee syrup to make coffee in the afternoon.

Lastly, I had a brilliant idea on Thursday, of course all my ideas are brilliant! I suddenly realised it was almost the end of May and for whatever reason I started to panic that the present box was empty. Off I went and dragged it out of our wardrobe and tipped it out onto the floor. It wasn't empty! Little piles of things started to appear. You know, like with like. Dishcloths, tea towels, hand towels, soaps, pot holders, jar openers, pens and notebooks, socks, hankies and all sorts of things. The piles had me thinking I needed to streamline my gift book so I could see at a glance (a shorter glance than I had been using) what I had for who for which occasion.  So I'll fess up and say that was a tad more complicated than I thought, or rather, than it needed to be. But I'll soldier on. And in the meantime I'll keep adding to the present box, and Christmas, birthdays and the expected new babies will be well and truly covered for the next year at least.

All about Aldi

We love Aldi. I get complaints just about every day from Cheapskaters in South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and Tasmania about the fact that they don't have Aldi. I've tried. I've met with Aldi representatives and told them how you feel. I've had phone conversations with Aldi and told them how you feel.

Last week I was filming a story about Aldi and yet again mentioned how you all feel. I actually went further and suggested that if Aldi were to make the move to go national that they would be the supermarket leaders in double quick time and I really believe that.

When Aldi first opened in Australia they were an unknown, but not for long. Cheapskaters, official and unofficial alike, embraced the  opportunity to feed their families for less, decorate their homes for less and enjoy the latest technologies for less.

I've written quite a bit about Aldi over the years and time has not lessened my love of Aldi.  You can read those articles here and here and here.  You can read a Cheapskates member's experiences here.

If you've never shopped at an Aldi supermarket before there are a few things you should know that will make your first visit a success and start your love affair with Aldi.

First off you'll need a gold coin or a trolley token to get a trolley from the trolley bay. The trolleys take $1 or $2 coins or a token you can buy for 99 cents. I keep a $2 coin in the zip compartment of my purse just for Aldi trolleys. Be prepared- getting change from the store isn't that easy.

There is only one way into an Aldi supermarket and one way out. If you don't have change for the trolley you'll need to go into the store and then get in line at a checkout to get a gold coin.

Most Aldi supermarkets only have four aisles and they are wide, wide enough for two trolleys to pass without risk of losing a limb.

Most Aldi supermarkets have the same layout, which makes shopping at different stores easy. And enjoyable. Who hasn't gone into a supermarket in another suburb and not been able to find a thing because the layout was completely different? You don't normally have that problem at Aldi.

When you need to stick to a strict grocery budget, Aldi is the supermarket to visit. The range is limited, and that's a good thing - too much choice costs us too much money. You'll generally find that there will be a "budget" brand and a slightly more upmarket brand of every item in the store.  You'll have two choices of pasta and two choices of dishwashing detergent, two choices of cheese, two choices of baked beans and so on.

The other thing to bear in mind is that you will only get pantry staples at Aldi. No gourmet herbs and spices and many groceries will be seasonal. Mixed dried fruit for instance is usually only available from November through to Christmas so when you see it stock up (it keeps in the pantry and you can freeze it if you want to). Be prepared for seasonal foods to only be available for a short time and if you regularly use them out of season buy enough to get you through.  You'll still save a lot of money.

Start by going to the Aldi website and using their online tool to make up your shopping list. This will give you an estimate of what your groceries are going to cost. I say estimate because you can't get the prices for fresh meat, fruit or vegetables as they will vary depending on the weight of the food you buy. But it's close enough to give you a good idea of how much you're going to spend.

Each week, on a Thursday, the new sale cycle starts. There will be weekly grocery specials and the weekly special buys Aldi is famous for. Expect Thursday to be a very busy day instore and if you don't want a special buy, perhaps shopping on another day would be wise. Oh, and the special buys are usually at the back of the store, on the end of the centre aisles. You need to be quick, they are limited stock and go fast.

When you get to the checkout you'll see the conveyor is long, very long. This is supposed to make checking out faster, I'm not convinced on this. It just takes you longer to get to the cashier.

 You will need to have your trolley fully unloaded before you get to the cashier because you need to pack your groceries back into it. Do not, under any circumstances try to pack your shopping into bags at the checkout. You'll just hold everyone up and end up in major confusion. Instead load them into the trolley and then take advantage of the packing bench to get your groceries ready to take home.

 You need to take your own green bags with you, unless you want to pick up empty cartons as you shop or buy new green bags on your way through the checkout.

And one last thing. You can pay by cash, eftpos or credit card. If you opt for the credit option there is a 1% surcharge on top of your grocery total. Cash or eftpos are the way to go.

That's pretty much it. Shopping at Aldi is an experience and can seem a little strange at first, but once you get use to it (and start counting the money you are saving) you'll be hooked too.

There's a great thread called My first Aldi experience with loads of tips and product reviews that makes great reading in the Member's forum. It's good to get other Cheapskater's perspectives on things before you try them so I suggest you take a look. Use the forum search to find other Aldi threads too, it will be worth your while.

The great grocery challenge starts

As it is the first of June today I've started the great grocery challenge.

A look through the pantry and freezer and I am certain that we will get through the month without having to buy anything other than fresh milk and perhaps cheese and eggs.

This is going to really help me get the pantry and freezer cleaned out, both jobs I have been putting off. Mystery meals may well be on the menu towards the end of the month.

So I know what to re-stock the pantry with I've stuck an inventory on the wall. As each item is used up I'll add it to the list – but only if it's something we use regularly and will continue to use.

There are quite a few odds and sods hanging around, sample packs of soups, herbs, drink mixes, cereals (Hannah can take these on camps) etc to use up too. I think I'll spend the weekend with my recipe books out and find some new meal ideas to try and use up all these bits and pieces.

If you'd like to join us on the Great Grocery Challenge, it's not too late. Jump in here and introduce yourself, we'd love to hear from you.

The Week That Was 22/05/2022

Sunday was glorious, and so warm, a perfect autumn day.

I added three mini cabbage seedlings and three mini cauliflower seedlings to the garden. These were grown from Diggers Club seeds. I like the mini versions of these vegetables as they are just the right size for two meals for our family, and that means I don't need to worry about storing and using them before they go black.

Two loads of washing on the line, dried and put away. Gotta love that solar clothes dryer!

Thomas and I had pizza for tea, made from pantry ingredients. It was just the two of us, so the roast has been put on hold.

Monday was cold and drizzly wet. After doing the Monday cleaning, I spent some time working on Home Among the Gum Trees, and working on a stock plan for the shop.

I made a big pot of tomato and vegetable soup, and used one of the soup packs from last week. I added in some lentils and a tin of diced tomatoes and used chicken stock from the freezer as the base. It was delicious and made lunches for the week.

Monday night we had burgers and chips for dinner. Wayne and AJ arrived home just in time to eat. I opened a jar of caramelised onions to have on the burgers and they were delicious.

Tuesday I woke up, then promptly went back to sleep and slept until 9am! And woke with a headache. No show, not much housework, other than the basics done. Dinner was spag bol using sauce from the freezer. Thomas made garlic rolls to use up some stale hot dog buns and dinner was quick, easy, and really tasty.

I've kept the routine of filling the thermos for hot drinks going. Combined with my thermal mug, my tea has been staying hot until the very last drop.

Still catching the shower warm up water and pouring it into the washing machine.

Picked the last of the capsicums from the garden, chopped and froze them.

Friday was packed with unexpected medical appointments for Wayne. We left home at 9am and didn't get back until after 4pm. It was a long day, with lots of running around and I was grateful for the spinach ravioli and the pasta sauce in the freezer to make an easy, no fuss dinner.

Yesterday was glorious too. The sun shone all day, hardly a breeze. It was cool though, but working in the garden warmed me up quickly. The fruit trees were weeded and fed; the veggie beds were weeded; everything was watered and given a drink of worm tea. We added compost to the empty beds and dug it in so they'll be ready to plant in a few days.

We have two more fruit trees on order (Packham pears), so we prepared the pots for them too with lots of compost and soil. As soon as they arrive they can go into their permanent homes.

Oh, and we dragged out the tunnels to put over the seedlings. They'll keep them warm (we have frosts forecast) and keep the cabbage moths and bugs off them until they are big enough to survive.

The garden is a lot of work, but it is feeding us, and will feed us, for minimal outlay, and with the price of veggies going up and up, I like that.

What did you do to save money, time and energy this week?

Another Way to Combat the Rising Cost of Groceries

The news on grocery prices is grim. The Australian Bureau of Statistics recently released data showing a 120% increase in the cost of food in the last decade. I'm sure anyone who buys food will be surprised that it's only 120%! We can't do anything about the price increases, they'll keep on happening. What we can do is make sure the money we spend on food isn't wasted. We'll stretch those grocery dollars until they scream.

One of the biggest costs associated with food actually isn't the price - it's the waste. Stop food waste and watch your grocery bill shrink. We Aussies are a wasteful people, then we cry and complain about how much it costs to feed our families.

How do these statistics make you feel (I found them on the Hungry Beast site):

*Australians throw out 4.45 million tonnes of food every year (source: What A Waste! Australia Institute Report)

*Approximately 936 kilograms of food is discarded by each Australian household (source: National Waste Report 2010 Fact Sheet)

* The value of the food Australians discard each year is estimated to be around $5.2 billion (source: What A Waste! Australia Institute Report)

* 7% of meat in supermarkets will go unsold and discarded. 30% of the meat bought by consumers will go uneaten. (source: Food Expenditure Tables, Economic Research Service, 2008)

* It has been estimated that 20 to 40% of all fruit and vegetables are rejected by supermarkets due to cosmetic and superficial reasons (source: Ozharvest Canberra)

* In Queensland 100,000 tonnes of bananas, about a third of the annual crop, are thrown out each year. (source: Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin)

* 54% of Australian mangoes get thrown away (source: Dr. Ridoutt, CSIRO 2010)

* The annual food waste in Australia is enough to fill over 720,000 garbage trucks. (source: National Waste Report, Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2010)

* Just one quarter of the food wasted in the developed world would be enough to feed the 1 billion people starving in the developing nations across the globe (source: Food and Ethics Council, Tristram Stuart, 2009)

I can tell you they make me feel ill, especially the last point.

I learned long ago to not waste food. There was a time when every single food item on our shopping list was accounted for and used because we couldn't afford to waste it. We didn't have the money to buy more celery if I let it go limp and soggy or to buy meat to replace any that was freezer burned.

To avoid waste (and thus a heftier grocery bill) I had to get a little canny about how I managed the family grocery shopping, meals, fridge, freezer and pantry.

I always went through the pantry, fridge and freezer before shopping day to see what was left.

Then I made up a meal plan, incorporating the food we had. This formed the basis of the shopping list and is the single most important step in reducing or even eliminating food waste. I simply didn't buy what we didn't need.

The shopping list only had things we needed, in the size and/or quantity we needed on it. And I stuck to that list like glue. My price book ensured I knew to the dollar just how much the groceries for the month were going to cost and that's all the money I took to the shops with me. I couldn't afford to over-spend, I didn't have the money to pay for it.

In our house leftovers have always been planned. There are five of us and most recipes serve either four or six, meaning for a four serve recipe I increase the quantities by 50% and we always have an extra serve over. Now if we don't have any extra mouths around the table that leftover serve is packaged up for a lunch the next day or put into the freezer for a mufti dinner during the month.

Reading the stats I am sure we don't have anywhere near 936 kilograms of wasted food a year. We do compost everything we can - peelings, meat and fat, even bones - in the bokashi bucket which goes a long way to slashing that figure.

I rarely put any whole fruit or veggies in the compost. Any vegetables that are looking sad or limp go into soup or casseroles or are used to make stock. Soft or wrinkled fruit is stewed, added to muffins, cakes or biscuits or made into pies. Sometimes I dehydrate it and add it to trail mix for nibbling and lunchboxes.

When it comes to bottles and jars of sauces and spreads my trust skinny spatula gets a good workout. Did you know you can get enough peanut butter for at least two more sandwiches if you use a spatula to scrape out the "empty" jar?

And there's enough Vegemite left in an empty jar to flavour a gravy, soup or casserole. Or swish it with some cool water, pour into a mug and top up with boiling water for a delicious, warming savoury drink. Jam jars can be swished with milk for milk shakes, or pour the flavoured milk into icy pole moulds to make DIY paddle pops.

Bread crusts can be toasted for croutons or whizzed to make breadcrumbs. Cereal crumbs can be crushed and added to muffin mix or to a basic slice base. Or crush them and use them in Shake'n'Bake or to crumb fish fillets, rissoles or sausages.

Leftover rice or pasta can be used to make a salad. You only need small quantities of veggies and a drizzle of dressing and you have a quick lunch or side dish for another meal.

Before you juice an orange or a lemon grate the zest. It freezes beautifully and can be used for flavouring cooking or as a decoration or garnish.

One last thing to remember in the battle to reduce food waste and thereby your grocery bill: it won't happen if you don't make it happen. Start small. This week do a quick inventory, make up a meal plan and then a shopping list. Add only what you need to buy and stick to it. See how little you spend on food and it will encourage you to use up what you have before it gets wasted.

I'd love to know how you handle food waste in your home. Please take a couple of seconds to take the poll on the left of the page

Why Meal Planning Makes Sense

It's a simple question, but one that can strike dread into the heart of any cook.  What's for dinner? When life is hectic, having a meal plan can at least keep the dinnertime woes under control. A meal plan keeps the grocery budget on track too.

With groceries being the one part of your Spending Plan that you have complete control over, having a meal plan in place and knowing what's for dinner can save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a year.

Taking Stock

It makes sense and saves you time and money to plan your family's meals.  The concept is basic, and easy to do.  Start by taking stock of what you have on hand.

Go through your cupboards, fridge and freezer and throw away anything that has expired or gone stale.  Keep a box handy for dry goods and cans that you know your family won't eat or you won't ever use and donate them to a local food bank or soup kitchen  if they still good.

It Saves Time

When you start to plan your meals, you’ll no longer waste time at the supermarket every day, scrambling to find something you can make for dinner. Instead, you’ll go to the supermarket once a week and pick up all the items you need to make healthy and delicious meals for an entire week!

Meal planning will also help curb your desire to stop at a fast food restaurant because you don’t know what’s for dinner!

When you come home each night, you’ll know what you’re having for dinner and can spend time relaxing with your family.

It Saves Money

Meal planning really does save you money. For starters, you can plan your meals around your local grocery store’s weekly specials. This will be a lot cheaper than buying regular priced groceries, and as you know, regular priced groceries are still a lot less expensive than going out to eat or ordering takeaway!

It’s very easy for a family of four to spend $40 or more on a single take-out meal. If your family gets takeaway twice a week, that adds up to over $300 a month just on takeaway dinners! Imagine how much you will save when you go from buying takeaway meals to planning your meals around your supermarket's specials!

The Basics of the Planning

If you are short on time and like to mix prepared foods with fresh foods, you can try short-cut cooking. In this example, you may pair a rotisserie chicken from the deli with a homemade side dish.

If you like to prepare your weekly meals at home, you may want to start planning your leftovers in order to create new meals out of yesterday’s dinner. For instance, you can cook up several kilos of minced beef and make tacos one day, spag bol the next and shepherd’s pie the third day.

If you would like to get a month’s cooking out of the way in one weekend, you can try freezer cooking. In this method, you will cook a whole month’s worth of meals over one weekend and put them in the freezer. When you’re ready to cook them, you simply take them out of the freezer, thaw them out, and pop them in the oven.

Creating Your Grocery List

Once you have decided on the meals you would like to make, write out the ingredients you need to make those meals. If some of your meals need the same ingredients, write out a tally, such as 3 kilos of mince, 5 chicken fillets, 2 heads broccoli etc

Next, go through the items you already have on hand and cross those off the list. As you are looking through your cupboards, take a moment to add any staples to your list that you are running out of, such as flour or sugar.

As you add things to the list, put the price against each item. Tally them up when you're finished and you'll know exactly how much your meals for the week are going to cost.  If you don't have a working price book, use one of the handy online shopping lists to find the prices. Coles, Aldi and Woolworths all have very easy to use online shopping lists. You don't have to do your shopping at any of those supermarkets,  you are just calculating the cost of your meals.

Now that you know exactly what you need from the supermarket, and how much it's going to cost, you’re ready to go shopping!

When you start planning your meals, jot down notes as to what works for your family and what doesn’t. Keep adapting your meal planning to make this a way for your family to spend quality time together around your dinner table.

To help you get started with your meal planning, I've created a brand new meal planner.  The What's for Dinner meal planner will help you plan all your meals for the week, including takeaway meals or those nights you eat out. There's even space to include breakfasts, lunches and snacks so you can plan all your meals.

Use our pantry, fridge and freezer inventories when you are taking stock. They'll save you a lot of time and you will have a ready to use stock list at your fingertips.

Weekend Today and How to Get By When You Fall on Hard Times

Click here to watch the video clip

This morning I was up at the crack of dawn. Actually I was up well before the crack of dawn as I had to be in at Docklands at the Channel 9 studio for a Weekend Today segment. I left home at 6.35am and it was still dark, but being a Sunday the traffic was light and I had time for a coffee before I checked in.

When I took the call about doing this segment I was so excited. This is something I know about. It's something I've experienced. It's something I've lived through. It's the reason I started the Cheapskates Club.

In the space of 72 hours we went from a two income family of four to a no income family of four with one on the way and half a house, waiting to be renovated, a mortgage to pay plus all the usual living expenses. It was a disaster. Like most people we knew we lived pay to pay. We had credit cards and we used them. We had a mortgage. And we had never heard of anything as sane and sensible as an Emergency Fund.

To say we were stressed is an understatement. It took me six long months to get my act together and realise that we could sink and lose everything we had worked for or we could change our attitude and our habits and get through what I thought would be a temporary hiccup. As it turns out that was one long hiccup - three years in fact. We survived, and from that disaster we grew stronger and much, much wiser and learned some valuable life lessons too.

Losing a job is a very stressful thing. But it's not the end of the world. You can control the way you react to job loss to ensure you come through stronger and happier or losing everything.

Take Stock

Firstly don't panic it is wasted emotion and energy. Take half an hour to sit down and take stock.

Get out your budget and have a look at your bank account and Emergency Fund. Do a pantry, fridge, freezer and garden inventory and make a list of the meals you have in the house. This will tell you how long you can survive without an income and how long you have to find another job.  It may be a month; it may only be a week. Either way you need to know how long your money will last.

Stop Spending

You would think this would be a no-brainer but there are those people who spend in times of emotional crisis, even though they know they shouldn't. You have nothing coming in to replace what you spend, so cut back on everything. Go back to the absolute bare essentials. No new clothes, toys, plants, books, eating out or takeaway, limit trips in the car to reserve petrol. If you do need to buy something look for the least expensive way: can it be bought second-hand? Could you get it free from Freecycle? Do you already have something that will do the same job? Will you find it at a garage sale or op shop?

Be ruthless with your grocery shopping.  When we lost our jobs the groceries were the first thing to be cut back. Cleaning supplies were the first to go, replaced with a bottle of generic white vinegar, a box of bicarb soda and some elbow grease. Then the processed foods went: biscuits and cakes, snack foods, cereals (except for Weetbix and rolled oats), most tinned foods.

Brand names became a thing of distant memory. Generic labels became my best friends. If you have a favourite brand product and it has a cheaper alternative you are just going to have to suck it up and buy the cheaper alternative. You can't afford brand names. It's not forever, just until you get back on your feet.

If you're not working you'll have more time to cook from scratch. Buying basic ingredients costs a fraction of the price of the ready-made foods so you can still enjoy your biscuits and cakes, muesli bars, snack foods and drinks. The difference, apart from the cost, will be that you made them rather than bought them. There are over 1,400 recipes in the Cheapskates Recipe File, all of them good. There is even a $2 Dinner category and of course the Bare Bones Groceries meal plan and shopping lists are on the Printables page.

Go back to tracking your spending. It's all the little things you buy that do the most damage. By recording every cent you spend, on the newspaper, that can of soft drink, the groceries, the phone bill, the power bill, petrol and so on you'll see where the money is going and the areas that can be trimmed.

Switch to a Cash Only Budget

If you haven't already, stop using those credit cards. If you don't have the money to buy something, what makes you think you will have the money to pay for it when the credit card bill comes in? Now is not the time to be getting deeper into debt.

Get on the Phone

If you are going to be out of work for longer than two weeks, get on the phone and let your creditors know. Contact the credit card company, your mortgage lender and any other creditors and explain the situation to them. Let them know you want to continue to make payments and ask if they can be reduced for a limited time. Most creditors are sympathetic and understanding if you contact them immediately, before your accounts fall into arrears.

Make Finding a Job Your Job

Spend time every day actively looking for work. Register with agencies, look through the papers, and look online.  Be brave and look at jobs that are new to you.  Paper qualifications are good, but experience is valuable too.  Don't think that you can't do a job because you don't have the paper that says you can. Of course there are exceptions to this, but for the most part experience and common sense are worth more than the degree.

Get your resume up to date and have it ready to email with job applications. Get copies printed ready to take with you to interviews too.  Answer your phone professionally when it rings, it may be your future employer. Don't let your personal grooming slide.  This is your job until you find a new one.

Keep Busy

Depression will set in very quickly if you do nothing. Don't sit in front of the TV or computer all day. Get up each morning with a list of things to do. Look for work, weed the garden, paint the fence, fix the dripping tap, and clean the car, bake bread, volunteer at a local charity. Do not sit, idle all day, thinking about "poor me".  It won't get you anywhere.

Take Work that is Offered to You

Now is not the time to be proud. If you are unemployed, you don't have an income.  When someone offers you work, either temporary or permanent, take it.  You need the money and the job. Look for part-time work - deliver pizzas, mow lawns, take in ironing. They may not be your dream jobs but they aren't forever. They are just to keep cash coming in. Wayne did all manner of things while he was looking for full-time work. He fenced paddocks, picked pumpkins and tomatoes, would get up at 3am to go out to a feedlot and put out the feed, ploughed paddocks and did odd jobs all over the district to earn some money. None of those things was even close to his trade, he did them because he had to have a job.  Don't think that any job is beneath you. Work is work.

Look at the Long Term Picture

If you believe it is going to take more than a couple of weeks to find work (it took us over three years to find permanent, full-time work) you may need to think seriously about your lifestyle. Having money to pay the bills, put food on the table and keep a roof over your family's head are the top priorities. If you can't find any work you may need to sell some possession, downsize your home or car (or both), move to a less expensive area or change the children's schools.  You may even need to move interstate, as we did.

And Lastly Build an Emergency Fund

As soon as you have an income start socking some of it away in an Emergency Fund. Years ago I would have said three months’ worth of living expenses was plenty. These days I suggest you aim for at least 12 months’ worth of living expenses. You won't be able to save that much straight away. Work at it every week. Start with just $10 if that is what you have and in a year you'll have $520. Add to it with bonuses, tax refunds, birthday money, money from garage sales - any extra cash that comes your way. An emergency fund gives you security and relieves the stress a financial hiccup, be it a week, a month or three years long, can cause.

Although when it happens it seems like it is, financial hardship isn't the end of the world. When disaster struck us, I thought it would be the end of our hopes and dreams. Instead it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to us. If we hadn't lost our jobs, with two little boys, a new baby on the way, half a renovated house, a mortgage and bills to pay, we would never have started living the Cheapskates way, learning how to live life debt free, cashed up and laughing and we would never have started the Cheapskates Club.