At the moment, we spend approximateky $25 a day for the four of us on food. That’s 2.5 times the target for this challenge. I think it will be a much more challenging challenge after all! Goat milk is $4.99 a litre and the bread we buy, because it’s the only one at Coles without added soy flour is $6 and $7 a loaf. We can buy 2 alternatives at Aldi.
It really is necessary to shop around if you have a budget. Aldi is certainly cheaper for a lot of things but I don’t like the fact that the fruit and vegetables come prepacked in so much plastic. We love green vegetables,specially Chinese vegetables and, generally, at Coles, they are what I consider good value. That was until I went to the Asian grocery store to buy some dumplings and they are so much fresher and cheaper there! I did end up having to spend more than I wanted to though as they have a minimum of $30 for card and I didn’t have cash.
We also buy a lot of nuts, seeds and other dry goods in bulk. This works out a lot cheaper than the supermarkets but you do need to have the money in order to do it. If we were living on the poverty line, this certainly wouldn’t be feasible but it does highlight the need for more co-ops.
In terms of waste, we really don’t produce much! Planing meals and buying just what we need has been something we have been doing for years. According to the ABC’s War on Waste show, the average family throws out about $3500 worth of fonod a year…. that’s nearly the equivalent of all the food on this challenge! How is that possible?!?
So from here, I am going to start publishing our meal plans for the week, trying to keep the spending to a minimum while still considering our dietary restrictions.