Ok so I am continuing on my journey to save money and one area that we can have control over is the grocery bill.

So I am doing my own version of eat well for less and hopefully this will encourage me to "eat well for less" on the budget of $75 per week for 2 people. This also includes everything - toiletries, cleaning etc. At the moment we have silverbeet in the garden and the neighbour gave us some mandarins and persimmons so this all helps.

Monday 18/5/20

Breakfast - porridge with banana and milk - 1/4 c porridge 0.15c 1/4c milk = 0.11c 1/4c water = 0, 1/2 banana = 0.19c 1/8c milk = 0.06 0.51

Lunch - wrap 0.35c silverbeet 0, onion 0.01, cheese 0.03, crushed garlic 0.01, tomato relish 0.02, yoghurt 0.52c persimmon 0, mandarin 0, kiwifruit 0.28, apple 0.16, = 1.38c

Dinner = venison = 0 1/2 carrots 0.10c rice 30g (half of 1/3 c) 0.05c sweetcorn 0.50, silverbeet 0, brocolli stem 0.10 = 0.75c

Teabags = 4 cups of tea = 0.15c

snack handful of potato chips = 0.30c

Total for Monday = $3.09

Admittedly the meat component did not cost anything due to the venison being shot. But I will price out if we bought meat and add it on also.

Beef schnitzel - 2 pieces 250gm = $26/kg = 6.50 for the 250gm. I usually cut 1 piece in half so this would still yield 4 bits of meat so divide this by 4 to get my share for 1 piece = 1.63

So add on 1.63 to the day = $4.72

Tuesday 19/5/20

Breakfast - porridge with banana and milk - 1/4 c porridge 0.15c 1/4c milk = 0.11c 1/4c water = 0, 1/2 banana = 0.19c 1/8c milk = 0.06 0.51

Lunch - wrap 0.35c silverbeet 0, onion 0.01, cheese 0.03, crushed garlic 0.01, tomato relish 0.02, yoghurt 0.52c persimmon 0, mandarin 0, kiwifruit 0.28, apple 0.16, = 1.38c

Dinner (stirfry) = venison = 0 1/2 carrots 0.10c 2 min noodles 0.22c, silverbeet 0, brocolli 0.10c mushroom 0.23c= 0.65c add on 1.63 for the schnitzel equivalent. = $2.28

Teabags = 4 cups of tea = 0.15c

Total cost for day $4.32

Total for 2 days = $9.04

Today is grocery shopping day so I will write the grocery list and the amounts and start another thread for this week.

Happy New Year!!

Made myself a timetable/schedule to keep me on track to do things.

I have a holiday timetable and a timetable for the rest of the year. Christmas break and school holidays still have an affect on me even though I have nofamily members going to school at present.

So far I have been using it for less than a week and have ignored two days scheduled routines. hangs head in shame....

I am doing crochet classes online on the days that I would be doing knitting/crochet and volunteering. So far first segment is almost done. Discovered that trying to see strands in off-white is just as difficult as white and black and navy. :-) Sewing up the six blocks is 3/4 done. Next lesson is crocheting them together. Need to finish the sewn together blocks first.

My planned routine for the evenings is to sit with DH while he watches/snoozes TV. A few evenings a week are taken up with caring for his feet health and lymph drainage. Crocheting of other projects is done during the evening around planned caring.

I'm supposed to be baking today. W.e.l.l, I washed up. Fed the cats and generally tidied the kitchen, but I did not pull out any baking supplies.

Time to do some work. Me thinks.. Think it will be crochet as it is too late to start baking now. Maybe next Wednesday.

SR Flour

Canned corn, canned tomatoes

Bacon,

Onion, zucchini, carrot, capsicum

Butter, cheese.

Eggs.

11 meals:

Fritters; - flour, corn, bacon, zucchini, onion and capsicum and eggs.

Quiche; corn, bacon, zucchini, onion and capsicum and egg, flour, water, butter (for the base)

Savoury scones; butter, flour, water, corn, bacon, onion.

Savoury Muffins: flour, butter, egg, milk, cheese, bacon, grated zucchini, onion, capsicum.

Bacon, eggs, with cooked tomato and onions.

Scrambled eggs with bacon, cheese and onion.

Corn, bacon and vegie soup;

Pasta sauce; zucchini, onion, tomatoes, carrot, bacon, cheese.

Cheese mornay; flour, butter, onion, water and grated cheese. Serve over steamed vegies and cooked bacon or add into mornay.

Pastry; flour, butter, water. - use for pasties/pies filled with vegies and cheese mornay sauce.

Salad; canned corn, raw zucchini, raw onion, raw carrot, raw capsicum: chopped and combined to make a salad, served with cold boiled eggs and cold cooked chopped bacon stirred through.

This is a guide only and is based on what you have in the pantry/fridge/garden.

Substitute bacon with left over cooked chicken or ham or a lonely cooked sausage.

Substitute the vegies with what you have for eg. Broccoli.

Instead of onion you might have chives or shallots growing in your garden.

Fresh herbs from your garden/pots can be chopped and used as extra flavour and garnish according to your taste.

Why did I choose 11 meals and 11 ingredients? Because they are what I have at present that fit in with this theme.

I have published other blogs similar using 21 meals and 14 meals and same amount of ingredients.

My purpose of sharing this is to inspire us to look at what we have and get creative to feed the family on less and give more variety.

Most of these can be served as dinner or lunch and some even suitable for breakfast.

If you want to or need to save money for a bill or to pay that mortgage down or save for a holiday, then I hope these ideas inspire you to get creative with what you have.

Most especially anyone new to SS and are learning new ways or changing old habits. =)

We currently have a challenge as my car has died and is needing extensive work on the engine which could cost thousands of dollars, not to mention that I cannot go anywhere to buy food unless I borrow DH's car, which means driving him to work and then picking him up in the afternoon after work.