Week 2 - Shopping

Imagine for a moment you have nothing in the kitchen,

no pantry staples, no extras…nothing.  Could you feed 

yourself a varied and healthy(ish) diet for one week with 

just $25.00 ?  Follow my trials to see how I do.

The shopping list for this weeks menu plan came in at $24.98

There is no plain dried pasta this week!!  I have managed to buy some fresh vegetables.  I took advantage of the "odd bunch" of carrots and bought a full kilogram of carrots for just 98c.  Sadly, though iceberg lettuce had jumped in price from $1.50 last week to $2.00 this week :( so instead of being able to have a full lettuce, I was again only able to buy a handful of mixed leaves. A couple of potatoes, onions and a head of broccoli will see me eating fresh vegetables this week.  I have also bought a tin of tomatoes that is basically being used as a sauce this week.

In the rice and pasta aisle, I spotted these meal bases and thought they would be a nice change from plain pasta and will provide some tasty herb/spice flavours.  I have a Chicken Rice and a Mushroom and Garlic Pasta.  As these serve 4 as a side dish , I am anticipating dinners and lunch leftovers.    A 99c sachet of gravy mix will also help to add some extra flavouring.

I was determined to include some beef mince this week. Woolworths has their regular mince for $5.99 per kilo,  I was able to buy a tray for $2.59.  I have been creative and will use this mince in a number of ways to create different dishes.

A tin of baked beans will mean an alternative to eggs every morning, and will also be used as an ingredient in my Baked Potato later in the week.

To trim the budget by a few cents, I have chosen UHT milk at 95c a litre. When the budget is this slim, those 10c make a difference :)    I could have trimmed the budget even further by choosing 85c white bread over the $1.50 multi grain, but I think the nutritional value of the multigrain is worth the extra.    I have also chosen to buy just 3 slices of "real" cheese rather than the processed cheese from last week.  This was expensive at $15.99/kg, but I think the flavour will be worth it.

Tea	$             1.99
Eggs	$             2.79
Milk	$             1.90
Bread	$             1.50
Baked Beans	$             0.65
Potato	$             1.34
Carrot	$             0.98
Onion	$             0.47
Lettuce Mix	$             1.05
Broccoli	$             0.96
Mince	$             2.59
Chicken Thighs	$             1.39
Wafer Biscuits	$             0.57
Rice/Pasta	$             2.98
Cheese	$             0.85
Gravy	$             0.99
Tinned Tomato	$             0.59
Butter	$             1.39
Total	$           24.98

This blog is not intended to be a serious food plan. It is for entertainment purposes.       No responsibility is taken for any issues caused if you choose to follow the listed meal plans.