As you can tell from my blog post about the Grocery Shopping Minefield, I have been thinking a lot about grocery shopping lately.
The thing is, and I am ashamed to admit it, over the last year and a half my grocery costs have got increasingly out of control. I am spending significantly more than I want to each week.
I know it's partly that Australia has the fastest rising food prices anywhere in the developed world. It's also partly that that I have four very hungry growing children, three of whom are boys. And that for most of the past year and a half I was unable to grow my own vegetables because we were renting. While I menu-plan, I do like to try out new recipes regularly which often involves buying new, non-frugal ingredients. Also, I now work four days a week, which cuts into my food preparation time and makes me tired, thus more prone to 'easy' solutions. Sometimes I think, "if only we had grocery coupons in Australia" or, "if only there were more shopping options, such as Aldi, in Adelaide".
However, while all these factors have contributed to my rising grocery bills, they are really just excuses. Ultimately management, or lack thereof, is making the biggest difference to our food budget.
One answer, I believe, is to return to vintage-style cooking, on the principle that people ate very well in the past with few of our processed ingredients. This approach has the added benefits of cutting down on packaging and waste, and enabling me to buy mostly unprocessed locally-grown products. It also has the benefit of giving me an excuse to trawl through some of my vintage cookbooks.
I am going to draft a couple of 'vintage' weekly menu plans over the next few days. I hope you'll come back and tell me what you think of them.
The thing is, and I am ashamed to admit it, over the last year and a half my grocery costs have got increasingly out of control. I am spending significantly more than I want to each week.
I know it's partly that Australia has the fastest rising food prices anywhere in the developed world. It's also partly that that I have four very hungry growing children, three of whom are boys. And that for most of the past year and a half I was unable to grow my own vegetables because we were renting. While I menu-plan, I do like to try out new recipes regularly which often involves buying new, non-frugal ingredients. Also, I now work four days a week, which cuts into my food preparation time and makes me tired, thus more prone to 'easy' solutions. Sometimes I think, "if only we had grocery coupons in Australia" or, "if only there were more shopping options, such as Aldi, in Adelaide".
However, while all these factors have contributed to my rising grocery bills, they are really just excuses. Ultimately management, or lack thereof, is making the biggest difference to our food budget.
One answer, I believe, is to return to vintage-style cooking, on the principle that people ate very well in the past with few of our processed ingredients. This approach has the added benefits of cutting down on packaging and waste, and enabling me to buy mostly unprocessed locally-grown products. It also has the benefit of giving me an excuse to trawl through some of my vintage cookbooks.
I am going to draft a couple of 'vintage' weekly menu plans over the next few days. I hope you'll come back and tell me what you think of them.
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