No other takers for the Charity Challenge….obviously didn't make it sound remotely tempting!
Don't blame you really.
Anyway, my £12 shop took me all of 5 minutes, but planning what to buy took A LOT longer. It's all about the prep with something like this: squeezing as much as you can out of every single penny.
There was a good deal of list tinkering, calculator bashing, sighing, crossing out, cheek puffing, more sighing….
I'd have liked to try a few different vegetarian meals, but there's no point if the kids won't eat them, so I've played safe. All my groceries came from Lidl, except the tin of peaches I bought in Tesco's last week. The cheese was reduced which meant I had enough money left to buy some cream crackers…the height of excitement I know, but they'll provide a bit of variety for after-school snacks, so the kids don't tire of muffins. I purposefully haven't given them muffins for a while…or carrots. We'll be eating a lot of carrots.
It goes without saying there's nothing organic going on here...
15 eggs £1.35
Cheese 250g 90p
milk 4pts £1
butter 98p
2xplain flour (3kg) 98p
tinned toms 34p
passata 29p
carrots 500g 75p
sugar 1kg 79p
vegetarian sausages 98p
tinned peaches 35p
Pesto Rosso 89p
cream crackers 38p
dark chocolate 79p
pasta 500g 29p
red lentils 500g 89p
TOTAL £11.95
One big advantage I have over last year is I don't have to make packed lunches. The kids now have school dinners - pre-paid - so this should take some of the pressure off, and possibly ease the whinging. I'm thinking mainly about the eldest here - he eats more than his Dad and is permanently starving.
There are five of us to feed today and next saturday, but during the week it's down to four. I'm starting off gently with homemade bread for breakfast, and tonight, everyone's favourite - margherita pizza and garlic bread pizza. Got to keep them happy. Like I said, it's all about the prep…
I'll post the full 7 day meal plan tomorrow, and explain why I blew 79p on a bar of dark chocolate.