First Time Moving out - Food/Grocery Savings

• 

  toristo on 09/12/2014 - 07:25

  +10

  My partner and I spend $120 a week on groceries and eat a good variety of dishes.

  Dinner is your biggest challenge. You'll find having a well stocked pantry lets you dress things up. It's amazing how many dishes you can make with tinned tomato, rice, potato, sweet potato, coconut cream, herbs, spices and other flavourings (e.g. jar of red/green curry, packet flavourings for rice or mince etc).

  Buy mince in bulk, chop into blocks that are about the size for a meal (in case you want a one off) and freeze. You'll find it more efficient to cook a couple of meals at the same time however and throw 2-3 in the freezer for later to save on cooking. Frozen veges are cheap and help bulk out food too, however don't neglect fresh fruit and veges. They're a bit more expensive but your Mum will feel better if you tell her how you managed to get apples on special for $2kg and carrots for $1 a bag at the markets (no really, this stuff helps calm them even if it's a total lie)

  Chicken thighs are a cheaper alternative to chicken breasts (IMO, taste better). Frozen salmon from Aldi is half the price of salmon at Woolworths and strangely still tastes like salmon.

  Don't sacrifice eating good food to save money. It will make you bitter and unhappy. Never shop on an empty stomach - have a piece of bread before you go if need be, but it does help. Tim Tams are suddenly an essential item if you've not had lunch and just need to grab a bottle of milk.

  As for meal ideas, google "university recipes" - there's quite a few that are quick, easy and cheap.

  If you have friends who are money conscious, talk to them about working together. You might decide to do a dinner party on a Saturday night at a different person's house each fortnight. It means you get to try different food, get a night off from cooking and get some cheap social time and can take some beers/wine for cheap drinks. Going clubbing is an expensive habit for $9 beers and an apparent requirement to have the latest fashion.

  Good luck and enjoy the mistakes. That's half the fun of moving out.

  Couple of life tips that might help you.

  1. Salmonella can kill you. Be careful with raw chicken.
  2. Your bathroom will turn green if you don't clean it. Hold your breath and drown the walls in Domestos, close the door and leave it for a few hours then rinse and scrub clean.
  3. Be nice to your property manager. This person can make your life a pleasure or a misery.

  tl;dr
  Don't shop hungry. Google university student recipes. Laugh and learn from your mistakes- we all made them.

• 

  dasher86 on 09/12/2014 - 08:00

  +4

  $100 a week on food is quite a lot of money actually.

  I whole heartedly agree on getting a good students cook book.

  Buy Rice in bulk when it goes half price at colesworth.
  Rice, a can of tuna and a squeeze of lemon can make a nice staple dish.

  The Durum pasta from Aldi is great quality, buy it in the largest quantity you can get and stock it as well.

  Use the compare-a-tron to plan interesting meals for the week.

  Cook enough dinner so you have left over for lunch / another time. Cooking for one person is actually hard!

  • 

    donga100 on 09/12/2014 - 09:17

    +3

    Yeah, that's a huge amount of money. I used to get by on $25 a week as a student living by myself. I now spend around $100 per week for my family (wife + 1.5yr old) and we are not too concerned with strict budgeting on food. I would say that it's important to buy things that you will enjoy eating otherwise you will be too tempted to blow your budget. Some suggestions/tips:

    • Toasted sandwiches are a quick and easy hot meal. You can freeze bread and grated cheese and they still taste fine in a toasted sandwich.
    • Bulk fruit such as 3kg bag of apples or oranges last a long time in the fridge and are a handy yet healthy snack.
    • A bbq chicken from Coles/Woolworths (I think Woolworths version is better) is very cheap considering it has already been cooked and seasoned for you. You get more than one meal out of it as leftovers can be used in sandwiches, salads, fried rice, pasta, etc.
    • I used to eat a lot of rice as a student. You can cook it very well and easily using a plastic container in the microwave with a bit of practice to get the timing and water level right. For me it was 15 minutes uninterrupted/unsupervised cooking and then a hot meal was ready.
    • For something a little more special try cooking a roast. It's easy to prepare and then just leave it in the oven for as long as required (apx 1hr). Leftovers for other meals too.

    It's important to find meals that are satisfying yet require minimum time/effort to prepare as it can be hard to be motivated when only cooking for yourself.

• 

  Cheeper on 09/12/2014 - 09:11

  +3

  Do the bulk of your shopping at Aldi.
  The quality of fruit & veg and meat is very important, do not skimp on that. I find aldi is not usually the best for that so look elsewhere.
  Be very careful of food that is out of date etc. You may be tempted here to run the gauntlet but it is not worth the risk.

  I lived for a very long time as a single person and the job I had was very physical so I had to eat properly to sustain that.

  ""Dinner - Pasta and a protein shake
  Supper - 2 minute noodles""
  OK once a month but do it consistently and you could run yourself down. Eat properly.

  Cook a proper evening meal but cook enough to last 2 or 3 days, it saves cooking again and also on the dreaded washing up.

  Don't choose personal nutrition as an opportunity to save money, never! Buy quality food and plenty of it.

  Keep your residence clean. Don't leave a heap of washing up in the sink.

• 

  minty on 09/12/2014 - 09:16

  +3

  Some tips:

  • Chicken drumsticks, they're the cheap and tastes great, buy 1-2kg and boil them for 10mins, cool them down in cold water and strip the meat off with a knife, portion and freeze.

  • Shop less, do a big trip that covers most of the week, plus one more for bread/milk/etc replacement if necessary, you'll stop when you've spent $70 in a single trip, whilst lots of small $20 trips will slip you by.

  • Chips and sweets and chocolates are nice, shop in moderation and once a week at the most, combine with above.

  • Potatoes are cheap, buy in bags.

  • Buy fruits in season, buy berries frozen they're usually 1/2 the price or less.

  • Minimise instant noodles.

  • Eggs are delicious and cheap.

  • Sample salad dressings that could help you turn bland veggies into something that you'd actually want to eat.

  • Look through supermarket catalogues for weekly specials, you can stock up for later.

  • Your local butcher has much nicer stuff and is frequently on par or cheaper than the big supermarkets.

  • If you have access to Asian stores go and have a look in there, they're usually quite competitive on prices.

  • Addition to the above, whilst your big supermarkets usually dump the bruised/aging fruits, Asian stores usually sell them off for fraction of the cost, buy them to make smoothies.

  • Buy dried herbs, they range from $1.50-$3 a bottle and lasts forever, a pinch of this and that does wonders to your meats and veggies.

  • Variety is important, there's countless of YouTube resources available that teaches you how to cook the things that you want or may want, check them out and learn a thing or two, cooking is magical, enjoy making it and enjoy stuffing your face with it.

  • Lastly if you ever come across any place that sells Paul Newman's Creamy Balsamic (full flavour version) dressing let me know, it's one of the nicest dressing I've come across.

• 

  November14 on 09/12/2014 - 09:30

  +4

  I've been living by myself since 7-8 years ago and the biggest saving that I get on groceries is from going to the local market on Sundays after 2pm. If you provide me with your town/your parents' town I can possibly look it up for you, but in general it is worth the trip. After 2pm on Sundays, the fruits and veggies are bagged in $1/S2 per bag (a good range from fresh tomatoes, mandarins, greens, etc) and the $2 off per kilo of meat are worth buying. I ration them for cooking big batch of stew that can go to the freezer in little containers.

  Other than that, my advise would be 'do not buy $2 $3 bunches of fresh herbs from any groceries store'. Either buy the dried ones, or buy the herb plants from Bunnings and grow them in little pots at home. They will sustain you for a long time and you get fresh herbs anytime. Nothing better than fresh basil for pasta.

  Stock up on Sirena tuna cans when they are on discount at Coles or Wollies. They are handy to make salad and sandwiches, and just so much better in quality compared to other brands. You'll never look back. Also, look out for them in Asian shops, they sometimes are sold in a pack of 5 for $7 (equal to discounted price at Coles or Wollies).

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 09/12/2014 - 12:25

    If you provide me with your town/your parents' town I can possibly look it up for you, but in general it is worth the trip.

    Is there a local market near Edithvale ,vic 3196 pls? I have a friend who's just moved there and he keeps complaining about how expensive fruits and vegies are at the supermarket.

    • 

      November14 on 09/12/2014 - 13:42

      +1

      There are City of Kingston Farmers Market, Chelsea market, Dandenong market, and a bit further but much bigger Springvale market.

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 09/12/2014 - 14:20

        thanks :)

      • 

        JOCKz on 15/12/2014 - 00:42

        +1

        Farmers market isnt cheap, but Springvale and Dandenong will be. Parkmore shopping centre also has a fruit/veg market. If you go their in the later hours of the day they try to clear out as much as possible at low prices

• 

  battler on 09/12/2014 - 09:57

  some generally smart advice here, not food specific though:
  http://www.vagabondish.com/how-i-saved-10000-in-10-months-en…

• 

  altomic on 09/12/2014 - 10:11

  +1

  lentils are your friend. -very adaptable
  bake beans (with fried onion) - yum

  if something has more than 20% sugar content then you don't need it.

• 

  lysp on 09/12/2014 - 10:39

  +1

  First shop will be quite expensive as you'll need to buy cleaning supplies, kitchen utensils as well as consumable foods (tea, coffee, sugar, salt, pepper, vegemite, etc and all the little things).

  This checklist is a good start to work off - you don't need everything, but it covers a lot so will often have things you haven't thought of:

  http://www.nateshomes.com/agent_files/First%20Time%20Moving%…

  • 

    Gunther on 09/12/2014 - 12:23

    +1

    Hit the dollar stores for cleaning supplies and kitchen utensils. Way cheaper then supermarkets.

• 

  ezz88 on 09/12/2014 - 12:15

  I have found if you buy your food in bulk and dedicate an afternoon one day a week to cooking you will save a lot of money and not have any wastage. What I do is but a heap of Chinese containing 50 odd at a time (can be re used). I then get 3kg sweet potato, 2kg pumpkin, kg carrot, 2kg brans and 6kg of meat (usually steak if a particular cut is on special. I then boot up the Webber and peel the veggies, I use a microwave container to steam the veggies takes about 15 minutes per 2 kg. Then once everything is cooked I divide it up into about 20-30 containers and freeze them. Last me about a week but I eat a lot. Hope this helps someone.

• 

  RobMel on 09/12/2014 - 13:33

  +1

  Hi,
  Careful buying in bulk. Did that initially and was throwing out 30%-50% due to expiring food. Also requires a large fridge freezer with high power consumption.

  Buy smart when in bulk and scab fridge pantry freezer regularly to consume what us about to expire.

  Water is cheap n healthy as drink

• 

  p1 ama on 09/12/2014 - 13:36

  +1

  You need to focus on the fillingness-to-cost ratio. Certain foods are very filling for their cost, others not so much.

  If you want to save money, cut the crap, don't buy food with bad fillingness-to-cost ratios. Don't buy stuff like the packets of potato chips for instance. A packet of Doritos is convenient and tastes alright, but you're paying a lot for what you're getting.

  Focus on the core foods - that is - bread, rice, pasta. These are very high in carbohydrates and very cheap. You can get bread for pretty much 85c a loaf from Woolworths, make that a staple. You can have sandwiches for lunch and toast for breakfast, so that's covered. Rice and pasta for dinner is decent as well. Rice lasts forever, so just stock up when there's a sale. Same with pasta, both easy to cook.

  Fruits tend to be good snacks, so get whatever is in season. Never go with anything against season unless you want to pay a fortune. Always buy economy meats, don't both with stuff like premium mince, it's not worth it.

  If you're really, really cheap, I would say skip anything except chicken altogether, chicken is the most economical meat out of all of the meats, especially drumsticks and breast fillets.

  • 

    minty on 09/12/2014 - 14:18

    OP has a generous weekly budget, I wouldn't recommend to spend all of $100 but sandwich for breakfast and lunch would get old rather quickly, and what do you mean by budget meats, not cuts like silverside are you? They need to be cook for hours on end!

• 

  [Deactivated] on 09/12/2014 - 13:48

  Here's a very simple and easy to make recipe for a tasty dish which you can use as a side with meat or a main meal. Simple to reheat any time. Add chopped bacon if you like/must. Do it at home first if you're not confident but because the measures aren't precise and the ingredients are optional it's something ANYONE with an oven and some kitchenware can make.

  Zucchini slice

  1 medium sized pyrex baking dish - will last you half a dozen meals for this recipe. Add some steamed/microwaved potatoes and away you go.

  2 x grated carrots
  2 x (3 or 4 if small) grated zucchinis
  1 x finely chopped medium onion (plus a few chopped shallots for extra zing)
  2 x cloves squeezed garlic
  2 x 400ml cans corn kernels - drained
  1/4 x finely chopped red (+- green) capsicum
  4 x large eggs beaten with fork
  A few good grinds of black pepper, pinch of salt (the cheese also adds saltiness)
  Half cup or so of virgin olive oil (or other vege oil)
  1/2 - 1 cup flour (either sort will do - just for binding)
  About 200ml of grated cheese

  Chuck it all in a bowl and mix well. (Leaving the beaten egg and the flour until everything else is mixed, then pouring/sprinkling them over the top before mixing again will help get a nice final mixture).

  Transfer into the baking dish, grate a little more cheese over the top if you like, pop into a medium oven (~180 C) for 25 mins or so (until golden)

  ---

  Don't forget RICE for carbs and fill in lieu of pasta.

  I can recommend Spice tailor meals (when on special at WW of course) with some browned diced meat (chicken thighs with some of the fat removed are excellent). I add some soaked sultanas for sweetness. Wash it down with a cold lager. Mmm.

• 

  Avicii on 10/12/2014 - 15:48

  +2

  Thank you OzBargainers for giving me all this thought and advice! I really appreciate it. With reference to my $100 budget/week, I seriously re-considered it when I went grocery shopping with my mum and saw that many bulky things at Costco were a lot cheaper than I thought. I am now adjusting my budget to around $30 per week tops for food. And like a few people on the forum here had mentioned, dinner will definitely be the hardest meal in terms of cost-wise to come by so I will definitely have to do some good planning around that one. Thank you once again to everyone that has helped me here!