The Grocery Budget revisited

For four weeks, from February to March, I stuffed all of my grocery shopping receipts into an envelope behind the i-pod on the bookshelf.  At the end of the four weeks, I tallied them up in a spreadsheet to find out how much I'd been spending and where I'd been spending it.  I wrote about the experiment here. My analysis led me into a lot of mumsy internet forum discussions about budgeting, meal planning, comparison shopping, etc.

I moved into phase two of the experiment: creating a menu plan and organizing my pantry. 

I started off by making a list of all the things I like to keep in stock in the cupboards, refrigerator, etc.  Well. I ended up with a list of about 150 items, including actual staples, baking supplies, spices and sauces for a variety of cuisines, cleaning products, medicines, etc. I could make a shorter list, but it wouldn't come close to including all the things we get from the grocery store.  Having made the list, I never look at it, but the process of making it helped me focus my grocery shopping, so I can scan the kitchen to see what we're running low on before I go out to the shop.

Next came the menu plan.  The budgeting divas of the internet swore by creating a menu plan with a regular rotation of meals, so I thought I might give it a shot.  I made a list of dinners that I've made more than once in the past couple of years.  Looking at my list, I felt that maybe a regular rotation would be too restrictive, or that I'd have to make a different rotation for different seasons.  Ultimately, I came up with a plan that I think will allow for seasonal variation yet keep me from wasting half the day wondering what to make for dinner.  Here it is:

Monday:  Pizza (I've been making my own dough, which is not difficult)

Tuesday: Soup (which can be made on Monday if I have a class Tuesday night)

Wednesday: Roast or casserole.  Freeze half of casserole for another week. Leftover roast chicken or beef can be used in curry/stir fry.

Thursday: Stir fry or curry... something with a rice base, anyway.

Friday: leftovers, take-away, or something from the freezer.

Saturday & Sunday usually take care of themselves -- we either have leftovers to finish off or one of our parents invites us to dinner.  If not, it's a good opportunity for me to make something new and exciting or for Mike to have his favorite: cheese and beans on toast. 

This is a very minimalist sort of plan, compared to most of the ones I've seen around the internet. I don't plan breakfast or lunch, and if I planned 7 dinners a week we'd have a fridge full of leftovers.  It also means that, when I feel like following the plan (which I didn't this week) I only have to really cook three or four nights a week.

Implementing this menu plan and pantry-stocking list has led to the following pattern: On Saturday morning I go to the market, and on Sunday morning, when nothing else is open, Nova and I make the trek out to Aldi and Tesco for the big weekly shop... although that can also happen on Monday or Wednesday, which are also pretty quiet.  

I tallied my grocery receipts from 4 weeks in April and May (after a month of not keeping receipts) yesterday afternoon.  The effects of the above plan were:

1. Average weekly spending of €125, down from €150... but I'm not sure this is fully accurate because Mike has been doing more of the shopping and I don't know if I've gotten all of his receipts, and I separated out take-away this time.  Really, I don't think I saved a whole lot of money.

2. Fewer trips to the store, down about 20% (54 trips, down to 41... I know it's still a huge number).

3. A cleaner fridge, and less food wasted.  Doing inventory before the weekly shop, and coordinating that with meal planning, means that I actually use most of the produce I buy, rather than having so much of it rot before I get around to cooking it.

4. More money spent at the market on produce and stuff, significantly less money spent at the big chain stores (except for Aldi).

5. I don't have to think about what to make for dinner so much. 

All in all, I'm satisfied with the results of my experiment, and I'm beginning to feel like an organized housewife... which a weird thing to be, but better than being so disorganized that I don't get any writing done.

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