Shopping Day, 20 April

Costco: $44.05
IGA: $12.00
Supabarn: $18.88
Woolworths: $27.01
Aldi: $104.41
Coles: $94.22
Reject Shop: $4.00

Total $304.57


I ended up going a little bit over my $300 budget this week, partly because Karen added several items at the last minute, and partly because I didn't cut out a few of my multi-buys to bring the total back under the limit. At the end of the day, I'm happy with what I did.

Shopping day actually happened over two days this week, because the kids are on school holidays and I didn't want to try to cram it all in on Friday. So I went out to Costco on Thursday, just to score a few bargains offered by their larger sizes and lower prices. The best thing was a big five-pound bag of shredded cheese, which I've split up into 300g sizes and popped into the freezer. That ought to last us a couple of months, and I scored it for $11. I also got a big-ass bag (1 kg, I think, for $8) of corn chips that I'm hoping will last a while.

Then today I started at the IGA, grabbing a dozen cans of soup for $1 each (cream of chicken, cream of celery, etc. that I use in different casserole recipes). From there to Supabarn to get 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) of chorizo sausages for $15 ($10/kg, compared to $14/kg that I normally pay at Aldi). Then to Woolworths to score a dozen packs of rice crackers (Karen loves 'em) for $1.16 each (half price). Then to Aldi, which is now competing with Coles as my main grocery store. No big bargains at Aldi, just the usual lower prices. And at Coles this week I scored more Campbell's stock (beef, chicken and veggie) for $2/liter.

That was an impulse purchase, and I nearly didn't go for it because when I buy the big ones, I end up wasting a lot. A lot of recipes call for one or two cups, and then I the rest ends up at the back of the fridge and finally re-discovered and dumped. This time I'm going to try using what I need for the recipe, then freezing the rest for later.

My stockpile shelves in the garage are pretty full, and I've got two weeks until the week I try to do a minimal shop and feed us from the stockpile. I noticed that when I started all this 6 weeks ago I thought I might get by with a $50-100 shop those weeks, and the one I've done so far came in at a little over $200. That's a nice kick in the balls from reality, but if I can do it for $200 or less this time, I'll be happy enough with that.