Fortnightly Grocery Shop

For the next 2.5-3 weeks we are house sitting for my BIL and his wife while they are in Europe.
That means that our fortnightly grocery shop has to cover all meals for our little family (at home, with my in-laws, we only cater for 5 dinners a fortnight and all breakfasts and lunches for our little family).

We do all our grocery shopping at Pak 'n' Save with the occasional throw in of Mad Butcher or the local fruit and vegetable shop if they have good specials.

Below is our shop for this fortnight, I have included a price breakdown for you so you can see what the prices are like in this area.

NB: As we are on the North Shore house sitting, this shop we shopped at Pak 'n' Save Albany.

Our fortnightly budget is $200 for all grocery items, household items and toiletries. Anything left over at the end of the fortnight gets rolled into the next fortnight, if needed, otherwise is kept in our grocery account for future use. If I come under budget (most fortnights) I will pop $20 onto our Christmas Club card to use over the Christmas holidays.

This fortnight at Pak 'n' Save Albany I spent $214.74 ($14.74 over budget)

butter chicken spice paste $2.49
honey roasted peanuts 200g $1.99
2 min noodles 5 pack $1.99
Haribo gummy bears $.79 (treat for husband)
little kids ravioli with pumpkin and cheese $2.89
Kiwigarden mixed berry yoghurt drops $3.99
crispix cereal $3.89
honey soy chicken sauce packet $1.79
mix-ups m&ms - jumbo bag $5.99 (treat for house sitting)
instant coffee $4.99
council rubbish bags $1.79 x 2
oreo cookies 4 for $5.00
smoked tuna 95g can 5 for $5.00
lemon soda water $1.09 x 2
spicy fruit english muffins $2.99
baby wipes $.99 x 4
royal gala apples 1.5kg $5.69
bananans 1.57kg @ $3.29/kg - - $5.17
broccoli 2 for $3.00
red cabbage - half head $2.99
capsicum 2 for $4.50
carrots 0.915kg @ $1.39/kg - - $1.27
cauliflower - half head $2.99
courgettes 0.310kg @ $9.99/kg - - $3.10
cos lettuce $3.99
white button mushrooms $3.79
onions - brown 0.780kg @ $1.49/kg - - $1.16
onions - red 0.175kg @ $5.99/kg - - $1.05
potatoes 1.635kg @ $1.49/kg - - $2.44
baby rocket $3.29
tomatoes - angel 200g $6.99
oven fries parmesan/garlic/basil $4.70
oven fries 2 for $5.00
frozen sweet corn $2.49
shoulder bacon 200g 2 for $5.00
light blue top milk 2L 2 for $5.50
cheese slices $2.89
cream 300ml $1.99
natural sweetened yoghurt 1kg $3.99
basil pesto dip $3.99
brie cheese $2.89
dish brush $1.57
sausage meat $5.00
angus beef sausages $7.67
beef rump steak $11.77
chicken tenderloins $9.34
lamb shoulder chops $10.24
beef mince $13.82
leg ham $6.00
salami pepperoni $5.96

Total Spent: $214.74

To see our menu plan for this fortnight click here.

Fortnightly Menu Plan

Good morning lovelies! This fortnight is full of some great recipes and great tips to make your groceries stretch and work for your family. So check your pantry, make your list and plan your meals for the this fortnight (or week). Have a fabulous day!

Please keep in mind I do not use the traditional meal planning format which is planning exactly what meal is eaten on which day. Instead I figure out how many meals I need to plan for for this fortnight and then decide what we feel like eating for those meals (of course using my pantry and freezer as a starting point for these plans).

This fortnight there are a total of 15 dinners, of those 15 meals we are planning to eat at our families for 4 of these meals, leaving 11 meals I need to plan for.

• beef rump steak, homemade mushroom sauce, vegetables, roast potatoes
• meatloaf, veges, mashed potatoes & kumara, gravy
• lamb shoulder chops, creamed spinach, veges, mashed potatoes & kumara
• homemade pizza and possibly oven fries
• homemade burgers and oven fries
• spaghetti or baked beans on toast
• fajita's 
• angus beef sausages, mashed potatoes & kumara, veges, gravy
• honey soy beef and vegetable stir fry with rice
• chicken pasta (cooked and frozen in our freezer already)
• butter chicken and rice

NB: Vegetables are usually an assortment of broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, sweet corn. 

Sometimes Life Runs Faster Than You

Yet again I have let my blog get away from me. It has been a month since I last posted. It is hard work running a family and a business and sometimes it can all become a bit too much. I do wish I had kept up with this blog though over the last 1-2 years as so much has happened that I could have been writing about, however one must not dwell on the past and instead look into the future and think of all the things to come.

Looking on the bright side has become a mantra of sorts with our family of late, as we start dealing with some possible medical outcomes that will change our sons life forever. We are currently awaiting on multiple hospital appointments to check on our sons development. One appointment is because he has been dropping percentiles when it comes to his growth (length/height) since he was born and has recently started dropping into the 9th percentile for someone of his age (he's approximately the height of a one year old but is the almost two years old). Another appointment we are waiting on is to check his development/behaviour as a whole as there is a possibility he has ASD/Asperger's. We are hoping that an early diagnosis will mean a greater outcome for him in the long run especially as he enters the schooling system. The final appointment we are waiting on is a Speech Language Therapist appointment to check on his eating, biting, drinking from a cup and talking due to his tongue tie and also to confirm him as non-verbal due to the possible ASD/Asperger's. He just does not talk. I will no doubt have multiple posts of our journey through all of this.

A lot is happening behind the scenes, although it might not look like it when you visit, I am currently making all new graphics, headers etc so that I can easily switch the blog over for re branding. 

As I mentioned in my clean slate post, we have moved house three times in the last year and currently we are living with DH's parents in their house. This is hard work, and no doubt will be a very common topic in my posts ahead. 

With the birth of our son and our family dropping down to one income earner, I opened a new business Hewie - Baby & Mum specialising in quality products for my baby and mum at pocket friendly prices. I stock products that I find/found difficult to find or that were priced out of my reach. 

Make sure to check out our website and our Facebook page. 

When If things start dying down around here, I may be able to transfer everything in the blog over sooner then I'm hoping for. Otherwise just keep checking back in here to see if the re branding has been completed and while you're around make sure to read any posts I've popped up.