Meal Plan, Bargains and Bulk Meat Shop

Breakfasts
Cereal
Homemade fruit toast
Boiled eggs and toast
Scrambled eggs and toast

Lunches
Pizza Rolls
Toasted spaghetti sandwiches
Ham sandwiches
Leftovers

Dinners
Fish, homemade wedges and vegetables
Chicken with honey mustard sauce, spuds and vegetables
Slow-cooked steak pie with vegetables
Rolled meatloaf and vegetables
Spinach and Ricotta cannelloni with salad (Fri)
Homemade pasta carbonara with pumpkin and cheese pull-apart and salad (Sat)
BBQ Roasted chicken with roasted vegetables (Sun)

Baking
Banana cake
Finger Buns

I'm afraid Banana Cake, or variations of, will be on the menu for snacks for the kids for the next few weeks! I picked up a huge bag last week of around 2-3kg for just $1! So they're in my freezer at the moment, just waiting to be used.

Bargains
After my whinging weeks ago about the high prices of F&V lately, I was very pleased with some of the bargains I got shopping this morning. I think Monday mornings seem to be a good shopping day!

• Seedless grapes -$1.99/kg
• 4kg brushed potatoes - $2.99 (or 75c/kg)
• Watermelon - 69c/kg
• Carrots - 69c/kg
• Bananas - $1.89/kg

Bulk Meat Shop

We also did our bulk meat shop on the weekend, and looking at the prices at the butcher, chicken shop and supermarket today, boy did we save! From what I remember

• Chicken breast we got for $7.99/kg ($9.99/kg at the chicken shop). We got around 6.5 kilos, so that's a $12 saving.
• Rump we got for $6.99/kg ($13.99/kg at the butcher). We got around 11 kilos, so that's a $70 saving.
• Roast lamb we got for $7.99/kg ($10.99/kg at the butcher). We got a 2.5 kilo leg, so that's a $7 saving.

So not counting the roast beef, sausages, veal, lamb leg steaks, bacon, and various other pieces of meat we also bought, we've saved $90 already. The $280 or so we spent, we will get around 60 meals, or around 12-16 weeks worth of meat for around $4.70 per meal. We usually have one fish and one vegetarian meal a week, so 4-5 meat meals a week. I'd say we've reduced our meat expenditure by around $10-$15 a week by shopping in bulk.

With some of the off-cuts, we also get meals for our dog for 2-3 weeks (if he decides to eat again, that is...!), which is another saving of around $10.

Thankfully, Hubby helped out cutting up all the meat, while I bagged it into meal portions! It's a full 2 hour job cutting up close to 20kg worth of meat!