Welcome to my cooking blog. My name is Michelle Jenkins. Let me start by admitting that these are NOT gourmet meals, they are NOT fine dining, but they are mine. I have cooked all of these recipes and taken my own photos. They are fairly simple recipes, most of them are quick to prepare and cook and all of them are delicious. I only post my successes! If something doesn't work out, I don't post it. I hope you enjoy this blog.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

$120 Food Challenge : Introduction


I bought a new cookbook this week...the $120 Food Challenge Cook Book. So this is an experiment to see if I can get my grocery bill down to $120 per week and still feed my family of 4 fresh, healthy and filling meals. I seriously doubt that I can so I will be logging it all here for you all to see how it goes.

The book mentions some very important points which need to be considered before starting this challenge:
  • plan the weekly meals based on what's already in your fridge and pantry
  • plan the shopping list on the extra things you will need (in additional to what's already in the fridge and pantry)
  • save money by buying produce that is in season
  • buy in bulk when you can as this is always cheaper in the long run
  • buy from your local butcher and fruit market rather than packaged meat and veg from the supermarket
  • buy fortnightly rather than weekly (I refuse to do this due to the amount of stairs I have. I already do 4 trips up 58 stairs and I will NOT do 8)
  • always buy items when they are on special
  • have a plan B when shopping, ie. if you plan to make chicken stir fry but the chicken breast is not on sale and the drums are - buy the drums instead and make a dish using the drums

Current shopping bill
My current weekly shopping bill is around $300 for my family of 4. BUT this includes non-food items like toilet paper, soap, laundry powder, pet food, tissues, etc. So it was an effort for me to get my head around the fact that this book claims you can 'feed your family' for $120 per week, NOT supply them with toilet paper, soap, not feed the pets, blah blah blah. So the point here is it is a FOOD CHALLENGE - to get your FOOD BILL down to $120 per week.

What this book doesn't take into account is the kid's lunch box items. This book suggests we all eat sandwiches, soup or leftovers for lunch, what it doesn't account for is sandwich meat and other snacks which go into the lunch box...I don't know... maybe we eat too much? That could be it. Hence the reason I am undertaking this challenge!

So here goes, folks. Wish me luck. Feel free to leave me comments, feedback, tips, or questions. Maybe you could offer me words of encouragement to keep me from going insane  XD.

See Week 1 of the challenge.

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