I remember a time not that long ago when my weekly food budget was $150. That wouldn’t even cover the basics today. Granted, my boys were nearly half the size they are now and we only had two kids but butter was also under $10/kg. My oldest is actually six foot tall now, it’s a shock just writing that. Nowadays, it’s difficult to spend less than $500 per week for our family of 5. And it seems likely that it is about to get even harder as we feel the effects of the US war on Iran.

Stocking our pantry, fridge and freezer with whole foods has always been a financial priority for us. And while I believe it is a myth that a trolley full of whole foods is more expensive than a trolley full of processed foods, it does mean more food prep as you need to cook from scratch more often. Although my level of commitment has fluctuated by necessity through different seasons of my life, I’ve always been willing to make some kind of time sacrifice to ensure most of our food is whole foods. 

So, much to the frustration of my children, we are indeed an ingredient household. 

I’m writing this with the assumption that you are on a similar wavelength to me. It’s also necessary to have space to store dry goods. It doesn’t have to be fancy, we have unsightly boxes on top of our kitchen cabinets. We also have a large freezer in our garage which is necessary for doing the bulk meat orders and frozen bulk meals that save us a lot of time and money.

I’ve developed my own routine and system for meal planning, shopping & budgeting that works well for me in reducing my mental load, saving me time and money. I thought it might be helpful to share it with you. I don’t think it is particularly revolutionary, but I’m always interested in how people vary greatly in their approach to budgeting and grocery shopping so maybe some of this will be novel to you.

Seasonal Meal Planning

Firstly, I do a monthly meal plan. Sorry, there is no getting around this. Without a plan you’re stuck in a cycle of shopping every other day and spending so much more in the process, not to mention the cost to your mental burden and time. I only meal plan for dinners as we are in a routine with breakfast and lunch. I have a list of 14 summer/spring and 14 autumn/winter seasonally planned main meals which I pick from. With the exception of a couple of family favourites, most of them are from my Food Freedom, Hashimoto’s Edition recipe book. These lists aren’t rigid; a few weeks ago I tried a Zimbabwean beef & kale stew at a farmers market and knew I needed to recreate it at home. So that recipe has been added to this month’s rotation to try. I will make sure that a couple of the meals I make per week are bulk cook-able so I can cook once, eat twice – or even thrice.

Time commitment: the meal plan takes about 15 minutes as I plan with my teenagers which meals they will cook too.

Shopping List

A friend of mine, with the help of their pal ChatGPT, created a spreadsheet with all their favourite family recipes and the ingredient quantities so when she meal plans in her spreadsheet she gets a shopping list to go with it. Genius. But way too high tech for me. 

I have just created an iPhone Reminder list on my phone where I add everything I will need to make the planned dinners. It’s handy for adding items to the list throughout the month too and my husband shares the list so he can add to it too… errr theoretically. I’ll check stores of things like soy sauce, oregano, passata, even toothpaste and hand soap. If there is a chance it will run out in the next month, I’ll add it to the list. My aim is to get everything in one morning for the whole month and to avoid the supermarket for the rest of the month. 

I have a seperate iPhone Reminder list for the butcher, bulk food orders & green grocer.

When I am writing my list I also check my saved list on the woolies app where I can check for specials which may be cheaper than Aldi. I’m yet to start checking Coles and visiting a third supermarket too, but you definitely could. The big three are all side by side at my local shopping centre. I’m looking for the best price on things like Australian extra virgin olive oil 3 litre tins and dishwasher tablets.

I used to do a big monthly online shop with woolies but as the budget has gotten tighter I am now taking the list on my phone, starting at Aldi, then Woolworths, then the green grocer, finishing up at the butcher. I do usually need to do a couple of trips to the car as the trolley fills up. I also find that you can’t always get everything online and because I don’t want to be visiting the supermarket throughout the month, I want to make sure I get it all in one go.

On my list I ensure I have enough snacks for the kids for when we need to grab something on the run like mini bags of popcorn, nut or sesame bars, as well as the basics like oats, eggs, cheese, butter, square bread for jaffles, baked beans, tinned fish, frozen fruit for breakfast and lunch options. My husband and I mostly eat chicken/eggs & veg with toast for breakfast and the kids rotate between eggs & toast, fruit, yogurt & granola, French toast and porridge. We are in a routine with breakfast and lunch so I don’t have to think too hard, just add our regular items to the list. 

I then do a quick 30 minute weekly shop for milk, eggs, fruit & vegetables. I’ve got a $1200 per month budget so once I’ve done the initial big shop I work out how much I have left for the month and divide it between the remaining three weeks I am budgeting for. That is my weekly fresh produce, milk & eggs budget and it’s usually around $100/week.

Time commitment: The actual shopping takes about 2 and a half hours once per month including the supermarkets, butcher and green grocer. Then half an hour when I get home to pack it all away.

Bulk Buying

I bulk buy flours, nuts, grains, dried fruit etc in an Honest to Goodness co-op I am part of every few months. You may have seen on socials that my husband makes sourdough spelt and gluten free bread 2-3 times per week for our family. This only costs us a couple of dollars per loaf as opposed to the $10-$13 we were paying for rye, spelt and buckwheat sourdough bread. High quality bread is a hill I am willing to die on. I order every 4-6 months.

I also bulk buy Madame Tiger, Tiger Nut Milk for myself and my dairy-free daughter. It’s pricey but I save about 30% if I buy a few boxes at once in my co-op instead. I order every 3-4 months.

I bulk buy rice, ghee, coconut oil, legumes & spices from my local Indian grocer. I save so much money by buying 20kg bags of basmati rice for $35 or 5kg bags of lentils for $15 instead of the small bags from the supermarket. The spices and herbs come in much larger bags for a fraction of the price. It also saves on plastics. I do a shop like this every six months or so.

We have recently started bulk buying a quarter cow. We purchased organic and direct from the farmer which worked out to be $24/kg. Not bad. But next time I’ll use this company which works out to be $18/kg, although it is not organic.

While I love supporting organic farmers and food producers, it’s simply not affordable for us at the moment. When I can I will support our local spray-free berry farm and I try to avoid the Dirty Dozen when practical. Right now, feeding my family with whole foods is the priority. 

I am fortunate to have a NQR nearby too so I will pop in there occasionally to stock up on things like crackers. Last month I scored 6 boxes of Sakata rice crackers for $15. That’s 25c a packet which is a huge savings on the $2-odd price point in major supermarkets. 

I finance our bulk buying purchases by putting $50 per week aside in a ‘Bulk Food Budget’ account. 

Time commitment: The bulk buying doesn’t make much time as I do it so infrequently, perhaps 6 hours per year.

What I’m buying

– Tinned fish
– Frozen fish fillets, prawns & seafood
– Chicken breast skin-on
– Beef roast cuts or brisket
– Pork shoulder
– Beef mince
– Turkey mince
– Kangaroo mince
– Dried legumes
– Trays of eggs (over the Easter school holidays our family went through 60 eggs!)
– Basic condiments (low or no additives) like soy sauce, nut butters, mayo, fish sauce, vinegars, mustard
– Fresh dairy, milk, cheeses, butter, sour cream
– Nuts, seeds, flour, sugar (for kombucha making), legumes, GF grains like rice or quinoa
– GF pasta, rice noodles
– Fresh fruit & vegetables
– Tins and jars of passata, chopped tomatoes, coconut milk etc
– Jars of pickles, capers, olives
– Rice crackers, rice cakes
– Frozen peas and vegetables, mango and berries

Other budgeting tips:

• I generally make my own chicken stock concentrate, chutneys, spices mixes, granola, recipe bases, hummus, hamburger patties, yogurt, bread, kombucha, sauerkraut, chia jams and sometimes even gluten free vegemite. These are very quick and easy with a little help from the Thermomix I bought with my tax return in 2012. She’s still going! I usually make these while I’m cooking dinner so it doesn’t carve extra kitchen time out of my week.
• 50:50 Legume/meat mix in many meals like Mexican beef and black beans, chicken curry or soup and white beans, tofu and prawn or chicken stir fry, brown lentil and beef spaghetti bolognese.
• Meat is one of the biggest expenses in most family budgets, before we had a garage freezer I would plan meals around my local butcher’s specials to keep costs down. We rarely eat lamb due to the cost and because I’m not keen on the idea. We stick to cheap cuts like mince and slow cooking cuts. I do incorporate a couple of kangaroo mince meals per month as it’s much more cost effective than beef at $14/kg, leaner and more nutritious. Turkey mince is also really reasonable at around $12/kg.
• Deli meats are incredibly expensive and very high in preservatives (not a fan). One of my budgeting secret weapons without compromising on good quality protein for my family is getting around 2kg of chicken breasts, skin-on, and roasting them on a Sunday or Monday. They last all week in our fridge. There are so many meals you can assemble with roast chicken breasts in five minutes. We slice up chicken breast to go in sandwiches, my teenagers will add it toasties, pasta, vermicelli for a cheats-two-minute-noodle lunch. I will slice it up to add to my five year old’s lunch platter and I shred it to add to salads and soups. If the teens have friends over on a Friday night they often make chicken & pineapple pizzas. When I roast chicken breast with skin-on I get a lot of delicious collagen rich chicken stock at the bottom of the pan. I pour it into a jar and add it to soups or pressure cooker meals for more flavour and gut loving amino acids throughout the week. And for $8-10/kg it is so budget friendly compared with deli meats that range from $20-$70/kg. I will always be on the lookout for a beef roast cut on special too, I will do the same thing and have cold, sliced roast beef in the fridge. I love a cold roast beef sandwich! I have two roast chicken breast recipes in my Food Freedom, Hashimoto’s Edition recipe book plus a handful of recipes that use the chicken as a base for a five minute meal. Providing good quality protein like this for my kids lunches is part of the reason I don’t need to have a pantry full of snacky titbits. They are full much longer than if they had just had a measly slice of ham between two slices of bread.

I don’t buy things like chips, soft drink or confectionary for obvious reasons but also because it blows out my budget – they are special occasion party foods for our household. I usually have a $1 clearance bag of pita bread in the freezer. I roughly cut it into triangles, toss with olive oil and a salty seasoning and bake for 10 minutes for chips for the young people in my life. I also have a constantly rotating batch of pomegranate or similar kombucha brewing and ensure I have the ingredients to make a chocolate or rice pudding in the pantry if anyone fancies dessert. If a good quality dark chocolate is on special I will get some to store for when I want to make something like my mint patties or chocolate bark.

Nauseatingly, I have been known to make gelatin gummies too – yes I know, especially now I have a little prep kiddo in the household. I have a fun silicon Lego mould and we do all enjoy biting the head of Emmet. 

I told you we were an ingredient household.

By shopping like this I have brought our grocery costs from $26,000+ per year to $17,000. But even more importantly, it saves me so much decision fatigue, not to mention many hours per month. When you add bulk cooking once or twice a week, the time saved compounds even further.

Eating well with Hashimoto’s doesn’t have to mean hours in the kitchen, boujee ingredients or a weekly grocery bill that makes your eyes water. In fact, the more we strip things back to simple, nourishing, whole foods, the kind that have fed people well for generations, the easier, and often cheaper, it becomes.

The tricky part isn’t usually the food itself. It’s knowing how to put it all together in a way that feels balanced, sustainable (and on budget!) without giving yourself decision fatigue and adding to the considerable mental burden we experience as women with a chronic inflammatory condition.

That’s exactly what I guide you through inside Food Freedom, Hashimoto’s Edition.

It’s a practical, realistic approach to eating well, one that helps you build simple meals, shop with confidence, and feel more at ease around food, without blowing your budget or your mental bandwidth. And it’s only $87.

If you’re ready for that kind of clarity, you can find out more here.