Moments from May . . .

Well, yes ~ another ‘slack tart’ month when it has come to Meanderings…

But we have been busy. June is National $21 Challenge week ~ but, using my favourite word ~ we will be barstardising the challenge and making it for a month because we don’t shop every week anyway! The mission is to aim to feed your family on a meagre $21 for an entire week.

In the past, we’d head to the supermarket to buy the same old things week after week, regardless of whether we actually needed to or not? But we were spending $300 odd a week. We changed that to $300 each fortnight and now, with practice, planning and this new monthly pay, we do a big shop once a month of around $300 and a $50-$100 shop at the end of the month.

This June, when payday rolls in – we are not going shopping! Each week, I will put $21 into my wallet for food and, ideally, we won’t need to use it on anything other than milk, maybe eggs (if the gerls are still not laying) and fresh fruit. You'd have to make the best use of what you've got - and that's what the $21 Challenge is all about.

And NO – it will not be 2 minute noodles. We cant have those here anyway – what with MudGuts reactions to colours, flavours and preservatives. And Fred HATES the taste of the Interconternetal Pasta Saucy Rices packet things. Too spoilt – he will only eat ‘real’ food. We don’t even buy pizza any more – last time, too cheesy, too plasticy, too oily, too yucky! There weren’t even enough toppings ~~ compared to the old home made ones! Only take 10mins to ‘dress’ and 10 mins in the oven! Eating in under half an hour – it would take longer than that for the delivery!!

SO:

Here is the stocktake :

Freezer:
6r Bacon
12 Bananas
1kg Beans
1 Beef sirloin
1 Bread - grain
7 Bread - rolls
1/2 Bread - white
1/2kg Broccoli
2 Butter
1kg Carrots
3sv Cauliflower
4 Chicken breast fillets
1 Chuck / stewing steak
8 Corn cob
12 Drumsticks
4 fillets (frozen)
1kg Frozen beans
2pkt Frozen Chips
1kg Frozen corn kernals
2 Frozen Pastry
bit Frozen Peas
300g Ham
4 Lamb chops
2 Leeks
1 Mango
4 Maryland / pieces
6 Meat Pies (BigBen Orange x 6)
200g Mince Beef
655g Mince Lamb
680g Mince Veal
6 Minis - milkybar, calipo, choc
bit Mozzarella cheese
250g Pizza Ham
3 Porterhouse steak
20 prawns
2 Roast Chicken
1 Roast LAMB
1 Roast PORK
2 Rump Steak
bit Salami
2 Thighs
1L Weis - boysendberry cream
1L Weis - macadamia/mango
1kg Wings & niblets (marinated)

Fridge:
3 Apples
2 Avocado
1kg Broccoli
1/2' Cabbage
1/2 Cantaloupe
2kg Carrots
jar Coriander
3 Corn cob
2 Cream
6 Eggs
100g Fetta
1 Lemon juice
1 Milk (3L)
200g Mozzarella cheese
20 Oranges
bit parmesan cheese
1 Pears
2 Philadelphia Cheese
1 Pumpkin
jar Semi Dried Toms
1/2 Sesame oil (bottle)
Snow peas
250g Sour Cream
3 Straz / Devon / Smiley
1kg tasty Cheese
1 Tomatoes


Pantry:
All spice
1 Aloe Vera gel
3 Apples
1 Apricot nectar
Aspirin/Disprin
Baking Powder
Bandaids
Basil
Bi-Carb Soda
4 Bread - turkish
1kg Brown sugar
Cannelloni shells (pkt)
Caraway seeds
1kg Castor Sugar
Cayenne Pepper
Cereal - cornflks /rice bub
2 Cereal - Muesli
2 Cereal - nutragrain
500g Cereal - Oats/porridge
1 Cereal - weetbix
4 Chicken noodle soup (pkt - cupasoup)
2 Chips (multi packs)
chocolate / Milky Bars
2 Coca Cola
Cocoa
250g Coffee
1 Condensed milk (tin)
4 Cooking Chocolate
Cumin
2 Evaporated milk (tin)
1 Fettuccini
4 pk Gelatine (125g)
Golden Syrup
Ground Almond
Ground Cinnamon
Honey
Horseradish
Ibuprofen
1kg Icing Sugar
Insect repellent
Italian Herbs
Jam
4 Japanese curry noodles
4 Juice 3l
2pkt Lasagne sheets
Leggos Pasta Sauce
2 Lemonade
2L Milk UHT
1 Milo
Mixed Herbs
Mixed Spice
1 Morning Juice
MtFranklin Water
Mustard (jar)
mustard powder
mustard seed
yes Olive oil tin
8 Onion - Brown
1 Onion - Red
Panadeine
Paprika
2 parmisan cheese
Paw Paw
Peanut butter
Peppercorns
2 Pineapple pieces
2kg Plain Flour
20 Potatoes
1 quik - banana
1 quik - choc
1kg Raw Sugar
21kg Rice
Rosemary
sea salt (crystals)
2kg Self-Raising Flour
200ml Soy Sauce
4 Spag / Baked Beans
1 Spaghetti pasta
3 Spiral pasta
Stock - Massel cubes
3 Sunscreen
1 sustegen / Malt
1 Sweet Chilli Sauce
1 Taco Mince Mix (pkt)
Tea bags (50)
thyme (pkt)
8 Tin Tomatoes
2 Tinned Tuna in brine (425g)
8 Tomato Paste
2 Tomato Salsa (jar)
1L Tomato Sauce
6 Trident noodle bricks
1 Trident Udon Noodles
Turmeric
2 Vanilla Essence - natural
Vegemite
Vinegar - apple cider
Vinegar - balsamic
Vinegar - cider
Vinegar - malt
1L vinegar - white
yes Walnuts
5kg White Sugar
50ml Worcestershire Sauce

Tins
1 Apples
2 Apricots
1 Champignons
1 Chinese Vegs
1 Coconut cream
6 Fruit salad
2 Mango
2 Peachs
3 Pears
1 Plums
1 Tinned chickpeas
1 Tinned Corn
2 Two fruit


Still plowing through – there is more…
The laundry, the baking cupboard, the bathroom


Then the meal planning ~ so I will have to come back. I will edit this only up until the stocktake and meal planning is typed out (I have it scrawled through notebooks, along with the notes to buy Buderim Ginger cordial and sea salt) and hoping not to cheat and stock up. Aside from those two, I cant think of anything else that is desperately needed . . . oh, yes I can. Dry cat food.

BBL – with pics of the pantry, fridge and freezer so I am not cheating!!!