How to Save Big on Groceries
so you can actually afford Christmas this year
Welcome to Apple & Radish Chronicles: Where Handmade Meets Homegrown. 🌷🌈Creating comfort, joy and meaning with simple, sustainable handmade and homegrown projects - sent to your inbox weekly - with fun tutorials, recipes and classes! Think of this as your ultimate cottage core homesteading guide - but with a little more spice. 💐 🌼
This is what you can expect:
On Wednesdays you’ll receive a newsletter that contains a lesson/how-to/guide or mini workshop and occasionally a podcast or video. Woo! Upgrade to paid to access all the goodies including every previous downloadable pdf lesson. You can check them out here with a new one sent to your inbox each week!
Then on Saturdays I’ll be sharing a short and sweet letter called 3 Lovely Things. As the name suggests it will contain 3 lovely things that made me smile during the week in the hope they bring you a glimmer of happiness too! 🥰🌷💜 This bit is also free for everyone but I’d be delighted to welcome you to my paid subscriber soiree!
Hello There!
Every time I go to the supermarket I see butter has jumped by another dollar. I swear it used to be under $4. Now it’s pushing $8 bucks for half a kilo! Blocks of cheddar cheese require a second loan against our family home. Forget about buying pre-grated! That’s only for multi-generational wealthy folks.
Our two oldest boys had moved out together almost 2 years ago for work and uni. Since then, with only four of us at home instead of six, we’ve been spared the full brunt of grocery price hell. I was even putting extra away. The fridge always full. The pantry nicely stocked.
Twelve days ago, Mister 22 and Mister 21 moved back home temporarily while they look for new digs in Brisbane. I’m back to buying six liters of milk, three kilos of cheese and 17 packets of crackers at a time.
I’m not complaining. It’s wonderful to have them home. There’s nothing more precious than spending time with your grown up children. I love having us all at the dinner table. I love hearing their ideas and unjaded view of the world. Their sense of adventure and drive to make a positive impact is a balm to my growing cynicism that humans will never sort out the mess.
I love watching the kids deepen their relationships with each other and how they volunteer to help their Dad with whatever project he’s working on. And he’s always got something on the go.
Now they’re in their twenties and have lived out of home, they do so with cheerful can-do attitudes. Take heart if you’re living through surly teenage years. It gets better!
However I have had to readjust to our re-expanded household.
I’ve had to let go of a few things. For example I’ve had to let go of my belief there will still be some caramel crowns in the fridge, a full 24 hours after the packet was opened, when I’m looking for a little after dinner treat. 😩
I’ve also had to let go of my attachment to a certain level of discretionary income. Income, that if we’re not careful, will disappear with a tap of my visa debit card at the IGA.
Luckily, this lady here (points to self) is a money saving QUEEN when it comes to food!
I even made a book about it many years ago. Called ‘How to Feed a Family on $100 a Week’. Yikes! I won’t claim that I can stick to that number with today’s grocery prices. But in 2014 as a family of six on one income we definitely did!
My little book was filled with money saving tips, hints and tricks that are even more relevant these days. Plus hand illustrated recipes and kitchen hacks that not only save money but hours of TIME in the kitchen. We’ve saved thousands upon thousands of dollars on our grocery bill over the years by following this approach - and still we eat like kings and queens!
With Christmas on our doorstep, and food prices the way they are, I thought you might like to know some of my secrets to reducing your grocery bill. Let’s face it, with the cost-of-living crisis, we’re all looking for ways to carve out some space in our budget so we can actually afford Christmas this year.
Plus these tips can help you carve out the most important thing - time with your loved ones.
Great news! Gift subscriptions to the Apple & Radish Chronicles are available! A great non-clutter gift idea! 🥳🌟🎁💚
The whole book is quite big so I’ll be giving it to you in chunks. No-one needs to feel any more overwhelmed in December than they already do. Today’s downloadable excerpt gives you easy, actionable steps to significantly shrink your grocery bill, fill your pantry with delicious food and set yourself up to have days and nights off from cooking whenever you want. The dream!
My Two Main Rules
First I’ll share the two rules I live by in my kitchen that save sooo much time and money on food (not to mention my sanity). I’ve drummed them into my children so they can go forth and thrive in the big wide world - even during a cost-of-living crisis.
The two SUPREME pieces of advice I can give you to drastically reduce your grocery bill (and save acres of time) are ….