With the increasing cost of living in Australia, it’s important to consider the challenges faced by Jeni and Ray Bonell, Australia’s largest family, and their 16 children. However, Jeni has mastered the art of budget shopping and is sharing her tips on how to feed her family of 18 for just $2 per serving.
In a recent YouTube video, Jeni and one of her daughters take viewers along as they search for bargain products to create affordable and delicious family meals. They start their shopping trip at Woolworths, where they focus on buying vegetables. Jeni takes advantage of Woolworths’ Odd Bunch range, which offers imperfect fruits and vegetables at discounted prices. For example, she picks up a packet of zucchinis for $2.20 per kilo, which is 70 cents cheaper than the regular price.
In addition to the Odd Bunch products, Jeni also purchases onions, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, capsicum, apples, and carrots. She looks for items on special and opts for Woolworths own brands to further reduce costs. She also grabs some meat, including pork leg roasts, cream, frozen green beans, canola oil, and diced tomatoes. She pays attention to brand and unit pricing to find the cheapest products.
After checking out, Jeni heads to her local butcher to purchase more meat. She buys sausages, steak, garlic chicken, and pork breakfast sausages to add to her collection. In total, her shopping bill comes to $400.06.
Back at home, Jeni organizes the meat into labeled zip lock freezer bags, ensuring they’re in meal-sized portions. This allows her to store the meat in the freezer for future meals.
In a follow-up video, Jeni demonstrates how she uses her frozen sausages and supermarket ingredients to create five budget-friendly and tasty family meals. She also shares her tip of reusing fruit scraps, such as carrot skins, to make homemade stock.
The five meals she prepares include sausage hotpot, curried sausages, gravy sausages, devilled sausages, and sausage spaghetti bake. She provides the costs per serving for each meal, ranging from $1.68 to $2.38.
Jeni’s budget shopping and meal planning strategies are not only effective in saving money but also allow her to provide nutritious and delicious meals for her large family. Her videos are a helpful resource for anyone looking to stretch their food budget while still enjoying tasty dishes.
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