Embark on the First Leg of the #OneGrandFamilyChallenge

1. The Concept

I always seem to be shocked at the amount of money we spend on groceries. It often is a theme that comes up in general conversation and people will recall their horrifying tales of blows to the bank account, which is met with sympathetic nods and shrugs.

Generally I do try to keep my spend low-ish and I don’t necessarily splurge on prawns and caviar, however I have never actually put a solid limit to my food shopping.

Therefore, when my brilliant friend and blogging buddy Nadia (from The Non Adventures of a Stay at Home Mom), announced that she wanted to attempt to spend no more than R1,000.00 per week on food I immediately jumped on board! I was not going to let my friend walk the plank by herself!

We chatted and brainstormed and before you could say “one thousand” we had all engines on full steam ahead for an exciting journey.

2. The Plan

If you missed our first live chat, this is what you can expect to see throughout the challenge:

• 3 meals per day
• Plus snacks
• For two families of four (plus one or two occasion)
• On Sundays we will each publish a blog post including our meal plan for the week ahead (7 days)
• Shopping list
• Each day, we will post photos on Instagram/Facebook stories of daytime meals and
• Every evening we will post our dinner
• Friday night at 20h30 it’s a live chat to catch up!

3. Travel Log – Week 1

Right….

Have we steered ourselves into rough waters?

So we have partnered with Food Lovers Market for a super challenge campaign, which requires an entirely separate article. Be on the lookout for more details!

Having been away for the long weekend, I have joined this week fashionably late but I was confident when I walked into my local Food Lovers Market to dive into the shopping.

My confidence took a nosedive about halfway through the isles when I realised that I hadn’t gotten to the more costly items yet and was already over half of my budget!

I reckoned I would ensure that the dinners were taken care of and if my kids wanted snacks at school, well, they would have to start grazing. Maybe there are some class birthdays coming up?

4. The Meal Plan

Our challenge navigation plan is transparent and I am just going to say upfront that we’re winging it for breakfast and lunch. Don’t tell SuperDad.

This is what’s for dinner:

• Caldo Verde (Green Soup)
• Fish shakshuka
• Chicken skewers
• Pasta
• Flatbreads
• Roast chicken

Of course you will see the details along the way. Make sure you are following along with the challenge on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates! I’m on Pinterest too and I love following and sharing ideas there…

5. Foghorn

So I have spent a huge chunk of time in Food Lovers Market, walking the isles awkwardly trying to push my trolley, mark off on my shopping list and calculate as I go along…

Could I have ditched the sumac? Possibly… but it adds just the perfect flavour! Could I have passed by the imported tomato and basil bruschetta that wasn’t marked with a price so I had to guesstimate? Maybe… but it was perfect for my soup and I knew that SuperDad would love it!

Those were really the only extravagant items I had, in my opinion. Must add that pre-shopping trip, SuperDad was as confident as I was, if not more, about how doable this challenge would be.

Post shopping trip when he unpacked bags and evaluated my receipt, he actually said “I don’t think we have enough.” Momentarily the lights on the SS MammaChefJozi dimmed BUT this ship ain’t sunk yet!

So the bottom line is, after subtracting a couple of cleaning products that don’t count for the food challenge, I was R5.39 over the R1,000.00. Which is totally negligible.

If you haven’t heard from me by Saturday, please send food?!

Feel free to send in your cost effective tips and recipes to help us along and remember to share, share, share with friends and family!