STOP-tober 3rd: The Food Bill

Day three of the STOP-tober challenge created by Elaine Colliar of Mortgage Free in Three, and I did our weekly shop.

It came to 173 shekels (about 31GBP). This is nothing short of amazing since over the summer and Jewish Festivals I've been spending 1,600 shekels/month in the supermarket and eating out (about 287GBP). Although this includes all household cleaning stuff and toiletries, it's an outrageous amount even accounting for the fact that food is more expensive here than in the UK. It was all to do with heat fatigue and boredom - I bought too much, we ate out too much, and I ate too much even when we didn't go out.

Here is today's shopping. The blue bags contain tomatoes, 3 avocados, apples, and a cabbage. The strawberry yogurts go in the freezer with a plastic spoon inserted for frozen yogurt lollies. One of the cottage cheeses is to take to kindergarten tomorrow for their 'New Moon' breakfast party. The blue pots are gil (leben or fermented milk with 3% fat) - delicious with granola. They are only 1.56 shekels a pot, a third of the price of natural yogurt and just as nutritious. I think they are cheap as milk is sold with only up to 3% fat so the leben is a by-product.

The flip side of the overspending mentioned above is that I do have a store cupboard with enough staples to last us probably until 2014 - LOL no kidding. 8 coffee-jars of cooked foods like pasta sauce, curry, soup, and casseroles in the freezer along with packets of frozen vegetables and some more bread and pittas. Seasonings, spices, condiments and back up bottles of tehina paste, olive oil, soy sauce, and lemon juice.

Here is the store cupboard. I have pasta, rice, polenta, dried chickpeas (for humus), tuna, sardines, rice crackers, barley, dried soy beans, cashew nuts, porridge oats, sugar, coffee, tea, soup powder, jam, tinned olives, granola, soup nuts, and lentils. In the tins are dried yeast and baking powder. There are eggs, flour, ground flaxseed, tomato puree, and 7 1.5l bottles of soda water in the fridge. Also a big box of Cheerios on the side.

I also have enough toilet paper (pardon me for mentioning it), cleaning and washing soaps and detergents for all purposes, and toiletries for both of us, to last well into November.

Watch me keep this month's supermarket bills under 500 shekels (about 89GBP)! It's only for 3 weeks as we are going to Grandma's for one week and eating her food for free, so my aim is for about 30GBP a week for two of us. (Btw - Elaine regularly spends only 20GBP or less for three of them and they eat meat! Such is the superiority of my Guru's store cupboard.)