Well, we have finished week two of how to cut your grocery bill in half and it has also gone quite well overall. I must say though, that I am a bit bemused by the portion sizes. On the first week, it seemed like pretty much every dinner was quite large, which resulted in us feeling rather stuffed on several evenings – especially after the Chickpea Crumble (which was delicious). However, on this week two meal plan, we were left feeling hungry still after several of the meals. It just seemed like there was often less food than necessary. I felt like I really needed the ‘cakey extras’ to eat after meals, rather than in between meals for elevenses/supper as was the case in week one.

This is salted cashew couscous – it was delicious, but the portion wasn’t even big enough for two people, let alone for saving anything for leftovers. It was not filling, but was super tasty, so next time will just make more of it. It’s still very cheap per serving (roughly 30p) so might add some soft cheese or similar to bulk out the fat content and make it more filling.

I didn’t get many pictures of week two food )I was quite busy so ate and ran mostly). Overall, the meal plans are still going well. I do not follow them absolutely exactly, because we have an allotment as well as some salad growing at home, so we get some of our stuff from these two places. We also collect blackberries, elderberries, etc. when anything is in season we grab it – there’s nothing like homemade pies and crumbles, jellies and jams. Moreover, as I mentioned in week one, we are buying some other food for ourselves and our little son e.g. raw organic coconut oil (the best fat you can use – similar composition to breast milk), raw organic honey (unpasteurised – all the natural goodness, minerals, antibacterial agents, etc.) and some bony meats for stock and beef for my iron (was dangerously low in first pregnancy, so not taking any chances this time).

Give the meal plans a go – they are worth trying, just be aware of the portion sizes. They’re easy to adapt though, and you can make them vegetarian or vegan quite easily.

It seems like even though we are supplementing the plans, we are spending LESS THAN HALF on our grocery bill than we were before. This is awesome progress, so of course, the spare money will go to… you guessed it – dividend-paying and dividend-growth stocks. I am also probably going to start buying investment trusts soon too, and I would count some of these along the same lines as a dividend growth stock.

How much have you spent on groceries this week? Do you plan on cutting your bills back? Let me know, leave a comment below.