Feed your family for $200 a week

With home budgets being squeezed, try these meal tips to ease the pressure

When the costof-living crisis really began to bite, mums turned in droves to Australia’s budget queen for help.

Rachael Hallett is one of the country’s top experts when it comes to money-saving hacks and nearly 200,000 people follow the Facebook page Mums Who Budget & Save, which she set up with friend Karlie Suttie.

After the second interest rate rise in June the number of new followers spiked.

“I think the second rate rise was a major worry for a lot of people,” Ms Hallett, 34 and mum of two boys aged 5 and 7, said. “Some said they simply couldn’t afford enough food anymore.”

However, she said the Facebook group was full of great money-saving tips and ideas and she was also learning new things every day from her online community.

Ms Hallett said she noticed a lot of mums in the group struggled to get their family food budget down to less than $250 a week. She compiled a $200 weekly meal plan – including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks – for a family of four.

She said the recipes were homemade but not labour intensive, and all you needed in the pantry was oil, salt and pepper.

She has previously bought everything at Coles for $200 but when she followed the plan last month it came to $201.13.

“This price will fluctuate with the cost of fresh produce and available brands,” she said.

Ms Hallett, who lives just outside Melbourne, said over the years she had got smarter with her money. “Organisation is the absolute key and it saves me a lot of time,” she said.

Ms Hallett has qualifications in bookkeeping but has never used them professionally.

However, her own struggles to put food on the table for her and her husband early in their marriage helped hone her budgeting skills.

“We bought a house when we were young and my husband was only an apprentice bringing in $190 a week,” she said.

“I was working too but money was tight. Interest rates were pretty high back then.

“Sometimes it was hard to put enough food on the table.”

Ms Hallett said she understood the needs of her followers who could relate to her because her posts were more “real” than “Instaworthy”. She urged everyone to stick to a budget and set a savings goal.