Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud or
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whaltbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money. That's here
Speaker 2: to help you save money without feeling like you have
Speaker 2: to give up everything you love. If you've ever walked
Speaker 2: into the supermarket for just a few things and walked
Speaker 2: out wondering, if you've accidentally financed a small car, or
Speaker 2: if you've found yourself arguing with a self served check
Speaker 2: out because surely that total cannot be right. Well, my friend,
Speaker 2: you are not alone. Recent research shows that grocery costs
Speaker 2: were up eleven percent in twenty twenty four, and look
Speaker 2: there's actually no signs that that is going to be
Speaker 2: slowing down. I'm Victoria Devine, and today I am on
Speaker 2: a mission to tackle the grocery bill madness that is
Speaker 2: making us all questioned if food is now considered a
Speaker 2: luxury item or not. With the cost of living absolutely soaring,
Speaker 2: we're all looking for ways to eat well without spending
Speaker 2: a fortune, and lucky us, we have the absolute queen
Speaker 2: of budget friendly meals joining us today. Chelsea Goodwin from
Speaker 2: ten Dollar Meals, is here to spill her best secrets
Speaker 2: on slashing your grocery bills, making food stretch further, and
Speaker 2: proving that cheap eats doesn't have to be sad eats. Chelsea,
Speaker 2: I am so excited to have you on the show.
Speaker 2: This is like a fangirl moment from me.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, right back at you, Victoria, I am
Speaker 4: so excited to be here. I absolutely love your community
Speaker 4: and everything that you're doing in the finance space.
Speaker 2: It's the best my community. You're obsessed with you. So
Speaker 2: they introduced me to you, and then I was like,
Speaker 2: this woman is a queen. Your recipes are like not
Speaker 2: only cheap, but like good, and that is a hard
Speaker 2: thing to manage, especially when we're trying to buy ten
Speaker 2: dollar meal, like it's just it's exorbitant. Nowadays, Chelsea, your
Speaker 2: community is booming, Like your community ten dollar meals has
Speaker 2: completely taken off. People are obsessed with all of the
Speaker 2: recipes you have, including me, and all of your budget
Speaker 2: meal hacks. But can we rewind just slightly? How did
Speaker 2: this all start? Who were you before you were ten
Speaker 2: dollar meals?
Speaker 4: Well, it actually wasn't that long ago. We have to
Speaker 4: go sort of all the way back to twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: It does feel like a lifetime ago, though it does.
Speaker 4: I feel like a lot has happened in that time.
Speaker 4: But I was and still am, a single mum with
Speaker 4: three kids. I'd previously been working in marketing, and at
Speaker 4: that point I'd gone from full time work to part
Speaker 4: time work. My income had harved, I was homeschooling one
Speaker 4: of my children and just really really struggling to pay
Speaker 4: the bills. I was living week to week. And that
Speaker 4: was at a time where I'm sure you remember everything
Speaker 4: had just started to go up. Food, electricity, ranch, It was.
Speaker 2: Like that post COVID, not post COVID. Not sure what's
Speaker 2: going on, but why is everything more expensive? This feels rude.
Speaker 1: Year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was so tough. It was tough for everybody.
Speaker 4: So I think I got to a point where I'd
Speaker 4: already cut out all of their really frivolous expenses, you know,
Speaker 4: streaming subscriptions, stop buying clothes for a year. And I
Speaker 4: realized that the only part of my budget that had
Speaker 4: any give and where I was still I guess potentially
Speaker 4: overspending was food. So I just started tracking spending. I
Speaker 4: realized that dinners were my problem area, and I thought,
Speaker 4: you know what, I'm going to sit down, I'm going
Speaker 4: to put my problem solving hat on and figure out
Speaker 4: a strategy to get this under control. And that's what
Speaker 4: I did, and I stuck to it and it worked.
Speaker 4: I kept my budget at about one hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: dollars a week for food.
Speaker 2: That's crazy in this economy, Like that is crazy talk.
Speaker 4: I know, I know. So yeah, it was a ride,
Speaker 4: but I got there. It made a huge difference, like stress, finances, everything.
Speaker 2: So talk to me about your Facebook community. She's on
Speaker 2: the money. Also started with a Facebook community blowing up,
Speaker 2: and then we became a podcast and I feel like
Speaker 2: we have such a beautiful, engaged audience and I feel
Speaker 2: like you are probably one of the other people that
Speaker 2: might be able to resonate with me, going like, it's
Speaker 2: just it's so much more than a Facebook group. It's
Speaker 2: a whole community, Like and I run into people, you know,
Speaker 2: you probably run into people at the supermarket who were like, oh,
Speaker 2: my goodness, you're Chelsea, So talk to me about your
Speaker 2: Facebook community. What do you think it is about ten
Speaker 2: dollar meals that resonates so much with so many people.
Speaker 4: I think it's just that people are looking for solutions,
Speaker 4: you know, it's a combination of fact is I think
Speaker 4: it's the times that we live in. So many households
Speaker 4: are dealing with financial crisis and they're just struggling the
Speaker 4: same way that I was. And I think they're sick
Speaker 4: of being told, oh, stop being junk or but I'm not. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I know, and that's what they're saying as well. And
Speaker 4: I kept at the point I started my group, it
Speaker 4: was because I kept seeing people posting in groups like yours,
Speaker 4: in other groups on Facebook saying I don't know what
Speaker 4: to do. I'm spending five hundred dollars a week. I've got,
Speaker 4: you know, two kids, we don't eat junk. We've cut
Speaker 4: out takeaways. What more can I do? And I thought,
Speaker 4: hang on, I've been here. I found a solution.
Speaker 2: I can share this with you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe this will help people. So that's how my
Speaker 4: groups started. And I think it's just the fact that
Speaker 4: I'm short of showing people exactly what I'm doing. I'm
Speaker 4: like living it. It's not sort of and I'm not
Speaker 4: cosplaying being poor. I'm not, you know, I'm genuinely in
Speaker 4: this situation. And I found a solution that works for me.
Speaker 4: And it's also a solution I think that is working
Speaker 4: for a lot of other people that they can sort
Speaker 4: of copy and paste.
Speaker 2: I love it, and I think I also love it
Speaker 2: because they're just easy. Like we're not talking about you know,
Speaker 2: having sixty million different ingredients and collecting pine cones and
Speaker 2: you know, steeping them in water to get stopped like
Speaker 2: all of this stuff, you know what I mean. Like
Speaker 2: sometimes you think that to be super budget, you've got
Speaker 2: to really cut back. Like I find them so easy
Speaker 2: because I'm like, Okay, cool, a mom has made these,
Speaker 2: they are tried, they are true. I can put them
Speaker 2: in the fridge and like I'm not worried. I just
Speaker 2: feel like they resonate with so many people, and I
Speaker 2: want to know, like ten dollar meals, are we saying
Speaker 2: that we are actually cooking meals for ten dollars, because like,
Speaker 2: let's be real, you and I have both seen the
Speaker 2: Curtiss Stone memes where nowadays like you know, maybe back
Speaker 2: in the day, and when I say back in the day,
Speaker 2: I'm in twenty nineteen. Back in the day you could
Speaker 2: have done a ten dollar meal, and now curtistone is
Speaker 2: probably like, oh, you can buy maybe a packet of
Speaker 2: grated cheese for ten dollars. In fact, the other week
Speaker 2: I was at the supermarket, why was a bunch of
Speaker 2: like four Broccolini's five dollars? Are you joking? Like that
Speaker 2: should be illegal?
Speaker 4: I know, And I think this is what people are seeing,
Speaker 4: and they're getting so frustrated because they're thinking it's impossible
Speaker 4: right to put together a budget meal because they're looking
Speaker 4: at all of these ingredients that have doubled, some of
Speaker 4: them have tripled in price over the last five years.
Speaker 2: Not only that, but they've reduced in size, so we're
Speaker 2: getting less for more.
Speaker 4: Again illegal, it's not fair, And yeah, it is very
Speaker 4: difficult to go into the supermarket and put together a
Speaker 4: meal for ten dollars if you have to buy every
Speaker 4: single ingredient, and it was even difficult back in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty two when I first doing this. But I think,
Speaker 4: and I'm very transparent about this. I'm not giving people
Speaker 4: individual ten dollar meals their meal plans. And I think
Speaker 4: that's the secret there. Well. I mean, I think it's
Speaker 4: something that people have been doing for generations, right, but
Speaker 4: I think somewhere along the lines it's gotten lost that
Speaker 4: sort of art of meal planning and making things stretch
Speaker 4: and making sure there's no waste. And what I do
Speaker 4: is I will make sure that ingredients are shared across
Speaker 4: all of the meals, so therefore the cost is shared
Speaker 4: across all of those meals in the week, so you know,
Speaker 4: and if you have to buy that ten dollar bag
Speaker 4: of cheese, maybe you're using it in three or four
Speaker 4: different meals and that way it's only you know, two
Speaker 4: dollars or three dollars per meal worth of cheat.
Speaker 2: And I think that that's a really good point as well.
Speaker 2: I feel like over time we have lost I don't
Speaker 2: know if we call it the art, but like having
Speaker 2: a well stopped pantry and that actually being really valuable
Speaker 2: and that's where all of your herbs and your spices
Speaker 2: and your flour and all of those things live that
Speaker 2: actually make up the bulk of some of these meals.
Speaker 2: And yeah, like that bag of cheese I was talking about,
Speaker 2: I'm the same. Yes, it's ten dollars, but like, I
Speaker 2: don't know if you're like me, but I always keep
Speaker 2: my cheese in the freezer because I don't want it
Speaker 2: to go moldy in the fridge and I need it
Speaker 2: to last longer. Like all of these things that I've
Speaker 2: grown up with, I feel like slowly, over time people
Speaker 2: are forgetting. And I mean I keep my bread in
Speaker 2: the freezer. I think that's an old habit that is
Speaker 2: never going to die hard because I'm like, I don't
Speaker 2: feel like I can get through a loaf of bread
Speaker 2: before it starts to go moldy. And there's no way
Speaker 2: I'm throwing that out. So now I just have frozen
Speaker 2: bread and I put it straight in the toaster and
Speaker 2: it's fine, guys, it works out really well.
Speaker 4: I'm with you there.
Speaker 2: Do you know what some of my friends are like,
Speaker 2: I'll have someone sleep over and I'll be like, oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: toast is it's in the freezer and they're like sorry,
Speaker 2: what And I'm like, what sour dough? Come on exactly.
Speaker 2: I'm not spending seven dollars on a loaf of bread
Speaker 2: to have to, you know, throw away the last four
Speaker 2: slices because I didn't eat it quick enough. Absolutely not,
Speaker 2: my friend, So I need to know, are you an
Speaker 2: Audi queen? Is that the secret to keeping meals at
Speaker 2: ten dollars or serve? Or can you make it work
Speaker 2: shopping at all the major supermarkets as well?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: What are the secrets?
Speaker 4: I love Aldi, but I've recently moved from Brisbane to Tasmania.
Speaker 2: Welcome. There is no Aldi here, So no, no, there's
Speaker 2: not I don't have.
Speaker 4: A choice right now. And that's fine because something I
Speaker 4: decided when I first started my group, because I used
Speaker 4: to shop initially before I started sharing recipes, I would
Speaker 4: shop between supermarkets, so I would sometimes shop specials. I'd
Speaker 4: do part of my shop maybe at Audi and part
Speaker 4: of Woolworks or Coals. But when I started my group,
Speaker 4: I realized pretty quickly that not everybody has access to Aldi,
Speaker 4: but most people do have access to one of the
Speaker 4: major supermarkets to do their major grocery shops. So I
Speaker 4: committed to only shopping at those supermarkets because I do
Speaker 4: share my receipt.
Speaker 2: You are in a like you are just so kind.
Speaker 2: You could have been saving more money, and you're like,
Speaker 2: I know it could have, but that's not as accessible
Speaker 2: and I just want to make sure that everyone gets
Speaker 2: the benefit here, like you're an icon.
Speaker 4: No, honestly, it's just like it's transparency as well, because
Speaker 4: I think it's unfair if I'm like, I've got this great, little,
Speaker 4: you know, budget supermarket down the road for me, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna do all my shopping there, and you know, ninety
Speaker 4: percent of Australia's like, well, we can't shop.
Speaker 2: There, must be nice Chelsea, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Exactly, and then they start to think, well it can't
Speaker 4: be done where I live, so.
Speaker 2: And you're like, no, I actually came here to prove
Speaker 2: a point and I will provide receipts, thank you.
Speaker 4: And literally providing receipts I think has been a really
Speaker 4: big thing because people love seeing the behind the scenes
Speaker 4: stuff and like exactly what you're spending money on, and
Speaker 4: then they start comparing to their receipts and.
Speaker 2: Girl, that's me, Like, I'm screenshotting your stuff, I'm zooming in,
Speaker 2: I'm looking at what you got. I'm like, oh, what
Speaker 2: a win that was on special this week? Like why
Speaker 2: am I so.
Speaker 4: Perf Yeah, we all do that, don't worry.
Speaker 2: It's like when people post, like, you know, a photo
Speaker 2: of them at work or something and there's a whiteboard
Speaker 2: behind them, and I'm like, do you really think I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna try and zoom in on that? Like, come on, we.
Speaker 4: All do it. And then you're trying to decipher what's
Speaker 4: written on that, what's your plan?
Speaker 2: I love that. I feel like that is super kind
Speaker 2: and I got so many questions. But so now we
Speaker 2: know how Chelsea does keep meals more affordable. We need
Speaker 2: to know what actually makes your groceries go further, because
Speaker 2: it's not just about making them affordable and putting together
Speaker 2: quota ten dollar meal. It's about making your groceries stretch.
Speaker 2: So after the break, we're going to chat about the
Speaker 2: biggest mistakes people make at the supermarket. Then we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about simple swaps to save money, and then
Speaker 2: how to cut down on food wastage. And it's not
Speaker 2: just my tip of keeping bread in the freezer. Soo, guys,
Speaker 2: that don't go anywhere. All right, my friends, we are
Speaker 2: back and before the break, we're talking about keeping meals affordable.
Speaker 2: But now let's actually dive into it, because we haven't
Speaker 2: told you any of the ways to keep meals affordable,
Speaker 2: and I'm assuming that's why you have come here. So
Speaker 2: let's talk about some easy ways that you can save
Speaker 2: even more at the checkout, make your groceries go further,
Speaker 2: and cut back on food waste. Chelsea, When you're putting
Speaker 2: together the meal plans that you have, where are you starting?
Speaker 2: Because honestly, if you said start from scratch, I'd be like,
Speaker 2: I do not have a scratch. I do not know
Speaker 2: where to begin, and like that just feels like half
Speaker 2: the task, right, Like that feels like the hardest bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's exactly how I felt when I first
Speaker 4: started meal planning. So I know myself and I know
Speaker 4: how much I love variety and my family love variety.
Speaker 4: So I will generally start with whatever I'm craving or
Speaker 4: whatever my kids have requested. So it might be like, oh,
Speaker 4: my gosh, I really really need to have Mexican this week,
Speaker 4: so I'll start with that, and I'll think, okay, let's
Speaker 4: go red meat. Let's get a cheap cut of red meat.
Speaker 4: And let's use that for multiple meals in the week.
Speaker 4: So I'll just build out from the first meal. Be okay,
Speaker 4: let's do burrito bowls on the first night, and then
Speaker 4: I'll think about what I need for that, Like I'll
Speaker 4: need limes. Okay, great, Well what else can I use
Speaker 4: those limes for? If I can get away with using
Speaker 4: half a lime for this, can I use half a
Speaker 4: lime high food later in the week?
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. We don't need the whole lime. We
Speaker 2: do not need the whole line. That is a privilege
Speaker 2: that you currently do not have.
Speaker 4: Exactly. So we're just trying to stretch these ingredients. And obviously,
Speaker 4: I guess I have an advantage in that I can
Speaker 4: develop the recipes to sort of fit in with each other,
Speaker 4: which is great. And starting with the Mexican then we'll
Speaker 4: go to, Okay, what else could I use that beef for?
Speaker 4: Because I'm getting a big piece of beef.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're not just buying, you know, some steaks to
Speaker 2: chop up.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. We can't go and buy eyefill it or
Speaker 4: anything like that. It'll be like a chuck roast or
Speaker 4: a blade roast that we can slow cook. But you
Speaker 4: can also use cuts like that for sturfries, which I
Speaker 4: think a lot of people don't realize. If you tenderize
Speaker 4: them properly, they're beautiful and sturf fries. So I then
Speaker 4: have a beef stir fry that week. I think, Okay,
Speaker 4: then we'll do some chicken, We'll do one vegetarian meal,
Speaker 4: and I'll just build these meal plans out until I've
Speaker 4: used up all of those ingredients and just yeah, making
Speaker 4: sure it stays under the budget. So using affordable cuts
Speaker 4: of meat, using vegetables that are in season, also looking
Speaker 4: at what I have at the time in the pantry
Speaker 4: or anything that I need to use up, or herbs
Speaker 4: that I'm growing. But for the purpose of sharing my
Speaker 4: meal plans, I generally don't include any of that stuff.
Speaker 4: I'm like, no, we have to go buy everything, and
Speaker 4: we have to do it properly so people can replicate it.
Speaker 2: You care so much about your community that you're like,
Speaker 2: I don't care that we have basil at home. With
Speaker 2: buying basil, I don't even care. You guys are going
Speaker 2: to tell me that I'm privileged because I've got my
Speaker 2: basil at home. Absolutely not.
Speaker 4: If people see you taking shortcuts, they start to think
Speaker 4: that it's not something they can do, So I have
Speaker 4: to make sure that it's something like that people can
Speaker 4: literally copy and paste for themselves.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that that is one really beautiful
Speaker 2: but also just really keeps it relatable. It's like, Nope,
Speaker 2: this is exactly what it costs, Chelsea. A really big
Speaker 2: part about making meals budget friendly is really about knowing
Speaker 2: where to spend and where to save. And so many
Speaker 2: of us are overwhelmed with that, like what are we
Speaker 2: spending on? Where are we saving? Like you just mentioned
Speaker 2: big cuts of chuck roasts, Like I've never bought that.
Speaker 2: That honestly feels a little bit overwhelming. So if someone
Speaker 2: is really struggling to lower their grocery bill, where should
Speaker 2: they start.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think meat is a big one, especially if
Speaker 4: you have somebody in your family, Like a lot of
Speaker 4: people say to me, oh, my partner just cannot give
Speaker 4: up meat, so we can't do any vegetarian meals. Or
Speaker 4: I have teenage boys or teenage girls that do a
Speaker 4: lot of sport and they need lots of proteins, so
Speaker 4: like we don't want to go without, We've just got
Speaker 4: to make substitutions. So instead of like getting a porthouse
Speaker 4: steak or I feel it you're going to go for
Speaker 4: the chuck or the blade roast or the brisket, all
Speaker 4: of which you can buy. I'm pretty sure. Even still
Speaker 4: at the moment, most of them are fifteen dollars a
Speaker 4: kilo and under, so you're going to just make those
Speaker 4: last and get those bigger cuts. But I think a
Speaker 4: lot of that is also about education and just like
Speaker 4: people understanding that it's not overwhelming and knowing how to
Speaker 4: prepare them because it can feel a lot. I used
Speaker 4: to be so scared of, like broasting, even broasting a
Speaker 4: chicken used to scare me. So I get it.
Speaker 2: But it's relatable, right, Like I know that so many
Speaker 2: people listening to this are going to go, yeah, I
Speaker 2: wouldn't have a clue. Like, so I've got my truck roast,
Speaker 2: no worries. I went down to Coles, I picked one up.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Chelsea. What do I do? Slam
Speaker 2: it on the bench and know where to cut?
Speaker 4: Literally as easy as just throwing it in the slow cooker,
Speaker 4: throwing it in a pot in the oven with some spices.
Speaker 4: I can have that on in five minutes.
Speaker 2: See, this is not how in my brain. It went
Speaker 2: in my brain. I was like sy it, and I
Speaker 2: would say, I'm a relatively okay cook. I'm just not
Speaker 2: someone who has been as good as they could be
Speaker 2: with being good at those bigger cuts of meat and
Speaker 2: you know, reusing them for stuff, because honestly, I'm a
Speaker 2: creature of convenience. And I feel like that's really relatable
Speaker 2: because we're like, well, if having chicken, I'm going to get,
Speaker 2: you know, either chicken breast or I'm going to get
Speaker 2: some chicken thighs. In my head, that's the only options
Speaker 2: that exist. When that's not the reality of the situation,
Speaker 2: and I'm actually wasting hard earned dollars on things that
Speaker 2: I don't need to waste money on.
Speaker 4: It's true, but I was in the same boat as you,
Speaker 4: so I understand that I actually do learn to cook.
Speaker 4: I should say that until I was thirty, So I
Speaker 4: went a long time. Like my kids suffered for a
Speaker 4: really long time with my terrible cooking.
Speaker 2: They're fine, They're now going to remember mum slow cooked
Speaker 2: meals and be like, oh my mom sit at the bar.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I still haven't erased some of the trauma of
Speaker 4: my early cooking, but I'm trying to make up for
Speaker 4: it every night.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 4: Hear a lot of people saying the same thing as you,
Speaker 4: where they're like, no, but we just eat chicken breast
Speaker 4: and I've never eaten chicken with bone in it and
Speaker 4: things like that. But they're just as easy to cook with.
Speaker 4: You just have to know what to do.
Speaker 2: They're better, Like even the difference between breast and thigh
Speaker 2: tastes better than breast. You can't convince me otherwise every
Speaker 2: day of the week.
Speaker 4: I agree, Yeah, But I think that's another thing where
Speaker 4: people don't understand where they can substitute things. So they
Speaker 4: see something in a recipe and they think, oh, I
Speaker 4: have to use breast because it says breast, or I
Speaker 4: have to use fire because it says fire, or I
Speaker 4: have to use this vegetable when there might be a
Speaker 4: cheaper alternitive that is almost as good or just as good.
Speaker 2: It's because we're not as confident, and I'm so worried
Speaker 2: that if I pick a different ingredient that's outside of
Speaker 2: the norm, I'm gonna, you know, mess up the recipe
Speaker 2: and then waste dinner. And I don't want to do that.
Speaker 2: But I think that one of My favorite things about
Speaker 2: what you do is like that education piece as well,
Speaker 2: because you start to learn what you can substitute and
Speaker 2: how things work, and not just talk about like oh
Speaker 2: you need X for Y. You're kind of teaching people
Speaker 2: how to substitute them, which I think teaches you just
Speaker 2: subliminally as well, like oh, if I'm making this other meal,
Speaker 2: I could actually use this instead, or you know, you've
Speaker 2: got your family favorite boldin aise, you can probably do
Speaker 2: something really similar again, but make some small substitutions that
Speaker 2: put you in the right direction when it comes to
Speaker 2: saving more money. And I mentioned pantry staples before, and
Speaker 2: how I don't think that people have as well stocked
Speaker 2: pantries as you know our parents or our grandparents did.
Speaker 2: Do you think people tend to overcomplicate pantries and how
Speaker 2: can we be smarter with what we're choosing to keep
Speaker 2: on hand?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I think a lot of people, like they'll see
Speaker 4: a recipe on TikTok or on Instagram or in a
Speaker 4: cookbook and they'll think, oh, I want to make that,
Speaker 4: and they'll go out and buy everything for it. But
Speaker 4: then they might be ingredients that they'll never use again.
Speaker 4: So then we end up with food waste and a
Speaker 4: whole lot of sources and spices and that sort of
Speaker 4: thing that you don't use, and then it becomes overwhelming
Speaker 4: and then they think, oh, well, I'll just take shortcuts
Speaker 4: next time. I'm not going to cook from scratch, and
Speaker 4: I think I try to simplify it by keeping my
Speaker 4: spices and my sources to a minimum, like the minimum
Speaker 4: amount possible to get as many flavor combinations as I
Speaker 4: can with those.
Speaker 2: That's actually smarter than I've ever been, because I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna lie. This morning, when I was opening the fridge
Speaker 2: to get some milk out, I saw that there were
Speaker 2: an in preparation for this episode. I was just like
Speaker 2: looking at my fridge a little bit different than I
Speaker 2: usually would, and I was like, wow, Victoria to Vine,
Speaker 2: that is three half eaten jars of capers. I can't
Speaker 2: be trusted. I really like capers, but I can't even
Speaker 2: keep track of what's in my fridge.
Speaker 4: I mean, as long as you eat them, it's okay.
Speaker 2: I will at some point maybe or maybe I'll buy
Speaker 2: a new jar. You never know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, just don't buy any next time you go shopping. Okay.
Speaker 2: Honestly, it's one of those things. I feel like we've
Speaker 2: all got that one thing though, that we convince ourselves
Speaker 2: we don't have in stock. Like my partner it's toilet paper.
Speaker 2: He's always like, every time I goes through my goot,
Speaker 2: need to buy toilet paber? What if we run out?
Speaker 2: Like me capers?
Speaker 4: I think with me, it honestly used to be so
Speaker 4: many things that my fridge used to be a nightmare.
Speaker 4: My everything. It used to actually dress me out so much.
Speaker 4: Just the amount of food waste, the ship volume of
Speaker 4: like spices that I had that I didn't even really
Speaker 4: know what to do with for a long time as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. I don't know one recipe
Speaker 2: that Cardaman goes in. Not one. Do I own Cardoman though,
Speaker 2: yes of course I do. Oh it's not good, is it?
Speaker 2: And I feel like that's the sneaky budget killer right
Speaker 2: like food waste is the budget killer that none of
Speaker 2: us signed up for. Like I don't think any of
Speaker 2: us go to the supermarket by a loaf of bread
Speaker 2: or buy a packet of pasta and go can't wait
Speaker 2: to throw half of this away? Like none of us
Speaker 2: do that. We're all guilty one hundred percent, and we
Speaker 2: all justify it as well, right, like we all go, oh,
Speaker 2: that packet, it's a little bit more expensive because it's bigger,
Speaker 2: but I'll like reuse it and like we never do.
Speaker 2: And according to research, it's apparently costing Ozzie households up
Speaker 2: to twenty five hundred dollars a year, which you probably
Speaker 2: already knew. That is literally money in the bin. We're
Speaker 2: clearly getting it wrong. So talk to me, how can
Speaker 2: we cut down on waste and also save money at
Speaker 2: the same time, Like, what do we need to be doing?
Speaker 4: Meal planning helps so much with that. I think it's
Speaker 4: knowing exactly what you need for the meals that you're
Speaker 4: going to cook, and if you're meal planning with a
Speaker 4: view to minimize waste, so like I do with sharing
Speaker 4: ingredients and making sure that there's nothing left over, the
Speaker 4: thing is there is always often going to be something leftover,
Speaker 4: so I think it's then having a plan for what
Speaker 4: you're going to do with that. So if you know
Speaker 4: there's going to be you've got half a bunch of
Speaker 4: chibes or something at the end of the week, instead
Speaker 4: of them, you know, turning into mush and a brown
Speaker 4: mess at the bottom of your crisper, you're going to go, Okay,
Speaker 4: you know what, I'm going to make scrambled eggs twice
Speaker 4: this week. I will use the chibes on top of those.
Speaker 4: It's just planning ahead for those leftovers. But also I
Speaker 4: always tell people that don't just plan for your leftover ingredients,
Speaker 4: but plan for your leftover servings as well, because if
Speaker 4: you're cooking meal and you have extra and you know,
Speaker 4: you put that bolonaise in the container at the back
Speaker 4: of your fridge and you forget about it, and that's heartbreaking.
Speaker 4: So I think you've got to know either put it
Speaker 4: in the freezer, take it to work the next day,
Speaker 4: eat it for dinner the next night, like know what
Speaker 4: you're going to do with that as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that that is really smart. But
Speaker 2: one thing that is coming to mind, and I feel
Speaker 2: like you'll know a lot about this because you're a
Speaker 2: mum of three and a single mum of three at that,
Speaker 2: and that is mental load. And I feel like there
Speaker 2: is probably for you a lot of mental load going on.
Speaker 2: But a lot of us are turned off this idea
Speaker 2: of meal prepping because meal prepping, grocery shopping. It just
Speaker 2: adds to the load and sometimes figuring out what to
Speaker 2: cook in itself is harder than what we actually cook
Speaker 2: and how long it takes. But do you think that
Speaker 2: mental fatigue is also leading towards us just overspending to
Speaker 2: combat the fact that maybe instead of thinking about it,
Speaker 2: this is just the easy way out.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent. I can still remember, you know, being
Speaker 4: a corporate job, and you know, to come to about
Speaker 4: an hour before I had to go home, and I'd
Speaker 4: start thinking about the fact that I hadn't organized anything
Speaker 4: for dinner, and the stress would kick in then. And
Speaker 4: then you're driving home and you're thinking about ideas, and
Speaker 4: you're in Woolworths and I'd like walk laps around the
Speaker 4: supermarket googling recipe ideas, you know, recipes in under thirty
Speaker 4: minutes using chicken, you know, and had no idea what
Speaker 4: I was doing. And then before I know it, I've
Speaker 4: got to go pick the kids up and get home.
Speaker 4: And it was just it was like this repetitive sort
Speaker 4: of cycle that would happen, you know, multiple times a
Speaker 4: week because I hadn't planned my meals, and I know
Speaker 4: so many people do that and it's just so stressful.
Speaker 4: I think that's why we resort them to much more
Speaker 4: expensive convenience options.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. And I'm guilty of it as well.
Speaker 2: And I mean one of the best changes I've made.
Speaker 2: And I'm very lucky that this fits into my budget
Speaker 2: and I talk publicly about it all the time because
Speaker 2: I'm obsessed with it. But we have Marley Spoon and
Speaker 2: some people like Victoria you could cook that for so
Speaker 2: much cheaper, and I'm like, yes, Chelsea would tell you
Speaker 2: that you absolutely can, Like she could literally recreate all
Speaker 2: of these for ten bucks, and you know what, She's
Speaker 2: a genius for that. But I don't have the capacity
Speaker 2: to do that supermarket walk around all the time. In fact,
Speaker 2: I will spend more because I don't have that capacity.
Speaker 2: So for three nights every week we do Marley Spoon
Speaker 2: and then you and Nagi from Recipe t Eats you
Speaker 2: carry the rest of my week. And between the two
Speaker 2: of you with your superpowers combined, like I feel like
Speaker 2: you are carrying most of the budget conscious mums in Australia.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I actually do encourage people to look for that
Speaker 4: in between option, like you know that option that's not takeaway,
Speaker 4: but it's offering you convenience. If you need that, and
Speaker 4: like you said, it's not a seven night a week thing,
Speaker 4: it's something that you do night's a week. But it's
Speaker 4: always going to be cheaper than getting takeaway. It's probably
Speaker 4: going to be a lot healthier as well. But you're
Speaker 4: also learning something while you're making these recipes and you
Speaker 4: have the satisfaction of actually creating it yourself. But something
Speaker 4: I like to do as well, which is my sort
Speaker 4: of in between option, is I've got a list in
Speaker 4: the notes up on my phone. I've got a pinned
Speaker 4: note with a list of what I call convenience meals.
Speaker 2: Okay, I didn't even know you could pin notes. That
Speaker 2: is game changing, adore lo pin notes.
Speaker 4: I've got one of convenience meals where I can go
Speaker 4: into the supermarket and their meals that will take me
Speaker 4: about fifteen minutes to put together. Where I'm not really
Speaker 4: cooking much from scratch, so sometimes it's getting those pre
Speaker 4: made cofters, those mincekebats that you can get at cales
Speaker 4: or Woolies. I will get those. I'll get some curss
Speaker 4: couss if I don't have it at home, because you
Speaker 4: don't have to cook cosscuss on the stove. You just
Speaker 4: pour boiling water over it and I'll either get you
Speaker 4: get a pre made salad or you could just grab
Speaker 4: I'll grab a cucumber and some tomato. I'll dice that
Speaker 4: while the cofters are in the pan.
Speaker 2: It's so quick, Okay. I have to ask, do you
Speaker 2: have that note screenshot on your Instagram so that we
Speaker 2: can go screenshot it and add it to.
Speaker 4: Our sur I should do it. You know what, that's
Speaker 4: a great idea.
Speaker 2: Are you telling me that you have a resource that
Speaker 2: could literally help mums who are turning up to the supermarket.
Speaker 4: I hadn't said. I actually did a series of them
Speaker 4: once in my Facebook group a while back, where I
Speaker 4: just did a week of these sort of meals, just
Speaker 4: showing people picon and I think it's like, it's not
Speaker 4: rocket science.
Speaker 2: Okay, but it feels like rocket science when I'm standing
Speaker 2: blankly at the chicken section.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's the thing, And I'm like a lot
Speaker 4: of the stuff I share are the things that I
Speaker 4: wish I had ten years ago.
Speaker 2: So you know, yeah, well, we want the screenshot and
Speaker 2: then we will screenshot it and then copy and paste
Speaker 2: it into our notes. And then every single time that
Speaker 2: we're feeling overwhelmed and actually haven't done our meal plan prep.
Speaker 2: We're going to be like Chelsea still got us. I
Speaker 2: adore this And before you mentioned uber eats, and I
Speaker 2: feel like we all know that feeling after a long day,
Speaker 2: like you really don't want to do the supermarket dance.
Speaker 2: You just want to get home and then you open
Speaker 2: the fridge and it's uninspiring and it's honestly overwhelming, and
Speaker 2: Uber eats is honestly I feel like they call my name,
Speaker 2: like I can just hear the app on my phone singing, Victoria,
Speaker 2: it's me, And then I pick up my phone and
Speaker 2: I've ordered fifty dollars of takeaway, but takeaway is so expensive?
Speaker 2: So what are your tips on me? This has now
Speaker 2: become personal and the rest of my community being able
Speaker 2: to avoid that.
Speaker 4: Okay, So one of them would be having some convenience
Speaker 4: meals that you can grab and it may not even
Speaker 4: be something at the supermarket. For instance, I have a
Speaker 4: bakery near me that does a tendle of family pie.
Speaker 2: Oh that's a good deal, I know it does.
Speaker 4: So I could get that. I could get a bag
Speaker 4: of chips from the supermarket and maybe some broccoli or something.
Speaker 4: If I felt like being healthy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but not broccolni broccolinis out of the tax bracket
Speaker 2: for everybody nowadays.
Speaker 4: Unless it's that like two months that it's in season. No,
Speaker 4: So just having those options for not uber eats, not
Speaker 4: drive through, but it's just very quick requires or no cooking.
Speaker 4: Another thing I always try to do is to have
Speaker 4: meals in the freezer, so just cook a little bit
Speaker 4: extra in the meal plans in my cookbook and the
Speaker 4: ones that I share in my group. I'll often have
Speaker 4: one night while you'll make a double batch of something,
Speaker 4: so that gives you the opportunity to either put those
Speaker 4: meals in the freezer or you get a night off
Speaker 4: cooking one week where you might be tempted to get takeaway, But.
Speaker 2: I think that's me, that's literally me, and you will
Speaker 2: be happy to know that I have got a convenience
Speaker 2: meal now in the fridge and we are now freezing
Speaker 2: our leftovers because my husband and I had to come
Speaker 2: to the realization that even all of our best intentions
Speaker 2: mean that our leftovers get left in the fridge because
Speaker 2: we forget to take them in the morning, so now
Speaker 2: they're being frozen. And I just feel like even if
Speaker 2: you're not struggling financially with your budget. I just feel
Speaker 2: like it is such a smart idea to start caring
Speaker 2: about the little things, because the little things become the
Speaker 2: big things, and then the big things become issues. And
Speaker 2: this is honestly, even beyond the fact that they are
Speaker 2: very budget friendly, they are yummy, They work, and they
Speaker 2: take away that mental load, and I think that that
Speaker 2: is so important and the fact that I can if
Speaker 2: I'm not Unlike, let's be honest, everyone who knows me
Speaker 2: knows that my husband does most of the cooking in
Speaker 2: this house. But the reason he does is because there's
Speaker 2: a plan. If there is no plan, it is my responsibility.
Speaker 2: This plan my husband's across. And that to me is amazing.
Speaker 2: I can be like, Okay, here's the meal plan or
Speaker 2: here's you know, the recipe, and whoever gets home first
Speaker 2: starts and I think that that is really helpful in
Speaker 2: a relationship as well.
Speaker 4: I agree, yeah, And I think also like sharing the
Speaker 4: load with your family is really important. I get a
Speaker 4: lot of feedback from people that cook my recipes because
Speaker 4: I separate my recipes into prep steps and cook steps
Speaker 4: so they'll get their partner to do like the prep,
Speaker 4: or they'll get their teenage children to do the prep
Speaker 4: before they get home from school and then they'll walk
Speaker 4: through the door. Everything's done and they just need to
Speaker 4: do like all the Stoke top cooking.
Speaker 2: Literally, Chelsea said, sit down, guys, we have Marley Spoon
Speaker 2: at home.
Speaker 4: I honestly like, I have described my book as a
Speaker 4: meal kit alternative because you get the grocery list and
Speaker 4: people have shown me screenshots of their Woolworth or their
Speaker 4: Coals shopping lists and they have Chelsea Week one, Chelsea
Speaker 4: Week two of all the grocery lists for my meal plans,
Speaker 4: and now they just have to like they could just
Speaker 4: order the whole list and it's like a meal kit.
Speaker 2: They are so smart. You could definitely put that into
Speaker 2: Woolies online.
Speaker 4: I know. I was like, you guys are way ahead
Speaker 4: of me. That's awesome.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's why it's a community. It's a give
Speaker 2: and take. Like you thought it was just you giving,
Speaker 2: You are wrong, my friend. I learned so much from
Speaker 2: my community literally every day having poured over your book.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite features It's not going to come
Speaker 2: as a surprise, was the swap and save sections, and
Speaker 2: I thought that was just really smart, because that's what
Speaker 2: I was alluding to earlier when I said that, like
Speaker 2: you give really great alternatives, like you can, you know,
Speaker 2: even do swaps and saves of things that you know
Speaker 2: are more traditional recipes in your Like I don't know vocabulary,
Speaker 2: but I want to know, what do you think are
Speaker 2: three of your favorite like swaps that you can make
Speaker 2: that help you save money.
Speaker 4: I think again, like we were talking about before, a
Speaker 4: lot of them are making swaps for seasonal veggies. And
Speaker 4: I'll usually give people options, so I write them in
Speaker 4: the recipe notes of my recipes, but I also put
Speaker 4: that in the swap and save section of each meal plan,
Speaker 4: where I'll say, okay, if capsicum is really expensive, instead
Speaker 4: you can buy this, this or this, or if for instance,
Speaker 4: sometimes it's actually cheaper to buy a bag of coleslaw
Speaker 4: than to buy cabbage. Things like that that people don't
Speaker 4: think of. They think, oh, God, surely cabbage would always
Speaker 4: be cheaper and then you can shred it yourself. But no,
Speaker 4: sometimes the cabbage that's already pre streted in a bag
Speaker 4: is going to be cheaper if it's not in seasons.
Speaker 4: So it's just giving people those options and just making
Speaker 4: them aware of the fact that these items might be
Speaker 4: cheaper at different times of the year. Also a lot
Speaker 4: of the time just reminding people that home brand is
Speaker 4: usually just as good.
Speaker 2: It's usually the same thing repackaged.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll say to them. I will say, though, the
Speaker 4: only item I do encourage people not to buy, the
Speaker 4: cheapest home brand item is with pasta. I agree, yeah,
Speaker 4: just because I've found, especially over the last few years,
Speaker 4: that the quality of that one dollar pasta.
Speaker 2: Is just it's going down.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not it. So I think if you're going
Speaker 4: to splurge a little bit, that's a swap and safe
Speaker 4: where you maybe spend a dollar extra.
Speaker 2: No, And I like that for keeping it real because
Speaker 2: it means that we're just not having bad tasting meals.
Speaker 2: And I mean, if you still love the dollar past it,
Speaker 2: go for it. You're saving even more money, Queen. But
Speaker 2: I do think it's quite funny because we have a
Speaker 2: series on Cheese on the Money called name Brand Versus Generic,
Speaker 2: where our team puts on a blindfold and then tries
Speaker 2: the name brand versus generic. I didn't appreciate the time
Speaker 2: they made me try flour raw and try and tell
Speaker 2: the difference. But I'm telling you right now, even raw
Speaker 2: can't tell the difference. But do you know what, we
Speaker 2: could tell the difference between dry pasta. We absolutely could,
Speaker 2: even when it wasn't cooked dry pasta, the dollar stuff
Speaker 2: was not as good.
Speaker 4: It's a texture. It just falls apart a lot easier.
Speaker 4: And then I think people get disappointed when they cook
Speaker 4: something and they're like, oh, my rigatoni is in tiny
Speaker 4: pieces and.
Speaker 2: It's become spaghetti.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. That is one of the only items, yeah,
Speaker 4: that I would say, spend that little bit more, But no,
Speaker 4: I think meat is one of the big ones as
Speaker 4: far as swaps, just knowing which cuts you can swap,
Speaker 4: even with mints, Like a lot of people don't realize
Speaker 4: if it's a say a pork mintce recipe, you can
Speaker 4: probably use chicken mints, you can probably use turkey mints
Speaker 4: and it's not going to make a difference, or that
Speaker 4: lamb and beef mints can often be interchangeable, or even
Speaker 4: beef and pork. So I think just pointing those things
Speaker 4: out to people so they know they have options.
Speaker 2: And I love that, but I need to know. I
Speaker 2: know that you said you'd spend it dollar more on pasta,
Speaker 2: but when it comes to convenience, like pre made foods.
Speaker 2: Are there anything that you've absolutely canceled that you absolutely
Speaker 2: refuse to buy anymore because it's i don't know, so
Speaker 2: much cheaper and all better to just make it yourself. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, I should start by saying, like, no judgment to
Speaker 4: anybody that does purchase these items, because I know a
Speaker 4: lot of people do for convenience, But for me, I
Speaker 4: would say recipe bases, so you know, there's sachets that
Speaker 4: you can get, there's a huge section in the supermarket.
Speaker 4: Simmer sauces are a no go for me.
Speaker 2: Are we allowed to keep them while we gain some
Speaker 2: confidence while reading your cookbook and then get rid of
Speaker 2: them later once we have a stocked pantry. Absolutely, Okay,
Speaker 2: well let them have them for the interim, but once
Speaker 2: you've read Chelsea's book, like you'll be on her team.
Speaker 4: Well, ween, people loft them slowly, but that's funnily enough.
Speaker 4: That's something I hear people say, like I haven't bought
Speaker 4: a simmer sauce in six months.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I feel like, honestly, it's a gateway. It's
Speaker 2: a gateway drug.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I guess because I used to buy them
Speaker 4: as well, but I think it's once you start sort
Speaker 4: of seasoning your food from scratch, you realize how much
Speaker 4: cheaper it is and you realize how much better it tastes.
Speaker 4: So it's very difficult to come back after that.
Speaker 2: I agree, Chelsea. I mentioned before that people's lives are
Speaker 2: going to change when they read your book, and they're
Speaker 2: going to no longer buy Semma sauces, which honestly is
Speaker 2: really big. Like you too, we can go to the meeting,
Speaker 2: we can all sit around in a circle and say
Speaker 2: that I haven't bought a Sima sauce in six months,
Speaker 2: but you actually have a brand new book coming out.
Speaker 2: I want to know. Tell us that is so exciting.
Speaker 2: That means that the first book did really well, Chelsea.
Speaker 2: But what's the difference about this one and how's it
Speaker 2: going to help us level up our budget and our
Speaker 2: meal game even more?
Speaker 4: Okay, so my second book is called Money Saving Meal
Speaker 4: Plans at Chelsea, and it.
Speaker 2: Does what it says it's going to do on the box.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. So I think I would have been crucified
Speaker 4: if I'd changed the format from my first book, because
Speaker 4: people really loved the grocery list, the meal plans the
Speaker 4: budget recipes, so I wasn't going to change anything in
Speaker 4: that way. But great thing about having a community you
Speaker 4: get so much feedback. So I was having people saying, oh,
Speaker 4: I'd love it if you do a vegetarian book, where
Speaker 4: I'd love it if you do a slow cooker book,
Speaker 4: and I thought, you know what, I'm getting all these requests.
Speaker 4: I'm going to be eighty before I can write all
Speaker 4: these books feels.
Speaker 2: But also you can be like me and you can
Speaker 2: pump out like I don't know, five in three years.
Speaker 2: It's like I believe in you. It's a lot the
Speaker 2: mental load we were talking about before books are on
Speaker 2: another level.
Speaker 4: I have full respect to anybody that has written a book, honestly,
Speaker 4: but yeah, I thought I can try and incorporate all
Speaker 4: these things that people have requested into one book. So
Speaker 4: what I've done in this book that's different is that
Speaker 4: each meal plan is categorized. So I have a thirty
Speaker 4: minute plan, I have a meat free plan to cater
Speaker 4: for the vegetarians. I have a slow cooker plan, an
Speaker 4: air fryer plan, but also have provided instructions for stovetop
Speaker 4: and oven cooking for people that don't have appliances.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're a nicon. I was like, I don't actually
Speaker 2: own an air fryer, and I feel like I'm one
Speaker 2: of the only people in the entire country that doesn't
Speaker 2: own any a fry nor do I feel the need
Speaker 2: to own one, which I think is the most concerning part.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I don't use mine very often, but I know
Speaker 4: that people love them, and I know that people are
Speaker 4: looking for recipes to cook in their air fryers. So
Speaker 4: given the people what they want, and yeah, so it's
Speaker 4: just eight meal plans and then a chapter of budget sides,
Speaker 4: and a lot of the meals work in together, so
Speaker 4: you can swap different things around. A lot of the
Speaker 4: meals also complement the meals in the first book really well,
Speaker 4: because I know sometimes people say to me, oh, I've
Speaker 4: got guests coming over, what can I make? So I
Speaker 4: can say, Okay, why don't you make this in the
Speaker 4: first book, and then use these sides from the second book.
Speaker 2: And oh, that's genius, because I never know what to
Speaker 2: do when people are coming over, and that I would
Speaker 2: say it's one of the say the biggest money sucks
Speaker 2: because I definitely don't entertain enough, but it's a really
Speaker 2: big money because then I'm like, okay, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm going to do. I'm just going to do a
Speaker 2: roast because crowd pleaser. Yes it's more expensive, but I
Speaker 2: know how to do that, and I know how to
Speaker 2: do that well. But like that ends up becoming a
Speaker 2: very expensive dinner for four people.
Speaker 4: It can, it can. So I think having also those
Speaker 4: like options for entertaining is really important for people because
Speaker 4: most people at some point will have guests over for
Speaker 4: dinner or even things that they can cook for Easter
Speaker 4: or for Christmas or when they have to bring a plate.
Speaker 2: Just thought of everything exactly.
Speaker 4: So try to cover all my bases so that there's
Speaker 4: something for everybody, but also really just working within that.
Speaker 4: Still a budget for this second book, it's three dollars
Speaker 4: per serve is the figure I gave myself.
Speaker 2: I feel like that is still very impressive. Three dollars
Speaker 2: a serve is more than reasonable, I think.
Speaker 4: So it's still like very budget friendly.
Speaker 2: And in twenty twenty five, that's I would say, still
Speaker 2: unheard of. Like that is incredible, still difficult.
Speaker 4: Put it that way. It's not an easy us.
Speaker 2: No, but you've done the work for us, so for me,
Speaker 2: it is very easy and I hope I share that. Now, Chelsea,
Speaker 2: you have been insanely kind and you've actually put together
Speaker 2: a three recipe meal plan just for people in the
Speaker 2: She's on the Money community, Like that was so nice
Speaker 2: of you. Can you actually give me a little bit
Speaker 2: of insight And guys, don't worry, I'm going to put
Speaker 2: the link to that in the show notes so that
Speaker 2: you can get that in your inbox asap and give
Speaker 2: it a crack. But Chelsea, why did you pick those
Speaker 2: three recipes and how I guess they fit into a
Speaker 2: budget friendly meal plan?
Speaker 4: Okay, Well, I've been in your community in your Facebook
Speaker 4: group for a long time now, so I get a
Speaker 4: feel for like who they are and what their sort
Speaker 4: of lifestyle is and that sort of thing. So I
Speaker 4: know you've got a mix of like people who have
Speaker 4: families and people who are single, people in couples. So
Speaker 4: what I've chosen is it's from my week two meal
Speaker 4: plan from my first book, Tend Doll Meals to Chelsea,
Speaker 4: and it's a trio of recipes where and this is
Speaker 4: the case with a lot of mind your plans, where
Speaker 4: you batch cook something and then you use that same
Speaker 4: base for multiple recipes during the week so that you're
Speaker 4: saving time and money. So this one is a Vietnamese
Speaker 4: meat ball sort of trio of meals. Actually made these
Speaker 4: a few weeks ago and they are a huge hit
Speaker 4: with my kids.
Speaker 2: They're still good. Yeah.
Speaker 4: You start the week by making a rice bowl with
Speaker 4: an Asian swore with just cooking the Vietnamese meatbals in
Speaker 4: the pan, or you can do them in the air fryer,
Speaker 4: and then you use the same meat balls for barn meat,
Speaker 4: which you could take to work for lunch, or you
Speaker 4: could just have that as a light meal. And then
Speaker 4: you're using the rest of that meatball mixture in a
Speaker 4: stir fry, so that becomes the base of a noodle
Speaker 4: stir fry with veggies. You've got a lot of shared
Speaker 4: ingredients within those meals, but also like a lot of variety,
Speaker 4: so you're not getting sick of like those same flavors
Speaker 4: all the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not just having a rice bowl every day.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And I actually had leftover meatball mixture the last
Speaker 4: time I made it, because I'm cooking for three now
Speaker 4: because my adult sons moved out.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so you do not look old enough to
Speaker 2: have an adult son Chelsea, what is that I do?
Speaker 4: So we had leftover meat or mixture and I used
Speaker 4: it as spring roll filling and it was so yummy,
Speaker 4: so so many different uses. You could use it in
Speaker 4: dumplings as well, so depending on what you wanted. But yeah,
Speaker 4: your listeners will have those recipes, they can give it
Speaker 4: a try and just try out that sort of cook
Speaker 4: once eat three times format as well, that.
Speaker 2: They're gonna love it. I'm obsessed. I just know that
Speaker 2: that's going to hit really well. And I mean you're
Speaker 2: telling me three meals ten dollar meals, like it can't
Speaker 2: get better than that. Chelsea, this has been so fun,
Speaker 2: like you are very fun to talk to, but it's
Speaker 2: also been very insightful. I'm so grateful that you wanted
Speaker 2: to share your genius budget friendly tips and tricks with us,
Speaker 2: because I just I have seen you pop up time
Speaker 2: and time again in my Shoes on the Money community,
Speaker 2: Like not only are you know my community recommending you,
Speaker 2: but you are supporting them in the comments, like you
Speaker 2: are getting in and being like well what about this?
Speaker 2: And like I swear there are often whole threads about it.
Speaker 2: I'm just always like this woman comes in clutch.
Speaker 4: I link on Facebook, Victoria, I'm in my Facebook group
Speaker 4: like twenty four seven.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Like what people don't realize about Facebook group management.
Speaker 2: We live there. I live there, am in there all
Speaker 2: the time. I'm deleting comments, I'm liking comments. People often like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, I saw your name pop up in
Speaker 2: that group. I'm like, yeah, babe, that's because I live there.
Speaker 2: I live there. Thank you so much for putting together
Speaker 2: that meal planned for our community. It's going to be
Speaker 2: in the show notes, guys, because obviously, not only do
Speaker 2: my community want budget meals, we love a freebie. And
Speaker 2: if you want more of Chelsea's energy, which is unmatched,
Speaker 2: but also her incredible meal ideas, please check out ten
Speaker 2: Dollar Meals on Facebook and Instagram and grab a copy
Speaker 2: of her new book. Chelsea, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: joining me. It has been a delight, and I just
Speaker 2: know this isn't the last episode that we have you on, Like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be planning to get you back as
Speaker 2: soon as poss.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I hope we get to do this again, Victoria.
Speaker 4: This has like honestly been so much fun for me
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 2: I love it. I feel like we're on the same wavelength.
Speaker 2: When it comes to energy, which works really well. And
Speaker 2: I mean, you've just moved to Tasmania and I grew
Speaker 2: up there. I didn't know that, but I did, which
Speaker 2: is why I was like, oh, Tasmania. Really, my nana
Speaker 2: actually makes me bring back this salmon thing from Audi
Speaker 2: and also the Audi chocolates when I come home because
Speaker 2: you can't get them in Tasmania. So I knew you
Speaker 2: didn't have Audi. I knew what I was doing there. Anyway,
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Chelsea and guys, I hope you
Speaker 2: have enjoyed this and we will see your next episode. Bye.
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