Where CHMP Began
From the first moment that I moved out of home around my 17th birthday, I was hit with the realisation that I had to make my tiny full time traineeship wage ($230 per week) pay for all of the groceries that I was going to need and want. I will never forget the first $50 voucher that I was given on the day we moved out to try and do a grocery shop. I had come from a home that was always overflowing with food and I hadn't paid too much attention to prices ... I had a little but more for snacks rather than meals. This change now was a shock to my system, one that I really needed, and would be of great benefit to me in the long term.
I'm very glad that food was cheaper then, we did manage to get the 'basics' for two of us for one week on $50. We had to count every single fresh produce item and not overbuy anything 'just in case'. I didn't really even know how to cook which made it harder in deciding what to buy. Thankfully my partner's mother knew how to shop on a shoestring and she was really helpful in getting me started in meal planning and budgeting.
Cheap pasta and frozen veggies were a savior that allowed our money to go further and back then bread and mince was much cheaper.
Now to today and we are seeing the prices of groceries quite unstable and changing frequently which makes it harder to budget long term. I feel like this constant increase and decrease in prices actually messes with a busy persons head so you don't make clear choices. Always shopping things on special doesn't always work either, you need to read the fine print and make sure you are actually getting a good deal!
Back to the origin of CHMP. It was in late 2019 as we were travelling around Australia full time and with so many people asking how we were affording it, I began to realise just how differently I shopped to other people and how much of an impact it can have on the overall family financial budget. I knew that if I wanted to stay in an air BNB then we would have to cook at 'home', whereas if we were free camping then we could afford a pizza night. The link between food, finances and lifestyle was huge. I realised that now we were spending our excess money on a holiday, yet that was clearly how I had afforded to pay for the kids sport when we were living 'normally'.
Later in 2020, as the world was standing still, it was my love of food that arose and just how much our whole lives can be affected by what we eat. Our house went through the stock piling stage, where I filled the cupboards and freezer to the brim, then we went through the ordering food phase - I was lacking travel experiences and thought food from around the world could fill that gap (which it didn't) and then I settled in on creating a new reality for myself and went back to meal planning and eating what we needed rather than overeating.
I decided to put it into an ebook to keep myself on track and also because I felt like there were a lot of people with job insecurity at the time that could also benefit from some of the tips I had to offer.
It's funny how we start these projects with enormous gusto and throw all of this energy into it and then something happens in your life and things get put to the side ... this is exactly what happened ... our lives started to return to a 'normal' with school resuming and then I was sidetracked with parenting and other work.
I'd pick up the CHMP work and add to it and then put it down over and over again for the next few years.
I also went through a period of overconsumption again and it had definite negative health effects for myself.
Having a love/hate relationship with social media, I knew that once I committed I would be in for the long run, but life was making it so easy to run and hide in the corner and not share.
At the end of 2023 when the grocery prices in Australia were soaring and everyone is talking about struggling to feed their families I knew that I had to start sharing full and properly. Even if I only help a few people, then it will be worth it!
It was time to share CHMP version 2.0. The recipes were still OK but the prices needed to be updated before it could be shared and that is happening now in early 2024. I hope that you can find some helpful information, especially for those who are just getting started on their meal planning and financial budgeting lives.
We don't have to be bound by the big supermarkets and the tactics that they use to get us to buy more. We can free ourselves from the shackles of overconsumption and also misdirected consumption in pre-packaged foods.
There is always a choice.
We can learn how to budget, meal plan and save money on groceries.
I've done it as a single, working mother with 6 children and you can do it too.
Something to Ponder ...
If you learn to shop within boundaries, then I find it a reflection of your life as a whole - can you have strong healthy boundaries with your time, with your money and with your love and energy?
