Mum-of-15’s cuts costs on $6K monthly grocery haul

A woman who is unable to work as she cares for 15 children due to her role as a foster parent reveals how she saved $500 on her monthly grocery shop.

A mother-of-15 has revealed how changing where she shopped for her family’s groceries could save her hundreds of dollars each month.

Erin Jamieson, from Western Australia, took to an Aldi Facebook group pleading for help from her community as her monthly grocery bill was blowing out to $6000 a month.

She said she typically shopped at other supermarkets and wanted people’s insight into what cost comparisons between them were.

“For those who swear by Aldi being cheaper, what products do you find are the biggest savings,” she asked.

Erin Jamieson and her husband Lee have 15 children.

Erin turned to Facebook for help.

“We normally shop online at Coles and Woolies but we need to get our grocery bill down so looking at our options.”

She said was happy to cook from scratch but, as a mum-of-15, needed some quick and easy options for the more stressful days.

Representatives from the Aldi team saw Erin’s situation, and decided to encourage her to see the difference by sending her a voucher to see any potential results.

Erin told news.com.au that she and her husband don’t currently work outside of the home.

“With our current brood of babies, and the ages that they are, we both need to be full time carers to be able to meet their needs well.

“So our income at the moment is quite low,” she said.

She added that the couple had been foster carers for more than 20 years as they were passionate about giving children in care stability and a long term home.

“Once a child is placed with us, they very often stay with us until it’s safe for them to be returned to their family,” she said.

The family’s haul features seven packets of spaghetti, two boxes of mini cereal packets, meatballs and sauces.

She said was happy to cook from scratch but, as a mum-of-15, needed some quick and easy options for stressful days.

“Sometimes they end up becoming a permanent part of our family. We also strongly believe in keeping siblings together. Because of this, our family has grown to include 11 children in care at the moment.

“Five of these are permanent placements, the rest are still working towards reunification. And we have our youngest four biological children still living at home.

“All of our kids have been with us since they were quite little so it just has the natural feeling of a big, crazy, busy family.”

So, Erin headed to the supermarket and tested it out, with the family’s haul featuring items such as seven packets of spaghetti, two boxes of mini cereal packets, meatballs and jarred sauces.

Erin showing off her receipt

The results left Erin pleasantly surprised about the bill.

“Our groceries normally cost $3000 a fortnight at other supermarkets, so we were shocked and pleasantly surprised that we only spent $2740 at ALDI and were able to get everything we needed as well as extra treats for the kids and ready-to-go meals for those unexpected crazy days,” she said.

“As a family of 17, the rising cost of living means it’s essential for us to make our budget stretch as far as possible, so being able to save over $520 a month by simply switching to ALDI will do wonders for our back pocket.”

She said that the hardest part of feeding such a big family was balancing healthy home cooked meals with affordability.

She saved $260 on a fortnightly shop

“As the cost of living continues to rise in seemingly every area, and our income isn’t rising with it, it’s really necessary to trim costs from wherever we are able. The challenge is doing so while making sure that none of the kids feel they are missing out,” she said.

“I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the prices at ALDI. I had done some research before heading in for my big shop so I knew that many items were cheaper … some only a few cents, some quite a bit more … but it obviously all adds up.”

Inflation is up 7.3 per cent in Australia, and wage growth is still hanging around the 3 per cent mark. Basically, the cost of living is soaring, but Aussies aren’t earning much extra cash to help compensate for it.

Finder’s Parenting Report for 2023 tragically revealed that one-in-10 parents had to go without food at some point in the last year.