Another week of budget grocery shopping with my $60 a week budget challenge! The Aldi where I live was giving out $5 off coupons right before Christmas! Did any of you get a coupon where you live? It was such a nice surprise when I got to the checkout, and I still have one more coupon to use next week.
Also, Kroger is having their Buy 5 Save $5 promo and I was able to stock up and still stay under budget. No, I don’t usually buy 5 packages of Goldfish Crackers a week, but I have the extra 4 hidden away and I’m hoping these will last us until March! Since the new year is here, I plan to slowly stock up on things while they are on sale. It’s hard to buy any extra because my budget challenge makes each week so tight, but stocking up on one thing here or there at an excellent price will make sticking to my budget easier and easier!
Our menu for the week:
Breakfasts
Eggs, baked oatmeal, fruit, cereal, breakfast potatoes.
Lunches
Grilled lunch meat sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, quesadillas, homemade mac and cheese, or whatever leftovers are in the fridge. If we have extra time, I might cook some fried rice, but I don’t usually bother during the week. We also have fruit and possibly some chips and salsa. Not a lot of variety for lunches, but we have leftovers often enough that I don’t usually go crazy. This week in particular, we were able to eat a lot of leftovers!
Monday
New Years Eve meal with family. I didn’t contribute anything except for some sweet tea, so I had the night off! Woo-hoo!
Tuesday
I tweaked my Cheesy Enchilada Skillet recipe and made it into more of a salad. I still cooked the meat the same, but I added lettuce, tomatoes, and a creamy dressing. It was DEFINITELY something we will repeat.
(Note: We usually “double” our meals during the week. This means that I cook once and we eat it twice. Not only does this save time on our busiest evenings, it also makes grocery shopping cheaper if you are just buying double of one recipe instead of two recipes. If your family objects to having the same thing twice in a week, you might consider making mostly “freezer friendly” meals, and then you could freeze the meal and eat it again a week or two later. This week, we had so many parties/activities going on during the week that we didn’t have to repeat any meals in the evening, and had leftovers quite a bit for lunch.)
Wednesday
Thai Red Curry with chicken
Thursday
Our weekly family date night! We have a separate budget of $20 a week for our date nights. This week, we used a Christmas gift card (I’m going to be saying that a lot the next few weeks!) and went to Panera. Since we had a gift card, our son got a “kid’s meal” for the first time in his life. (I think it’s almost always cheaper to just order a side “à la carte” or something extra big and share with him. I think that when he gets older and realizes what’s going on, we might decide to buy him a kid’s meal. But until then I’ll enjoy saving a little money when we go out!)
Friday
Birthday party for our nephew
Saturday
We had a ton of outings/errands on Saturday, so we just had some homemade tomato soup (page 112 in the Trim Healthy Mama cookbook) and grilled cheese sandwiches when we got home. (We usually have a tradition of making homemade pizza on Saturday nights.)
Sunday
My spin on the THM BBQ Chicken in the Slow Cooker. (page 43 in the Trim Healthy Mama cookbook. I love, love, love this cookbook, but a lot of the recipes aren’t particularly “budget friendly” so I have a tendency to tweak them a little.)
Snacks
Fruit, cheese sticks, chips and salsa, Goldfish crackers, peanut butter banana smoothies, veggies with ranch, pickles
What we spent this week:
Finally, here’s what we spent budget grocery shopping this week. Remember, that these are recipes that my family eats quite often, so we have some stuff stocked in the pantry already. It might cost you extra the first few weeks as you stock up, but eventually you will be able to stay close to budget.
Budget Grocery Shopping at Aldi:
For Breakfasts:
1 gallon of whole milk $2.43
Unsweetened almond milk $1.69
Bananas $2.32
For Lunches:
Sliced cheese $1.15
Honey wheat bread $.99
Soy Sauce $1.19
For Dinners:
Chicken Broth $1.19
Pineapple chunks $.75
Apple cider vinegar $.99
Sour cream $.85
Ground beef $6.36
Cream cheese $.65
For Snacks:
Cocoa powder $1.75
Pickles $.89
Other:
Toilet paper $4.99
Sugar free mints $1.19
Sugar free gum $1.69
$5 off coupon
Aldi total with tax: $26.72
Budget Grocery Shopping at Kroger:
For Dinners:
4 tomatoes $2.18
Chicken breasts $9.22
Enchilada sauce $1.99
Green chilies $.69
Green leaf lettuce $1.69
2 onions $1.44
1 zucchini $.66
For Snacks:
Goldfish crackers $4.95 (I bought 5 to get $5 off)
Other:
Sea salt $1.79
Dried cilantro $1.99
Card $2.00
Kroger total with tax: $29.39
Grand total: $56.11
Why Am I Posting About Budget Grocery Shopping?
When I recently decided I wanted to be more diligent following our $60 a week grocery budget, I started posting my weekly grocery receipts on my Instagram stories. This was really just for personal accountability. I didn’t actually think very many people would be interested in how I do budget grocery shopping! Each time I posted the receipts, I would get a bunch of questions. “What exactly are you eating?” “Is this really for a whole week?” Because of all these questions, I decided to start posting our menu and how much we spend on groceries to prove that it can be done.
We try our best to eat mostly whole foods, but we don’t have any dietary restrictions. Although I (usually) follow the Trim Healthy Mama plan, my husband and son are a little more lenient on the things they eat. (For instance, I will make myself homemade bread that is on plan, but they eat bread we buy at Aldi)
Except for special occasions, we eat 20 meals a week at home. That means my budget grocery shopping goal is $3 per meal for two adults and a toddler.
Like what you see here? Follow me on Facebook or Instagram! Planning to try some of these recipes and lower your grocery budget? Leave a comment and let me know how it goes! Be sure to pin this menu on Pinterest. Make sure you don’t miss any new recipes by getting my email newsletter every week!
