Saturday, November 3, 2018

My biggest grocery shopping trip in a long time! and more...

I'm currently challenging myself to stick with a $70 grocery budget for our family of five. This includes almost all of our breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners + most household products (toiletries, laundry soap, etc.). For live updates, be ...

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My biggest grocery shopping trip in a long time!

I'm currently challenging myself to stick with a $70 grocery budget for our family of five. This includes almost all of our breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners + most household products (toiletries, laundry soap, etc.).

For live updates, be sure to follow my Instagram Stories. See all posts on my $70 Grocery Budget here.

Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and we will be compensated if you click through and sign up. Read our disclosure policy here.

We went shopping twice this week. Jesse ran by Aldi to pick up a few staple items and then I went and did a BIG shopping trip at Kroger today.

ALDI Shopping Trip:

  • Olive Oil Spray — $1.49
  • 24-oz bag of Chocolate Chips — $2.79
  • Oil — $1.85
  • Salt — $0.39
  • Brown Sugar — $0.95
  • Cheddar Cheese — $1.69
  • Shredded Wheat Cereal — $1.39
  • Hamburger Buns — $0.85
  • Ramen (my kids love Ramen and have been begging me to buy it!) — $1.94
  • Total with tax: $14.32

Jesse and I leave on Monday for Rome and India. We’re so excited that all of the details of this trip worked out and I’ll be sure to share lots of pictures and videos on Instagram.

We’re going with another couple we are really close friends with and will be gone for 10 days. My mom is coming to watch our kids and I didn’t want her to have to worry about doing much grocery shopping while we’re gone, so I went ahead and did a big stock up trip at Kroger today.

Check your Kroger account or app to see if this $10 off $50 digital coupon is available for you. It was for me, but some people told me they didn’t have it offered in their account.

I am LOVING the Friday-Saturday deals available at Kroger this week + the buy 10, Get $5 off deals. There were SO many great deals that I had a hard time choosing which ones I was going to stick with!

My LOADED up cart! I ended up saving $100 after coupons and deals!! Here’s what I bought…

Kroger Shopping Trip

  • 5 Solero — $1.99 each on Friday and Saturday with the Kroger Digital Coupon
  • 3 Handi-Foil Pans — $1 each on Friday and Saturday with the Kroger Digital Coupon
  • 7 BirdsEye Steamfresh — $0.75 each when you buy 10 participating items
  • 5 BirdsEye Frozen veggies — $0.75 each when you buy 10 participating items
  • 2 boxes of Cousin Willie’s popcorn — $1 each when you buy 10 participating items
  • 2 cans of Campbell’s Cream of Chicken soup — $0.49 each when you buy 10 participating items
  • 3 cans of RedGold Tomatoes — $0.39 each when you buy 10 participating items, submit for $0.90 Ibotta rebate = $0.09 each
  • 1 Lays Stax — $0.69 when you buy 10 participating items
  • 1 Pringles — $0.99 when you buy 10 participating items
  • 1 Palmolive — $1.49 when you buy 10 participating items, used $0.50 Kroger Digital Coupon = $0.99
  • Jef-Puffed Marshmallows — $1.25 (I thought my $1/1 Digital Coupon was going to come off since it was still showing in my account even though I used it last week, but looking on my receipt, it looks like it didn’t come off.), submit for $0.25 Ibotta rebate
  • 3 boxes Creamette Pasta — $0.49 each when you buy 10 participating items
  • 1 ALL Laundry detergent — $2.49 each when you buy 10 participating items, used $1/1 Kroger digital coupon, $1.49 after coupon
  • 2 boxes of Betty Crocker Brownie Mix — $0.75 each when you buy 10 participating items
  • 1 box Betty Crocker Cake Mix — $0.75 each when you buy 10 participating items
  • 1 Capri Sun — $1.79 each when you buy 10 participating items
  • 5 Halo Top — $1.99 each when you buy 10 participating items
  • Milk — $1.99
  • 5 Kroger Yogurts — marked down to $0.39 each
  • Private Selection Hot Cocoa — $0.67, used $0.50/1 Kroger Digital coupon = $0.17 after coupon
  • Chobani — free with Free Friday coupon
  • 2 pounds of ground beef — marked down to $3.79 and $3.29
  • 2 pounds of Ground Turkey — marked down to $3.19 each
  • Bagged Salads — marked down to $1.29 and $1.99
  • Kroger Eggs — marked down $1.29, submit for $0.25 Ibotta rebate
  • 5 packages of Smithfield Bacon — $2.99 each on Friday and Saturday with the Kroger Digital Coupon
  • 5 Post Honey Bunches of Oats — $0.99 each on Friday and Saturday with the Kroger Digital Coupon
  • Used $10 off $50 Digital coupon
  • Used $3 On Your Next Order coupon
  • Total with tax: $82.82 (saved $100.54!)

What I Spent This Week

Total spent: $97.14 (and yes, it’s technically “over” our $70 budget, but since I was buying ahead for the next two weeks (see above), I’m okay with that!)

Cashback Earned This Week: 75 points from Fetch Rewards for scanning my receipts $1.50 for scanning my receipt on iBotta

Note: When you see the meals below, please remember this: I buy ahead often. Which means that when I find a great deal on something I know we'll use, I buy as much as I can afford in our budget to have on hand.

This means that you aren't going to see all of the groceries my shopping trip that I used to make all of the meals we ate.

Please also remember that I'm putting this out there and it's not a perfectly balanced menu. This is just really what we ate — and I hope that it encourages you to see the real-ness and lack of perfection here. 🙂

What We Ate This Week

Breakfasts:

  • Cereal, Oatmeal, Pumpkin Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs, Yogurt, English Muffins (from the freezer), Bagels (from the freezer)

Lunches:

Snacks:

Dinners:

  • Saturday: Dinner out
  • Sunday: Fend For Yourself — snack-y food and leftovers
  • Monday: Pumpkin Pancakes, Eggs, Fruit
  • Tuesday:  Jesse and I went out with friends to celebrate my birthday (finally! We’d been planning to do it earlier in the month but it didn’t work out. We went to a Virtual Reality place in Murfreesboro and then had planned to eat dinner at The Green Dragon, but when we got there, they weren’t serving food anymore so we got pretzels — the only food they had! — and drinks and then ordered from McDonald’s on the way home because we were so hungry and basically everywhere was closed because it was late!) and the kids had turkey sandwiches
  • Wednesday: Turkey, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Fruit
  • Thursday: Frozen Pizza, Fruit
  • Friday: Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole, Muffins, Salad
    
 

Brigette’s $68 Grocery Shopping Trip and Weekly Menu Plan for 6


Aldi

1 gallon Whole Milk – $1.35

2 cartons Coconut Water – $4.98

4 dozen Eggs – $4.52

1 10-lb bag Russet Potatoes – $3.49

1 pkg Zucchini – $1.45

1 large Bag Mini Sweet Peppers – $2.29

2 cans Diced Tomatoes – $0.70

2 cans Tomato Sauce – $0.38

1 can Tomato Paste – $0.25

2 pkgs Freeze Dried Fruit – $4.98

2 pkgs Organic Blueberries – $3.98

1 carton Organic Grape Tomatoes – $1.99

1 16-oz pkg Medjool Dates – $4.89

2 bunches Bananas (4.16lbs @ $0.38/lb) – $1.58

2 Celery – $1.78

1 5-ct bag Avocados – $2.69

1 large jar Unsweetened Applesauce – $1.49

2 2-lb bags Honey Crisp Apples – $3.98

2 bags Lemons – $3.78

1 2-lb bag Yellow Onions – $1.09

1 bag Organic Romaine Hearts – $2.69

1 large tub Organic Spring Mix – $3.99

1 pkg Baby Carrots – $0.75

1 16-oz bag Mini Cucumbers – $1.69

1 bag Cilantro – $0.85

1 Cauliflower – $1.79

1 3-oz bag Fresh Ginger Root – $1.29

1 pkg Hamburger Buns – $0.65

1 loaf Honey Wheat Bread – $0.85

1 jar Pasta Sauce – $0.85

1 pkg Deli Sliced Cheese – $1.15

1 can Table Salt – $0.35

Total: $68.54


Harris Teeter

I went to Harris Teeter earlier in the week when they were doing a 3-day Double Dollar Coupon sale. None of these exact deals are available any longer, but after double coupons, sales and rebates (from Ibotta, Checkout 51, and Fetch Rewards) – I actually MADE about $2.00 to “buy” everything in the above picture!

Grocery Total for the Week: $68.54

Weekly Menu Plan

Breakfasts

Everyone is responsible for making/cleaning up their own breakfasts. Choices include:

Cereal, Oatmeal, Yogurt, Fried/Scrambled/Boiled Eggs, Veggie Omelets, Fruit, Smoothies

Lunches

Chili Cheese Baked Potatoes, Apples, Cucumbers

Build-Your-Own-Salad Bar (Romaine/Spring Mix, Shredded Cheese, Craisins, Nuts, Hard Boiled Eggs, Avocados, Assorted Chopped Fresh Veggies and Fruit, Dressing) x 2

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, Carrots, Bananas x 2

Leftovers x 2

Dinners

Pearl’s Chili (recipe from “Trim Healthy Mama” cookbook), Raw Veggies and Dip, Cornbread (recipe from a church cookbook)

Shepherd’s Pie (recipe from a church cookbook), Bread Machine Buttery Rolls, Tossed Salad,

Fried Chicken Strips, Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Cauliflower, Homemade Freezer Biscuits

Venison Roast in the Crockpot, Green Beans, Macaroni and Cheese

Spaghizza, Tossed Salad, Easy Italian Breadsticks

Venison Burgers on the Grill, Grilled Zucchini/Onions/Peppers, Apples

Leftovers