Want to see what we bought for this week’s $70 grocery budget? I’m currently challenging myself to stick with a $70 budget for our family of five. This includes almost all of our breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners + most household products (toiletries, laundry soap, etc.).
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Hospitality on a Budget
We hosted a 10-year-old girl from foster care all week this week while her foster mom was out of town. We also hosted the group of 8th grade girls small group from youth group I help co-lead for a fun evening, complete with ice cream sundaes.
People often ask me how we manage to open our home and be hospitable on a budget. One thing that helps us be able to keep our budget down is by buying ahead when items are on their lowest prices.
For instance, in the photos below, you’ll see that I stocked up on butter, sugar, smoked sausage, ice cream, potatoes, and frozen pizza this week. We only used two of the tubs of ice cream for ice cream sundaes, so I’ll save the rest for when we have guests over next. And I like to always have 3-5 frozen pizzas in the freezer for a last-minute meal if the kids have their friends over or we have guests at the last minute.
Every week, if possible, I stock up on a few things that work for quick hospitality. That way, we almost always have a variety of things on hand to work with and opening our home doesn’t mean that we have to run to the store to buy a bunch of items.
Ice Cream Sundae Bar
One simple and inexpensive way to feed people on a smaller budget is to do dessert instead of a full meal. For the ice cream sundae bar, we already had some chocolate chips, cookies (I crushed some of these up to sprinkle on top of ice cream), and sprinkles on hand that I had gotten on other sales/deals. And then Kroger had ice cream on sale for $1.79/tub when you bought 5 participating items.
I set these items out and some of the girls brought other things — like whipped topping, M&Ms, and chocolate syrup. All in all, we had a really fantastic ice cream sundae bar… and we still stayed within our grocery budget!
For more ideas, check out my post on How to Practice Hospitality on a Budget. Also, check out my 5 Simple Ideas for Hospitality on a Budget here.
ALDI Shopping Trip
- Orange Juice — $1.99
- Bananas — $1.40
- Honey Nut Crispy Oats — $2.45
- Rice Squares — $1.49
- Frosted Flakes — $1.39
- Honey Crunch N Oats — $1.29
- 3 blocks of cheese — $1.69 each
- Baby carrots — $0.89
- 2 cucumbers — $0.55 each
- Oranges — $1.99
- 10-lb. bag potatoes — $2.49
- 6-lb. bag of Cane Sugar — $3.49
- Strawberries — $1.79
- Total with tax: $29.79
New to shopping at ALDI? Check out my 25 Favorite Things to Buy at ALDI and 5 Things You Should Not Buy at ALDI.
Kroger Shopping Trip #1:
- Milk — $2.89
- Fruit Snacks (I bought these for the girl who was staying with us as we discovered she loved to take these for her morning snack at school.) — $2.50
- 4 tubs Kroger Ice Cream — $1.79 each when you buy 5 participating items
- 1 tub Turkey Hill Ice Cream — $2.49 when you buy 5 participating items
- Foam Bowls — $1.89
- Total with tax: $18.05
Kroger Shopping Trip #2:
Total Spent — $69.60
Cashback earned this week: 1575 points from Fetch + $1 back from iBotta for scanning my receipt
Dinners This Week
- Monday: Pumpkin Waffles, Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, Orange Juice
- Tuesday: Lettuce Salad, Fruit Salad, Southwest Rollups
- Wednesday: Italian Chicken, leftover Fruit Salad, Peas, Mashed Potatoes
- Thursday: Shepherd’s Pie, Lettuce Salad, Oranges
- Friday: Out for Chinese Food (the girl staying with us had a birthday this week so we had her choose where she wanted to go to dinner and she chose Chinese!)
- Saturday: Leftovers
- Sunday: Super Bowl Snacks — Refried Bean Dip, Homemade Guac, Chips/Salsa, Popcorn, Apples, Carrots, Leftovers
