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 seven. 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.
I didn’t get a chance to post our groceries and menu plan last week, so I’m posting both weeks this week. We were well under budget both weeks. I’m hoping there’s a great sale on something in the next week or two and I’ll use the extra to stop up on that. I’ll keep you posted!
Kroger Shopping Trip #1
- 3 dozen eggs — marked down to $0.20 each
- 2 boxes Yoplait Dunkers — marked down to $1 each
- 4 bags of peppers — marked down to $0.99 each
- 3 2-lb tubs of strawberries — $1.88 each
- 2 boxes Instant Potatoes — marked down to $0.35 each
- Milk — $2.59
- Total with tax: $16.46
Kaitlynn turned 13 this past week and she had a birthday party with friends that she planned and pulled off entirely by herself.
She put together a plan and worked within a budget and made all of the food herself. We used some of our kids’ activities budget for her party since she had specific decor and food she wanted to make/buy so all of the food costs for it came out of that.
(I’ll share more details on her birthday party and how she did it on a budget in a blog post soon!)
Kroger Shopping Trip #2:
- Sugar — $2.69
- Honey — $8.69
- Formula — $29.96
- Total with tax: $45.06
Creative Meal Planning
I love coming up with creative meals based upon what we have on hand, what’s on sale, and what’s marked down. Here was one of our dinners recently — banana bread (using marked down bananas), strawberries (on sale), sweet potatoes/sausage/peppers in the crockpot (I had the sweet potatoes in the pantry from a number of weeks ago, the turkey sausage was in the freezer from a deal a few months ago, and the peppers were marked down).
Here’s another meal I’ve eaten for breakfast many mornings the past two weeks: fried eggs (since I got SO many marked down recently), avocados (that I got 7 for $1 two weeks ago), and strawberries (on sale).
One more example: We had some chicken wings in the freezer from a Kroger deal a few months ago so we baked with some barbecue sauce I had gotten marked down. We served it with a side of brown rice, roasted broccoli, and English Muffin Bread.
Kroger Shopping Trip #3:
- 3 jars peanut butter — on sale for $0.99
- Toilet paper — $9.99
- 2 bags chicken — $6.99 each
- Tikka Masala — marked down to $0.69
- Water — $0.79
- Milk — $2.59
- 2 boxes cereal — $1.49 each
- 4 boxes Simple Truth Organic Apple Cinnamon Bars — on closeout for $0.57 each
- 4 boxes Annie’s Toaster Pastries — on closeout for $0.87 each
- 2 bags red peppers — marked down to $0.99
- Bananas — marked down — $0.50
- 3 bagged salads — marked down to $0.99 each
- 2 tubs lettuce — marked down to $0.79 each
- 4 boxes Kashi granola bars — on closeout for $0.75/box
- 2 snack trays — marked down to $0.99 each
- 2 snack trays — marked down to $0.59 each
- 4 cans energy drinks — marked down to $0.59 each
- Total with tax: $63.81
There haven’t been many great deals on toilet paper recently, so I just got the best deal I could find at Kroger — and hopefully I’ll find a great deal before we need to stock up again!
There also haven’t been almost any markdowns or sales on meat recently and we’re getting down to the last few pounds I’ve gotten on sale and marked down in our freezer, so I bought the best deals I could find at Kroger this week — 2 pounds of sausage for $2.50 each and 6 pounds of chicken for $6.99 per bag.
Total spent the past two weeks: $125.33
What We Ate The Past Two Weeks
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.
Breakfasts — Cereal, Oatmeal, Eggs/Avocados/Strawberries, Baked Oatmeal, Eggs/Toast, Toaster Pastries, Apple Cinnamon Bars, Energy Bites
Lunches — PB & Honey Sandwiches, Eggs, Salad, Leftovers, Snack Boxes, Cereal, Peppers, Strawberries, Bananas
Snacks — Peppers, Strawberries, Energy Bites, Oatmeal/Chocolate Chip Cookies, Banana Bread
