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Our $70 Grocery Shopping Budget + Menu Plan

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.).
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I’m trying something new this week! Instead of posting a menu plan at the beginning of the week and then sharing my shopping trips throughout the week, I’m sharing what we actually ate and what groceries I bought this week.

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 in these shopping trips that I used to make all of the meals we ate. And it also means we didn’t use all of these groceries up this week — because some of them will be saved for later weeks!

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. 🙂

Kroger Shopping Trip #1:

3 Family-Sized Boxes of Nabisco Ritz Crackers — $1.99 with the Kroger Friday-Saturday Digital Coupon
2 boxes of Raisinets — marked down to $0.19 each
Naked Juice — on closeout for $1.79, used $2/1 coupon — they deducted it down to $1.79 = FREE after coupon
4 jars of Yoplait Oui Yogurt — marked down to $2.39 total
Bananas — marked down to $0.39/lb. = $1.88 total
Total with tax: $12.46, Got a $3 catalina back

Kroger Shopping Trip #2:

1 Kroger Cottage Cheese — $1.89
1 Johnsonville Sausage — marked down to $2.29
5 packages of Kroger Ground Turkey — marked down to $2.29 each
1 package Johnsonville Italian Sausage — marked down to $1.99
Used $3/$15 meat coupon Kroger mailed to me
Used $3 catalina earned in shopping trip above
Total with tax: $12.72

Kroger Shopping Trip #3:

1 Salad Kit — marked down to $1.89
1 bag of oranges — marked down to $0.99
1 bag of peppers — marked down to $0.99
Oui Yogurt (2-pack) — marked down to $1.19
1 dozen eggs — marked down to $1.19
1/2 gallon chocolate milk — marked down to $1.39
Grapes — on sale for $0.88/lb. = $2.15
3 cans of Kroger pumpkin — $0.99 each
1 gallon milk — $2.69
King Arthur Flour — $3.89, used $1/1 Kroger Digital Coupon = $2.89
Oats — $2.49
Butter — $2.99 when you buy 5 participating items
2 bottles Palmolive dish soap — $0.99 each when you buy 5 participating items, used 1 $0.50/1 Kroger Digital Coupon
Colgate toothpaste — $1.99 when you buy 5 participating items, used $2/1 Kroger Digital coupon = FREE after coupon
1 bottle Head & Shoulders — $1.99 when you buy 5 participating items, used $1/1 Kroger Digital coupon = $0.99 after coupon
Total with tax: $29.75

Note: I forgot to buy the second bottle of Palmolive the first time around, so I had to go to customer service and add it to my order to get the $5 off!

Kroger Shopping Trips #4 & #5:

1 Kroger cottage cheese — $1.89
1 bottle Naked Protein Smoothie — marked down to $1.79 (not pictured; I picked this up for Kathrynne to have for lunch since she can hardly eat anything right now because she just got her expander put in in preparation for getting braces)
2 packages of Pitas — marked down to $0.79 each
4 dozen Simple Truth eggs — $1.77 with Kroger Friday-Saturday Only Digital coupon
1 dozen medium eggs — marked down to $0.49
1 Yoplait yogurt — Free with Free Friday coupon
2 yogurts — marked down to $0.29 each
2 packages of butter — $2.49 each when you buy 5 participating items
Yo Crunch Yogurt — $0.99 when you buy 5 participating items
2 bottles Simply Lemonade — $0.99 each when you buy 5 participating items
1 bag of apples — marked down to $0.99
Total with tax: $23.71

What We Ate This Week

Breakfasts:

Cereal, Oatmeal, Baked Oatmeal (from the freezer), Toast/Eggs, Banana Bread with Peanut Butter (Everyone is on their own for breakfast!)

Lunches:

Hard Boiled Eggs, Avocados, Salad, Banana Bread, Turkey Burgers, Turkey Meatballs with Spaghetti Noodles & Sauce, Leftovers, Apples, Peppers (Jesse & Me)
Sandwiches, Fruit, Veggies, Granola Bars, Yogurt, Cookies, Capri Sun (For the kids — They are in charge of their own lunches.)

Snacks:

Banana Bread, Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, Fruit/Veggies, Hard Boiled Eggs

Dinners:

Sunday: Leftovers/Fend For Yourself
Monday: Turkey Burgers, Pickles, Peas, Grapes
Tuesday: Chipotle (School Spirit Night Fundraiser)
Wednesday: Pumpkin Waffles, Grapes
Thursday: Spaghetti Casserole, Steamed Peas
Friday: Spaghetti Casserole, Banana Bread, Steamed Broccoli (yes, we made enough to have it two nights in a row!)