Saturday, December 15, 2018

Oops! I accidentally went over the grocery budget this week! 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 ...

Intentional finance. Intentional family. Intentional business.

Oops! I accidentally went over the grocery budget this week!

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.

Well, y’all, I had thought I was about $6 under budget this week… and then I went to add up my receipts and discovered I was actually $1.72 over budget.

Whoops! I realized that I read one receipt as saying I had spent $36 when it actually said I saved $36 and spent $42. Oh well!

I have a little wiggle room in the budget since I’ve been under budget a number of weeks, so it will be okay. But lesson learned: Don’t just glance at your receipt before heading to the store!

(I keep my receipts and then use those to tally how much I’ve spent for the week. I know; that’s ridiculously old fashioned, but it’s usually what works for me. Maybe I should move up to something more sophisticated and techie!! Jesse does track it all in YNAB, but he’s usually a few days behind in tracking and inputting everything, so I usually just go off of my receipts!)

I try to stick as close to the $70 mark as possible — it’s a fun challenge for me PLUS I love getting to show you how it works for our family and the deals that I find!

At any rate, here’s what I bought this week:

Kroger Shopping Trip #1:

  • Back to Nature Cookies — on sale for $0.99 when you buy 5 participating items, plus used a $1.50/2 coupon that printed while I was checking out = $3.45 for 5 boxes (my kids were SO excited about these!!)
  • Lemon Juice — $2.49
  • Alo Juice — Free with free Friday e-coupon
  • 2 dozen Happy Eggs — marked down to $2.49 per dozen
  • Hillshire Ham — on closeout for $2.09
  • Planter’s Peanuts — $2.49 when you buy 5 participating items, plus used $1.50/1 Kroger digital coupon = $0.99
  • 1 loaf of bread — marked down to $1.39
  • Clementines — $3.99 for a 3-lb bag
  • 3 bags of Sweet Potatoes — marked down to $0.99
  • 1 bag of grapefruit — marked down to $0.99
  • 2 packages of Cheddar Bratwurst — marked down to $1.79 each
  • 3 packages of Eckrich sausage — $1.50 each when you buy 5 participating items
  • 5 boxes of Simple Popped Popcorn — $1 per box when you buy 5 participating items (plus each box has a free Redbox movie rental code in it!)
  • 1 container organic Spring Mix (no romaine!) — marked down to $1.79
  • Total with tax: $42.38

Psst! Need some help with cutting your grocery budget? Check out my series: 5 Days to a Better Grocery Budget.

Kroger Shopping Trip #2:

Kroger Shopping Trip #3:

Cashback earned this week: $0.10 from Ibotta for submitting my receipt and 284 points for submitting my receipt to Fetch rewards (that’s basically the equivalent of $0.28).

Total spent this week: $71.72

Also, I just had to show you this 52-week Meal Planner that my friend, Erin, from Simple Purposeful Living sent me. 

There’s space to write out your menu and then your shopping list — and then it’s perforated so you can tear it out and take your shopping list with you to the store!

Aldi shoppers, I thought this would make you smile. (And excuse the fact that the meme says “Aldi’s” not Aldi and “grill’s” not grills.)

What We Ate This Past Week

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, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon (from the freezer) Yogurt, Hard Boiled Eggs, Banana Bread

Lunches:

  • Hard Boiled Eggs, Banana Bread, Cheese/Crackers, Avocados, Salad, Leftovers (for Jesse & Me)
  • Ham Sandwiches, Clementines, Cheese/Crackers, Yogurt, Cookies, Hard Boiled Eggs (for the kids — They are in charge of their own lunches.)

Snacks:

  • Yogurt, Cheese/Crackers, Popcorn, Hard Boiled Eggs, Cookies

Dinners:

  • Saturday: Dinner out
  • Sunday: Fend For Yourself — snack-y food and leftovers
  • Monday: Peppers & Sausage over Brown Rice
  • Tuesday:  Pork Sandwiches, Mashed Sweet Potatoes
  • Wednesday: Whole Wheat Pancakes, Bacon, Grapefruit
  • Thursday: Turkey Meatballs, Sweet Potato Fries
  • Friday: Leftover Turkey Meatballs & Sweet Potato Fries
    
 

What I Wore Today: The perfect outfit for an at-home Saturday

(Note: The links in this post are affiliate links, and we will be compensated when you make a purchase by clicking through our links. Read our disclosure policy here.)

It’s a quiet at-home Saturday and I picked a comfy and cozy outfit to wear — all that are pieces I got from Amazon or Proozy at great prices!

My sweatshirt is from Amazon and I adore it — and it’s just $19.99 and comes in a lot of different colors.

By the way, the photo on Amazon of the sweatshirt makes it look more distressed, but mine came and it’s brighter and more shiny as shown by these photos.

I pulled the drawstring out of the hoodie part since they were really long and you either need to cut them or just pull them out. Also, the pocket stitching is a little loose and it’s come undone a little bit with a lot of washes, but otherwise, it’s held up really well.

My leggings are some of my favorites and I wear these so often and they are as low as $18.99 on Amazon. They are so comfy and they fit really well. Plus, they have held up well with many, many washings (I’ve had them for quite a long time!)

And my shoes are my new Nike shoes from Proozy and they are just $45 shipped through Sunday night! (Be sure to use coupon code MSM45 to get this deal!).

Oh and my tumbler is my very favorite Contigo tumbler. It’s one of my secret weapons to help me drink a gallon of water every day.

By the way, would you be interested in seeing posts like this occasionally where I share an outfit and details on where I got everything? Let me know!

    
 

Brigette’s $86 Grocery Shopping Trip and Weekly Menu Plan for 6


Aldi

1 48-oz carton Canola Oil – $1.79

1 24-oz jar Honey – $4.69

1 5-lb bag All Purpose Flour – $1.15

1 bag Powdered Sugar – $0.95

1 pkg Turkey Bacon – $1.89

1 10-oz bag Pecan Halves – $3.99

1 10-oz bag Chopped Pecans – $3.99

1 32-oz bag Pinto Beans – $1.45

1 24-oz jar Pasta Sauce – $0.85

1 jar Garlic Powder – $0.99

1 jar Cinnamon – $0.99

1 large canister Old Fashioned Oats – $2.39

1 large box Corn Flakes – $0.99

1 box Crispy Rice – $1.15

2 boxes Honey Nut Oats – $2.30

2 jars Organic Salsa – $2.70

1 pkg Pepperoni – $1.95

1 pkg Turkey Pepperoni – $2.19

1 16-oz bag Shredded Cheddar Cheese – $2.15

1 3-lb bag Frozen Boneless Chicken Breasts – $1.39

2 cans Chicken Breasts – $3.10

1 large jar Unsweetened Applesauce – $1.89

1 head Cauliflower – $1.85

2 bags Riced Cauliflower – $3.78

1 carton Organic Grape Tomatoes – $1.39

1 bunch Organic Bananas (1.94lbs $0.51/lb) – $0.99

1 bunch Bananas (1.53lbs @ $0.38/lb) – $0.58

1 5-lb bag Red Potatoes – $1.49

1 bag Frozen Organic Broccoli Florets – $1.09

1 pkg Romaine Hearts – $1.99

1 3-lb bag Apples – $1.99

1 carton Organic Strawberries – $1.99

1 16-oz bag Mini Cucumbers – $1.69

1 large tub Organic Spring Mix – $3.99

3 bags Baby Carrots – $2.25

1 pkg Broccoli Crowns – $1.39

2 pkgs Blackberries – $1.78

1 3-lb bag Mandarin Oranges – $1.99

2 64-oz cartons Orange Juice – $3.38

1 gallon Whole Milk – $1.32

1 32-oz carton Nonfat Plain Greek Yogurt – $3.29

2 dozen Eggs – $2.20

1 loaf Sandwich Bread – $0.65

1 pkg Tortillas (I can’t find these anywhere on my recipt!)

Total: $86.00

Weekly Menu Plan

Breakfasts

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

Cereal, Toast, Yogurt, Fruit, Oatmeal, Homemade Granola, Fried/Scrambled/Hard Boiled Eggs, Veggie Omelets

Lunches

Tossed Salad Bar (Chicken, Romaine, Spring Mix, Craisins, Pecans, Chopped Fruit and Veggies, Hard Boiled Eggs, Shredded Cheese, Dressing), Crackers x 3

PB and J Sandwiches, Carrots, Applesauce x 2

Leftovers x 2

Dinners

Build-Your-Own-Burritos (pinto beans, seasoned ground venison, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, salsa, plain greek yogurt), Broccoli

Pinto Beans and Ham (ham is from my freezer stockpile), Homemade Cornbread

Cheesy Hamburger Soup, Make-Ahead Butterhorns,

Spaghetti All Carbonara, Breadsticks, Roasted Cauliflower

Italian Chicken, Parmesan Cauliflower Rice, Easy Whole Wheat Bread, Oranges

Homemade Pepperoni Pizza, Broccoli

Leftovers

    
 

Latest finds on Pinterest