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.
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Thank you so much for your encouragement on my last Grocery Post letting me know how much you enjoy me sharing my menu plans. Your kind words meant a lot to me; thank you for taking the time to share!
And yes, I realized based upon all the comments and emails that many of you really find the menu plans helpful and inspiring — even if most of the social media comments/emails in recent weeks have been from people who have felt frustrated by the menu plans. So I’ll plan to continue sharing them! 🙂
Two of the kids had their yearly testing at school this past week, so they asked if I could make Energy Bites — and we ended up going through 3 batches of these this week! We’ve eaten them for breakfast, lunch, snack, and after-dinner snack! 🙂
Also, I showed on Instagram stories how I make Roasted Broccoli — and literally just stick the frozen broccoli straight from the bag into the oven!
Sometimes, I go to Kroger and find all sorts of great deals and markdowns. Sometimes, I go and basically find nothing.
My first Kroger shopping trip of the week was a complete bust. See above. 🙂 I hope this encourages you to know that it’s not like every single time I head to Kroger I strike gold!
Kroger Shopping Trip #1:
- 3 Dannon Yogurts — marked down to $0.49 each
- 2 bags of carrots — $1 each
- Total with tax: $3.67
A few pictures of my salads from this past week. For more salad inspiration, see my post on 10 Days of Salads.
Kroger Shopping Trip #2:
- Kroger Pork Roast — marked down to $4.99
- Ground Turkey — marked down to $2.49
- Ground Pork — marked down to $2.50
- 1 multipack of Kleenex travel tissues — $1.69
- 1 bag of peppers — marked down to $0.99
- Spinach — marked down to $1.79
- 3 bags of Mission Street Tacos — $0.99 each when you buy 6 participating items
- Palmolive Dish Soap — $1.49 when you buy 6 participating items, used $0.50/1 Kroger Digital Coupon = $0.99
- 2 boxes Creamette Pasta — $0.49 each, got $1 back from iBotta = free after iBotta rebate
- 2 bags of carrots — $0.99 each
- Rice bowl — marked down to $0.29
- Ortega Skillet Sauce — marked down to $0.49
- 2 cantaloupe — marked down to $0.99 each
- 2 bags of Goldfish — $0.99 when you buy 6 participating items
- 3 bags of cookies — $0.99 when you buy 6 participating items
- Pringles — $0.99 when you buy 6 participating items
- Jarlsberg cheese — marked down to $1.69
- Grapes — $0.99/lb. = $2.11
- 1 bag Taco Bell Cheese, 1 bag Kraft cheese — $2.29 each when you buy 6 participating items, used Buy One, Get One Free Kroger Digital coupon = $1.10 each after coupon
- 2 cartons cottage cheese — $0.89 each when you buy 6 participating items
- Half & Half — $1.79
- Kroger Vitamin D Milk — 2.59
- 2 cans cream of chicken soup — $0.49 when you buy 6 participating items
- 1 box Kellogg’s cereal — marked down to $0.50
- Total with tax: $46.65
Have you tried the Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls recipe yet? Cassey made them and posted them on Instagram stories this past week. YUM!
Kroger Shopping Trip #3:
- Deli Chicken — marked down to $4.19
- 2 cans of Green Beans — $0.49 each when you buy 6 participating items
- 2 cans of Pringles — $0.99 each when you buy 6 participating items
- 2 bags of Goldfish — $0.99 each when you buy 6 participating items
- 5 bags of Popchips — $0.99 each as part of the Friday-Saturday deals
- 18-count eggs — $0.99
- Nestle Crunch Bars — $1, used $1/1 Kroger Digital Coupon = Free
- Total with tax: $16.26
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, Peanut Butter/Banana Toast
Lunches:
- Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Carrots, Oranges, Salads, Leftovers, Cookies, Protein Bars, Energy Bites
Snacks:
- Cantaloupe, Cookies, Popcorn, Ice Cream, Crackers & Cheese, Refrigerator Pickles, Energy Bites
Dinners:
- Sunday — Fend For Yourself
- Monday — Chicken Tetrazinni, Oranges, Refrigerator Pickles, Carrots, Hummus, Roasted Broccoli
- Tuesday — Pancakes, Sausage, Oranges
- Wednesday — Sausage/Peppers/Potatoes, Cantaloupe
- Thursday — Leftovers/Fend For Yourself
- Friday — Rotisserie Chicken, Green Beans, Cantaloupe, Twice Baked Potatoes
- Saturday — Chipotle
Total spent on groceries: $66.58
Cashback earned this week: 205 points for submitting my receipts to Fetch rewards + $1.10 for submitting my receipt to iBotta rewards.
