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This Week’s $70 Grocery Budget (+ our menu plan!)

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.).

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.

I was excited about the Buy 5, Get $5 Off Sale that Kroger was running this week! Barbecue Sauce for $0.49 — no coupon needed? Sign me up!

I was sad to find that my store was completely sold out of the Pancake Mix that was on sale for just $0.99. But I still have three boxes of pancake mix that I got on sale/marked down, so I can totally wait for another sale!

Here’s what I got at Kroger on Tuesday (I especially excited to finally find another markdown on eggs again!):

Kroger Shopping Trip #1:

Chex cereal — marked down to $0.69
5 dozen cage-free brown eggs — marked down to $0.99 each
2 Moose Tracks yogurt — marked down to $0.25 each
2 Simple Truth yogurts — marked down to $0.49 each
Simple Truth Organic Maple Syrup — $3.99, used $1/1 Kroger digital coupon = $2.99
2 boxes Kroger Raisin Bran — $1.49 each
Hillshire Farm ham — marked down to $2.19
Hillshire Farm brats — marked down to $1.49 each
3 Bountiful Salad Kits — marked down to $1 each
2 pounds Private Selection Ground Beef — marked down to $3.79 each
1 bag of onions — marked down to $0.99
Vitamin D milk — $2.69
Huggies baby wipes — $0.99 when you buy 5 participating items, used $0.50/1 Kroger digital coupon = $0.49
2 bottles Kraft barbecue sauce — $0.49 each when you buy 5 participating items
Suave Kids’ Shampoo — $1.99 each when you buy 5 participating items, used $1/1 Kroger digital coupon = $0.99
2 Speedstick deodorant — $0.99 each when you buy 5 participating items
Sara Lee whole wheat bread — $1.49 when you buy 5 participating items
Tropicana Probiotic — marked down to $1.29
Bear Naked Granola — $2.49 when you buy 5 participating items, used $3/1 Kroger digital coupon = free after coupon
Stayfree pads — $1.99 when you buy 5 participating items, used $2/2 Kroger digital coupon = $0.99 after coupon
Total with tax: $44.06

Need an end of year Teacher Gift? Here’s a great idea!

Asheritah wrote in and said: “I made your chocolate chip cookies today for my preschooler to take to school. They’re DELICIOUS! I feel like I’m #winning at this mom thing… at least for a nanosecond out of my day.” (By the way, here’s the free label she used.)

Did you see my post on 5 Things You Should NOT Buy at Aldi?

By the way, the marked down Lentil Salad I got above was kind of blah and I wouldn’t buy it again.

I was super stoked that Kroger had a weekend sale on butter! We had just ran out of the butter I bought in the last sale!

Did you get your free Core Hydration Water at Kroger?

Kroger Shopping Trip #2:

2 bags of peppers — marked down to $0.99 each
1 bag of oranges/lemons — marked down to $0.99 each
1 bag of oranges — marked down to $0.99
2 tubs of salsa — marked down to $0.50 each
1 bottle of organic carrot juice — marked down to $1
Core water — FREE
King’s Hawaiian Rolls — marked down to $1.79
5 jars of Prego — $0.99 each with Friday-Saturday special deals
5 pounds of butter — $1.99 each with the Friday-Saturday special deals
Total with tax: $24.07

family fun at Sonic

We kicked off 100 Days of Summer Fun on Saturday with walking to Sonic. Our goal is to do some simple family fun activity every day for the next 100 days.

If you want to join us, you can follow along with my Instagram stories where I’ll be documenting what we do each day.

(And if you want to join us, I’d love for you to share your family fun on Instagram or Facebook and tag me (@themoneysavingmom) and use the hashtag #100DaysofSummerFun.)

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.

Our Menu Plan

Breakfasts:

Cereal, Oatmeal, Scrambled Eggs, Toast

Lunches:

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Carrots, Oranges, Salads, Leftovers, Cookies

Snacks:

Fruit, Peppers, Popcorn, Ice Cream, Hard Boiled Eggs

Dinners:

Sunday — Leftover ziti, Bread Machine Buttery Rolls, salad, peas
Monday — Leftovers (We apparently made way too much for when we had guests over on Saturday night! Hey, at least it meant I got two nights off from cooking!)
Tuesday — Corn bread, ground beef with tomatoes and onions, fruit
Wednesday — Leftover corn bread with chili and cheese
Thursday — KFC
Friday — Breakfast for dinner: pancakes, sausage, fruit
Saturday — Leftover pancakes and sausage, frozen pizza + we walked to Sonic and the kids got drinks and chili dogs