ALDI Shopping Trip
Bananas — $0.44 per pound — $3.42 (Got $0.25 back from Checkout51.)
2 packages of Multi-Colored Peppers — $2.49
2 bags of mixed veggies — $0.99 each
Butter — $3.49
3 bags of Gala apples — $2.99 per bag (Got $0.25 back from Checkout51.)
Avocados — $0.99 each
Bag of onions — $0.99
2 cucumbers — $0.49 each
2 boxes of shredded wheat — $1.99 per box
Peanut butter — $1.69
Total with tax — $38.23
Kroger Shopping Trip
2 dozen eggs — $2.99 per dozen
Italian sausage — $4.99
Sliced cheese — $3.49
Travel sized toothpaste — $1
Travel sized body wash — $1.09
Half & Half — $2.69
1 gallon of milk — $2.99
Smoked turkey — $26.63
2 lbs. ground sirloin –5.99 per pound
Total with tax: $65.35
Total for all groceries: $103.58
Menu Plan
Breakfasts
Bacon & Eggs or Oatmeal
Lunches
Sandwiches or Leftovers (We had Protein French Toast and Pumpkin Protein Pancakes for lunch on Sunday.)
Snacks
Popcorn
Fruit/Veggies
Cheese
Apples with Almond Butter
Pumpkin Pie Smoothies
Healthy Cake in a MugDinners
Dinner with our small group — We did a salad bar this week and we brought hard boiled eggs, chopped peppers, salad dressing, sunflower seeds, and avocados.
Leftovers
Italian Sausage and Sweet Potatoes
Crockpot Stuffed Peppers
Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry
Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie
Dinner Out
What’s on YOUR menu this week? Tell us in the comments!
Amy says
This is so great! Thanks for sharing your new menus with us!
I have two questions:
1) Pumpkin Pie smoothie recipe???
2) I am guessing that was between 2 and 3 lbs of turkey you bought. Do you buy it from the deli, freshly sliced, or in packages? How many days does it stay fresh if you get it fresh from the deli? Or, if it is packaged, how long does it stay fresh after the package has been opened? I’d love to buy lunchmeat and have it on hand, but I only buy small quantities because I am afraid we will not eat it all in time. Thanks!
Crystal Paine says
We buy it fresh from the deli and we go through all of it in a week. We’ve never had a problem with it not staying fresh.
Amy says
Thank you!
Katy says
Hi Crystal! Thanks for sharing your meal plans again. I’m interested in Trim Healthy Mama (haven’t purchased/read the book yet), and I know you’ve shared that you’re following that lifestyle now. So seeing this menu makes me curious. Do you eat the same things that you have listed? Or is this what your family eats and you make modifications? That’s the part that really has me confused about THM (again, without having read the book yet). I’m just not sure I could make separate food for myself and really stick to it. I’m trying to be as informed as possible before I spend the money on the book. 🙂
Carly says
Will you share your beef and cabbage stir fry recipe and the sausage and sweet potatoes? Both sound great!
Sarah says
Can you share your pumpkin pie smoothie recipe? I’m looking for a good one. Thank you!
And I wish my family liked bananas! If my 3 year old eats a banana, she doesn’t poop for 5 days. 🙁
annie says
Where do you buy almond butter. Have you found a place with a good price.
Sarah@bakingwithmom says
Our busy weeks are somewhat slowing down now that cross country is over. However the need for crock pot meals are still there since basketball has started. 🙂 I was happy because I got apples for $.68 a pound this week.
http://bakingwithmom.com/menu-plan-monday-10/
Amy S says
We went to the Farmer’s Market and bought fresh Gala apples for 99 cents per pound. Sooo good! We shop at Aldi too and their colored peppers are a must have, we use them for everything. A good price too. I enjoy reading about your whole food shopping trips.
My menu can be found here:
http://bradandamyskitchen.com/weekly-menu-plan-4/
Sonya says
I usually spend $40 to $60 dollars a week on produce. So spending $38 sounds great to me. We mostly eat vegetarian meals though.
Jessica says
I was also wondering…what’s the turkey for?
Crystal Paine says
Sandwiches for lunch. My husband and kiddos eat turkey sandwiches almost every day for lunch.
Rachael says
What are you using the smoked turkey for?
Jessi Fearon (@TheBudgetMama) says
Thank you for sharing your meal plan Crystal! I love Checkout 51, especially when shopping at Aldi. Also, those eggs from Kroger are my favorite! 🙂
Yailing says
Is there another supermarket that it’s close enough to Kroger? I live in NJ and we don’t have that one.
Thank you
Crystal Paine says
I looked online and can’t find out for sure. Maybe someone here who lives in NJ or has lived in NJ has some insight for you?
Yailing says
Thank you
Rebecca Toner says
We have Wegmans here in the DC Metro area, which I love! I looked on their site and they have multiple locations in NJ. I’d suggest looking on their site to see if one of their locations is near you.
They have a fabulous produce section, with lots of organic options. Also, they TONS of natural and organic products, at good prices. Also, they send coupons in the mail periodically. Fellow shoppers have been very kind, as well – two separate times people have given me Wegmans coupons they didn’t need, because they saw I could use them. 🙂
Yailing says
I would check it out.
Thank you so much!
jennifer says
This week I have planned: grilled honey mustard chicken sandwiches with lettuce/tomato and corn on the cob, turkey/dressing/gravy/and cranberry sauce, leftovers, taco salads, lasagna/garlic bread and salad, chili supper/trunk or treat at church. Friday nights are our usual eat out night.
Melissa says
Thanks for sharing. I’m curious how many different fruits and veggies you buy a week. It looks like your main fruits this week are bananas and apples. Is buying two types of fruit on sale typical for you?
We’ve tightened our grocery budget a lot, but I always wonder about how many different types of fruits and veggies I should buy. Too much variety is good for health but not so good for the budget. Just curious what you do.
Here’s our menu plan for the week:
http://www.momsplans.com/2014/10/menu-planning-october-18-2014/
Crystal Paine says
I think we usually average 4-5 different fruits/veggies per week. Usually whatever is on sale, whatever we need for recipes, and then some of the old standbys that we eat a lot of (i.e. apples and bananas).
Susan says
My family eat a lot of apples, and I just love fall when honey-crisps are in season. The best price I’ve seen is $2.99/lb, expensive, but so good.
My local Kroger affiliate carries “lunchbox size” gala apples for $.99/lb always, and that’s what I normally buy. They’re truly a great size for my daughter’s lunch (and mine).
Crystal Paine says
I LOVE Honey Crisp apples. If only they weren’t usually so expensive!
Elizabeth says
My shopping was horrific this week 🙁
$136.83
What really tossed me over was the Sam’s Club trip. But I won’t go anywhere else for hamburger now and I’m stocked up for awhile. Telling you their prices on 90/10 at least up here beat Kroger hands down even with kroger coupons on the meat. Stocked up on a couple other things too we ran out of.
I’ve been trying to keep up with the Checkout 51 though it does add a lot of extra time as I start having to manually enter a lot of store brand items but my hope is to get things to a bit more of an exact so I can watch my budget a little closer. I used to do that with the Sunday newspaper and just spend the day clipping coupons, matching deals and figuring out sales but I was spending probably close to 8 hours a week. As my husband puts it, “How much is your time worth.” I still use coupons but I tend to find for what I plan instead of 100% planning around around the coupons themselves.
Now if you’re not already I’m not sure how I signed up for it years ago but I’m on Kroger’s mailing stuff so I often get things in the mail for coupons. Many times there is like ‘Save $2 when you spend $10 in produce’ and items like that so might look into how to get onto that.
Crystal Paine says
On Checkout51, I just take my receipt after shopping, log into the app, see if I bought anything that qualifies, and snap a picture. I think it might take me all of one minute to do so now that I’ve done it a few times. It’s fun to get a little cashback on items I already bought!
Kim says
I saw the Kroger Omega 3 enriched eggs for $2.99/dozen and a my Kroger they had them marked down to $0.29/dozen yesterday. I bought 8 dozen. I was so excited!
Crystal Paine says
Wow!!!! What a deal!
Kelly says
The 3# bags of gala apples at my Aldi this week were on sale for $1.19! I bought 6 bags; I’d have bought more if I had more refrigerated storage space. I find it interesting to see the different prices among Aldi stores.
Lana says
Wow! They were 1.99 at my store but we made a trip to the apple stand and bought Pink Lady culls for $5 for 1/2 bushel. They are all shapes and sizes but very good.
Kelly says
The 3# bags of gala apples at my Aldi this week were on sale for $1.19! I bought 6 bags; I’d have bought more if I had more refrigerated storage space. I find it interesting to see the different prices among Aldo stores.
Vickie says
Your Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie sounds delicious! Do you have a recipe?
You can see my menu plan for this week here:
http://vickieskitchenandgarden.blogspot.com/2014/10/menu-plan-for-week-of-oct-19.html
Ellen @ Cutting Tiny Bites says
That’s a lot of bananas! I agree with Faith’s comment (and your response)– your shopping trips look a lot like mine, now, with tons of produce and whole foods, but fewer coupons. It’s nice to see a budget that resembles mine, too!
Here’s what we’re eating this week:
http://www.cuttingtinybites.com/2014/10/menu-plan-monday-october-19-25.html
Jane Lomax says
The Fresh Market in my town has boneless chicken breasts for $2.99 a pound and ground chuck for $2.99 a pound every Tuesday. It’s a great deal for the quality of their meat!
Faith says
So excited to see your new grocery posts! They look a bit like how i shop for my family. Have you stopped using coupons? I noticed you mention the cash back apps in your recent grocery shopping posts, but I didn’t see coupons. Do you plan on using them again or have you shifted your savings to only using apps?
Crystal Paine says
Since we’re mostly buying whole foods and doing a lot of our shopping at ALDI, we’re using a lot fewer coupons than we used to. But we’ll still use them if it’s a great deal on something that we’ll use (for instance, I used coupons on Almond Milk a few weeks ago because it was on sale and, with the coupons, was only $0.99 per carton!)
Kim says
Snap has a rebate on your toothpaste now, if you purchased it within the past 2 days.
We’re trying to eat from the pantry/freezer for a while
Breakfast–oatmeal
Lunches–Chilled zucchini soup, bread, homemade ice cream; Turkey sandwiches, carrots; Bananas, hard boiled eggs
Suppers–Taco salad (taco meat from freezer) w/ homemade Ranch dressing x2; Homemade chicken pot pie x2 (cooked chicken, broth, & veggies from freezer); Chicken Spinach Lasagne x2 (cooked chicken, broth, & spnach from freezer); Leftovers
Crystal Paine says
We didn’t! 🙁 Thanks so much for mentioning that, though! And what a yummy menu!