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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Kroger Shopping Trip #1:
- 2 Aussie Conditioning Treatment — $1.99 when you buy 5 participating items, used $2/2 Kroger Digital coupon = $0.99 each
- 2 boxes of Orville Redenbacher popcorn — $0.99 each when you buy 5 participating items
- 1 Bertolli Pasta Sauce — $1.29 when you buy 5 participating items
- 1 bag potato chips — marked down to $0.99
- 2 packages of Beef Fajitas — marked down to $3.99 each
- 2 dozen organic eggs — marked down to $1.49 each
- Olive Oil Spray — $2.99
- Vitamin D Milk — $2.49
- Total with tax: $27.06
I went to Kroger again on Friday to grab the Special K bars that were part of the Friday & Saturday deal.
When I walked in, I saw this sign for this 4-day sale that I didn’t know anything about!! Plus, I found that they had pineapple and cantaloupe on sale for $0.99 each!
Kroger Shopping Trip #2:
- 5 boxes of Special K Bars — $1.49 each with Friday-Saturday deals
- Flour — marked down $1.39
- 3 bags of sugar — $0.99 each
- Ghirardelli Chocolate Chips — marked down to $1.50
- Organic Greens — marked down to $2.99
- 2 Grapefruit — marked down to $0.99
- Organic canned tomatoes — marked down to $0.49
- Pumpkin Spice Sparkling Cider — marked down to $1.39
- Half & Half – $1.79
- Asparagus — $0.89
- Kroger cereal — $1.49
- 3 tubs of Purity Ice Cream — $1.99 each
- 2 cantaloupe — $0.99 each
- 2 pineapple — $0.99 each
- Total with tax: $35.41
And I got an email from Sprouts with a coupon to scan at the register to get some GREAT produce deals. (This coupon is also available in the app, if you have the app.)
Sprouts Shopping Trip
- 2 Blackberries — $0.99 each
- 8 cucumbers — 4 for $1
- 8 pounds of oranges — $1 per 4 pounds
- Total with tax: $6.22
Total spent on groceries: $68.69
Cashback earned this week: 75 points for submitting my receipts to Fetch rewards,$0.25 back from iBotta for submitting my receipt
Ke says
I miss seeing the menus too! It’s helpful for my own planning.
Natalie says
I love the menu plans it helps me out thank you
Jessica says
I would definitely appreciate you bringing back the menu plan. We just took a huge pay cut and I am trying to find ways to pull my grocery budget down.
Crystal Paine says
I’m so sorry for the pay cut. And I’m so happy to hear that people found the menu plans helpful!
Janet says
One thing I used to do often when our budget was lower was to use fryer leg quarters. You can generally get them for 69 cents a pound and you can do a lot with them. For example, I throw 4 in a large soup pot with salt pepper and water and boil them. We’d eat 2 the first night with some egg noodles boiled in the same water and have mixed veggies of some sort for a side. Then, I skin and debone the other two and throw them back in the pot with the rest of the noodles and vegetables and make a pot of soup. You can also cut off the thighs to fry in a skillet with a large can of mushroom soup and put this over rice. The remaining drumsticks can be cooked in a covered casserole dish with barbecue sauce. Hope this helps to give you some ideas. Our income has gone up and down over the years, so we’ve gotten pretty good at being frugal.
Jennie says
I also really liked seeing the menus!
Christi Layman says
You should try the Wright bacon (on sale last Friday and Sat at Kroger for $4.99/lb). It is delicious….and normally $9.99/lb. I always buy 5 whenever they offer this sale and then freeze it! My boys think it’s a real treat!
Crystal Paine says
I couldn’t bring myself to pay that much for bacon, even though it looked good! 🙂 Typically, the most I’ll ever pay for bacon is $3-ish per package.
Mel says
It has more per oz if that helps you (next time)
Christi says
I should have added that it is $4.99 for 24 oz (1.5 lbs) of bacon….which makes it 21 cents an ounce. I have found that most bacon is 12 oz (which at $3/package is 25 cents/ounce), and occasionally, I find 16 ounce packages (which is slightly cheaper than this deal, IF you can find a 16 oz package for $3). However, this bacon is definitely better than your average, run of the mill bacon! Anyway, I’ve found that even though its price is higher, if you look at price per ounce, it is a great deal!
Crystal Paine says
Thanks for mentioning that! I sometimes have gotten bacon for as low as $1.99 per package this year, but when it’s $2.99 per package, I typically try to make sure it’s the more expensive kind. I typically think in servings more than ounces, though. I know that one package of bacon will serve our family at dinner… so that’s how I do the calculations. I suppose I could only make a half package of this, but I’m pretty sure my family would be too excited about that! 😉
Bethany says
For what it’s worth, I really enjoy seeing the menus you create. Perhaps to save time you could skip sharing breakfast and lunch and just focus on dinner? That’s the one I find most interesting and inspirational!
Crystal Paine says
Thanks for your input!
Charlotte says
Oranges should be $1/4 lbs, not $1 per pound.
Crystal Paine says
Whoops! Thanks for catching my typo!
Taylor says
Leave the weekly meal plan! I notice and care 🙂
Pam says
Are you not showing the weekly meals you ate anymore? I noticed it was missing last week too. Thanks for taking the time to share your grocery trips.
Crystal Paine says
I wanted to see if anyone noticed and cared. 🙂 It takes quite a bit more time for me to track that and include that so I figured I’d leave it off and see if people noticed and cared or not. 😉
Chantal says
I was looking for your menu also..Maybe you could do just the dinners 😀
Gina Bridges says
I noticed and miss them as well. Please include them. I’m always interested in new ideas for my family.
Also miss your cooking videos.
Crystal Paine says
Thanks so much for letting me know!