CHEAP cereal & cheese, two bags of groceries for $3.80 at Sprouts, and this week’s menu plan!

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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The Friday-Saturday deals at Kroger were super exciting to us this past weekend! I was thrilled to get cheese for $0.99 per block/bag and the kids were thrilled to get one of their favorite cereals (Honey Bunches of Oats) for just $0.99 per box! I bought two bags of cheese to stick in the freezer for later and three blocks to use over the next few weeks.

I also found organic cage-free eggs marked down to $1.99 per dozen, so you better believe I scooped those up! In fact, I ended up getting 6 dozen!! We love eggs — scrambled, fried, hard-boiled, you name it — so I’m always thrilled when I find a great deal on eggs!

In addition, they had a bunch of organic bananas marked down to $0.39 per pound! Actually, they had a cart FULL of bananas marked down, but I just picked up three big bunches to stick in the freezer for smoothies and banana bread and banana muffins!

Of course, I also picked up the free loaf of Nature’s Own bread that was the Free Friday download this past week. I think it’s probably one of the best Free Friday downloads there has been in a long time.

Saturday Kroger Shopping Trip — $28.42

• Bananas — marked down to $0.39 per pound
• Nature’s Own Bread — Free Friday download
• Organic Arugula — marked down to $1.79
• 5 boxes of Post cereal — $0.99 per box with Digital Coupon
• 5 packages of cheese — $0.99 each with Digital Coupon
• Total with tax: $28.42

Monday Aldi Shopping Trip

I ran into Aldi on Monday to see if there were any markdowns + to pick up a few staple items and baking items. I had a team meeting when I got home and didn’t get pictures taken of my shopping trip, but I did get a video made of my Aldi, Big Lots, and Sprouts shopping trip that you can watch above if you are interested.

Aldi Shopping Trip — $15.22

• Chicken Breasts — $5.99
• Cantaloupe — $0.99
• Baking Soda — $0.49
• Frozen Broccoli — $1.19
• Baking Powder — $0.99
• Milk — $2.69
• Oil — $1.85
• Total with tax: $15.22

Monday Big Lots Shopping Trip

I also stopped by Big Lots to see if there were any great buys in the clearance cart. I didn’t find anything great, but I did go ahead and pick up some whole wheat flour for $3.

I am planning to make a trip to Nolensville soon to check out the Bulk Foods Store there to see what their prices are on flour and I also want to check Sprouts, but for now, that was a decent price for higher quality flour.

Total spent with tax: $3.20

Monday Sprouts Shopping Trip

Y’all! I am kind of geeking out over this Sprouts discovery! I still can’t believe that this store has been sitting so close to Aldi and I’ve not been shopping there.

Maybe it’s just a good week or something, but based upon what you all are telling me, Sprouts regularly has great deals. And I’ve been so impressed with the quality of their food and their customer service.

Case in point, when I was there on Monday, they had corn on the cob marked for 5 for $1 — which is a fantastic deal. I started filling a bag and a woman who worked there came over to me and told me that the sign was actually incorrect. The deal was actually only for the weekend. She said that they had just changed the deal in their system and hadn’t gotten the signage changed.

She told me they would totally honor the price since it was marked as such. However, she told me to make sure to tell them at checkout that they’d need to adjust the price. She told me if I had any issues to just ask them to ask her about it. And then I saw her go straight over to the checkout lane and tell them to honor the price until they got the sign changed.

Also, I have no idea if this was because I just signed up for their email list or if it was some kind of fluke thing, but in the past 5 days, I have gotten two completely free coupon offers in my inbox.

These were at the bottom of their emails — there was a promo for a completely free item. I just added the promo code to my app and it added the digital coupon to my account. Free food?? Hello, I’ll totally take it! 🙂

Are the rest of you getting these coupons? Is this something they regularly do?

I have no idea, but I highly recommend signing up for their email newsletters and always opening them and scrolling to the bottom of them. Also, be sure to download the app to add the promo codes for these digital coupons if you get them, too!

Oh and remember the Driscoll’s strawberries I bought last week? Well, I filled out the surveys for the products on the Driscoll’s survey panel and I got $0.50 Driscoll coupons for each survey I filled out.

So you know what I did, don’t you? Oh yes, I took those coupons and went back to Sprouts and bought 5 more packages of strawberries for $0.48 per package!

By the way, when you fill out your 5th survey then they start giving you $0.75 coupons!! Of course, I filled out the surveys for the $0.48 strawberries I bought (well, actually Silas filled out the surveys — I taught him how to and he sat next to me while I worked and filled them out for me!) and earned $0.75 Driscolls coupons! Now I’m prepared for when they go on sale again! 🙂

If you are wondering what we did with 10 packages of strawberries in a week, we ate 6 packages and froze 4 of them to use in smoothies over the next month. I love having frozen berries — especially when I got them so inexpensively!

Monday Sprouts Shopping Trip — $3.80

• 5 packages of strawberries — on sale for $0.98, used 5 $0.50/1 coupons, $0.48 per package
• Organic Egg Noodles — used FREE product coupon
• Tandoori Naan — used FREE product coupon
• 5 ears of corn on the cob — 5 for $1
• Total with tax: $3.80

This Week’s Simple Menu Plan

This menu is subject to change a little if I find some great deals or markdowns! ?

Breakfasts

Fried/Scrambled Eggs, Cereal, Fruit, Toast, The Best Ever Bran Muffins

Lunches

Mac & Cheese, Cereal, Cheese/Crackers, Fruit, Veggies, Leftovers, Eggs, Yogurt, Salad, Smoothies

Snacks

Banana Bread, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Hard Boiled Eggs, Marked Down Yogurt Chocolate Cake in a Mug

Dinners

Monday: Frittata with sausage, peppers, onions, cheese, Fruit

Tuesday: Leftover Frittata, Fruit

Wednesday: Barbecued Chicken, Corn on the Cob, Fruit

Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner: Waffles, Eggs, Fruit

Friday: Dinner Out

Saturday: Chicken Quesadillas, Fruit, Rice, Beans

Sunday: Snack-y Dinner

Total Spent So Far on Groceries This Week

Total spent so far this week: $50.64

Total left to spend: $19.36

Rebates: $0.25 for submitting a receipt to Ibotta, $0.60 back from Fetch Rewards for scanning three receipts (If you haven’t signed up for Fetch Rewards, you can sign up here and use code WW7XJ and you’ll get a bonus 2,000 points = worth $2.)