If you’re new here, I practice the Buy Ahead Principle — which means that what we buy each week is often for future weeks. We stock up on the best deals and markdowns each week and that means that we then have a variety of items from previous shopping trips to use to plan a menu from.
With the increase in grocery prices, I’ve decided to raise our grocery budget to $100 a week because I’ve not been having enough wiggle room to stock up like I’d want to. This amount will still challenge me to be creative while also giving me enough breathing room to stock up and continue to practice the Buy Ahead Principle.
In addition to practicing the Buy Ahead Principle, I Reverse Meal Plan. This means that I plan based upon what we have on hand plus what good sales/markdowns I found at the stores. (Read more about Reverse Meal-Planning here.)
{Follow me on Instagram stories for real-time videos on what I’m buying if you don’t want to have to wait for me to get the post written up for the blog!}
Here’s what I bought for $99.78 at Kroger this week…
I was excited to find so many meat and bread markdowns. I stick these in the freezer to use for future weeks.
And I finally found a chicken deal!! It feels like markdowns and sales on chicken have been so few and far between, so I was thrilled to find three big packages marked down!
This was a pretty good deal on bacon! I buy it and freeze it to use for breakfast for dinner nights.
The kids asked for cereal and I not only picked up the big boxes of Kellogg’s cereal on sale for $1.79/box this week (plus, you can get a free book from Kellogg’s for each box you buy!) and I found Cascadian Farms cereal marked down to $0.99/box!
Kierstyn loves grapes, so I always buy some when they are $0.99/pound.
Can you believe all of those produce markdowns?? I haven’t seen this many in month and months!
Mandarin oranges are on sale for $3.49 for a 3-lb. bag with the digital coupon!
My shopping helper! 🙂
This made me so sad…. I have been fighting to stay within our $70 a week budget as well (with 3 teenage boys) and just on Sunday told my husband we were going to have to relook at our budget to adjust the grocery spending… and then saw you had to do the same as well. But had to laugh – I found my first chicken deal in a while too, so maybe chicken prices might go down a bit again!
My question – when you buy ahead so much, won’t that in the end lower your budget overall? Just wondering if you can do a few months at $100, stock up a lot and then you shouldn’t have to buy as much? Or once you get a good stock, lower your overall budget to $90 a week?
I struggle with freezing meat and then having it thawed when I need it. If I buy it as a mark down it is pretty short on ise-by date time, probably only a day at most. Then when trying to thaw it for use, it can take 2 days in the fridge. What kind of time do you use for thawing when planning your meals?
I almost always thaw in the sink in water and it usually is thawed within 2-6 hours, depending upon the meat. If that doesn’t work for you, you could try cooking the meat before you freeze it.
What day of the week do you shop at Kroger and find the best Manager Special items? I see from this post you snagged a BUNCH!
I try to shop Wednesday or Thursday when the new sale starts. I’ve found mid-mornings are usually the best time to shop because they do produce/meat/bread markdowns in the morning. But it really varies from week to week!
Just curious what day you shop?
I try to shop Wednesday or Thursday when the new sale starts. I’ve found mid-mornings are usually the best time to shop because they do produce/meat/bread markdowns in the morning. But it really varies from week to week!
Do you go to Kroger on a particular day to find the markdowns? Or super early in the morning? I can never seem to time it right at my store.
I’ve found mid-mornings are usually the best time to shop because they do produce/meat/bread markdowns in the morning. But it really varies from week to week!
I think different stores (even Kroger’s) vary. Mine never has decent markdowns on meat. The markdown price is always higher than what a good sale price would be. Our markdown produce section is tiny. And I just about never find markdowns on pantry and dairy items. Sometimes I can get good bakery items. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m in a big city and there isn’t as much waste or what. Probably just how our Kroger is managed. Maybe they sell the pantry items to a bent and dent?