
We’re kicking off the year with an 8-week Cut Your Grocery Bill Challenge. I’ll be sharing a weekly post here every Thursday with a task or challenge for you to complete/focus on to help you tweak, improve, or overhaul your grocery budget.
My hope is that we can all work together to crowd-source new ideas and fresh inspiration to be more thoughtful and intentional in our grocery budgets + hopefully save some money and instill some practices and principles and habits that will continue to save us money throughout the rest of the year.

It’s February and that means we’re starting week 6 of the Cut Your Grocery Bill Challenge. How is it going for you? Here’s what we’ve covered in this challenge so far…
In week #1, we talked about setting up a grocery budget. That’s the most important first step in cutting your grocery bill.
In week #2, we discussed why you need to recognize potential roadblocks. Be sure to read through the comments here to hear about others’ roadblocks. I think it will encourage you to know you’re not alone.
In week #3, I challenged you to commit to change one thing for three weeks. You can see the comments on the post for ideas of what others picked.
In week #4, I encouraged you to check in on your progress to see how you are doing, what you are learning, what’s working, and what’s not working.
Last week, we talked about evaluating your options when it comes to stores in your area.


Week #6: Check In On Your Commitment
Remember in week #3 when I challenged you to commit to change one thing for three weeks? Well, guess what? It’s been three weeks and it’s time for us to circle back to that commitment and evaluate how it’s going.
First off, are you sticking with it? If so, that’s amazing? Has it been harder or easier than you thought? What have you learned from it? Are you ready to add another new thing to implement or change?
Take some time this week to really think through these questions and leave a comment below letting us know what you discovered, learned, or have been contemplating!

In the spirit of last week’s post on evaluating the stores you have available to shop at, I decided to go back to my roots and shop at more than one store this week. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I felt like it stretched our grocery budget to do this. It also may have just been a really good week for markdowns, too.
But, based upon this week’s success, I’m going to try to shopping at both Kroger and Aldi each week for the next few weeks and then re-evaluate. (I can easily go to Kroger right after Kierstyn’s swimming lessons and then David has therapy right by Aldi and he has two back-to-back sessions, so Micah and I are usually hanging out and I could swing by Aldi during this time.)

I found an amazing deal on pumpkin at Kroger this week — these big cans were marked down to just $0.60 each!!

I used to shop at Aldi almost primarily for all our groceries. It’s so weird that it feels foreign to me now — but it’s also all redone, so it has a much different feel, too!

Aldi had avocados for just $0.65/each.

Here are the current egg and milk prices — a little lower than Kroger.

Mac & Cheese from Aldi is still one of our favorite buys!





Here were all the groceries we bought at both Aldi and Kroger combined (I also bought a dozen eggs and forgot to get them in the picture!) Our total was a little under $100!
Week #6 Project: Check In On Your Commitment
Are joining us for the Cut Your Grocery Bill Challenge? If so, I’d love for you to leave a comment and tell us how you are doing on what you committed to change in week #3. It’s okay if you need to be brutally honest and say that it’s not going well for you at all. Or, we’d love to celebrate with you if things are going really well!

Need some practical ideas for ways to cut your grocery bill? Be sure to sign up for my free cheatsheet with 10 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill by $50 This Week!
I started to implement your methods and I have my grocery budget at $150 for two weeks. It’s me and my husband plus my 5 year old grandson every two weeks for the weekend. That includes food and other items like paper towels. I look for sales, coupons and shop at different stores. I also use a Flashfood app that saves me a lot of money along with coupon apps that give me digital coupons. Sometimes I go over but I have been doing well.
This is amazing!! Way to go!
We live in Western Mt. We have a Walmart, Super One, n a Safeway for Grocery stores. We also have a Walgreens, and a couple gas station convenient store to shop at. We have 2 meat Market retailers. One is real expensive n sure about the other one. Will have to check it out. Thanks for all the tips n advice on food shopping. I am trying to be more consistant with meal planning. I have a family of six to plan for. With my Husband only able to eat soft or liquids foods. A real challenge. I have 2 teenagers n 4 adults to plan for. Keep up the good work n advice.
I love all the encouragement you offer on your blog! Last year, with rising prices, I decided to implement a lot of your methods and it has definitely helped! I’ve noticed I keep improving as time goes on. My kids are in a youth orchestra program on Tuesday evenings in a town about 30 minutes away from our home. There is an Aldi and a Ruler there (Ruler is a Kroger affiliate similar to Aldi). By shopping at both places I’ve been able to save a lot! The Ruler has had eggs for $1.99 for the past several weeks and they often have bagged salad marked down that still looks good. Generally though Aldi has the better prices.
Yay! I love that you keep improving as time goes on!
I’ve pretty much stuck to my target of $160 a week. Actually I have come under that to most times $130 or $140 a week.
Committed to making every meal from scratch. Kids have joined into the fun. I’ve made it a whole family thing. Kids look for sales stickers at the store.
Husband keeps me accountable and won’t let me give in to justifying going to a restaurant because I’m tired. Kids wait til I cook even though it may be later than expected.
This challenge has been great encouragement!!
Thanks, Crystal.
What in the world will you make with so many cans of pumpkin!!
They last for years. I bought them last year on sale for $.25 and still have some. A favorite at our house has been pumpkin baked oatmeal for breakfast. Other obvious options are pumpkin pie, bread, and muffins. And when you have lots of kids it’s not too hard to go through :).
I also stir it into chili or other soups. It started as a way to use up whatever was leftover in the can after making a different recipe, and now I’ve opened up cans specifically for soup. It freezes well too if you don’t want to use a whole can at one time.
Here’s our favorite pumpkin muffins recipe.
https://www.jessicagavin.com/pumpkin-muffins/
My household are big fans of all things pumpkin.
I bought enough to last for a year! We’ll use them for pumpkin bread and pumpkin choc chip muffins — two of our favorites!
This one is good use too for pumpkin!
https://www.skinnytaste.com/crockpot-turkey-white-bean-pumpkin/