$70 Grocery Budget: Aldi, Dollar Tree, Sprouts, Big Lots, Walgreens, and Kroger hauls + what we ate this week

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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Well, after a few weeks of mostly shopping at Kroger, I’m excited to have a LOT of stores to highlight in today’s post. I know that many of you are often begging for me to show more than just Kroger, so enjoy this post with LOTS of stories featured in it!

Walgreens had Xtra laundry detergent on sale for just $0.99 this past week — no coupons needed! While we still have some laundry detergent in our stockpile, I went ahead and bought three more to add to our stockpile since I couldn’t pass up this price!

Walgreens Shopping Trip

• Xtra laundry detergent — $0.99 each
• Used $2 Walgreens Rewards
• Total plus tax: $1.26 

I was excited to discover that Kroger had cantaloupe on sale for $0.99.

Kroger Shopping Trip

• Kroger half & half — $1.79
• Vitamin D milk — $2.49
• Cage-Free Organic Brown Eggs — marked down to $1.79 per dozen
• Queso Fresco — free with Free Friday download coupon
• 2 loaves of bread — marked down to $1.79 each
• 3 bags of oranges — marked down to $0.99 each
• 1 bag of pears/apple — marked down to $0.99
• Bananas — marked down to $0.39 per pound
• 2 Cantaloupes — $0.99 each
• Suave Men’s Shampoo — $0.99 when you buy 5 participating items
• Palmolive dish soap — $1.99 when you buy 5 participating items, Used $1/1 Kroger Digital Coupon = $0.99
• Suave Kids’ Shampoo — $0.99 when you buy 5 participating items, Used $1/1 Kroger Digital Coupon = free after coupon
• Suave Shampoo — $0.99 when you buy 5 participating items
• Irish Spring deodorant — $0.99 when you buy 5 participating items
• 3 cartons of Almond Breeze Milk — $0.99 each when you buy 5 participating items
• Epic Bar — $0.99 when you buy 5 participating items, used $1/1 Kroger Digital Coupon = free after coupon
• 6-pack Ginger Beer — marked down to $0.89
• 8 packages of frozen veggies — $1 each
• Kind Granola Bars — $1.99 when you buy 5 participating items, used $1.50/1 Kroger Digital Coupon = $0.49 after coupon
• Total with tax: $40.03

We ran into Aldi today because we were right by there to see if there were any good deals. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and picked up the squash thinking the sign said it was $0.79… and discovered when I got home that it was actually $0.79 per POUND. Oops!

Psst! See my 25 Favorite Things to Buy at Aldi.

Aldi Shopping Trip

• 2 Mac & Cheese — $0.49 each
• Mango Juice — $1.29
• Organic apples — $2.99
• Strawberries — $1.49
• Chocolate Chips — $1.89
• Squash — $2.39 (NOT $0.79 — oh well!)
• Total with tax: $11.38

And then we went to Dollar Tree — Kaitlynn’s favorite store! (See my 25 Favorite Things to Buy at Dollar Tree.)

Dollar Tree Shopping Trip

• 4 bottles of lemon juice — $1 each (I use these for my gallon of lemon water that I drink every day.)
• Apple Cider Vinegar — $1
• Lentils — $1
• Total with tax: $6.41

And we ran by Big Lots because I was hoping to find some markdowns or some clearance bread, but I only found these dried cranberries for $0.15 — which will be perfect for my salads.

Total at Big Lots with tax: $0.64

Did you see the freebies we posted that you could get at Sprouts right now? I added them to my app and was able to pick two of them up today (they were out of the Lemon Snaps) and also pick up the $0.75 blackberries (they sent out a coupon via email that was good this weekend).

Sprouts Shopping Trip

• 4 packages of blackberries — $0.75 each with the Weekend Only coupon
• Coconut Water — free with the app coupon
• Sprouts Frozen Entree — free with the app coupon
• Total with tax: $3.20

By the way, here are the freebies I got in the mail this week:

• Essie Nail Polish — I was SO excited about this freebie (and so was Kaitlynn!)
• Persil Laundry Detergent sample
• Health magazine
• Kroger magazine — this has some great coupons in the center of it!
• Orgain Protein sample
• The Louder Song and Brunch at Bittersweet Cafe — free books from My Reader Rewards

By the way, if you want to start getting great freebies in your mailbox, just start signing up for the free things I post every day that interest you. Within 4-6 weeks, your mailbox will start filling up with great freebies!

I have been loving the free Queso Fresco I got (I had never tried it before that I know of!). And I have found that it is so yummy on my salads and so delicious in omelettes.

What We Ate This Past Week

Note: When you see the meals below, please remember this: I buy ahead often. Which means that when I find a great deal on something I know we’ll use, I buy as much as I can afford in our budget to have on hand.

This means that you aren’t going to see all of the groceries my shopping trip that I used to make all of the meals we ate.

Please also remember that I’m putting this out there and it’s not a perfectly balanced menu. This is just really what we ate — and I hope that it encourages you to see the real-ness and lack of perfection here.

Breakfasts:

• Cereal, Oatmeal, Scrambled Eggs, Omelettes, Peanut Butter/Banana Toast, Bananas

Lunches:

• Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Grapefruit, Avocados, Hard Boiled Eggs, Salads, Leftovers, Oranges, Apples, Cookies

Snacks:

• Oranges, Cookies, Bananas, Hard Boiled Eggs

Dinners:

• Sunday — Cracker Barrel
• Monday — Noodles, Italian Chicken, Peas
• Tuesday — Roasted Potatoes, Pork Tenderloin, Oranges
• Wednesday — Barbecued Chicken, Roasted Broccoli, Baked Potatoes, Naan, Cantaloupe
• Thursday — Pancakes, Fried Potatoes, Bacon, Cantaloupe
• Friday — Leftovers/Fend for yourself
• Saturday — Papa John’s (We had a gift card!)

Total spent on groceries: $62.92

Cashback earned this week: 160 points for submitting my receipts to Fetch rewards.