Want to see what we bought for this week’s $70 grocery budget? I’m currently challenging myself to stick with a $70 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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I’ve been finding a LOT of random markdowns at Kroger recently, so my shopping trips this week were mostly made up of those!
Kroger Shopping Trip #1
- Kroger Eggs — marked down to $1.29
- Cinnamon Raisin Bread — marked down to $1.29
- 2 cans of canned Pineapple — marked down to $0.49 each
- JIF peanut butter — marked down to $0.99 each
- Kettle cooked chips — marked down to $0.79
- Kroger sour cream — $1.39
- Deli chicken — marked down to $2.39
- Elbow macaroni — marked down to $0.39
- 1 bag of peppers/squash — marked down to $0.99
- Kroger peanuts — marked down to $0.89
- Sirloin Steak — marked down to $4.40
- 1 bag of cucumbers — marked down to $0.99
- Strawberries — $1.50
- 2 cans of Kroger soup — $0.79 each
- 1 bag of lemons — marked down to $0.99
- Bananas — marked down to $0.39/lb. = $0.71
- Tyson Frozen Chicken — $6.99
- 2 cans of salmon — marked down to $1.99 each
- Package of Kind Breakfast Bars — marked down to $0.99
- 2 cans of green beans — marked down to $0.29 each
- Simple Truth organic seltzer water — marked down to $0.99 each
- 2 boxes of Rice-a-Roni — marked down to $0.49 each
- Kroger taco seasoning — marked down to $0.19
- Total with tax: $41.96
I was excited about the Weekend Deals at Kroger this week and am going back to hit some of the others on Monday!
Kroger Shopping Trip #2
- Salad Kit — $1.99
- Nature Valley Granola Bar — marked down to $0.69
- Kroger eggs — marked down to $1.29
- Annie’s Mac & Cheese — marked down to $0.59 each
- Capri Sun — marked down to $0.69
- JIF Peanut Butter — marked down to $0.89
- 3 packages of Smithfield Bacon — $2.99 each with Weekend Deals
- Kind bar — Free with Free Friday coupon
- Creamed Corn — $0.99
- Kroger Green Beans — $0.59
- 5 Lara Bars — $0.50 each with Weekend Deals
- Franks Red Hot Sauce — Well, I thought this was supposed to be $0.99 with the Kroger Weekend Deals but as I was typing this up, I realized that I think I actually paid $2.99 for this!! Now I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth taking back to the store. Probably not? But I kind of surprised that I didn’t catch that I overpaid for this. 🙁 I usually am really good at carefully checking everything. Here’s another good reason why you should check your receipt really thoroughly before leaving the store!
- Lettuce — $1.79
- Total with tax: $26.18
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, Toast, Oatmeal, Peanut Butter & Honey Sandwiches (Silas and Kaitlynn have been loving this for breakfast recently!), Eggs
Lunches:
- Ham Sandwiches, Granola Bars, Yogurt, Capri Sun, Salad, Leftovers, Fruit
Snacks:
- Cookies, Popcorn, Ice Cream, Go-Gurts, Apple Crisp, Fruit, Veggies
Dinners:
- Sunday — Fend For Yourself
- Monday — Slow Cooker Teriyaki Beef with Pineapple over rice, fruit
- Tuesday — Slow Cooker Chicken Tetrazzini, green beans
- Wednesday — Breakfast for dinner: Pancakes, sausage, fruit
- Thursday — Barbecue Chicken, Noodles, Fruit
- Friday — Smoked Ribs, Green Beans with bacon/garlic/onion, creamed corn
- Saturday — Leftovers
Total spent on groceries: $68.14
Cashback earned this week: 50 points for submitting my receipts to Fetch rewards
Would you walk away from $2.00, if you found it on the ground? Of course not…just take your receipt and check in at customer service before you shop next time there. I’ve never had a problem with getting money refunded — because I’d never lie about this. And you wouldn’t, either. The customer service people can tell, I’m guessing.
Then use the two bucks for something nice for your kids.
Well, I’m not completely sure if I bought the right one… it was on the display, but I thought maybe I was supposed to get the smaller size and that’s why the coupon didn’t come off? I just didn’t want to ask them to refund something that was actually my error, you know??
My Kroger trip was a disaster this weekend. This weekends deals were conveniently displayed on pallets through out the store. I shopped off the pallets, which had the sale price advertised, only from the products the store put out for this event. Was charged $2.99 for the Franks Red hot sauce, 3 of my cake mixes rang up correctly, but the other 2 rang up $1.99 each, etc. Almost $20 in over charges.
I’m SO sorry! Hopefully they are able to help you get refunded for what you were overcharged?
That happened to me at Fry’s! I bought 5 Betty Crocker brownie mixes that were supposed to be .50 each and I got home and realized I paid 1.25 each. I pulled up my app to see if I mistakenly didn’t download the coupon, and it said error and showed I had zero coupons loaded. Maybe their app had a glitch??
Oh no!! Hopefully you’re able to get your money back!
I am visiting my son and DIL and they have a Kroger near by. I am enjoying looking for all those great buys! Do you know if mark downs are typically done in the morning or evening?
It really seems to vary from store to store! I’ve found it works best to just try shopping at different times to see if you notice when they are consistently marking things down. At the store I shop at most often, it’s typically between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m.
We love the broccoli crunch salad from Kroger! I’m always so excited to find it on mark down. My daughter and I can eat the whole package!
Some of those bagged salads are just so good!
Its worth going back if you were overcharged. Here in ny Erie county. You get the difference plus 5 times the mistake up to ten dollars back. I would never leave that on the table. Its called a super refund and they have to do it by law.
Go back money saving mom if you were overcharged.
Holy cow! When did they start that? I used to live in Buffalo, but I never knew!!
Oh wow! That’s amazing!
I’m feeling blessed to have found this. I’ve been in a nursing home and that was 8 yrs of my life starting at 49 yrs of age. It was an experience that had some good reasons, but the last 3 yrs were particularly miserable, truely miserable. Not wanting sympathy for anything I’m sharing just want you to know that I’m like a child taking her 1st steps. Meaning, remember the old saying, “If you don’t use it you lose it”, well it’s like that for me with just about everything. Mostly because I’ve by the grace of God I got another chance to live out in the “real world” in my own home. So I’m trying to learn the insurance & outs of paying bills, cooking, shopping, Dr appts etc… So this is very helpful and I thank you so much. Bless you, and sorry this was so long, I was just wanting to fill in some blanks for you. Thanks again.
I’m just a regular reader here, and your comment really touched me. I’m rejoicing with you at your opportunity to live more independently. I pray that you fulfill all of God’s wonderful plan for your life!
I am so proud of you! Thank you for your kind words of encouragement and I’m so grateful to have you reading here and I’m so happy that this was helpful!