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.).
For live updates, be sure to follow my Instagram Stories. See all posts on my $70 Grocery Budget here.
Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and we will be compensated if you click through and sign up. Read our disclosure policy here.
Did you get your free Creamette Thick & Hearty Pasta at Kroger? We already have a lot of pasta, but I couldn’t pass up free pasta!
Here’s what I bought at Kroger this past week:
Kroger Shopping Trip #1:
- 4 boxes of Creamette Thick & Hearty pasta — on sale for $1 each, used $2/4 Kroger Digital coupon = $0.50 each + get $2 back from iBotta = Free after coupon and cashback
- 5 boxes of Kroger Instant Oatmeal — on sale for $1.49 each, used $0.50/1 Kroger coupon (could be used up to 5 times) = $0.99 each after coupon
- 2 packages of Simple Truth Ground Turkey — marked down to $2.79 each
- Kroger pork tenderloin — marked down to $3.49
- Kroger spinach — $1.59
- Kroger Asian Salad Kit — marked down to $1.49
- 3 dozen Cage-Free Brown Eggs — marked down to $1.19 each
- 3 loaves bread — marked down to $1.79 each
- Salad Kit — marked down to $1.49
- Bananas — marked down to $0.39/lb. = $2.06
- Kroger Juice — $2.49
- Kroger half & half — $1.79
- Kroger milk — $2.49
- Deerpark Water — $3.34 — used FREE coupon
- Total with tax: $40.96
Kroger shopping trip #2:
- 5 packages of Smithfield bacon — on sale for $2.99 each with Friday-Saturday Kroger coupon
- 1 bag of avocados — marked down to $0.99
- 1 bag of apples — marked down to $0.99
- 2 bags of King Arthur Flour — $2.99 each when you buy 5 participating items
- 3 bottles of Suave shampoo/conditioner — $0.99 each when you buy 5 participating items
- Total with tax: $27.49
I was hungry for Lasagna one day, so I got creative with what we had on hand. And mixed a pound of ground beef (from the freezer) with a can of tomatoes I had in the pantry.
I also had some cottage cheese in the freezer, so I mixed that with an egg, some salt and pepper and basil, and mozzarella cheese I had in the freezer.
And then I layered that with noodles and the meat sauce and topped it off with cheese… for a Lasagna-ish casserole! 🙂
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:
- Brought to church brunch on Sunday: Egg Casserole & Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars
- Cereal, Oatmeal, Scrambled Eggs, Hard Boiled Eggs, Peanut Butter/Banana Toast, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Bacon, Bananas
Lunches:
- Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Grapefruit, Avocados, Hard Boiled Eggs, Salads, Leftovers, Oranges, Apples, Cookies
Snacks:
- Oranges, Cookies, Bananas, Grapefruit, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Dinners:
- Sunday — Fend for yourself
- Monday — Turkey Meatballs, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Salad
- Tuesday — Italian Chicken, Scalloped Potatoes, Peas
- Wednesday — Italian Chicken, Scalloped Potatoes, Peas
- Thursday — Lasagna Casserole, Peas
- Friday — Leftovers/Fend for yourself
- Saturday — Frozen Pizza, Apples
Total spent on groceries: $68.45
Cashback earned this week: 134 points for submitting my receipts to Fetch rewards+ $2.25 back from iBotta for buying Creamette Pasta and scanning a receipt.
Sam Fisher says
Looks like French toast is in your near future! 🙂
Crystal Paine says
🙂 We’re actually using the bread for toast and sandwiches and have almost gone through all the eggs because we love scrambled eggs and hard boiled eggs!
Susan K. says
That lasagna type dish sounded good! One day I wanted to make lasagna but didn’t have any cottage cheese or ricotta but I did have cream cheese so I used that. I will never use anything except cream cheese again! It tasted so marvelous! After you cook the meat and drain the grease just mix the cream cheese in with the meat and heat on the stove top to make it easy to spread into the lasagna. Seriously try it sometime!☺
Meg says
I agree! Lasagna with cream cheese is SO much better than ricotta or cottage cheese! 🙂 -Meg, MSM Team
Crystal Paine says
I’ve actually tried all three cheeses and ricotta is my very favorite! I think it may be because its the way my mom makes it!