I only spent $67.08 on groceries 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.).
You can see all of my $70 Grocery Budget Update posts here. For live updates, be sure to follow my Instagram Stories.
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.
I only had $5.66 left in my $70 grocery budget to spend on Friday, so I had to be careful and use it sparingly. I only needed to pick up two items — distilled water for my sinus rinse (this has been the BEST thing ever — I no longer have to be on allergy meds or sinus meds because of using this daily and changing my diet!) and lemon water for my gallon of lemon water a day habit. 🙂
(I should have realized that I was almost out of both of these things earlier in the week, but I totally didn’t. That’s just life sometimes, isn’t it?!)
So, while I was at Kroger, I picked up my FREE Friday item — the picture shows the Doritos Blaze, but it’s actually good on ANY Doritos. I didn’t realize this until I got home and was talking about it on Facebook Live.
I also wanted to pick up some Kroger bandages. They are on sale for $1 per box right now AND there is a $1/2 digital coupon. Since I only had $5.66 left in my grocery budget, I just picked up two boxes since I thought they would be $0.50 each.
Well, when I went to check out, they rang up as $1 per box, but then the e-coupon took $4 off — making each box FREE! I couldn’t figure out why my total was so low until I looked carefully at my receipt.
Kroger Shopping Trip — spent $2.74
- Doritos — Free with Free Friday Download digital coupon
- Lemon Juice — $1.69
- Distilled Water — $0.89
- 4 boxes of bandages — on sale for $1 each, used $1/2 digital coupon (limit of 5 uses per card per transaction) — the coupon took off $4 (I’m not sure why!) making these FREE!
- Total with tax: $2.74
See more details on the deals I got in the video above.
All totaled, I spent $2.74 at the store — bringing my final grocery spending total for this week to just $67.08, a few dollars under my $70 budget! YAY!
By the way, if these posts on my grocery budget have been making you frustrated or you’re feeling like, “I just can’t do what she’s doing!”, I want you to read this post I wrote.
Subscribe for free email updates from Money Saving Mom® and get my Guide to Freezer Cooking for free!
31 Comments
-
These are some of my favorite posts and highly motivating to me! We are also a family of five but we have special dietary issues. My goal this past week was to reduce our weekly food budget to $100 and it was $99! Previously, I thought that I couldn’t save money because of our food restrictions but I wasn’t really ready to try.
-
I am LOVING these posts! You have inspired me to get back in the game of trying to cut down my grocery budget. Found some great markdowns at my Kroger today.
-
I wondered if you have a goal or designation for the money you are saving. Or if you are saving some back to groceries to restock the pantry later.
We got good produce this week and also ordered from Azure. Most of our meat is from zaycon and most grains from azure then dairy,eggs, and produce at Aldi or Fresh Thyme. -
Just wanted to say that if you go to the DeLallo website they have good coupons you can use on little bottles of lemon juice, which my Kroger keeps in the aisle with the Italian specialty items. The coupons refresh every month, and I keep getting lemon juice for pennies. I have enough stockpiled to easily last a few months.
-
Thank you for sharing these posts! I fell off of the frugal shopper train and our finances could tell. These have been very motivating and timely.
-
Are you not following the diet of your nutritionist anymore? I don’t know if you have addressed this anywhere, but it seems like your groceries the past few weeks have been more “normal” meals.
-
These posts motivated me. I shop Clicklist at the Kroger store where I pick at. I do what works for me and that is shopping the sales that fit what I am going to cook and prepared. Keep up the great work. Since I been working Clicklist almost two years ago I lost 70 pounds. I workout and feel great.
-
Yay and way to go!!!
-
-
I hope I’m not being to nosy by asking this, but I know some bloggers earn a lot of gift cards through Swagbucks and things like that and use them to shop on Amazon or other websites. If you do that, do you count things you buy for “free” with gift cards when figuring your $70? I mean – are you spending $70 plus getting free toiletries or food or cleaning items with gift cards, or do you count the value of the free stuff in the $70? That could potentially make a huge difference in a budget – especially compared with someone not earning tons of free gift cards through blogging to supplement their budget.
-
I wanna know more ’bout this lemon rinse thing (I deal with allergies too 😀 )
-
Hi,
I was wondering how you used the distilled water for a sinus rinse please
thanks -
Hi! I wanted to chime in as well. We have a large family of 8, I’m pregnant, and we eat a lot of nuts, seeds, greens, avocados and berries (but less meat) compared to most families. I felt like I really wanted to try this challenge too but I knew $70 wasn’t going to work for us. 😉 Also my husband totally doesn’t like me running all over town or couponing because I really can’t afford the time at this point in life. I did Walmart delivery and Aldi this week along with the farmers market, planned carefully, and spent $250 this week. I won’t have to buy some of that stuff next week though (diapers and chicken for instance) so I’m aiming for more like $200 a week for the rest of the month. I’m trying so hard! I so want to shave several hundred off our budget per month!!!
-
I sometimes just shop at Aldi 2 or 3 times a month for our family of six. I do appreciate the time saving part of shopping less frequently. Grocery shopping is very much do what works for your family right now.
-
I’m so glad to see someone post with a large family! I also have a family of 8- and I’m averaging $250 a week. That’s with couponing, deal shopping, using Aldi for most things . I’d love to get my weekly total to $200 also, but with 4 teenagers- maybe $225 would be more realistic. Thanks for your comment. Makes me feel like I’m not too off track! ?
-
Money Saving Mom® Comment Policy
We love comments from readers, so chime in with your thoughts below! We do our best to keep this blog upbeat and encouraging, so please keep your comments cordial and kind. Read more information on our comment policy.