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.).
For live updates, be sure to follow my Instagram Stories. See all posts on my $70 Grocery Budget here.
After three weeks of traveling, it felt good to be home all week this week and to be back into the swing of regular grocery shopping and menu planning again!
Here’s what we bought this week…
Kroger Shopping Trip #1:
- 2 bouquets of flowers — marked down to $1 each (this was one of my favorite deals!)
- 5 cartons of Almond Breeze — $0.99 each when you buy 5 participating items (got $0.25 + $0.75 back from iBotta)
- 2 bags of frozen peas — $1 each
- 1 bottle Eat Kansas City barbecue sauce — marked down to $0.69
- 2 boxes Honey Bunches of Oats — $1.49 each when you buy 5 participating items (got $0.50 each back from iBotta)
- 1 bottle of Simple Truth Marinade — marked down to $0.69
- 2 bags of Kettle Chips — marked down to $0.69 each
- 1 bag of Kettle Chips — marked down to $0.79
- 2 bags of peppers — marked down to $0.99 each
- 1 bag of Tortilla Chips — marked down to $0.79
- Half & Half — $1.99
- 2 gallons milk — $2.79 each
- Veggie Chips — $0.99 when you buy 5 participating items
- Zevia — marked down to $1.25 (got $0.75 back from iBotta)
- 2 bags of avocados — marked down to $0.99 each
- Kale Salad Mix — marked down to $2.99
- 2 Colgate toothpaste — $1.99 each when you buy 5 participating items, used $4/2 Digital Coupon = free
- Total with tax: $35.45
Kroger Shopping Trip #2
- 5 bottles of Simply Lemonade — $0.99 each with Friday-Saturday Deal
- 5 packages Ballpark Buns — $0.99 each with Friday-Saturday Deal
- Saltines — $1.29
- 4 bags of marked down produce — $0.99 each
- Bananas — $0.70
- Italian Meatballs/Brats — $1.99 each with Friday-Saturday deal
- Total with tax: $27.41
Sprouts Shopping Trip
- 6 ears of corn — 6 for $1
- Watermelon — $1.77
- Total with tax: $2.96
Filling Up Our Freezer Again on Our $70/Budget
If you follow me on Instagram Stories, you know that while we were out of town, our freezer power went out and we lost everything in our freezer.
Gratefully, we had opened up our home a lot in the weeks prior and the freezer didn’t have that much in it because we’d eaten down a lot of the surplus (I had been thinking I really needed to replenish it!)
Also, we’re grateful that everything was stuff we’d gotten really inexpensively and that all of the packages stayed in tact so it was not a huge mess to clean up.
I thought it would be fun for you to watch me fill back up my freezer — while sticking with the $70 weekly budget. Here’s what it looked like after week 1. (The package of hot dogs and the buns/bread was in our fridge freezer — I moved it out here since that freezer was pretty stuffed.)
The chicken and ribs were from last week’s Friday-Saturday deals.
And here’s what it looks like as of this weekend. I’m excited because we not have 14 pounds of meat in there! (We usually eat 3-5 pounds of meat per week and I try to stock up on at least 4-7 pounds, so that we’re usually always putting a little more in the freezer than we’re eating.)
What We Ate On Our $70 Grocery Budget 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.
Our Menu Plan
Breakfasts:
- Fried Eggs, Cereal, Pancakes, Apple Muffins, Banana Muffins
Lunches:
- Leftovers, Salad, Mac & Cheese, Fruit
Snacks:
- Fruit, Popcorn, Cookies, Peppers
Dinners:
- Sunday — Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs
- Monday — Barbecued Chicken, Corn, Fruit
- Tuesday — Barbecued Chicken Pizza
- Wednesday — Mac & Cheese
- Thursday — Mac & Cheese, Marinated Chicken, Salad
- Friday — Ribs, Corn, Peas
- Saturday — Takeout from Chili’s
$70 Grocery Budget Totals
Total spent on groceries: $65.82
Cashback earned this week: 400 points for submitting my receipts to Fetch rewards + $3.10 for submitting my receipt to iBotta rewards.
Want to cut your grocery budget? Go here and sign up (it’s free!) I’ll send you my 10 Easy Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill By $50.
Lora says
I’m a long-time fan. Am I remembering correctly that years ago you once came home from a vacation at a lake with your extended family to unfortunately find a huge mess because of a freezer meltdown?
Crystal Paine says
Yes… it was about 10 years ago and a number of houses again and the reason we didn’t get another freezer for a long time (we got rid of that freezer since it stunk so badly from blood from the thawed and rotting meat!) We had an alarm on this freezer and had thought it wouldn’t happen again, but alas, it did. Jesse said that he doesn’t feel like keeping a freezer in the garage is a good idea since the outlets are so much more prone to tripping.
Gratefully, we lost a LOT less $$ this time around (last time, it was over $600 worth of meat). This time, because we had eaten our freezer down to very little and everything had been purchased for pennies on the dollar, it wasn’t much $$ lost nor was it a mess like last time since it had only sat there for a few days. However, since it was pretty empty, it didn’t stay cold long and that was the reason everything was room temperature within a few days.:(
Lora says
Thank you for sharing Jesse’s thoughts. We recently bought a freezer from a neighbor who moved, and we’ve set it up in the garage. Now I realize we should keep it more attentively monitored than I would have thought. Relocating it probably isn’t feasible space-wise, but I’m going to see what my husband thinks of the possibility.
Jennifer says
Ugh that really sucks.
Buying ahead while things are on sale is really a great habit to develop, My husband recently switched careers–he’s now working on commission now instead of a set salary–so we’ve been living on my income and our emergency fund and our freezer stash!
Crystal Paine says
I’m so impressed at how you are seeking to be creative and resourceful in this season. Way to go!
Diane says
Is your freezer ok now? Losing everything in our freezer would be so hard, but we keep it pretty full, and it’s a big project.
Crystal Paine says
Yes, it’s okay. The breaker just got tripped, we think. We’re going to make sure that next time we leave for more than two days, the people who are at our house while we’re gone check our freezer every other day just to be sure!
Myeshia says
I love seeing your grocery trips. I no longer live near a Kroger but absolutely love their deals. Just wanted to let you know that if you upload your receipt to blue diamond.com, you’ll receive a free movie ticket for purchasing 3 almond milks. The promo is advertised for Toy Story 4 ,but when printed it’s for any Disney movie.
Crystal Paine says
OH! Thank you so much for that hot tip!!