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.
This week we had a lot of different things going on — Jesse got home from the men’s Discipleship retreat on Sunday, we had things going on almost every evening, Kathrynne left for a 9-day trip to Suriname on Friday, and I spent Friday-Sunday out of town at the women’s Discipleship retreat (both Jesse and I are small group co-leaders for our church’s Discipleship Intensive program).
We also went with our youth group to the indoor waterpark at the Gaylord Opryland on Wednesday evening (Jesse and I both co-lead a small group of teens in our church’s youth group, too).
So, when you see our menu plan below, you’ll notice we didn’t have a lot of “normal” dinners as a result. 🙂 But hey, this is real life right now!
Kroger Shopping Trip #1:
- 5 boxes Kellogg’s Raisin Bran — $1.79 per box when you buy 5 participating items, get $0.60 back from iBotta for each box purchased
- Oscar Mayer Deli Meat — marked down to $1.79 — earned Fetch rewards
- Lettuce — $1.79
- Half & Half — $1.99
- Sandwich buns — marked down to $1.29
- 3 lbs. ground turkey — marked down to $2.09
- 3 bags of marked down produce — $0.99 each
- 2 gallons water — $0.89
- Milk — $2.99
- Total with tax: $31.47
I was excited about the Friday-Saturday deals!
Especially the $0.99 Prego!
And the $1.49 Kellogg’s cereal!
Kroger Shopping Trip #2:
- 5 boxes Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes — $1.49 each with the Friday-Saturday deals
- 2 boxes Krusteaz Sugar Cookie Mix — marked down to $0.49 each
- 5 Ghirardelli Chocolate Cake Mix — marked down to $0.49 each
- Baking powder — $1.05
- Salt — $0.49
- Beefaroni — marked down to $0.39
- Refried Beans — marked down to $0.39
- Progresso Soup — marked down to $0.49
- 5 jars Prego (only 4 are pictured because we accidentally dropped one while bringing in the groceries!) — $0.99 each as part of the Friday-Saturday deals — earned $0.75 cash back from iBotta
- Milk — $2.99
- Apples — $3.99, used $0.50/1 Kroger digital coupon = $3.49
- Bag of avocados — marked down to $0.99
- Kroger lemonade — marked down to $0.89
- Kroger orange juice — marked down to $0.99
- King’s Hawaiian Rolls — marked down to $0.79
- Total with tax: $30.58
Our Menu Plan This 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
Lunches/Snacks: Leftovers, Salad, Turkey/Cheese Sandwiches, Apples/Peanut Butter, Mac & Cheese, Danimals, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, Cookies, Pears, Random other markdowns/sale items 🙂
Dinners:
Sunday — Fend for yourself
Monday — Turkey meatballs, Acorn Squash
Tuesday — Broccoli, Creamed Corn, Garlic Bread, Meatloaf
Wednesday — Pizza (Jesse, Kaitlynn, and I were at a youth group event and they served pizza & ice cream), Silas and Kathrynne had cereal
Thursday — Pot Roast + Sweet Potatoes & Carrots, Pears/Apples, Spaghetti Squash, Biscuits
Friday — Leftover Buffet (I was out of town at a retreat.)
Saturday — Chili’s (I was out of town at a retreat.)
Misty Randolph says
It is really hard to shop like this when some people in my family have to be gluten and dairy free. Would love any ideas that you have on this.
Jordan says
Here’s a post we have about saving on groceries when you have dietary restrictions! I hope this helps! -Jordan, MSM Team
Savannah says
Kristen @ The Frugal Girl has quite a few food allergies in her family and she shops almost exclusively at Aldi. She shares her meal plans on Fridays – it might be helpful to you
Crystal Paine says
I wrote this for people like you: https://www.instagram.com/p/B9CEJkUJv0u/ I hope it encourages you!
Also, sign up for this, if you haven’t, already: https://moneysavingmom.com/grocerybudget/
JenniferB says
Thank you for your real-ness. We’re currently in a busy season as well and I appreciate you taking the time to post this. It’s an encouragement to me in this season.
Crystal Paine says
Thank you for your encouragement!