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.
Last week, I only spent $60 on groceries, so I went a little bit over this week. Here’s what we bought…
Kroger Shopping Trip #1
- 2 bags of apples — marked down to $0.99 each
- 5 bags of Chicken Breasts — $4.99 per bag with Kroger digital coupon
- Total with tax = $28.61
Kroger Shopping Trip #2
- 4 tubs of lettuce — marked down to $0.99 each
- 3 bags of apples — marked down to $0.99 each
- Promised Land Chocolate Milk — marked down to $0.99
- Rice Bitz cereal — marked down to $0.79
- Cage-Free eggs — marked down to $1.39
- Milk — $2.89
- Total with tax: $13.80
Kroger Shopping Trip #3
- 2 Tyson Anytizer Chicken — $3.99 each with Kroger weekend digital coupon
- 3 dozen eggs — marked down to $0.39 each
- Strawberries — $1.67
- Carrots — $0.99
- 1 bag avocados — marked down to $0.99
- Milk — $2.89
- Cage-free eggs — marked down to $1.29
- Tortillas — $1.50
- 2 Private Selection Chips — $0.99 each with Kroger weekend digital coupon
- Refried beans — marked down to $0.49
- 4 jars Pace salsa — $0.99 each when Kroger weekend digital coupon
- Refried beans — $0.79
- Total with tax: $28.89
Dinners This Past Week
- Frozen Pizza, Popcorn
- Slow Cooker Sausage & Sauerkraut Soup, Biscuits, and Apples
- Sausage & Sauerkraut Soup, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Apples
- Roasted Potatoes, Roast in the Crockpot, Instant Pot Apples, Roasted Broccoli
- Italian Chicken, Salad
- Leftovers
- Dinner Out
By the way, what are your best tips for keeping lettuce fresh? I don’t want all the lettuce I bought to go to waste before we can use it, but it will probably take us at least 5-7 more days to eat through all that. Any great suggestions?
I cook romaine lettuce by wilting it for 2 minutes into soup or sauce from cooking meat. Or the way you’d cook fresh spinach. If you cook bokchoy, the taste is reminiscent of that. And it’s a good way to use up a lot of lettuce before it goes bad.
I haven’t tried with the lettuce you have. But it’s worth a try.
Thanks for the suggestion! -Jordan, MSM Team
Thank you for the suggestion!
I try to keep my lettuce as dry as possible. This is usually by putting a paper towel under & over the lettuce. I also pick out the “gooey” pieces of lettuce that sometimes make their way into the package. This works best for spinach & mixes. Iceberg is a toss up for me 😒
Thank you so much for these tips!
I learned how to grocery shop your way when I started following your blog over 10 years ago. I realized this week that I shop differently than most people when I saw that BBQ saw was 49 cents at Fred Meyer. I checked my stock and “ONLY” had 7 bottles so I knew I needed to buy some more! Now I’m set for a few more months!
I saw that BBQ sauce deal and almost bought some until I realized I had enough to probably last for at least 6 months so I probably was good until the next sale. 😉
Is there a particular day to catch the markdowns at Kroger/Dillons stores?
I’ve found that every store is different and every week is often different, too!
You can always add some lettuce to smoothies or juice blends!
Are any of your family picky eaters?
We have a 3-bite rule that we instituted when the kids were little. They only had to eat three bites (unless they complained and then they had to eat three more bites!). We’ve found that this really helped them try a lot of things and fall in love with a lot of things they had initially really turned their noses up at.
For those that are discouraged that they can’t get their grocery budget as low as this and other posts, please keep in mind that we all live in different areas that have different costs of living.
I’ve lived all over the US and prices really do vary geographically. For those living in more remote or rural places there might not be a large grocery chain that can offer loss leaders like Kroger can…a locally owned grocery store just doesn’t purchase the quantities that Kroger can and therefore can’t offer as low of prices. Different states have different commodities laws – meaning some states have a state minimum at which milk, for example, can be priced (just like different states have sales tax on groceries…some do, some don’t some tax some kinds of items and not others, etc.). Shipping costs for foods can make a difference. Local seasonal produce can make a difference. Dining with extended family and only providing a part of the meal can make a difference. Accommodation for food allergies or nutritional requirements can make a difference. Having a separate budget for dining out (regardless if a family uses gift cards they have earned or been gifted with) can make a difference. Individuals who are caregivers or single parents or working multiple jobs may have less time to shop multiple times a week to look for markdowns or may not be available to shop at a time to catch the good markdowns.
PLEASE, don’t compare yourself to someone else’s published grocery triumphs. Instead, challenge yourself to see how frugally you can feed yourself or your family balanced, nutritious meals. It’s not a competition 🙂
Beautifully said! Thanks for the encouragement! -Jordan, MSM Team
YES! I just did a series on this on Instagram stories! It’s so important that you don’t compare, but that you also don’t use that as an excuse, ya know? As in, “Well, we don’t have a good grocery store so I guess we can’t save money on groceries.” I hear that a lot and I totally disagree! Like you said, use it as an inspiration to figure out what you can do. Because a can do, creative attitude will go so far!
And it’s funny, because I hear from so many people who find much lower prices than I do and who don’t have 10% sales tax on their food like we do and who have access to lots of savings opportunities that we don’t. It’s all about doing the best you can with the time, resources, and opportunities you have!
So this might be a strange comment but I often look at your groceries for the week and often scratch my head on how you make those items into meals for the week because it always looks like a hodge podge of discount items thrown together which is made worse by the fact that you “don’t often use these things” that week so it makes me wonder why you’re shopping if you don’t use the groceries? Second, do these food feed you and the kids for ALL meals and snacks or do the kids eat lunch at school because if they do shouldn’t the cost for school lunch be included in these totals? Do you eat out during the week when you go to the coffee shop/panera for writing? I just know that for me living alone and trying to figure out my budget for the first time that I am in no WAYS keeping my budget at 75$ a week for food and house cleaning supplies which is a tad disappointing!
I’m guessing you’re new here and might not know the way that I shop — welcome!! I’ve talked pretty extensively about this in the past, but the basic gist is that I rarely buy what we’re eating that week. I’m always buying ahead for the weeks to come when things are at their lowest price (that way, we are rarely ever paying full price for anything — which saves so much money!). And then we’re eating that week from what we already have stocked up.
For instance, in these shopping pictures, the eggs will last for at least 3 weeks, the apples will last for 2+ weeks, the lettuce will (hopefully!) last for at least the next week, the chicken will last for the next 3-4 weeks. And so on and so forth. So I know it looks like a weird assortment of food, but by shopping this way, we’re able to keep our grocery budget low and always have a wide assortment of food on hand to use to make meals.
For instance, this coming week, we’ll probably have breakfast for dinner one night using some pancake mix in the pantry that I bought marked down a few months ago, bacon that I got on sale a few weeks back, and eggs. We’ll also probably have cabbage/sausage/potatoes/onions — I just need to buy the potatoes, as we already have cabbage on hand I bought two weeks ago, sausage from a sale two weeks ago, and onions from a sale a few weeks ago. And so on and so forth.
The kids usually have cereal/milk for breakfast, whatever deals I get for snacks (they’ve been eating a lot of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins recently from a big stock up I did on pumpkin and chocolate chips a few weeks ago), and then they usually bring their own lunch to school — they don’t like sandwiches much, so they usually make lunch based upon what leftovers or homemade snacks + storebought snacks/packaged food we have + fruit or cheese/crackers, etc. (I just give them 10 or so different items to choose from based upon what we have on hand/what deals I found).
I know it’s an unconventional way to shop and cook and our meals aren’t always perfectly balanced, but it works for us!
Thanks for asking so I could help explain things!
I also shop the sales and make meals from what we have at home. I bought 5 Pace salsa jars $.99 which will last us most of the year with the jar left from the last stockup sale. I saved 60% this week with the new mega sale, most was snacks $.49-.99 and non-food items $.49-.99 that I only buy 1-2 times a year.
Woohoo! Way to go!
I was told years ago by a Tupperware rep to cut the core out of the lettuce.
Thank you!
For lettuce, I wash, dry a bit and put in ziploc bag with a paper towel. Then gently squeeze out the air while zipping shut.
Thank you so much for that tip!
I second the paper towel – we leave it in the original container and add the paper towel. We wash as we need it and remove the icky leaves a they come up.
You did great on your deals this week!
Lea
Thanks so much!
I buy that lettuce pretty much exclusively. I wash and spin and pack in Rubbermaid produce keepers with a paper towel on top. It keeps for usually 2 weeks that way.
Oh! Thanks so much for that! That makes me so happy that I bought as many as I did!
I am so jealous of the prices you get on everything. I only have one grocery store that I can go to and I have 4 people and 5 cats. I spend about $110-150 a week. I use Ibotta, Fetch Rewards, my local grocery app for Shop and Earn. I’m trying to go simpler and save money. I do have your saving money on groceries pdf. I just wonder how you would shop at my store.
I’d check to see if there are any other options in your area… buying from local farms, gardening, Asian markets, dollar store, etc. What about ordering some of our groceries from deals on Amazon or other online sites? Then, I’d also learn everything you could about how to get the best deals at your local store. And finally, I’d make sure that you are sticking with inexpensive meals that use simple ingredients. I hope that helps!
That said, I say a good frugal ballpark is $15-$25 per person per week and you’re doing really well!
Next closest grocery store is Wal-Mart 30 min away. Honestly, I can’t do that every week. I can probably shave it down to $100. That would be my goal. We also don’t buy eggs as we have 19 hens. So deals I get are $1.99 for a pineapple and 2/$4 cantaloupe and strawberries. I rarely see anything for 99 cents. You definitely have deals. Thanks for the tips. I don’t buy groceries online though.
We will have a garden. And we eat very healthy, more produce than anything.
Are there any stores that aren’t grocery stores that sell food? Co-ops, farms, etc. Do you garden?
I think the prices she and Gretchen pay for things are insanely cheap! There are no Kroger affiliates where I live and our grocery budget for 5 people is 900 a month and some months we go over. We eat much more meat and produce though.
I do Walmart grocery pickup and Costco. My husband complains every time I go to Aldi because the produce goes bad so fast.
Agreed that their prices are crazy cheap. Even with several stores near me and having hens for eggs, it’s ridiculous. And gardening is so seasonal where we are that it doesn’t make a big enough dent. We just saw onions went up to about $1.25-1.50 power pound at our kroger affiliate!! Onions! I can’t get our budget under 150 a week for 4 people no matter how hard I try.
That being said I still like these posts even if they don’t save me a penny lol.
Use the lettuce to make lettuce wraps. You can fill them w meat or chicken or beans and rice, really anything.
Thanks so much for the tip!
Do you great, but do the eggs or any of the mark downs expire soon? I find some of the stuff marked down expires in a day or two. And I love the produce mark down section at Kroger, in franklin. They always have so much to pick from unlike the one down the street.
Eggs usually last at least 2-3 weeks past their sell by date and we can easily go through a few dozen per week, so I don’t worry about it!
I use a paper towel as well. I transfer it to a different container if it is in a plastic bag. I
I pack a paper towel in the container to absorb moisture on leafy greens.
Thank you for that tip!
I love that particular lettuce combination! Those seem to keep really well for me. My best advice would be to clean and spin, spin, spin. 🙂 Once I’ve done that, I just put it in a zip lock and it has lasted a couple of weeks for me.
That’s so good to know! Thank you for that great tip!
Also put a piece of paper towel or cloth in with the lettuce to absorb any moisture to help keep it from going bad.