Saturday: Grilled Chicken, baked beans, salad
Sunday: Sandwiches, fruit, chips
Monday: Sloppy Joes, baked French fries, jello salad
Tuesday: BLTs, chips, carrot sticks and broccoli w/ ranch
Wednesday: Chicken stirfry with rice
Thursday: Grilled pork roast, roasted red potatoes, green beans w/ garlic butter
Friday: BBQ pork sandwiches, baked French fries, corn
My grocery shopping budget was under control this week. I spent $117--$8 under our $125 budget! YEA! And I saved over $30 with Kroger plus card savings and a few coupons.
A friend posted on FB about whether the money I spend is all on food. About 90% of it is. I do all my shopping at Kroger (mostly). I occasionally go to the Dollar Store or Walmart for other things, but pretty rarely. I usually only go shopping once a week so I try to get everything I need--food, soaps, paper goods, etc--in one fell swoop. So, that $125 usually encompasses things like plastic wrap, foil, toilet paper, paper towels, pull-ups, laundry detergent etc. Of course, I don't buy these things every week. Last week I bought paper towels and foil. This week I bought dishwasher soap. Occasionally I go over budget when we run out of the big items all at once but I really try not too.
I am always curious whether $125 is greater, lesser, or average to most families of our size. We rarely eat out (once a week, usually after Aaron's softball game, if at all. Aaron eats lunch from home every work day) and we hardly ever get snacks out (coffee, soft drinks, ice cream, etc) so I have to think about 21 meals for 4 people plus usually 2 snacks a day for the little people in the house. Whew! That is a lot of food! So, for me, $125 is pretty good.
This week for lunches I bought sliced turkey lunch meat and a few cans of tuna. I already had cheese and PBJ stuff at home. I like leftovers for lunch.
For a few special breakfasts, I bought a tube of cinnamon rolls and a packaged mix of blueberry muffins. I also got ingredients to make banana chocolate chip muffins, which will be good for breakfast or snacks. I bought a ton of cereal last week (Kroger had a great sale) and our usual eggs. Toast, yogurt and fruit are also part of the breakfast menu.
What are you planning this week? How do you save money and keep on a budget? Is a $125 budget a lot for your family or a number that you aspire to stay under?
In the first trimester sickness, we have been eating out a lot so our current shopping is for the essentials of almond milk for the girls, eggs, bread, and any specific cravings I have. But usually, when I'm cooking meals regularly, I aim for $100 at the grocery store, plus a trip to Target every couple weeks for things lilke TP, diapers, etc. I've also recently joined an organic produce co-op so I'm hoping that once I can get back into the swing of things in the meal planning and prep department, the grocery store bill will go down because I won't be buying as much produce there. I'm hoping I can get that bill down so that I'm not spending any more by buying the organic and it'll just force me to cook and snack healthier and more creatively with the produce each week.
ReplyDelete