It’s time to try out something new around here! I’ve gotten a few questions about grocery budgeting because of the posts on creating menu plans and grocery lists so I wanted to share what our list actually looks like each week! We do our grocery shopping on Friday mornings so I’ll have a chance to share what we bought for the upcoming week along with the menu plan!
We try to stick between $80-90 each week for our family of seven. A lot of times what is on the menu doesn’t directly correlate to what we buy because I like to plan our meals from what we have on hand currently and use our budget to stock up on good buys plus produce and dairy products. For instance this week we are having sloppy joes but we didn’t buy ground beef. Last week we scored HUGE on ground beef when one of our local stores had it on sale for $1.99/lb plus they had at least a dozen packs marked down further. We picked up three 3+lb packages for just over $1/lb. Major deal! I wish we would have had the budget and space to buy more. Same goes for eggs – we bought 6 18pks for $.99 each on Tuesday to get us through.
Anyway, I plan on sharing a picture of our cart at each store along with a breakdown on what we bought and what we paid. Thankfully we have zero dietary restrictions or allergies which helps us keep our budget on the low side.
Family Fare
Carrots 2 @ .99 = $1.98
Cucumber $.79
Apples 5.75lb @ .99/lb = $5.69
Creamer 2 @ 2.50 = $5.00
Yogurt cup $1.00
*used free digital coupon – final price = $0
Steak Fries 2 @ 1.68 = $3.36
Total: $16.71
Walmart
Flour 2 @ 2.77 = $5.54
Brown Rice $1.37
Grape Jelly $1.72
Baked Beans $1.58
Hot Dog Buns $1.48
Bread $.98
French Bread 2 @ .50 (reduced from $1) = $1.00
Bell Pepper $.78
*submitted receipt to ibotta for any item rebate (-$.25)
Total: $14.20
Sam’s Club
Sausage Roll $5.68
Beef Franks $18.98
Romaine Hearts $3.98
Tortillas $4.98
Bananas $1.38
Milk $2.84
Sour Cream $3.99
Total: 41.74
Not pictured: Target tomato sauce $.66
Grocery Total: $73.31
I love menu planning and seeing other’s dinner plans! I’m weird like that 😉 As I’ve shared before, being in the kitchen is my happy place so I love finding meals that are new but I also never forget our favorites! These will link to the author’s original recipe unless it’s my own recipe/creation that I don’t have a link for… yet.
If you need some inspiration for how to create menu plans you can read here where I go into detail about how I make a plan for our food week and here to read how I create our grocery list.
I don’t make specific plans for breakfast and lunch but these are the basics I rotate between while throwing in a few other things for special days or weeks when I have the right ingredients.
Breakfasts: Pancakes, Coffee Cake, Egg Sandwiches, Sausage Balls, Eggs (various ways), English Muffins, Banana Bread, Biscuits and Gravy, and various types of muffins.
Lunches: Leftovers, PB&J, Meat and Cheese Wraps, Cheese Quesadillas, and Mac ‘n’ Cheese.
Dinners, however, are always planned for since they tend to take the most ingredients and prep time.
Here’s what’s on our menu this week:
Sunday: Sloppy Joes
Monday: Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Braid
Tuesday: Homemade Salad Bar
Wednesday: Honey Sesame Chicken & Fried Rice
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Homemade Pizza and Movie Night – you can find my pizza crust recipe here.
Saturday: Fajitas – I don’t have a link for our recipe which means I’ll need to share it soon!
What’s on your menu this week?