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A peek at our weekly grocery shopping
Each week 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. 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.
I’m so glad I get to start posting our weekly grocery hauls again! I got to make a meal plan this week but because I was still on vacation at the time I couldn’t dig through my cupboards, fridge, and freezers to see what I have on hand. I have a fairly good idea of what is waiting for us at home but I don’t want to assume too much and not have the right components when it comes time to cook. To hopefully avoid any missed ingredients I kept the menu focused on ingredients I know for a fact we have at home or food we would be buying this week.
Speaking of what we are buying this week – we got to shop at Aldi! We only get to hit up Aldi a few times each year because the closest store to us is about an hour away. We are supposed to be getting one closer this fall but it will still be a 20 minute drive so we will see if we decide to visit every week or only use it to stock up on certain items. I may also only use it for price matching at Walmart but that could take quite a while at the checkout so we will see when the time comes!
I love doing a huge produce haul at Aldi because the prices are so incredibly low! Almost our entire grocery trip this week is produce which will hopefully get us through the week. All the other food we need should be at home but if we unpack and discover we’ve forgotten some things we have enough wiggle room in the budget to run out and grab a few things.
Aldi
Watermelon $2.99
2lb Carrots $1.19
3lb Rice $1.29
Sour Cream $1.19
Eggs 3 @ .89 = $2.77
3lb Apples 2 @ $3.69 = 7.38
Boneless Ham $5.90
2lb Pinto Beans $1.49
5lb Potato $1.89
Creamer 2 @ 2.19 = $4.38
Red Grapes 4lb @ 0.79/lb = $3.16
Milk $2.09
Broccoli Crowns $1.59
BBQ Sauce $1.99
Olives $1.19
3pk Green Peppers $0.79
Total: $41.18
Target
Seedless Cucumber $1.49
Avocado 2 @ 1.00 = $2.00
– 5% off avocado cartwheel = $1.90
Sargento Sliced Cheese $2.99
*submitted receipt to ibotta for rebate (0.25)
MP Sliced Cheese $2.54
– 5% RedCard savings (0.45)
*submitted receipt to ibotta for any item rebate (0.25)
Total: $ 7.97 after savings and rebates
Grocery Total: $49.15 after rebates
Menu Plan
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: Cubanos – Happy Father’s Day! Micah requested his favorite sandwich along with watermelon and French fries and it sounds fabulous to me!
Monday: Lo Mein – Veggie Lo Mein is one of our go-to dishes when we get a chance to shop at Aldi because we can get such a huge variety of fresh produce for a low price.
Tuesday: Seven Layer Dip Burritos – I shared this meal last week in my round up of new-to-us-meals. I decided this was the perfect time to try out this delicious recipe since I need to make a new batch of refried beans this week as well!
Wednesday: Bacon Cheeseburger Bombs – I cooked up several pounds of ground beef for future before we left so I know I can pull this meal together. And what’s not to love about mini bacon cheeseburger flavors wrapped in a pretzel bun?
Thursday: Loaded Taco Baked Potatoes – Usually Thursday is Leftover night but because of being out of town we won’t have as many leftovers as usual. We already have most of the taco ingredients ready from the seven layer burritos – super easy dinner when we pile them on baked potatoes.
Friday: Homemade Pizza and Movie Night – pizza crust recipe here and pizza sauce recipe here.
Saturday: Crispy Orange Chicken & Fried Rice – I’ve been wanting to try this recipe from my friend Meg for a couple months but it kept slipping my mind until I’d already planned the menu. I’m really excited to try it!
What’s on your menu this week?
Have you ever shopped at Aldi? What are your favorite buys?