This week I began my $30/week grocery budget challenge so I can save the rest to go toward my outrageous dental bill from last week. It’s sort of retroactive, in that I hope to only spend $120 for the whole month of May even though I’m starting in the middle, and it does include any previous food that we have stocked up from last month. (That’s why there’s a “?” next to week 1, because it’s more like week 2 1/2, but it’s just the beginning.)
I have always been pretty conscious of our budget. I know how much I can spend, and I know roughly how much food that would be. I use our credit card as though it were a debit card to pay for everything (just so we get the cash back bonus, we only spend what’s in our budget and then pay it off each month). I thought I had pretty good control. Now, I’ve heard people say, “If you’re really trying to stick to a budget, use cash,” because apparently it changes how you spend things. I have to be honest: I kind of thought that was hooey. I’m good with my card and I follow our budget.
But I thought to myself, “self, if you’re actually going to do this $30 a week challenge, it might not hurt to give the cash thing a try”. So, I talked myself into it, went to the bank and withdrew $60 (because there is no way I could shop for only one week at a time!), and went off to do my grocery shopping. Here’s what I got:
From Target
Target currently has $1 off when you buy both a dry pasta and a sauce. The pasta was $1.14 and the sauce was $1.52. Each pair ended up costing $1.66 (so basically $1 for the sauce and $.66 for pasta!!). I just happened to have 3 of these printed so I got 3!
Total: $5.22
From Walmart
Walmart currently has $1 off Planter’s Peanut Butter. They were $2.96, so they ended up being $1.96 after coupons. I used my free Coffee Mate coupon from Facebook (Free Flavor Friday back in March. It’s no longer available, but there is a $1 off of Coffee Mate Natural Bliss). I had a $1 off of SunDrop (5/6 Smart Source Insert) and Sun Drop is $1!! And the best part is that I had $1 off of Axe printable (which I can’t find now to link) and $2 off Axe (5/6 Smart Source Insert…I think) AND they didn’t have size limitations on them! I got 2 travel deodorants for $.97 each, so it ended up being a $1.06 money maker! Corn was $.44 each and the bread was $.96 Total: $6.34
From Sams
Sorry, I don’t have a picture, but I got 4.71 lbs of ground beef at $2.78/lb and 6.26 lbs of boneless skinless chicke (not prefrozen) at $1.97/lb. AND I got a 5 pack of 1lb steamable bags of green beans for $6.78. I’m sure I could have found better prices if I really looked, but I have such a hard time keeping track of all the different prices at different stores. I really need a master list of best prices and only buy when they’re in that range. Anyways, this was by far my biggest spending. Total $32.20
From Aldi
This was by far the hardest place to restrain myself. Maybe it’s the fact that I only had around $14 left, or the mindset that Aldi’s is cheap and therefore I can get more! But I was just buying the basics and the rest of the things on my list: milk, eggs, tomatoes (2 cans), black beans, bell peppers, parmesan cheese & a white cake mix. Total: $10.18
Total Spent: $55.47
Left: $4.53
A normal stock up trip to Aldi usually results in $75 or more and lasts us 2 1/2-3 weeks, but I feel like we actually have a lot more food for $55. Later I will post about my menu options for the next 2 weeks (I have a list of 12 different meals already and I think we probably have a few more we could throw together!!) and the reason behind each item on the shopping trips! This is exciting because I actually had a purpose rather than just buying random things, hoping to come up with some good meals. Stay tuned! Also, I have used WAY too many parentheses in this post.