Our grocery bill has already been pretty small-- We average between $50 and $60 dollars a week for a family of 4 (2 adults, a 3 year old, and a 1 year old.). Can we manage to spend just $30 per week for a month? I really want to try!
Week 1: Here's how I did:
I am SO excited about my success this week!! I had to buy 3 packs of mouse traps (ugh- yes, we currently have a mouse problem! We're working on trying to find out how they are even getting in our house in the first place..) -- they cost 1.58 each ($4.74 total) and I spent 7 cents on deodorant (Originally $1.07, I had a .50 cent off coupon, which doubles to $1---equaling just 7 cents-- awesome!) $4.81 was spent on non grocery items, bringing my official total to $26.34!!
My menu for the week: (with links to the recipes I am using)
Breakfast Options:
Cereal with milk, Toast with peanut butter, leftover Fit n' Active bars (we have 4 left.) Fruit. Scrambled Eggs if we want (this is rare for us though.)
Lunch and Dinner Options:
Sweet potato and black bean enchiladas (no sour cream, no cilantro, regular onion instead of red onion)
Chicken and dressing bake (cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom)
French Onion Pasta (add a little chicken, onion instead of shallot, leave out wine)
Barbecue chicken pizza (regular onion instead of red onion, no cilantro)
Spaghetti with meat sauce-- (no recipe needed- just plain old spaghetti with meat sauce!)
Perfectly easy pancakes with scrambled
eggs/cheese
Zucchini, Black Bean, and Rice Skillet (Carrots instead of zucchini, no green pepper, no water, no tomatoes, brown rice instead of white rice, add bacon (yum!), add extra seasoning.)
The only things I had to buy for these meals were a bag of frozen chicken breasts, a package of bacon, and a green pepper. Everything else came from shopping my pantry and fridge/freezer first. I didn't list side dishes for the meals, but some of these meals will be served with what we already have on hand-- canned/frozen vegetables, rice, mashed potatoes, etc.. I made changes/substitutions either to save money, use what we already had, or just because we prefer it a certain way!
This is the first week of my goal of spending $30 a week, so it might be the easiest week because my pantry is literally overflowing. I also purchased sodas, a brick of cream cheese for an appetizer at a holiday party this week, 8 jars of baby food for my son (He is almost eating all table foods, but not quite all the way there yet!), some fruit, milk, and cheese. I also got a free bottle of shampoo after coupon! (.97 cents for the shampoo, with a .50 cent coupon, which doubles to $1.) Finally, I had a few more coupons that added to my savings.
This is the first week of my goal of spending $30 a week, so it might be the easiest week because my pantry is literally overflowing. I also purchased sodas, a brick of cream cheese for an appetizer at a holiday party this week, 8 jars of baby food for my son (He is almost eating all table foods, but not quite all the way there yet!), some fruit, milk, and cheese. I also got a free bottle of shampoo after coupon! (.97 cents for the shampoo, with a .50 cent coupon, which doubles to $1.) Finally, I had a few more coupons that added to my savings.
Some other notes:
The recipes are scaled to fit our family. Some meals will have leftovers, others will not. The important thing is to plan the meals so that you know what groceries you need to buy. I do not plan which days I am cooking what meals, I just kind of go with what I'm in the mood for.
Tips on How I Did It:
**Plan out your menu.
This is the most important part of saving money on your grocery budget. You need to have meals planned for the week and a grocery list in hand when you walk into the grocery store. Don't deviate from the list if you can help it!
How do you plan your meals for maximum savings?
1. Shop from your pantry first.
What do you already have? What recipes use a majority of ingredients that you already have on hand?
You can search for recipes by ingredient(s) on allrecipes.com! There are other websites that you can use
to search for recipes by ingredient. I also find recipes on Pinterest and Punchfork.com.
2. Eat at least 1 vegetarian meal per week.
This week we are eating 3 meatless meals--sweet potato and black bean enchiladas, zucchini, rice, and
black bean skillet, AND perfectly easy pancakes.
3. Breakfast for dinner.
Eating breakfast for dinner can save a little money because many breakfast staples are pretty inexpensive
to begin with! The pancakes we are making this week can be made with ingredients that I already have
on hand!
4. Plan your shopping around what is on sale
To make this easier on myself, I use websites that already has the sale ad for the store(s) I shop at, along
with coupon match ups. I use southern savers.com and kroger krazy.com, but there are many websites to
choose from. I would encourage you to use a search engine to look for couponing websites and find the
ones that you like best! I don't buy newspapers very often, so I mostly use printable coupons.
I am just so thrilled that I was able to keep under $30 for my groceries this week! I am already looking forward to planning our meals for next week~
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