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$30 Weekly Shopping and Menu 8-27-18

Can you eat for $30 a week? Look at this family of 3's temporary low grocery budget with a grocery list, menu, and frugal recipes! Week of: 8-27-18.

Last Sunday, John came home with a huge surprise for us.

Can you eat for $30 a week? Look at this family of 3's temporary low grocery budget with a grocery list, menu, and frugal recipes! Week of: 8-27-18.

Our Sunday School class got together, without us knowing, and made a bunch of freezer meals for us. Our text conversation looked pretty funny, because I kept asking, “Are those for us? Why are they for us? Like, for us to eat?” We were blessed beyond belief, and I’m so thankful to have a group of friends that band together when there’s a need! We’re excited to start eating some of these this week. Here’s what was inside:

  • Lasagna with Texas Toast
  • Chicken Alfredo pasta
  • Sausage, hash brown, egg and cheese casserole
  • Chicken Parmesan meatball casserole
  • Chicken pot pie
  • Taco casserole
  • Taco soup
  • Creamy Italian chicken
  • Chicken corn chowder with corn muffins and brownies
  • Banana muffins

We’ll be eating three of them this week, which totally helps with the grocery budget! I used some of the extra money to buy a bunch of frozen vegetables.

As usual, here’s a disclaimer about my $30 weekly menus:

  • I’ve lowered our grocery budget by choice. We’ve chosen not to pursue food assistance from the government.
  • My pantry contains essentials such as rice, pasta, peanut butter, and baking items, as well as a little meat in the freezer. You may not be able to recreate this menu for $30 as I’m not exactly starting from scratch every week.
  • I’m buying whole foods as much as possible- I won’t be perfect, but I’ll do what I can with the money we have.
  • My menu may have more vegetarian meals, or just less meat in general- But I still aim to keep my diet high-protein due to my workouts, which is why you’ll see lots of Greek yogurt, eggs, and cottage cheese.

Can you eat for $30 a week? Look at this family of 3's temporary low grocery budget with a grocery list, menu, and frugal recipes! Week of: 8-27-18.

Entenmann’s Bakery Outlet

3 loaves Brownberry whole wheat bread: $.50 each
2 loaves Bimbo whole wheat bread: $.50 each
1 loaf Brownberry organic rustic white bread: $.50

Total: $3.00


Can you eat for $30 a week? Look at this family of 3's temporary low grocery budget with a grocery list, menu, and frugal recipes! Week of: 8-27-18.

Aldi

Bananas, 3.18 pounds: $1.21
Green grapes, 2.79 pounds: $2.48
Spinach: $1.19
Carrots: $1.09
Raisins: $2.85
Eggs: $.48
Milk: $1.45
Cottage cheese: $1.59
Sweetener packets: $1.39

Total: $13.73


Can you eat for $30 a week? Look at this family of 3's temporary low grocery budget with a grocery list, menu, and frugal recipes! Week of: 8-27-18.

Sam’s Club

Shredded mozzarella, 5-pound bag: $10.64
Kids gummy vitamins: $6.98
Peanut butter: $6.98

Total: FREE thanks to a gift card from Swagbucks!


Can you eat for $30 a week? Look at this family of 3's temporary low grocery budget with a grocery list, menu, and frugal recipes! Week of: 8-27-18.

Meijer

Dole coleslaw mix: $1.69
2 broccoli crowns: $.50 each (Will use these as snacks)
2 Mountain Dew Kickstarts: $1.00 each
Turkey bacon: $1.00
8 bags frozen vegetables: $1.00 each

  • Used $.25/1 coupon I received in the mail

2 boxes snack bags: $1.00 each, got one free from the 10 for $10 sale

Total: $14.66
Weekly Total: $31.39. I still have about $15 overage from last week.


Menu

Lunch is always leftovers. Items marked with an asterisk (*) were purchased in previous weeks.

Dinner
Freezer meal lasagna with garlic toast, frozen broccoli
Freezer meal chicken pot pie, fruit
Freezer meal taco soup, Cornbread Muffins
Homemade biscuits and sausage gravy* (Sausage bought last week), fruit
Egg fried rice (Using coleslaw mix and frozen broccoli in it)
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, banana
Leftovers

Breakfast
Cereal*
Scrambled eggs
Random things found in freezer (Zucchini muffins, banana oat bars)

Allison’s Lunch
Spinach Banana Muffins made in a mini muffin tin, string cheese*, Gogurt*, raisins

What’s on your menu this week? Share in the comments below!

Jennifer

Monday 27th of August 2018

How kind of your Sunday school class to do that! Just so special. ???

I spent a lot of time planning meals last week since my kiddos return to school today! Bittersweet...I have a 4th grader and a 7th grade this year. Weren’t they just toddlers? Yesterday I made banana muffins, homemade pepperoni rolls (using my bread machine for dough. They requested these as the main thing in their packed lunches) I made meatballs for freezer and browned up ground beef for taco salad later this week and sausage for the freezer. Menu: Baked Ham and cheese sliders, baked fries, fruit Taco salad, salsa, rice Ravioli, salad, breadsticks Crockpot garlic chicken, rice, broccoli Pizza

I’ve decided to make Thursday’s either crockpot or instant pot meals. Tuesday’s will be a Mexican thing and fridays pizza... probably homemade but if I can find a good deal on one I will order a pizza but probably save this for 1x month. We only drink water with exception of coffee. Cheapest k cups I’ve found are Walmart’s great value k cups which are 48 cups for $14.98. And we like them! Donut shop is our fave. My son buys school lunch about 1x a week. But the kids pack other days. Lunch ideas: pb sandwich (only for son...daughter hates pb) cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, banana muffins, yogurt, crackers/ cheese, hummus/veg, fruit, pretzels, granola bars, etc.

Jaime

Monday 27th of August 2018

Girl, you are on top of things! And having a theme meal for every day is a great idea. =) We try to do Mexican, pasta, breakfast-for-dinner, and maybe some sort of sandwich at least every week. It helps keeps things inexpensive!

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