$75 Weekly Shopping and Menu 9-2-19

This is gonna be a LONG post- so if all you want is to see my shopping trip, scroll down to the bottom!

Long story short- we’re officially RAISING our grocery budget to $85 per week starting next week!

I’ve been struggling since around March with our grocery budget. I’ve been wanting to raise it for awhile but have been feeling guilty. My job is to teach you how to save money on groceries, so how would it look if I started spending more? Would that be hypocritical? We’re just a family of 3; I know families of 4 that only spend $50 a week, so why can’t I be more like them?

The truth is that there are so many factors going into this decision, and I want to share them below. Not so much to make excuses, but to explain my thought process so hopefully you understand.

We’re spending more on lunches

Allison has expressed to me that she’s grown bored of eating the same thing every day, all week. I saved money by doing that, but now I see that she just doesn’t want to eat because it’s always the same food.

I’m still in the growing pains stage of figuring out the school lunch thing. But it seems that keeping around multiple choices of food will simply cost more no matter what.

We’re beginning to cook dinner 7 days a week instead of 6

It’s interesting how this happened. It used to be that the dinners I made served 6-8, so John and I had plenty of leftovers. But now, the dinners I’m choosing tend to serve 4, or sometimes even 2-3.

Maybe it’s just poor planning on my part. I can probably do better. Part of it too is that I’m experimenting with foods from Mr. Mac’s outlet which, while they’re super cheap, don’t have as many servings. We’re trying new foods, which adds variety, but at the expense of having to buy more food to make up for it.

We’re making more money now

And we’ve come down to the biggest part- money.

When I started this blog, I was a stay-at-home mom living on just John’s income. We had to be conservative so we could make that money last.

4 years later, this “little blog” of mine is now making a full-time income AND I’ve taken up a part-time job as a receptionist for the fun of it. I’m so grateful for what we have, because now we can give more and start working on our big goal- paying off our house.

So with this extra income, I feel like I can justify raising our grocery budget a bit. Not by a crazy amount, and it’s not like I’m just gonna go crazy every week now that we have “all this money”. But an extra ten dollars a week will really help with the added expenses of Allison’s lunches and simply cooking more.

I’m sorry if this no longer feels like a “frugal living” blog. I still love grabbing good deals and will buy as much as I can with the money we have. We’re just spending a little more money now, and I hope you understand and will continue to read!

Now- with all that out of the way, let’s get to the good part- What I bought this week!

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Mr. Mac’s Grocery Outlet

4 bags Fresh Thyme frozen rice and quinoa blends: $1.25 each; they had a ton and they looked delicious!
Quaker Overnight Oats: $.40
2 bags Skippy peanut butter bites: $.50 each
Can of Diet Cherry Pepsi: $.50
White cheddar popcorn: $1.25
Van’s peanut butter chocolate snack bars: $1.75
Barbara’s granola: $2.25
Annie’s cookie dough protein bar: $1.75

Total: $13.94. I also pre-ordered a case of 10 pounds of pork chops for $10.00 and I’ll pick that up in a couple weeks!

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Kroger

2 bottles Franks Red Hot: $.99 each from 2-day sale
2 boxes Betty Crocker Cake Mix: $.50 each from 2-day sale
Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix: $2.79
Coconut milk: $1.59
5 cups Fage yogurt: $1.00 each
Kroger Greek yogurt: Free from Free Friday Download
2 blocks cheese: $1.77, used a $.85/2 digital coupon
KIND bar: Free from Free Friday Download
5 Larabars: $.50 each from 2-day sale (I ate one in the car)
Italian seasoning: $1.00

Total: $19.30

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Aldi

Salami: $2.59
Sliced cheese: $1.79
3 packages strawberries: $1.29 each
Loaf of bread: $1.29
2 cans chickpeas: $.49 each
Marshmallows: $.89
Bananas, 2.69 pounds: $1.18
Red grapes, 2.55 pounds: $2.01
3 cans diced tomatoes: $.45 each
Cottage cheese: $1.59
Sweetener packets: $1.95
Bagels: $1.29
Deli ham: $1.99
Honey: $2.89
Vanilla Greek yogurt tub: $3.49
Coffee creamer: $1.79
Eggs: $.58
Milk: $1.89

Total: $33.37

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Meijer

5 containers Crystal Light: $1.49, were Buy 5 Save $5.00

Total: $7.45
Weekly Total: $82.56 after taking out $5.00 for a Sam’s Club run.

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Menu

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

Dinner
Ground turkey quesadillas* (Everything already in house), roasted zucchini*
Aidell’s chicken burgers* (Burgers and buns in freezer), frozen veggies*
Aidell’s chicken meatballs*, frozen Birdseye protein mix*, frozen veggies*
Instant Pot Chickpea Curry
Instant Pot Rice and Beans
Pancakes
Toasted ham and cheese bagel sandwiches, frozen veggies*

Breakfast
Yogurt with granola and berries
Greek Yogurt Pancakes

Miscellaneous
Making Texas Sheet Cake Cookies with the boxed cake mix (They’re delicious!!)

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