Back when Pablo and I first got married (six years ago this month, wow!) I was very careful about sticking to our $50 weekly grocery budget. When I went grocery shopping I would add everything up on my phone’s calculator until I got a little more used to the prices. I did a pretty good job for awhile with sticking to that $50 weekly grocery budget!
Well, then the kids came along, and as you know, grocery shopping with kids can be a bit crazy. So, for the last little while I have not done such a great job at sticking to my list and ultimately my budget. Oops.
Well, this month I determined that I was going to do better! We usually budget a little bit more than $50 a week now that we have two kids but for this month we decided to challenge ourselves. So, I’m working with a $50 weekly grocery budget for the month, trying to come in a little under $50 when possible!
Not sure you’re ready to spend only $50 a week on groceries? Check out this post about my $60 weekly grocery budget or this $120 two-week meal plan!
Keep in mind that when I say grocery budget I truly mean just that. This does not include any paper products or anything like that. We budget those types of items separately.
To simplify my meal planning, I mainly plan for dinners and just keep some basic items on hand for breakfasts and lunches. (For help with your meal planning/grocery shopping, check out this post and snag my free grocery list printable!)
Below is our menu for last week!
Note: I put an asterisk by items that we already had in the pantry or freezer. Obviously if you are starting completely from scratch you would have to spend a bit more than $50 to buy some of the basics.
{This blog post contains affiliate links}
Week One Menu
Breakfast options:
Cold cereal, Eggs, Bagels with cream cheese, *Oatmeal , *Pancakes
Lunch options:
Quesadillas, Leftovers, Salad with shredded rotisserie chicken, *PB & J sandwiches
Snack options: Pretzels, *Apples
Dinners:
- Spaghetti, salad
- BLTs, baby carrots
- *Beans and Rice, corn
- Rotisserie Chicken, corn on the cob, broccoli
- White Chili(I halved this recipe), served with shredded cheese, sour cream, and *tortilla chips
- Breakfast for Dinner: eggs, turkey bacon, toast, juice
- Chicken Fried Rice (this recipe – I already had the rice and other basic ingredients), salad
I kept things simple by buying only two kinds of meat for our meals – turkey bacon (used for two meals) and a rotisserie chicken from Costco.
After we ate some of the chicken for one meal I took the rest off the bones to use for the white chili (using the chicken bones to make the broth, yum!) and the chicken fried rice. I can usually plan on getting at least 4 cups of chicken off the bones after our first meal – this time I actually got 5 1/2 cups! Costco’s rotisserie chickens are SUCH good value!
Below is a list with prices of all the groceries I bought. I’m a BIG fan of Aldi and do most of my shopping there. If you don’t have one near you I am so sorry, it seriously saves us so much money!
Kroger shopper? Check out this post!
Grocery List
Aldi:
- Milk (2) – $3.58
- Eggs (2) – $2.78
- OJ – $1.99
- Sour Cream – $0.99
- Cream Cheese – $0.89
- Shredded Mexican Blend Cheese (12 oz) – $1.99
- Turkey Bacon – $1.89
- Blueberry Bagels – $1.79
- Tortillas – $2.69
- Cereal (2 boxes) – $2.78
- Pretzels – $0.79
- Whole Wheat Spaghetti – $1.09
- Spaghetti Sauce – $0.99
- Canned White Beans (2) – $1.10
- Large Tomatoes (2) – $2.09
- Frozen Corn (2) – $1.90
- Frozen Broccoli – $1.19
- Romaine Hearts – $1.99
- Baby Carrots – $0.89
- Corn on the Cob (4) – $1.16
=$34.56
Costco:
- Rotisserie chicken – $4.99
- 12 grain bread (2 loaves) – $5.79
=$11.19 (tax included)
Grand Total = $45.75
I was pretty happy to end up almost five bucks short of our $50 weekly grocery budget, yay!
Check out Week Two, Week Three, and Week Four here!
Love saving money? Here are 15 ways to save money on your groceries!
I also highly recommend this ebook from Crystal Paine at MoneySavingMom.com. It shares 25 simple and effective ways to cut your grocery bill and I found it very helpful. I’m an affiliate for Crystal’s products because they are always well done and worth what she charges (which I can’t say for a lot of ebooks and courses out there!)
I hope this post has given you some helpful ideas! What are your favorite cheap meals to make for your family? I’m always looking for more meal ideas because it’s easy to get stuck in a rut, so share your favorites with me!! 🙂 And as always, thanks so much for stopping by my blog!
Sign up below for my weekly emails and I’ll send you a free grocery list printable!
