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? Check out this post about my $60 weekly grocery budget!
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.
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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 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!
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Great ideas!! I’m a regular Aldi and Costco shopper and I live new ideas for meals from their selections.
Thanks Janet! Yay for Aldi and Costco!!
This is amazing. I don’t leave my supermarket without spending $150 or more every 10 days. I am thankful for apps like Ibotta to get some money back!
Ibotta is great!! I wish I could use it for Aldi but I definitely do for purchases from other places!
Aldi is a life saver for us. As a family of 8, my budget is I’m a wee bit larger than yours, but Aldi is the only way we can make it work!
I’m from a family of 13 so I completely understand. Yay for Aldi!
This is seriously impressive. I have a hard time sticking to our budget and it’s way more that $50 a week.
Sticking to a budget is hard, I agree!! But when I do it’s definitely rewarding!
Thank you! This is great. We spend wayyy too much on our weekly Walmart runs. I need to stick to something like this!
Ahh Walmart – why is it so easy to overspend there?!
Hi. Six ingredients or Less by Carlean Johnson is a slow cooker cookbook I have been using a lot these past few years. I especially like it in the summer so I don’t turn on the oven.
Oh cool, that sounds like my kind of cookbook, I’ll have to check it out!
Wow! That’s awesome! Your meal plan for this week sounds so yummy–I need to do breakfast for dinner more often!
Did you use ground meat you already had for the spaghetti?
I love, love Addis, too!
I will often use ground beef or ground turkey if we have it on hand but for this particular week I just planned for the spaghetti to be a meatless meal. 🙂
This meal plan looks alot like ours. We spend a $100 a week but have 6 people in our family. Last week we only spent $70. And it all was healthy whole foods. Its nice to know there are other families out there that are just as frugal. Some of our friends and family think we are crazy for spending so little, but we are pationate about getting out of debt.
Nerdymommyof4. com
Good for you guys!! Getting out of debt is going to feel so good, way to go!
What’s your brand and rice recipe?
Sorry for such a late reply! I don’t follow a specific recipe for my beans but here’s how I make my rice: https://www.thetexmexmom.com/2017/02/06/how-to-cook-brown-rice/
How bigs your family?
There are five of us, but my kids are five and under so they don’t eat a huge amount … yet! 🙂
I love your article about a 50.00 a week grocery budget. I feed 3 grown ups. this is very hard on that amount. I don’t have a grocery budget, I have a BUGGY budget, if it goes in the buggy it has to fit the budget. Any kind of soap, paper, batteries, cleaning supplies. My buggy budget is 60.00 a week. The closest Aldi store is 75 miles from my house. I have a Save a lot, Walmart and Cashsaver (not shopping at that 1). So I do the best I can.
Where do you live that you can find these foods for so cheap ?
I live in Texas, but prices were similar in SC as well when I used to live there.
What if you have a gluten free husband? Gf bread is 6 dollars a loaf and it is tiny. Gluten free cereal is almost 5 dollars a box. Gluten free pasta is 2.50 for 8 oz. if I buy 2 of each I am already at 27 dollars for 3 ingredients. Not to mention living in the city even Aldi prices are high. Not realistic for our family.
That would definitely make things tough! 🙁
On this little blog I just share what works for my family. I am aware that what works for us will not work for everyone!
Hi! This is very impressive. Just curious though, does this mean the only option for fruit is apples? I would like to try something similar but probably would need to stretch the budget a bit more for fruits and veggies.
Hi Tina! For that particular week I only purchased apples (my kids eat them every single day) but we often have other fruit on hand too. It just depends on the week. 🙂
My best secret for saving money on groceries and more is simple: https://ibotta.onelink.me/iUfE/8cc13c64?friend_code=lrxmroo
I have earned over $50 in cash back just by buying my groceries as usual! Happy saving everyone! 🙂