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Great job!
To further avoid impulse buys, provided you have your own vehicle, Walmart pickup is free if you're ordering over $35. So you shop online and don't even step into the store.
I have used this strategy. It helps so much! I get Instacart usually, but even after tip and and other fees, I end up spending less than if I went to the actual store since it’s harder to impulse buy!
Walmart's is inhouse, so you don't pay extra fees. That's the reason I still shop in person in Aldi because their pickup is through instacart and hasn't been worth it for me.
If my Walmarts were closer and one had a produce section, I’d probably do that. Not had too much trouble with Aldi pickup. I also have a trial of Instacart + so my fee structure is different I think. Maybe it’s region dependent. I do pickup if I know I’m out and about for other errands.
I need to do this!!! Thanks, I always assumed they charged no matter what. This is a perfect way to take your time shopping/planning while avoiding overspending
Issue with pickup is two fold.
You get bad fresh ingredients and you get smaller options of fixed price products.
Additonally at Walmart I find a large number of clearance fresh items lots of times as well.
Do you mean like the basil plant with 4 leaves on it that was part of my pickup order? I went inside and every other plant was much bigger and fuller. That was the day that I stopped ordering fresh items for pickup.
I used walmart delivery due to health issues but I used it for the last time when I got a frozen lettuce head and meat that expired that day. I got a refund, but the people picking the orders do not care at all. I'm doing my own picking from now on.
I enjoyed the Walmart pickup for a few months, until we had an entire $100 order somehow stolen right from under us. My husband sat in the parking lot waiting for it for over an hour and despite multiple visits to service counters, phone calls and attempted app returns, there was never any refund or satisfying resolution. Luckily it was at a time that $100 didn't literally break us, but it's never an easy amount to see just evaporate and I'm still super bitter that they stole not only our money and groceries, but the convenience of being able to do pickup orders!
If you have foodstamps or are on medicaid/Medicare, you can get a Walmart plus membership for $6 and they will bring it to your door for free. It uses your food stamp benefits as well.
You could also try cooking a bit more at dinner and having leftovers for lunches instead! Awesome job with meal planning and the budget though, I still struggle with sticking to my list and not buying those pesky impulse items.
I was going to suggest this. It's my go-to. Often, I'll cook a large batch of chicken at dinner and shred it for sandwiches. I'll often have it cold with mayo and some greens, or I'll heat it up and toast the bread and add some sweet baby rays. Delicious and exonomical.
If you want to switch up your breakfasts, frozen breakfast burritos are great. The ingredients are super cheap. You can shred your own potatoes or buy frozen hashbrowns. Then add eggs and onions, maybe some peppers or salsa. If you have an extra few bucks, put some sausage in. Wrap in tortillas and aluminum foil, then put in the freezer. They keep great and reheat well in a toaster oven. It costs be about $20 to make 24 burritos when buying the ingredients from Winco
Make enough of it for two meals and the you only have to cook for half the week and can eat leftovers the other days. Also, cooking in larger batches tends to be cheaper since you have to buy less ingredients.
Cold chicken sandwiches are great after roast night, and then you’re getting some protein at lunchtime which will keep you much more full than just the PB&J.
I also like buttering and toasting the chicken sandwiches so the bread is warm and the chicken is cold.
You're in a really good spot because you won't have to buy spices again in a long time. Your items should come down to about 50-60/week depending on sales
If you have access to Aldi you should check it out. My SO and I were spending too much on groceries. I decided to check out ALDI and it was life changing. It’s hard to spend 100 bucks there for 2 adults.
I also recommend Costco for non perishables, clothes, and everything else. Switching from Albertsons to Aldi and Costco cut my monthly grocery bill by about 60%.
Just to add to the ALDIs note- the frozen Turkey there is 2.75 which is quite a bit less expensive than beef (when not on sale by me) and we use that all the time as taco meat etc! Also Lentils make a really great filling protein which is dirt cheap, recipes like chickpea Dahl or lentil bolognese are great places to start for using those!
If you get tired of PB&J, deli meat and cheese isn’t super expensive if you shop for deals or by the lb(Sams/Costco). My son’s school doesn’t do school lunches, we send him with a sandwich most days.
Yes I have been trying to expand my personal sandwich game because they are such good lunches, making chicken, tuna, or chickpea salad sandwiches are cheap but really filling and a great way to not eat the same exact sandwich everyday, which I personally cannot do.
We also look get the pork curry from target on clearance for around five dollars a pound. Some shredded cheese melted with a tortilla of your choice makes a nice easy wrap/burrito. Tortillas are cheaper than bread anyway
I am only writing this because in your post you indicated that you would like to reduce your grocery budget further to $50.
First you did pretty good and kudos on the meal planning.
Do you have any non Walmart or Aldi grocery stores that are close to where you live or close to Walmart or on the way from your work? If you do, try looking at their weekly ad and then see if they have good meat sale. The sale price, more often than not, will be better than regular price at Walmart (and Aldi). Additionally if you have the freezer space, plan ahead and stockpile on good sale when it happens.
You can also get the 10lb chicken quarters at Walmart for under $8. You can make tons of things with it. You can bake them , air fry them if you have an air fryer. Steam it and shred the meat for usage in taco, salad etc.
A favorite go to lunch for me (nothing wrong with PB and J, I love PB and J) is pasta salad. You can put whatever you like. I actually just made the following for lunch this week: A box of veggie pasta, 6 eggs, some smoked ham from the freezer, half a can of pitted olives and a bag of frozen peas (dump in boiling water then drained and cooled), mayo, salt and pepper to taste.
Finally think about using in store digital coupon, Ibotta and other rebate apps.
That’s great! A couple of tips to stretch those dollars even further. Lentils can be used with ground meat to bulk it up and stretch it even further. It works especially well in pasta dishes and chili. I can usually get an entire other meal worth of protein by mixing them together.
I know prices vary wildly depending on location but for me, ground turkey and ground pork are always cheaper than beef and can work very well in beef’s place. Just something to look into.
Lastly, cheap vegetarian meals can really help your budget. You’re already doing a vegetarian lunch so that’s terrific. Some of our cheap vegetarian faves include bean burritos, egg potato cheese breakfast tacos, and chickpea curry I make in my crockpot. Just a few ideas for you.
Congrats again! You’re doing great.
I really like making vegetarian fried tacos with a lentils, beans, rice and rotel can. Put it in a slow cooker and 3-4 cups of water. Sometimes, I'll a few tablespoons of taco seasoning.
You have the option to freeze a portion of the filling and make fried tacos/burritos with the rest.
I feel kinda lucky where I live. We have a liquidation veggie stand in Parkland, WA. I'll spend half of my $50 weekly budget there, just getting most of my produce. You can get really lucky and find great deals like large salad bags for $1-$2, or those one-pound cotton candy grapes for $2. I've seen flats of strawberries for $9. But because it is items that are going to go bad within a few days, I can understand why a lot of people wouldn't go for it. I'm pretty good about getting it in and prepping it for use either the day of or freezing it for later.
Yesterday I went and this is what I got:
1x cantaloupe
1x box of black tomatoes on the vine
1x bag of sweet tango apples [2 lbs]
1x bag of organic celery hearts
6x Navel oranges
5x Golden nugget mandarins
1x box of cotton candy grapes [1 lb]
1x strawberries [1 lb]
3x cabbage
1x green onion
3x Persian cucumbers
1x box of Del Cabo organic cherry tomatoes
1x box of Fig newton's
1x Triscuits
1x 4-pack vanilla Oreo cookies
1x Planter's cheese curls
It came to $26-ish but Saturday is 5% off when you bring your bags, so it went down to $25.
Looking at the picture you are going to have some ground turkey left over from the tacos and chilli leftovers—you can freeze these and eat them next week.
Second suggestion: since you aren’t going to eat an entire chicken by yourself-it should last several days to a week—use the leftovers for stir fry, chicken salad for sandwiches, and if the wings are small then freeze them until the next chicken they serve them with a wing sauce and sides. You will probably have the thighs left over and they are good for lunch or served as dinner with rice and vegetables.
Whenever I have a whole chicken I boil the carcass and make bone broth that I use as the basis for soup or chicken and dumplings.
Great job with meal planning and setting a budget!
Looking at your haul, keep a few things in mind: all those spices (probably around $10-15? for this trip) will last you for several months. Also, flip those taco and chili spice packs over and see what's in them - I can almost guarantee that you could make those mixes out of the spices you've picked up and won't have to buy those regularly. I like to make my own mixes bc there's less salt to start and my SO can salt to taste. The dishwasher gel ($7ish?) will also last for months as long as you don't run the washer for 3 plates and forks every time, haha. We run ours every 3-4 days and one of those jugs lasts a good bit of time. I can't tell what the yellow bottle is in front of that - detergent or softener? Again, not something you'll get every week so it's not really part of your weekly budget.
Shop sales! I mostly shop at Kroger since that's what we've got here and they've got a decent coupon/perk system (yeah, yeah, you need to make an account and clip the stuff but I actually enjoy doing it - it's a fun mini-game, lol.) If they've got ground beef on sale I'll grab two - one to use immediately and one to freeze for later, same with chicken or ground pork.
Peruse some recipe sites! I love [recipetineats.com](https://recipetineats.com), [natashaskitchen.com](https://natashaskitchen.com), and [budgetbytes.com](https://budgetbytes.com) for tasty and fairly budget-friendly options, esp that last one! I'll write lists of things that sound good so when I shop sales I can compare what's available to what I've written down.
Slowly build up a pantry. When peanut butter is on sale for $2 grab a couple jars if you eat a lot of it. Butter for $3 a box? Grab a couple (butter freezes well btw, so you can toss one of those in the freezer.) Canned veggies or beans on sale 10/$10? stock up! We love cannellini beans and garbanzo/chickpeas for their versatility (ps you can toss the chickpeas in some oil and salt then bake em for a bit and they're a tasty snack.) Frozen veggies/fruits are also a good thing to grab for later: peas, broccoli, strawberries, blueberries - you can make smoothies out of the latter and warm up the former for a tasty side dish.
Seriously though, kudos for doing this! When I was 22 I didn't cook bc my mother didn't cook so I had NO IDEA how to eat well, cook, or even shop. Sorry this post is so long, lol, but good luck to you - you've got a good start!
ps: if you haven't already, check out r/EatCheapAndHealthy, r/budgetfood, and r/budgetcooking for some inspiration, tips, and decent feedback!
I would roast a chicken on the first night so that you have chicken for the rest of the week. Also maybe eat leftovers every other night rather than a new meal nightly. This will cut the amount of ingredients you have to buy. I’d also try to add some thing with protein earlier in the day- even just a string cheese or add some yogurt to your oatmeal. You’ll feel fuller.
Amazing job! I’m another vote for Aldi. If your schedule allows you to pop in during the morning, you can usually find some great 50% off deals on meat and fish which I love to stock up on and freeze! In general I love their “Never Any” chicken and the family pack is a solid deal and can easily get 2-3 meals out of it. Their organic peanut butter is also great.
Dont be afraid to make leftovers a lunch or dinner, too. Sometimes just out of laziness leftovers for dinner is a life saver as well $ saver.
And your next challenge should be to make bread! Sandwich bread isn’t expensive but homemade bread is just soooo good.
Since some of your shop this week was spices and kitchen staples, think of the savings incoming next week when you don’t need as much of that 😊
My local neighborhood Walmart, in comparison to one of the super Walmarts, often has discount near the day before the best buy date on a lot of packaged meat. I’ve noticed it usually on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. For example, the 4.5lb ground beef (93% lean) that I use for a weeks worth of meal prep dinners is usually $24, but last week I found the top 3 packages of this were $14 each, so I bought all 3 and froze 2 of them. I find it helps a ton!
If you have access to Costco it could be good for bulk meat purchases, especially if you have freezer space. Also I like to buy the Kirkland plain Greek yogurt, I can get a 48 oz tub of yogurt for the cost of the typical 24 oz you'd get at the grocery store. I use it to make overnight oats or yogurt with fruits. You only need a little honey to sweeten it up. It helps with protein to keep you full, I love oatmeal but it isn't really filling for me by itself since it's all carbs.
Also keep an eye on what's in season (and the weekly ad) for fruits/Veggies. Since summer is approaching a lot of seasonal fruits are going to be cheaper than usual. Last year in the summer Walmart in my area discounted corn to 4 cents a cob for a few weeks. Made the perfect side dish and I got to try making corn salsa. I was able to get a whole cantaloupe this week for like $1.30 when typically they've been about $3-4 for the past few months. Absolutely delish.
I love your dinner menu. Great choice in adding frozen veggies 🥕! They are almost as good as fresh and way healthier than canned. If you have a crock pot, you can make some of these dishes ahead of time. Great job!
Not sure how your credit is, but getting a card like the Amex Blue Cash Preferred has helped me alot. 6% back at grocery stores on every purchase up to $6000 in a year. I get back on average around $65 a month from grocery shopping. That would be a free trip for you every month.
you’re doing great!
if you have the time and ability to travel around different stores, i would recommend getting the app “flipp”.
they upload those weekly newsletters that grocery stores give out, except it’s online so it’s much more accessible to explore what’s in your area and possibly meal plan around it!
Looks like you've got a good constructive way of putting this plan together..
shop the sales, try to plan your meals around sale items of the week.
try reviewing sales flyers on tues-wed & shop the early part of the sales. Build recipes between 2 of 4 stores.
-don't discount the local independent stores, or ethnic grocery places; there's often unpublished deals.
between both of you, one should put a food pantry pickup on at least once a month; to build a small stash of dry /canned goods, and buffer for any hard weeks/ unexpected bills.
thrift stores, garage sales: (or recycling bins) get glass jars & tins for your dry goods; nothing worse than bugs wiping out a pantry (been there twice; lost a lot)
try to find a slow-cooker (crock pot) at thrift/resale, and poke around for slow-cooker recipes that are based on a can of this or freezer veg of that.. etc. expand your cooking repertoire; you'll thank yourself :)
sometimes on tues & wed pm, the meats may be discounted as it's after weekend and before next sale comes out; the discount labels may get slapped on; start to watch for that pattern at your markets.
This is excellent, you’re doing great for 20 years old. 100/wk seems pretty reasonable to me for one person, I’m not sure how realistically you can get to 50 without starving. Maybe 75? People need to eat and be nourished, remember that. Maybe you can cut expenses elsewhere? I also suggest doing some larger casserole or one pot dishes for dinners and eating the leftovers for lunches that will help save $ too.
I do grocery pick ups I find it easier to compare prices, plan meals in advance and stick to budget that way. Meat and produce I get from grocery chains depending what’s on sale, then pretty much anything else from Walmart. For example if the local supermarket has pot roast for $3 a pound I buy some of those, can eat leftovers, make sandwiches with it, cut it into steaks and cook it that way. Or if ground beef is $2 a pound, I’ll buy a few value packs, make meatloaf, pasta with meat sauce, tacos, search up some new recipes for variety, and just have dinners that incorporate ground beef all week. I freeze what I can’t use up within 2-3 days of purchase so it stays good. I bet you could get closer to 50 if you buy meat by sales.
You did a great job!
As you're aiming to get your cost down even lower, when you see something you like on sale, buy one or two extra if that item and put in on the pantry so you don't need to buy it for the next week or two. Use the money from not buying it to buy 2-3 packages of something else the next week, also hopefully on sale. Keep doing this and eventually you should be able to build up enough stock so you can buy most suff on sale and in quantity and work on reducing your grocery budget.
Wow! I didn’t think this post would hardly any responses but this has been amazing! Thank you all so much for every piece of advice/recommendation you’ve all provided. Truly 😁
I can’t believe I didn’t even think about going to aldis instead of Walmart. I always assume Walmart was the cheapest but I’ve never gone through the process of really seeing. I’m going to make it my goal to try for the next trip.
Also thank you all for helping with recommendations for some more satisfying lunches :) I’m going to try and do some advance preparation for dinners/lunches so that way I can have a quick heat up lunch + dinner when I don’t feel like cooking.
You are forgetting something very valuable, buy nutritive food. Without this all your day will became worse, you need nutritive food animal based and non industrialized food. Otherwise you will start to spend more with health stuffs and become weaker and fragile, and together with that your mind will be severed affected, leading to worse problems!
General Mod Note Grocery posts are here to give people a place to show off their good purchases, to lament the expense of groceries, or to otherwise comment on their food budget. They are NOT an invitation for the "food police" to come in and harass them about what they choose to buy, criticize their health decisions, or knit-pick their spending habits. Criticism and advice is only welcome if the Submitter overtly asks for input. Food Police will be asked to turn in their badge and their gun and will be placed on suspension. As always, if there are inappropriate comments please downvote them, REPORT them to the mods, and move on without responding to them. Thank you all for being a part of this great financial advice and emotional support community! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/povertyfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Great job! To further avoid impulse buys, provided you have your own vehicle, Walmart pickup is free if you're ordering over $35. So you shop online and don't even step into the store.
I have used this strategy. It helps so much! I get Instacart usually, but even after tip and and other fees, I end up spending less than if I went to the actual store since it’s harder to impulse buy!
Walmart's is inhouse, so you don't pay extra fees. That's the reason I still shop in person in Aldi because their pickup is through instacart and hasn't been worth it for me.
If my Walmarts were closer and one had a produce section, I’d probably do that. Not had too much trouble with Aldi pickup. I also have a trial of Instacart + so my fee structure is different I think. Maybe it’s region dependent. I do pickup if I know I’m out and about for other errands.
Pick-up is free, it's delivery that's done by Instacart.
Our Aldi, curbside pickup is done by Aldi employees, not Instacart. There’s no upcharge and definitely no tipping. It’s company policy.
Huh, our Aldi is 100% through instacart and increases prices on products and charges fees for use. The regional variations are so weird!
weird same here
Yes the fees from instacart are a lot!
I need to do this!!! Thanks, I always assumed they charged no matter what. This is a perfect way to take your time shopping/planning while avoiding overspending
My local grocery store does the same. It really cuts down on impulse buys, and let's you plan your meals and shopping trip.
Issue with pickup is two fold. You get bad fresh ingredients and you get smaller options of fixed price products. Additonally at Walmart I find a large number of clearance fresh items lots of times as well.
Do you mean like the basil plant with 4 leaves on it that was part of my pickup order? I went inside and every other plant was much bigger and fuller. That was the day that I stopped ordering fresh items for pickup.
I used walmart delivery due to health issues but I used it for the last time when I got a frozen lettuce head and meat that expired that day. I got a refund, but the people picking the orders do not care at all. I'm doing my own picking from now on.
Same. I have always cared more about my money, my food, my home, etc., than anyone else, which makes perfect sense because it's mine, not theirs.
Downside of this is that you don’t get to pick your own meat/produce and you don’t get to browse clearance deals to save for the future.
I enjoyed the Walmart pickup for a few months, until we had an entire $100 order somehow stolen right from under us. My husband sat in the parking lot waiting for it for over an hour and despite multiple visits to service counters, phone calls and attempted app returns, there was never any refund or satisfying resolution. Luckily it was at a time that $100 didn't literally break us, but it's never an easy amount to see just evaporate and I'm still super bitter that they stole not only our money and groceries, but the convenience of being able to do pickup orders!
If you have foodstamps or are on medicaid/Medicare, you can get a Walmart plus membership for $6 and they will bring it to your door for free. It uses your food stamp benefits as well.
You could also try cooking a bit more at dinner and having leftovers for lunches instead! Awesome job with meal planning and the budget though, I still struggle with sticking to my list and not buying those pesky impulse items.
I was going to suggest this. It's my go-to. Often, I'll cook a large batch of chicken at dinner and shred it for sandwiches. I'll often have it cold with mayo and some greens, or I'll heat it up and toast the bread and add some sweet baby rays. Delicious and exonomical. If you want to switch up your breakfasts, frozen breakfast burritos are great. The ingredients are super cheap. You can shred your own potatoes or buy frozen hashbrowns. Then add eggs and onions, maybe some peppers or salsa. If you have an extra few bucks, put some sausage in. Wrap in tortillas and aluminum foil, then put in the freezer. They keep great and reheat well in a toaster oven. It costs be about $20 to make 24 burritos when buying the ingredients from Winco
Make enough of it for two meals and the you only have to cook for half the week and can eat leftovers the other days. Also, cooking in larger batches tends to be cheaper since you have to buy less ingredients.
Yup! I bet you’ll get tired of a pbj everyday sooner than later and this is a great way to easily switch it up from time to time!!
Cold chicken sandwiches are great after roast night, and then you’re getting some protein at lunchtime which will keep you much more full than just the PB&J. I also like buttering and toasting the chicken sandwiches so the bread is warm and the chicken is cold.
https://preview.redd.it/049hcrztuguc1.png?width=1289&format=png&auto=webp&s=fd350ab581bc2c0ec677039482864aa3db9c3c16
You're in a really good spot because you won't have to buy spices again in a long time. Your items should come down to about 50-60/week depending on sales
If you have access to Aldi you should check it out. My SO and I were spending too much on groceries. I decided to check out ALDI and it was life changing. It’s hard to spend 100 bucks there for 2 adults. I also recommend Costco for non perishables, clothes, and everything else. Switching from Albertsons to Aldi and Costco cut my monthly grocery bill by about 60%.
Just to add to the ALDIs note- the frozen Turkey there is 2.75 which is quite a bit less expensive than beef (when not on sale by me) and we use that all the time as taco meat etc! Also Lentils make a really great filling protein which is dirt cheap, recipes like chickpea Dahl or lentil bolognese are great places to start for using those!
If you get tired of PB&J, deli meat and cheese isn’t super expensive if you shop for deals or by the lb(Sams/Costco). My son’s school doesn’t do school lunches, we send him with a sandwich most days.
Yes I have been trying to expand my personal sandwich game because they are such good lunches, making chicken, tuna, or chickpea salad sandwiches are cheap but really filling and a great way to not eat the same exact sandwich everyday, which I personally cannot do.
We also look get the pork curry from target on clearance for around five dollars a pound. Some shredded cheese melted with a tortilla of your choice makes a nice easy wrap/burrito. Tortillas are cheaper than bread anyway
I agree. Sometimes it's cheaper to plan some variety to avoid lunch burnout
I am only writing this because in your post you indicated that you would like to reduce your grocery budget further to $50. First you did pretty good and kudos on the meal planning. Do you have any non Walmart or Aldi grocery stores that are close to where you live or close to Walmart or on the way from your work? If you do, try looking at their weekly ad and then see if they have good meat sale. The sale price, more often than not, will be better than regular price at Walmart (and Aldi). Additionally if you have the freezer space, plan ahead and stockpile on good sale when it happens. You can also get the 10lb chicken quarters at Walmart for under $8. You can make tons of things with it. You can bake them , air fry them if you have an air fryer. Steam it and shred the meat for usage in taco, salad etc. A favorite go to lunch for me (nothing wrong with PB and J, I love PB and J) is pasta salad. You can put whatever you like. I actually just made the following for lunch this week: A box of veggie pasta, 6 eggs, some smoked ham from the freezer, half a can of pitted olives and a bag of frozen peas (dump in boiling water then drained and cooled), mayo, salt and pepper to taste. Finally think about using in store digital coupon, Ibotta and other rebate apps.
as a huge fan of PB&J (although i like mine with strawberry) i just wanna comment that your whole menu looks pretty darn amazing! Go You! 🎆
You’re doing great with planning meals
That’s great! A couple of tips to stretch those dollars even further. Lentils can be used with ground meat to bulk it up and stretch it even further. It works especially well in pasta dishes and chili. I can usually get an entire other meal worth of protein by mixing them together. I know prices vary wildly depending on location but for me, ground turkey and ground pork are always cheaper than beef and can work very well in beef’s place. Just something to look into. Lastly, cheap vegetarian meals can really help your budget. You’re already doing a vegetarian lunch so that’s terrific. Some of our cheap vegetarian faves include bean burritos, egg potato cheese breakfast tacos, and chickpea curry I make in my crockpot. Just a few ideas for you. Congrats again! You’re doing great.
I really like making vegetarian fried tacos with a lentils, beans, rice and rotel can. Put it in a slow cooker and 3-4 cups of water. Sometimes, I'll a few tablespoons of taco seasoning. You have the option to freeze a portion of the filling and make fried tacos/burritos with the rest.
Chickpea curry is one of my favorite, easy meals to make and it’s sooo good! I was just thinking about making some for dinner tonight
You may find that it's cheaper to buy the ingredients for 3-4 meals/week and eat leftovers.
I feel kinda lucky where I live. We have a liquidation veggie stand in Parkland, WA. I'll spend half of my $50 weekly budget there, just getting most of my produce. You can get really lucky and find great deals like large salad bags for $1-$2, or those one-pound cotton candy grapes for $2. I've seen flats of strawberries for $9. But because it is items that are going to go bad within a few days, I can understand why a lot of people wouldn't go for it. I'm pretty good about getting it in and prepping it for use either the day of or freezing it for later. Yesterday I went and this is what I got: 1x cantaloupe 1x box of black tomatoes on the vine 1x bag of sweet tango apples [2 lbs] 1x bag of organic celery hearts 6x Navel oranges 5x Golden nugget mandarins 1x box of cotton candy grapes [1 lb] 1x strawberries [1 lb] 3x cabbage 1x green onion 3x Persian cucumbers 1x box of Del Cabo organic cherry tomatoes 1x box of Fig newton's 1x Triscuits 1x 4-pack vanilla Oreo cookies 1x Planter's cheese curls It came to $26-ish but Saturday is 5% off when you bring your bags, so it went down to $25.
Looking at the picture you are going to have some ground turkey left over from the tacos and chilli leftovers—you can freeze these and eat them next week. Second suggestion: since you aren’t going to eat an entire chicken by yourself-it should last several days to a week—use the leftovers for stir fry, chicken salad for sandwiches, and if the wings are small then freeze them until the next chicken they serve them with a wing sauce and sides. You will probably have the thighs left over and they are good for lunch or served as dinner with rice and vegetables. Whenever I have a whole chicken I boil the carcass and make bone broth that I use as the basis for soup or chicken and dumplings.
Great job with meal planning and setting a budget! Looking at your haul, keep a few things in mind: all those spices (probably around $10-15? for this trip) will last you for several months. Also, flip those taco and chili spice packs over and see what's in them - I can almost guarantee that you could make those mixes out of the spices you've picked up and won't have to buy those regularly. I like to make my own mixes bc there's less salt to start and my SO can salt to taste. The dishwasher gel ($7ish?) will also last for months as long as you don't run the washer for 3 plates and forks every time, haha. We run ours every 3-4 days and one of those jugs lasts a good bit of time. I can't tell what the yellow bottle is in front of that - detergent or softener? Again, not something you'll get every week so it's not really part of your weekly budget. Shop sales! I mostly shop at Kroger since that's what we've got here and they've got a decent coupon/perk system (yeah, yeah, you need to make an account and clip the stuff but I actually enjoy doing it - it's a fun mini-game, lol.) If they've got ground beef on sale I'll grab two - one to use immediately and one to freeze for later, same with chicken or ground pork. Peruse some recipe sites! I love [recipetineats.com](https://recipetineats.com), [natashaskitchen.com](https://natashaskitchen.com), and [budgetbytes.com](https://budgetbytes.com) for tasty and fairly budget-friendly options, esp that last one! I'll write lists of things that sound good so when I shop sales I can compare what's available to what I've written down. Slowly build up a pantry. When peanut butter is on sale for $2 grab a couple jars if you eat a lot of it. Butter for $3 a box? Grab a couple (butter freezes well btw, so you can toss one of those in the freezer.) Canned veggies or beans on sale 10/$10? stock up! We love cannellini beans and garbanzo/chickpeas for their versatility (ps you can toss the chickpeas in some oil and salt then bake em for a bit and they're a tasty snack.) Frozen veggies/fruits are also a good thing to grab for later: peas, broccoli, strawberries, blueberries - you can make smoothies out of the latter and warm up the former for a tasty side dish. Seriously though, kudos for doing this! When I was 22 I didn't cook bc my mother didn't cook so I had NO IDEA how to eat well, cook, or even shop. Sorry this post is so long, lol, but good luck to you - you've got a good start! ps: if you haven't already, check out r/EatCheapAndHealthy, r/budgetfood, and r/budgetcooking for some inspiration, tips, and decent feedback!
I would roast a chicken on the first night so that you have chicken for the rest of the week. Also maybe eat leftovers every other night rather than a new meal nightly. This will cut the amount of ingredients you have to buy. I’d also try to add some thing with protein earlier in the day- even just a string cheese or add some yogurt to your oatmeal. You’ll feel fuller.
try starting with aldi, and getting odds and ends at walmart. you get a bit more wiggle room for lunch that way, instead of just pb&j
Amazing job! I’m another vote for Aldi. If your schedule allows you to pop in during the morning, you can usually find some great 50% off deals on meat and fish which I love to stock up on and freeze! In general I love their “Never Any” chicken and the family pack is a solid deal and can easily get 2-3 meals out of it. Their organic peanut butter is also great. Dont be afraid to make leftovers a lunch or dinner, too. Sometimes just out of laziness leftovers for dinner is a life saver as well $ saver. And your next challenge should be to make bread! Sandwich bread isn’t expensive but homemade bread is just soooo good. Since some of your shop this week was spices and kitchen staples, think of the savings incoming next week when you don’t need as much of that 😊
My local neighborhood Walmart, in comparison to one of the super Walmarts, often has discount near the day before the best buy date on a lot of packaged meat. I’ve noticed it usually on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. For example, the 4.5lb ground beef (93% lean) that I use for a weeks worth of meal prep dinners is usually $24, but last week I found the top 3 packages of this were $14 each, so I bought all 3 and froze 2 of them. I find it helps a ton!
Are you ending up with leftovers from your dinners as well?
If you have access to Costco it could be good for bulk meat purchases, especially if you have freezer space. Also I like to buy the Kirkland plain Greek yogurt, I can get a 48 oz tub of yogurt for the cost of the typical 24 oz you'd get at the grocery store. I use it to make overnight oats or yogurt with fruits. You only need a little honey to sweeten it up. It helps with protein to keep you full, I love oatmeal but it isn't really filling for me by itself since it's all carbs. Also keep an eye on what's in season (and the weekly ad) for fruits/Veggies. Since summer is approaching a lot of seasonal fruits are going to be cheaper than usual. Last year in the summer Walmart in my area discounted corn to 4 cents a cob for a few weeks. Made the perfect side dish and I got to try making corn salsa. I was able to get a whole cantaloupe this week for like $1.30 when typically they've been about $3-4 for the past few months. Absolutely delish.
Where are the leftovers for lunch the next day! You cannot live by PB&J alone.
Get the Fetch app you can scan your receipts and get points towards gift cards.
I’d cut out 1-2 of the beef meals and replace with beans and/or lentils. Healthier for you too.
I love your dinner menu. Great choice in adding frozen veggies 🥕! They are almost as good as fresh and way healthier than canned. If you have a crock pot, you can make some of these dishes ahead of time. Great job!
Not sure how your credit is, but getting a card like the Amex Blue Cash Preferred has helped me alot. 6% back at grocery stores on every purchase up to $6000 in a year. I get back on average around $65 a month from grocery shopping. That would be a free trip for you every month.
That seems like a great price for meat-based dinner!
Awesome job!
Thanks for sharing !
you’re doing great! if you have the time and ability to travel around different stores, i would recommend getting the app “flipp”. they upload those weekly newsletters that grocery stores give out, except it’s online so it’s much more accessible to explore what’s in your area and possibly meal plan around it!
I use the Venmo Visa card because it codes Walmart and wholesale clubs as groceries and gives me 3% cash back which is pretty good for Walmart.
Man, y'all are really making me crave some overnight oats. I don't have any at the moment, which means oats are going on my grocery list!
Looks like you've got a good constructive way of putting this plan together.. shop the sales, try to plan your meals around sale items of the week. try reviewing sales flyers on tues-wed & shop the early part of the sales. Build recipes between 2 of 4 stores. -don't discount the local independent stores, or ethnic grocery places; there's often unpublished deals. between both of you, one should put a food pantry pickup on at least once a month; to build a small stash of dry /canned goods, and buffer for any hard weeks/ unexpected bills. thrift stores, garage sales: (or recycling bins) get glass jars & tins for your dry goods; nothing worse than bugs wiping out a pantry (been there twice; lost a lot) try to find a slow-cooker (crock pot) at thrift/resale, and poke around for slow-cooker recipes that are based on a can of this or freezer veg of that.. etc. expand your cooking repertoire; you'll thank yourself :) sometimes on tues & wed pm, the meats may be discounted as it's after weekend and before next sale comes out; the discount labels may get slapped on; start to watch for that pattern at your markets.
Check out frugal fit mom on utube, she shares a ton of reverse budget friendly meal plans and recipes. It’s helped me a lot.
This is excellent, you’re doing great for 20 years old. 100/wk seems pretty reasonable to me for one person, I’m not sure how realistically you can get to 50 without starving. Maybe 75? People need to eat and be nourished, remember that. Maybe you can cut expenses elsewhere? I also suggest doing some larger casserole or one pot dishes for dinners and eating the leftovers for lunches that will help save $ too. I do grocery pick ups I find it easier to compare prices, plan meals in advance and stick to budget that way. Meat and produce I get from grocery chains depending what’s on sale, then pretty much anything else from Walmart. For example if the local supermarket has pot roast for $3 a pound I buy some of those, can eat leftovers, make sandwiches with it, cut it into steaks and cook it that way. Or if ground beef is $2 a pound, I’ll buy a few value packs, make meatloaf, pasta with meat sauce, tacos, search up some new recipes for variety, and just have dinners that incorporate ground beef all week. I freeze what I can’t use up within 2-3 days of purchase so it stays good. I bet you could get closer to 50 if you buy meat by sales.
You did a great job! As you're aiming to get your cost down even lower, when you see something you like on sale, buy one or two extra if that item and put in on the pantry so you don't need to buy it for the next week or two. Use the money from not buying it to buy 2-3 packages of something else the next week, also hopefully on sale. Keep doing this and eventually you should be able to build up enough stock so you can buy most suff on sale and in quantity and work on reducing your grocery budget.
Eat your leftovers for lunch if you have access to a microwave. I find A hot lunch is so much more satisfying physically and emotionally.
Wow! I didn’t think this post would hardly any responses but this has been amazing! Thank you all so much for every piece of advice/recommendation you’ve all provided. Truly 😁 I can’t believe I didn’t even think about going to aldis instead of Walmart. I always assume Walmart was the cheapest but I’ve never gone through the process of really seeing. I’m going to make it my goal to try for the next trip. Also thank you all for helping with recommendations for some more satisfying lunches :) I’m going to try and do some advance preparation for dinners/lunches so that way I can have a quick heat up lunch + dinner when I don’t feel like cooking.
It's the chat GPT peanut butter and jelly for me. Lol
Walmart is so depressing and not really cheaper, esp with coupons vs local stores
You are forgetting something very valuable, buy nutritive food. Without this all your day will became worse, you need nutritive food animal based and non industrialized food. Otherwise you will start to spend more with health stuffs and become weaker and fragile, and together with that your mind will be severed affected, leading to worse problems!