My grocery shopping trip for the October Meal Plan:
I had most of the staples, and some other items such as macaroni and lasagna noodles, beans, a few cans of tomato sauce, pizza sauce etc. Tip: Stock up on these staples when they go on sale!
With the exception of the orange bell peppers. Those I'll purchase at the end of the month when I need them for the Jack-o-lantern Stuffed Peppers. I knew they wouldn't last the month and I need their skin to be really crisp for carving faces.
This month, I needed 11 pounds of ground meat! Hamburgers, meatloaf, spaghetti, etc. And it would've sent me way over budget if I purchased what I normally buy from Costco or Nob Hill, So, I went to Walmart and saw that they had this 10 pound roll of ground beef. Mind you-It's 73% lean. It's not the healthiest, nor my favorite choice, but it will cover my meals and it kept me from breaking my budget by at least $30. If you don't mind the extra $$ for a leaner cut, go for it!
**A substitution can be made by purchasing ground Turkey instead. However, it will change the flavor of the meal drastically. But if you don't mind it's a healthier and cheaper substitute.* At Walmart I paid $1.50 for a pound of ground turkey.**
I separated it, made record meat, and froze it.
Nob Hill
I spent $92.95
Safeway (Because Nob Hill didn't have whole chickens at the time...and then I forgot milk and bread and picked up a few other things not in the budget and not on my list).......That's why I use grocery pick up services!
I spent $34.70
(The only thing I really needed was the chicken $6.49, the bread $2.99, and milk $4.99)
Walmart
I spent $206.16
This was my first time shopping here for groceries.
Most items were at least $1 cheaper than Nob Hill. What wasn't cheaper, I purchased from Nob Hill.
Total spent for groceries $333.81
33.81 over budget, I blame the Safeway trip.
This covers a month of dinners. I purchased items like waffles, eggs, lunch meat, snack "junk" food for lunch fillers/after school snacks, fruits and veggies, yogurt, cheese.
The snacks need to be separated so they don't go through it all in a week which has happened often in the past. I let them know that once this is gone, they don't have any more until next shopping trip which is a month away, so be mindful of how fast you eat it.
Since moving the snacks and dividing them up in their own containers, I feel like they have a better visual and with that a better understanding of rationing their snacks.
I always have fruit for the kids to eat and I will purchase more when we run out just so we have it available for the kids, we go through fruit, carrots, and celery like CRAZY. I allot $25 for produce and we hit our local fruit stand to restock when we need to.
The spinach will go bad before I make the Spinach and Tuna stuffed Shells, so I will make ahead and freeze it. Could I have used frozen spinach to begin with? Of course! But working with frozen spinach can make things a little watery so I used fresh and then froze.
You can read my post about Monthly Grocery Shopping HERE.
Feel free to leave questions in the comments!
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