Frugal Fridays: Grocery shopping
I've written a lot about grocery shopping on a budget. This week, just for fun, I thought you might enjoy "coming with us" as we did our weekly shopping!We save a lot of money by planning our menu around the store sales and what we have on hand, but this means it's a little different where we shop every week. Sometimes we'll hit three stores that are each running more than a few good deals. Other weeks, we just hit Aldi and CVS.
This week was an Aldi, CVS, and Walgreens week. Kroger had no good sales to speak of, so we by-passed it and stuck our Aldi-only menu.
For those not familiar with Aldi, it is a discount grocery store. It is quite small and usually very inexpensive compared to other stores.
On $35/week for groceries, about $10 of that is devoted to fresh fruits and vegetables. We try to buy a lot of a few kinds and buying them at Aldi or on sale helps stretch the $10 fresh fruits and veggies allotment. (If only we could grow our own! Maybe next year!) This week we bought orange, red, and green peppers, carrots, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, grape fruit, kiwi, and bananas. Notice the calculator in Jesse's hand. I usually have the list and lead the way. He pushes the cart and tallies things up as we go along to make sure we stay within our budget. We've learned never to grocery shop without a calculator if we want to stick with our budget.
At Aldi, bags are not provided free of charge - you either pay for them, bring your own, or use empty boxes. Kathrynne brought her own bag this time and thought that since she had her own bag, she could fill it up... with M&M's of course! Another way to save money at the store: Teach your children they don't get whatever they want and whining about it won't change things. We're still working on that with Kathrynne! By the way, the M&M's didn't end up staying in the cart or her bag. :)
Kaitlynn usually stays contentedly tucked in the sling while we shop. I love this sling from Pretty Momma Slings - I use it at least 2-3 times per day as I'm working around the house and almost always have her in it when I'm out and about. I'll switch over to the ERGO when she's a bit bigger, but I love slings for when they're so tiny!
And we're finished!
The little shopper! We let her carry out a few of the items in her own bag. We always try to encourage her to be helpful and take initiative whenever we can.
We usually use boxes instead of bags to carry our stuff out in. Our total was around $33 this week. It might not look like much, but with what we already have in our cupboards, we have plenty too eat all week and some to spare!----------------------
Have a frugal post or tip to share with us? Leave your link below!
posted by Crystal Paine at 8:41 PM
40 Comments:
I enjoyed your post, what fun! The pics were precious!
I don't know why but I tally everything on a piece of paper , I suppose using a calculator would be a so much easier!!! I try to go to our Fresh produce stand from our local farmers for fruit and veggies , they are soooo cheap compared to the grocery store prices. :-)
Wow. $35.00 a week. That is amazing. Where we live if we spend $75.00 or less we are doing well. Small remote town, 2 grocery stores, expensive costs of fuel for trucking the groceries up north = much more expensive groceries!
What wonderful pictures of your girls!!
I write the price of things next to each item on my list, then tally up each section of the list (arranged by store layout) as I go along. If I need to put something back at the end, I do.
Crystal, did you receive the sling as a gift? I looked at them and KNOW you didn't spend $90 on one! They are gorgeous though!
That was a great idea! Thanks for sharing your grocery shopping!
Love,
Joy
For a family of 5 I can spend between $45-90 per week and do well. I try to average it out by the month though. Some weeks, when sales are good I will stock up but then it will come out of next weeks budget so it averages out! I try to average about $75 per week! It can be done! And we live in an area where things are more expensive...all the more reason to be creative!
Stephanie
super job on keeping a low weekly grocery budget. Ours is about $100 a week for 5.
We don't have an Aldi's here. We have a Save a lot but it is kind of dirty and not in a great part of town.
I couldn't really tell what you purchased, I could just see the bananas peeking out. It'd be helpful for me to see what all you bought to help it make more sense to me. I just moved to an area with an Aldi and when I walked through it I didn't think the prices were that great--compared to generics at wal-mart. I know you're not a big fan of that store and I completely understand and agree, but I can't seem to beat their prices.
I would love to see your shopping list and your menu for the week. If we could shop like you - we could get off government assistance!
I loved those pics!! :) Thanks for the tips.
I'm so excited to contribute to my first Frugal Friday!
I laughed because, I too, tally my grocery totals on a piece of paper (right there with ya, Tiany)! The kids complain that it makes shopping take too long. :-) I think I'll be stopping by Dollar Tree to pick up a calculator!
Thanks for hosting! (Wish I had an Aldi's...only Wal-Mart and a pricey mom-n-pop market)
Loving Frugal Fridays!!!
Hop on over to get a $1 off on our incredible brown sugar scrub!
I wish we had an Aldi's. Lots of other grocery stores around here, but no good place for cheap produce. I just get what is on special for the week.
rachel <><
I just started reading your "Secrets to Supermarket Savings" and am so excited to learn more!
We don't have an Aldi's here too. Just a Wal-Mart supercenter and a local grocery store (small town of roughly about 4,000). Funny thing is I think Wal-Mart is cheaper than the local grocery store! LOL! I don't know about the other Wal-Marts in other cities/states, but mine will match any competitor's prices. So for example, if I see an ad for, say 4 pounds of bananas for 25 cents, I let Wal-Mart cashier know that. I try to take the time to find all the ads (as I don't get newspapers - can't afford it, but do get one or two ads in my mailbox)at the store and look for great deals. If I find coupons that go with the deals, the better! 8^D
Hi Crystal. I have enjoyed your blog for a while now and am trying to participate more so I am joining in on Frugal Friday's this week. Thanks for hosting. Julie.
It makes me wish we had an Aldi's! They got them in MN as soon as I moved! We do have fairly low food prices here, but I really have to be careful!
I got some good deals yesterday by shopping Albertsons three day coupon sale.
I have not really figured out what we spend in a week because we spend what we have this week, but sometimes it is more and sometimes it is less! I have been spending more as I buy more food to put up for the winter. It helps in the winter months. I wish I could grow more!
Oh, my mom always used a calculator also in the store!
Michelle - No, I didn't buy the sling. :) You know me too well, don't you?! Pretty Momma Sling advertised on my blog awhile back and sent me one of their slings. I've loved it. For any of you mommas who haven't used a sling before, I encourage you to try it. You could probably even make your own.
Thank you, Crystal. I had a bit of trouble getting to your blog today. Just wondering if you changed your url?
We're having a staple Aldi menu this week:
Breakfasts - cereal/milk (using our 23 boxes of almost-free cereal from a few weeks back!)
Lunches - leftovers, PB&J, fish and seasoned rice, and more leftovers.
Italian chicken over rice
Salsa chicken cheese pizza
Southwest roll-ups
Ritzy chicken
Cheesy chicken sauce over rice
(Lots of chicken because we were only shopping at Aldi and I only buy chicken there, no other kinds of meats, and I didn't have any leftover meat in the freezer besides fish.)
It wasn't anything elaborate, but it's feeding us. :)
I also went to Kroger yesterday because we were going to be right there for two other errands, so Jesse dropped me off at the store to see if there were any good deals. I only had $1 in change to use, and 2 $2.50/off purchase coupons, plus my coupon box. I ended up getting 2 bunches of bananas marked down to $0.19/lb, 3 small cartons of cherry tomatoes marked down to $0.25/each, some free laundry stain removers (marked down and with coupons they were free), 2 packages of spaghetti noodles marked at $.25/each on a manager's special, and some yogurt for Kathrynne which was marked down. Using one $2.50/off a store purchase coupon, I spent less than $0.50 out of pocket. :)
We also went to CVS on our way home and got around $30 worth of stuff for around around $.82 out of pocket. Plus I got around $8.00 ECB back. That was our second trip to CVS this week. From CVS and Walgreens total this week we've gotten over $100 worth of stuff and paid around $2 total out of pocket. I used my overage at each of these stores to buy a few things we needed and didn't get at Aldi - like milk, etc.
Connie - Check out the post a few down from this - we've been having some serious website problems. They are very close to being fixed and I'm so hoping it's taken care of today. The company we've been working with has been s-l-o-w...
I know you don't have a ton of free time. But sometime when you get a chance would you post your weekly Breakfast, lunch & dinner menu ( I know I am asking a lot) Sorry, but I am really interesed in how $35.00 feeds ya'll. We do about $40-50 and its myself, hubby, and a lil toddler. Any input is greatly appreciated Crystal!
Okay, I am dumb I just saw you posted your menu...Sorry girl!
Thanks for the photo guide! I'm sure you know this already, but most supermarkets will give you a discount for using your own bags/boxes. It's only $0.05 or $0.10 per bag, but a penny saved is a penny earned. Depending on how many bags you use, it can really add up too!
I miss the days when my husband and I grocery shopped together, calculator in hand.
Oh, well, it's good training for the 5 year old!
It's been so hot here that I have taken to running to the grocery late at night when the kids are asleep.
Crystal,
When you calculate your out of pocket at Walgreens, are you taking out the rebate amounts? For example if you buy a notebook for $1.99 but it is free after rebate, would you consider that free?
Just wondering because to me, it is out of my pocket until it is returned! The Walgreens rebates take a month or more to recieve, I have been having tons of trouble with them! So when I have a $30 rebate tied up in the mail, to me, I am out $30! Know what I mean?
Stephanie - I calculate out of pocket based upon what I actually pay out of pocket, not including rebates. I don't do rebates often at all - they are too much work and hassle for me, though I know many others love them. I *do* usually do the rebates at Walgreens and have them re-loaded onto my gift card, so I use my gift card instead of paying anything OOP. But, I ONLY do the free after rebate items at Walgreens, not the buy $20, get $10 rebates. Those are hard to calculate and I've not had a lot of success with them easily going through. So I just stopped messing with them. This month, there was only one free after rebate item, so I opted to not mess with sending in the rebate thing. Next month, it looks like there are 5-6 pretty decent rebates, so I'll probably do those. I have been doing the register rewards at Walgreens quite a bit, though. This week, I rolled over the $5 RR from last week and using a coupon and a little from my gift card to turn it into a $10 for the NatureMade RR offer. I then did that two more times using a coupon and adding in another item to make the coupons work (you have to have as many items as coupons at Walgreens and the RR's count as one coupon). I did these transactions one right after another, so I was in and out of there in 15 minutes or so.
Your site is helping me to be more frugal and grocery shopping is my downfall:( I'm trying to do better though and hopefully soon I will be a shopping frugal pro!!
Thanks for taking us along on a shopping trip. I am not naturally frugal and am trying to learn. Your tips help a lot, although we are a much larger family :)
Crystal,
I love seeing your weekly "deals" too - might you think of posting them on a regular basis (okay, am I asking too much?) :) I'm always inspired by them.
I've opted not to do the Walgreens or Rite Aid rebate stuff (mailing in/keeping track) - it's too much effort for me and I keep quite busy trying to keep up with the coupons, do my weekly shopping & also CVS deals. Plus, I love with CVS that I get results ASAP - I love the visual rewards with this program. I decided to not do the rebate rewards with our local Walgreens either since I attempted it once and they said they weren't printing out that week, I'd have to mail in the rebate (no thanks!) Don't want to go to a store for a deal only to waste the gas.
I know we don't all have the same shopping opportunities, but it's nice that most of us have something. I'd love to have an Aldi's or Kroger's - I can't believe the produce prices you often get! Never would I find those here in New England. The closest I have found is a local mom/pop store and they have a reduced produce rack. Today I was able to get 7 tomatoes for .69 total, a package of plums for .69 too. Sometimes the produce isn't so pretty, so you have to look closely, and it needs to be used quickly or the money is wasted.
Adorable pictures! :)
I too am encouraged by your post on grocery shopping. Maybe you could have a super savings Saturday where others could link to your website (much like frugal Friday) and share about how they saved money at the grocery store for that week. I enjoy hearing about how others save because it gives me the encouragment I need to keep the course and save as well.
I don't have a blog to link to so here is my frugal post for today.
There is a group of five teachers at my school that have a good frugal tip for lunch. One person will make five of the same kind of lunch and bring the lunches to school on a certain designated day. For instance, Teacher Mary will bring spaghetti/salad/rolls for herself and the other teachers in the group on her designated day, Monday. That is all the lunches she will make for that week. Teacher Jane makes lunches for the group on Tuesday. Teacher Betsy makes them on Wednesday and so forth and so on. These teachers say that it simplifies things for them because they cook one time just a bigger quantity of the same thing instead of making many smaller lunches with varying ingredients. Sometimes their schedules do not afford them to make the smaller lunches in the morning so they end up buying the lunch from the school cafeteria. To keep this from happening, they came up with this idea.
Anyway, I thought that this group of teachers came up with a very good idea.
Charlotte from Georgia
Crystal,
Some of those recipes sound yummy. Perhaps you could post them sometime??
Where do you buy most of your household cleaning items? Any tips on how to save there? Those are usually so expensive!
Victoria
Here is a site that gives instructions on how to make a pouch sling:
http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/tubesling.html
I've made a few from these instructions and love them! I like my ring sling for adjustability but I love these for ease and portability. :)
Lyn,
I noticed you said that you live in New England...I do as well and wanted to mention that we have a Market Basket that sounds similar to Krogers/Aldis and they have a reduced rack they put out where you can get great deals on produce. It just has to be used right away! Do you have a MB nearby?
Cyrstal
Thank you for explaining that to me! I have not had success with Walgreens rebates so I was curious to see how you have worked that out. I am to the point that I only am taking advantage of their register rewards as well. I can still get great deals there though! Thank you again!
Stephanie
I'm looking forward to checking out an Aldi's someday! There was one in my college town, but of course I never went.
All right Crystal, where do you find the marked down produce? I never see a section for it at any of our stores. And I look. They do have marked down baskets up by the registers but nothing perishable at all. The most I ever see is marked down bananas for $.33 a pound, which is better than full price, but not a great deal. So where do you look for these deals?
Stephanie,
Thanks you - no, none in my area (if it's Demoulas' Market Basket - I searched it out, they have no website). Sounds good though!
I am thankful for my 2 local small stores. I try and shop the "little guys" because I prefer my money to support them over the huge conglomerates if possible. There are times I shop at Wal-Mart because of the lower prices/or something I can only find there.
I have to take into account that living in Canada, prices and taxes will be different for where you are, Crystal. BUT, shopping with $60 per week covers the menu I have set up for my family of 3 (I work with a 5 week menu that I change seasonally - it is very flexible in order to take advantage of weekly sales).
One thing I haven't seen mentioned by any responders or yourself is discount freezer meat. We have a wholesaler in town that will freeze any meat that is coming up to expiry and sell it at 50% off - since I put it directly into my freezer, I don't care about the expiry at all! This has filled my freezer with roasts of all kinds, bacon, hamburger, etc.
The other thought that came to my mind when I read your post was your comment that your weekly purchases would work well with the items you already have in your pantry and that is a key point to any kitchen running economically. When any of the young girls at our church are getting married, all the women pack up pantry items for her - spices, muffin mixes, canned goods, etc. This gives new brides an excellent start at building their pantry. It's good theme for bridal showers, too!
Such a wonderful post. I am a single mother with a 3 year old boy who doesn't get paid a lot. I need to find ways to become more frugal.
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