Make sure you read the introduction prior to reading this post.
This week was not bad. It was not good either. Of our $100 grocery budget, only $10 was saved. Approximately $40 was spent at the grocery store and $50 at Aldi. I guess when I think about the fact that some of the purchases will last more than 1 week and will help offset the cost in future weeks, it’s really not a bad first start.
The items that will last for more than 1 week are my daughter’s yogurt (they were on sale for 50% off and the expiration date is a few weeks out), vegetable bouillon cubes (on sale), her snack cookies and crackers, ground beef, mini-bagels, lettuce, cheese slices, bread, pickles and carrots. This is probably about $20 worth of food I will not have to buy next week. Hopefully, it will help offset the items I already know I need to buy like Old Bay seasoning, cumin and canned tomatoes, which all need to be bought at the supermarket.
There were some items we had already had in the pantry and freezer, so those items also kept me from going over the grocery budget. Chicken breasts (full disclosure time: my father-in-law works for a large chicken company and we are able to get chicken at a deep, deep discount), pasta, tomato sauce, flour, yeast, tortillas, enchilada sauce and shredded taco cheese–these were all incorporated into this week’s meals. I made sure that I looked in my pantry and my freezer before I went shopping, which helped me a)prepare my menu plan and b)save money since I didn’t buy items I already had on hand. It was quite refreshing to come home and realize I didn’t have 9 jars of salsa or 4 bags of frozen broccoli.
In preparing for next week, I am starting to think that I need to do a better job of planning meals that can be made with the items found at Aldi. There’s a menu planner on the store’s website. I may have to check it out.
Overall, not a bad start. We’re in the black, not the red and our family fun savings totals $10. $10 will get us…lunch, with a coupon, at Burger King. Better than nothing. But I am still aiming for something big.
