Wondering how we keep a low grocery budget? Thanks to pantry cooking we can use what we have and fill in each week.
This week I went to our local grocery store Tops and BJ’s Wholesale club.
I find amazing deals at both of these stores. If you need a BJ’s membership for only $25 sign up here.
I also shared here how these five items pay for our membership every year.
I’ve been sharing my shopping and meal menu each week over on my Tiktok account here.
This week I had a lot more coupons and deals to share.
If you are struggling with meal planning in general, check out my favorite app that really helped me get disciplined. You can even put all your pantry/ freezer items into the app and they will create meals for you!
More meal planning tips:
- How to Make Tomato Sauce Without Peeling the Tomatoes
- My Weekly Grocery Shopping Trip- Snacks this week
- Cut Your Grocery Bill Every Week: Tips for Saving Money on Your Weekly Shopping Trip
- 5 Killer Tips to Help You Meal Plan When You Have a Busy Week
- Is HelloFresh Worth The Money?! A HelloFresh Alternatives
Here’s the breakdown:
At Tops I bought everything to the right.
It was a total of 17 items.
These deals ended on 1/30/21.
- 3 Bags of Chips $1.99 each wyb 3.
- Goldfish Crackers $0.99 with in store coupon
- Cortland Apples 3 lb. Bag $5.69
- Fuji Apples 3 lb. bag FREE (apples were BOGO)
- Tops Honey Pretzels $2.99
- Tops Honey Pretzels FREE ( BOGO)
- Quaker Life Cereal Chocolate $1.88
- Quaker Life Cereal Cinnamon $1.88
- Quaker Peanut Butter Cereal $1.88
- Choclate Graham Crackers Cravn $1.99
- Pepsi 12 pack FREE with a peelie coupon when you buy 3 bags of chips- and this is perfect for my daughter’s 10th birthday party!
- Quaker Granola Bars $1.88
- Chicken thighs 5.83 lbs. $5.77
- Chicken Drumsticks 3.95 lbs $3.91
- Master Mix Espresso $1.99- Used a $1 coupon on the item $0.99
You also get 10 gas points for every manufacturer coupon you use.
- Price before sales and coupons: $79.44
- Price after coupons and sales $40.32.
I earned 100 gas points = 10¢/gal of gas at Tops Gas stations too.
At BJ’s I bought 10 items and paid $33.59
- Silk Almond Milk: $4.99
- Used a $1.00/1 BJs coupon
- Cauliflower $3.99
- Popcorn Chocolate $4.49
- WF Organic Half 7 Half $2.59
- WF Idaho Potatoes 5 lb. $2.79
- Sweet Potatoes $1.99
- Cole Slaw Sliced ( no seasonings) $1.99
- Romaine Hearts Lettuce 6 ct. $4.99
- Organic Baby Carrots $2.49
- 2% milk $2.85
You can check out my blog dedicated to deals at BJs here.
This puts me at $73.91 for the week.
With pantry cooking I may not need to buy as much next week. It all depends on the sales and what we have left. The key to keeping a stocked pantry is to know your sale prices at your local grocery stores.
This way when you see that pasta is down to 66¢ a box you know it’s stock up time.
I find that BJ’s is cheaper on dairy items than Tops. Aldi may be even cheaper than BJs but right now I had a BJ’s gift card to use. So bascially my total at BJs was zero out of my pocket.
I got BJ’s gift cards by using their referral program. If you aren’t using referral programs yet- check out this post here.
Which means I spent $40.32 on groceries this week.
We had friends come over for dinner which is why I bought chicken this week. I normally don’t buy chicken because we raise our own, but we keep them as whole chickens and it takes at least a week to thaw. Since the chicken was on sale for $0.99/lb I grabbed it at Tops.
Not bad.
Things to keep in mind- our kids are still having lunch provided by their school. Each week we continue to use what we have and keep things stocked up. We use venison and our own chicken meat.
Here’s what we are eating:
You can see previous grocery shopping trips and meal menus here.
Sunday: Breakfast: cereal, Lunch: egg salad sandwiches whatever snacks we have, Dinner: Fried Chicken, Mashed potatoes, Coleslaw
Monday: Breakfast: cereal, Lunch: Salad or Egg Salad Sandwiches, Dinner: Hot dogs, leftover coleslaw, and french fries
Tuesday: Breakfast: cereal, muffins, Lunch: Salad, Leftovers, Harvest Hamburger Casserole ( we use venison meat for this)
Wednesday: Breakfast: cereal, muffins. Lunch: Salad, Dinner: Tuna Melts and steamed peas
Thursday: Breakfast: Cereal, Egg Wraps, Lunch: Salad, Leftovers, Dinner: Veggie Lasagna
Friday: Thursday: Breakfast: Cereal, Egg Wraps, Lunch: Salad, Leftovers, Dinner: Seared Venison Balsamic Steaks, with sweet potatoes and green beans
Saturday: Breakfast: Homemade Waffles, Lunch: Cereal, Eggs, whatever we have, Dinner: Homemade Pizza
Follow me on Tiktok for more money saving tips!