My $125 Weekly Grocery Shopping for 6 People: See how I feed my family of six (including 4 teens) for around $125/week, or just $500 a month. See our $125 Budget Weekly Menu here.
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Out of boredom (and the re-occurrence of knee pain from my injury in January) I chose to do all of my shopping at Publix this week instead of shopping multiple stores.
I wanted to see if I could stick to our $125 budget by shopping at a “more expensive” store.
Publix Produce
I knew that the best plan of attack was to base our menu around the sale items. The Eat Smart Broccoli Slaw will be used in my Veggie Breakfast Scramble, added to our salads and used in my Broccoli Slaw Salad. The stir fry veggies will be used in my Easy Chicken Stir-Fry and the raw carrots, broccoli and cauliflower will be eaten with ranch salad dressing with a couple of our lunches.
Best Produce Deals:
Eat Smart Veggies $1.67 per bag
honey dew melon 2.99
cucumbers 43 cents each
Publix Refrigerated, Frozen and Meat Items
I had a rain check for the Athenos Feta crumbles for $2.00 each. I will serve this with salad and in my Greek Pasta Salad with chicken. I only needed 1 dozen eggs and 1 package of lunch meat because we have some leftover from last week.
Interestingly enough, the Kerry Gold Irish Butter was the same price as the Publix brand so I decided to try it.
My one splurge was the London Broil. We have not had it in a while and my family loves it. That cost me $15.86.
Publix Grocery Items
The pasta sauce, canned tomatoes, chicken broth and pasta were all on sale. While I could have purchased cheaper salad dressing I paid extra for the brand that we like the best.
So the grand total is (drumroll please) … $132.83 for the week – surprisingly only $7.83 over budget which adds credence to my theory that sticking to a grocery budget is more about planning than it is about grocery prices.
Weekly Total: $132.83
September Monthly Total: $365.62
($121.80 average per week)
The key to my savings this week was knowing what the sale items were and planning our meals around them. Two free apps are available to help you find the sales (including secret sales) at your local stores.
Click here and enter your mobile number to download the Ibotta app for free.
Save up to 70% on your groceries plus find secret unadvertised deals each week.
Click here to download Favado Shopping App for FREE!
(Once you download it, sign in to see this week’s deals!)
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How did you do this week? Leave a comment!
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I didn’t notice any snack items in your pictures. What do your teenagers snack on? Just curious as we are a family of 6 with 2 teenagers and I try to stick to a similar grocery budget. Thanks!
Hi Katie – My kids don’t snack that much because we are eating protein and fat for most meals which tends to fill them up. If they do want a snack I have fruit and air-popped popcorn available or they can make a pbj if they are super hungry. I also occasionally make frozen yogurt pops. Of course you should do what works for your family. 🙂
You are exactly right Bethany. You have to find what works best in your area. In our previous location I never shopped at Aldi because the produce quality was poor and I could find better deals by combining sales and double coupons.
Where we live now there are no double coupons, regular grocery stores have much higher prices than Aldi.
Good for you for finding what works for you!
Aldi is a bit far for us to drive on a weekly basis, but I find that it’s useful to spend a little more one week and buy things like meat, pasta, oils, or other items that are particularly inexpensive at Aldi and freeze, store, or refrigerate everything so that I can shop at a more local store on the other weeks. I figure it saves time and gas to shop only one store a week. Overall, the only difficulty I have with my plan is making sure I can afford produce and eggs, which are much cheaper at Aldi, but don’t store as long. I figure the difference in price is worth it, but I think it’s possible to break even if you’re careful.
I have been going grocery shopping with my husband since my ankle is broken. The first two weeks, we spent about $200 on groceries. Then these past two weeks, we spent $83 and $93. We use a debit card because we went to Aldi’s.
But this is something I definitely wanted to share with you — I was checking my credit card on-line and I realized that it is under $500 right now and there is only 5 days left in this billing cycle! That is unheard of! Last month was $1,500. And usually it is around $1,000. I didn’t even make the connection at first, then it dawned on me — I have been home-bound for a month! I had a good laugh! I haven’t been shopping at all, except on my weekly shopping trip with my husband. It’s really got me thinking! So I guess I saved some money and didn’t even mean to. I think I will definitely try to stick to the once a week shopping when I get back on my feet and see if it makes a difference. I have to carefully make a list and make sure I get everything on it, because I can’t get out again.
I am sorry you are home-bound Julie but I have found the exact some thing. The more I am home, the less I spend. Good for you for keeping the grocery budget so low too!