A Typical Weekly Grocery Trip

This year, Mr. Sense and I bumped up the monthly grocery budget for our family of four to $525. This seemed like a reasonable increase because of inflation and the bottomless pit that is our teenage son. But we didn’t manage to bump up against the limit either in January or February, and I’m thinking the trend will continue. 

Many of my friends find this hard to believe– teenagers eat a lot! Do we only eat rice and beans? But I think we actually eat better quality stuff than the average American family– lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, my daily egg/bacon/avocado toast breakfast, and salmon or trout at least weekly (Boy Sense’s favorite). 

I detailed the mechanics of this in my grocery shopping article last year, but this weekend I took a quick snapshot of my receipt after a grocery trip. Of course this doesn’t include all our staple foods, but that’s because I tend to buy things like rice and oatmeal in bulk and freezable items like meat only on sale. 

I managed to get roughly 8-9 pounds of meat (ground pork and a huge slab of salmon), four bags of bread (marble rye and whole wheat pita), and at least ten pounds of produce, mostly fresh (avocados, apples, bananas, blackberries, onions, frozen broccoli and cauliflower), dairy items (milk, chocolate milk, cheese sticks), and a few fun things like gummies and crackers. Mostly healthy, all stuff we’ll actually eat, and less than $90. 

There were a few items I considered but passed on: a second three-ish pound slab of salmon (8.99/lb but with a $2 off sticker– I got one but decided to hope for a better sale in the future), some awful fake “cheese spray” that the kids might like and was only $0.99, and some Greek yogurt (I still need to kill off my last tub at home). No eggs, since we have chickens. 

Later this week, Mr. Sense may make a quick trip just for milk and maybe a stray ingredient for dinner one night. We’re also considering a quick Sharp Shopper trip to look at the specials (this is where I buy most of the sugary cereal the kids like, usually for around $1/box). While Mr. Sense and I are committed Aldi fans, we like to stop by the ultra discount store Sharp Shopper once every month or so without a list to pick up little treats based on the deals– coconut water, gummy candies, and coffee yogurts are favorite finds when they have them. 

I don’t have much new and exciting to report today, but consider this your encouragement to stay the course. Frugal grocery shopping is still possible, even if you’re a bit of a foodie and don’t want ramen every day.