What I Spent, What We Ate | Plus YTD grocery totals
It's the end of another month, so I'm sharing my monthly total, plus my yearly total for grocery spending.
What I Spent
I made a Costco trip, where I bought milk, a pack of toothbrushes, a pack of floss, and a pack of butter for $33.68.
My small Aldi trip cost me $42.25:
and then an unpictured trip to a local store was $21.
Plus it was a produce box week ($33).
So, that puts this week at $129.33.
May Spending Total
Week 1: $104.66
Week 2: $276.89
Week 3: $143.96
Week 4: $129.33
Total: $655.54, or $163/week.
Spending Year To Date
January: $681
February: $650
March: $823
April: $623
May: $656
All told, I'm averaging $163 per week (which, oddly enough, is exactly what I spent this week!)
What We Ate
Monday
Tacos! (the ground beef variety)
Of course, I also made guacamole. 😉
Tuesday
I made Hibachi Chicken and Shrimp, and I am pleased to say that Lisey ate some rice with yum yum sauce.
She was pleased to eat something that wasn't cold and/or sweet.
(You do actually get tired of that after a while.)
We ate applesauce with our hibachi.
Wednesday
I made BLT salad from my ATK Quick Family Cookbook. To go with that, we had fresh corn and a loaf of English Muffin bread.
Thursday
Well-done grilled hamburgers were our main dish, accompanied by herbed and sauteed green beans and some fresh fruit.
Friday
It's a pizza night, of course, and I think this week I'm up for making it at home.
This is my go-to recipe for basic pizza dough.
By the way: if you need some main dish ideas, here's a page I put together with all of my main dish recipes. Just click on the pictures on that page to be taken to the individual recipes.
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Monday: sour cream chicken enchiladas from the freezer, with leftover coleslaw from Sunday. Also guacamole.
Tuesday: Spicy Chicken and Rice, with cheesy broccoli casserole
Wednesday: I had a sandwich, hubby had leftover chicken and rice
Thursday: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, leftover brocolli casserole, and homemade rolls.
I went over budget this week, because Saturday our middle daughter is moving, and I offered to cook lunch at the new house for the helpers ( son and sons in law) so hubby is grilling burgers, I'm making baked beans and all the fixings for the burgers, and my oldest daughter is bringing fancy Rice Krispie treats she makes with homemade marshmallows. All of my ingredients for the lunch came from Aldi, every last one, including chips, 2-liters of soda, bottled water, meat and buns, and all the produce. So it could've been more expensive than it was. As it is, I'm about $40 over budget.
Hi Kristen,
I selected two recipes from your main dish recipes to try this week. The first was the Hibachi Chicken and Shrimp. This was a hit with my family and I am very happy to have other family members, besides me, eating zucchini. The next recipe I selected is Chicken Tacos. I plan on cooking this for dinner tonight and look forward to another tasty dish.
Yay! I'm so glad your family liked it.
I don't normally love zucchini, but I can handle it in this dish, especially covered in yum yum sauce.
I dislike zucchinis "straight up" also, but for some reason I love it in the form of noodles!
Monday- Homemade chicken salad sandwiches on toast and strawberry shortcake for dessert
Tuesday- chicken salad sandwich for me and everybody else ate Hardee's hamburgers. I took my youngest daughter to the splash pad so we just ate there.
Wednesday-Chicken fingers and fries made at home
Thursday- Baked Salmon, corn on the cob, and pasta salad
Friday- I'm about to throw some ribs in the crockpot to be ready when I get home tonight. I will put some some sort of salad and deviled eggs with it I think.
Not the healthiest week I've ever had but not the worst either. Glad Lisey is on the mend!
Looks delish! I'm curious, though, do you find a huge price difference shopping at Aldi compared to Costco? Our Aldi is about thirty minutes away. I want to try it out, but I'm not sure if the savings make up for the gas/inconvenience/time of going there.
I struggle with the time factor too. Jewel (owned by Albertsons) is 1 mile away and so very convenient but expensive. It opens very early in the morning, and I can get my shopping done at 7:30 after I get my youngest on the bus and before I start my work day at 9 a.m. Aldi is at least 20 minutes away and doesn't open until 9 a.m. so I have to go on the weekend or on a weekday evening. Costco is also 20 minutes away with similar hours to Aldi. My biggest problem with Costco though is that I can never use up the produce before it goes bad and since everything is so big, I buy a more limited variety than I do at the grocery store. Admittedly first world problems here, but it is a bit of a puzzle trying to figure out how to best use my time and budget both.
Costco would be a better idea... if the cost is good you could split the cost w someone else. Certain things can be frozen or dehydrated. That's another option.
I think this is a good post idea! Briefly, I go to Aldi every week and Costco more occasionally. For me, Aldi is closer and Costco is further away, so I'm sure that affects my shopping at least some.
Husband's week.
Sunday - chicken parmesan with spaghetti, garden salad
Monday - green chili chicken bowl (black beans, rice)
Tuesday-steak with a corn/pepper/onion topping, salad greens
Wednesday-steak fajitas with grilled peppers and onions, salad greens
Thursday-chicken quesadillas, soup, broccoli
Tonight-we're headed out for the holiday weekend
Leftovers made great lunches all week!
Kristen,
How do you get away only spending $33 at Costco? When I used to belong, I would spend a minimum of $150, up to $300 & then have to go to the regular grocery store. I finally quit Costco because I found I was wasting money & food was going bad. We don't have any Aldi's in Los Angeles. I'm stuck shopping at Trader Joes (which I like but doesn't carry a full range of food) & the local Ralph's (Kroger.). I have to go to Ralph's today to buy bread, milk & sausage. I will probably end up spending at least $100. I mean to buy 3 things but end up coming out with 20 items.
Well, I'm not a big impulse shopper, so I usually just get in there, buy what I NEED, and leave. Occasionally I will purchase something impulsively there, but not super often.
We tried your hamburger recipe a few weeks back, and I meant to tell you how amazing it was! I'm a panade believer now! Thanks so much for sharing - even hubs (who is suspicious of "blogger recipes") thought it was great!
Haha, well, if it WAS a blogger recipe, then maybe he'd have reason to be nervous. But it's a Cook's Illustrated recipe, so there's good reason to be confident. 😉
We do keep tab of how much we spend on groceries each month, but we don't have a strict budget anymore. It's usually around 700$/month or a little less at the moment.
What we ate:
- Honey garlic marinated steak with a mix of white and sweet potatoes + carrots
- Turkey faitas
- Frittata
- cold plates (mix of cheese, nuts, bread, veggies and fruits)
And I made a gigantic pot of veggies soup that we didn't touch, so in the freezer it went.
Have a good week-end!
The menu's getting a little weird because I'm eating down the freezer. Convenient timing: there's plenty of space for my roommate's favorite ice cream, which has been on sale + coupon this month.
For the record, each meal also includes a veggie side and fruit.
- ham
- fish sticks
- combo of food at an event + Chinese take out
- chicken stir fry (used up half the frozen broccoli and the leftover Chinese garlic stir fry sauce)
- sausages, plus leftover braised pork
upcoming meals include
- pork chops
- tacos
- stuffed chicken breasts
- hot dogs (maybe cooked over the outside fire pit)
- dumplings
- something based on ground pork (probably meatballs or more tacos)
- humus for snacking
- some bean dishes for my lunches (I have a lot of smoked pork bits to use)
If you have bbq sauce you could make sandwiches w the pork. Also good in pasta dishes w a cheese type sauce. (You can add veggies also.) Pork is also good cooked w green beans.
Monday was Spaghetti with beef sauce
Tuesday was chicken pot pie ( first meal from large roaster)
Wednesday was stuffed green peppers
Thursday was chicken fried rice with tons of veggies mixed in ( 2nd meal from roaster)
Friday will be leftovers
Saturday we will be making Quiche
Sunday BBQ Ribs with potato salad, baked beans and banana pudding
For some reason my children only want to eat broccoli with their meals. I buy huge steam-able bags from Sams and we are using 20 steam-able pouches a month.
So far we are on budget even after making larger meals than usual to intentionally have leftovers.Feeding hungry boys in the summer is a challenge.
The steamable bags cost more. You could get a steamer(even for the microwave-though, I've just used a glass dish w cover and a bit of water)... even purchasing frozen bags of broccoli. It should still save you money.
No Aldis or Costco here. We do have Sam's Club and we make a visit there 4 or 5 times a year.
M Scrambled eggs, biscuits with jam, orange and apple slices
T Turkey and swiss sandwiches on wheat with assorted veggies and dip
W Turkey pot pie and applesauce
T Grilled teriyaki pork chops, bananas, mac and cheese and green beans
F Pizza - not sure what kind and will have a salad too
Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!!
Well this week was an oddball for us. Last Friday we had a huge BBQ with members of our Bible Study. Lots of fun was had but in typical fashion for me (my grandmother trained me well) we had a lot of food leftover. So, quite literally, Saturday to Tuesday we just ate leftovers from the party.
Wednesday we made tacos with ground turkey
Thursday was leftovers from said tacos
Tonight we're going to a BBQ at someone else's house so we'll be getting hamburgers I believe.
Spending was a completely different story! You see, this time of the year is one for sales, especially on meats, so we stocked up our freezer with London Broil (top round) as well as leg of lamb and the like. So that made our spending quite high. We also were out of formula at the house and at In the end we ended up spending $145.14 which threw our budget at $50 over for the month. I just keep telling myself that we have a stocked pantry and a stocked deep freezer so we should be okay for a long time.
So great to have leftovers for so many days! (unless you were getting really sick of them)
Just have to remember that the cost of those supplies Wil spread out for months. I do the same thing.
Hi Kristen, our menu and shopping week run Wednesday to Tuesday, so with this is mind, so far we have eaten-
Wednesday- freshly caught, pan fried snapper with a big tossed salad
Thursday- Beef Ragu with oven baked polenta
Friday- Chickpea and zuchini fritters with another big tossed salad
Saturday (today) I am putting a chicken and ginger congee in the slow cooker and there will be enough left over to have tomorrow night.
Monday- Tempura fish, steamed basmati rice and Asian greens
Tuesday- Honey prawns with steamed basmati rice and Asian greens
I make the chicken congee when my mother in law comes home from hospital, she goes in about every 6 weeks to have treatment for a lung disease. She enjoys the Congee as it is easy to eat and very nutritious.
Kristen, I really love your blog and I visit every day, I have just started blogging too and I am loving the ride. Thanks for the inspiration. Have a splendid weekend.
Monday - shredded rotisserie chicken, cooks country slow cooker mashed potatoes, corn, homemade gravy and fruit. Served in one delicious bowl for me, and separated for everyone else.
Tuesday- end of school year picnic with turkey cheese pesto panini, fruit, chips and strawberry lemonade
Wednesday - repeat of Monday meal.
Thursday- spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic toast, asparagus, salad and
Friday- leftovers from yesterday plus we extended a last minute invite to my husband's friend to join us so I picked up a $8 take and bake pizza from our local grocery store. It was so convenient, but I good reminder that my trusty FG recipe has a handful of ingredients I can pronounce and feel decent about and not so much the case for all other pizza.
So glad to hear Lisey is on the mend. I've been keeping her in my thoughts!
Let's see, tonight we had bake at home pizza ($10) and sliced apples.
Thurs- my husband has been out of town in business. My son and I are dinner at a local Greek festival we attended ( chicken souvlaki- yum!)
Wed we kept it easy and I had a kale salad and made my son some pasta with butter and cheese
Tues we had crab cakes, mashed potatoes, and a salad.
Monday we had chicken in Thai green curry with rice
Sunday sautéed crispy chicken cutlets, a big salad, and rice.
We just started on a stretch of planning all meals around what we already have at home. After a stretch of amazing deals our freezers are just about bursting at the seams so other than fresh fruit/veggies, eggs, dairy and bread products we're eating what we already have. A happy bonus is that I only spent $12.10 on groceries this week so far this week! (no small feat here in small town British Columbia where our grocery costs are atrocious!!). Hurray for scoring 29 cent English Muffins this week.
We ate:
Monday - barbecued Bavarian smokies on buns with homemade pasta salad (loaded with veggies)
Tuesday - spaghetti and homemade meat sauce.
Wednesday - leftover spaghetti - making a small batch of sauce is nearly impossible for me and it always tastes better the next day
Thursday - barbecued boneless pork chops, oven roasted yams, steamed broccoli
Friday - salad and pizza (the frozen variety). I keep meaning to make homemade as I worked at a pizza joint for 2 years so I can make a mighty good pizza dough but the frozen ones had been on sale for $5
This weekend the plan is that Saturday we'll have chicken taco salad and Sunday is barbecued teriyaki pork kebobs, rice and veggies. I usually take some time on Saturday or Sunday to plan our meals for the next week
I should be more disciplined and write our menus down. For two nights running mum has refused to eat the planned meal. This week we have had mushroom risotto, savoury mince, homemade burgers, steak and salad and I can't remember the rest. I have been pretty strict about eating what we have at home as there is an abundance in the freezer and vegetable drawers. The savoury mince will be made into shepherd's pie and into small batches for winter morning breakfasts.
So happy to hear that Lissy feels a little better. When my children were little the doctors were onto eating scratchy foods to debride the wound. It was horrible. I feeel for anyone having this surgery.
God bless.
Yes, I've heard that from a lot of UK readers....I can't imagine eating toast and such after having tonsils out! It just sounds so painful.
I'm so glad she was able to eat real food!!!! I had mine out about 6 years ago and I was so tired of broth and ramen I could have screamed if it wouldn't have hurt to scream.
Yes. She's getting super sick of drinks and soft foods. Even ice cream and pudding get old after a while!
Hello!
Oddly enough, I spent exactly $163 this week as well. To make this even more odd, we also had the blt salad, the hamburgers, tacos, and pizza this week. How crazy is that? Great cookbook is the ATK quick family cookbook. I find myself reaching for it when I didn't know if I would or not before I bought it. I knew after I checked it out from the library for the 3rd time that it was time to commit. Try the lemon garlic chicken and potatoes under the grilled section, they're delicious.
I really enjoy your site! I'm a reader from way, way back when; circa 2008-2009 I believe.
Thanks for blogging. It really does help me stay on track with budget and such.
Oh, that IS funny! We were such kindred spirits this week.
2 weeks ago, I tallied what we had spent on groceries to date this year. I was concerned that I hadn't been very diligent with my grocery spending but as it turns out, it hasn't been bad at all. There are 2 adults here - me and hubby - but the youngest just moved home last week from college. So far, I'm averaging $120/week which I consider on target as we've been very diligent in eliminating processed food and sugar from our diet. It takes a lot of work but has been totally worth it because we've reduced our weight, lost inches, increased energy and just feeling better overall. The grocery bill will have to be tweaked now that I've got 3 to feed so I'll have to increase the budget.
On the menu this week is:
Taco Salad with Black Bean & Corn Salsa w/tortilla chips
Cauliflower Fried "Rice", Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
Grilled Salmon, Roasted Potatoes, Roasted Green Beans
Green Salsa Chicken (crockpot) served over brown rice w/a veggie
Burgers on the grill, Oven Fries, Veggies
Pizza or a snacky meal
Curious on your grocery totals .. Is this just food or does it also include cleaning supplies, etc... ?