Grocery shopping week of August 29
As part of this new Feeding My Family series I’m sharing my grocery shopping trips each week. I’ll be showing you what I buy, how much I spend and the meals I’ll be making from the groceries. We are a family of four – two teenagers, two adults – with busy school and sport schedules in the fall.
PLEASE READ . . . Feeding My Family Series “Fine Print” – This series is meant as a guide to help you turn deals into meals. Every family has its own budget, dietary needs, diet choices and preferences. Manager markdowns vary by store, day and time – there is no guarantee that you’ll find similar markdowns at your local store, but it gives you an idea of what to look for. I will not tolerate any shaming or derogatory comments about my purchases or those of other people sharing their savings. Take the tips that will work for you and if something doesn’t align with your family needs – keep scrolling, without comment. If you have recipes or money saving tips, please share!
COST FOR GROCERY TRIP – $160.47
TOTAL COST FOR MONTH – $217.23
I spent $160.47 at the grocery store this week. I shopped at a Kroger-based store so you may find similar markdowns at your local store (Fred Meyer, QFC). Let’s look at what I bought and why.
The bulk of my cost was cheese and butter this week.
I spent a whopping $44.90 on five (5) loaves of Tillamook cheese and five (5) Kroger butters.
Tillamook cheese – $6.99 e-coupon x 5 = $34.95
Kroger butter – $1.99 e-coupon x 5 = $9.95
This is the BEST price I’ve seen on both of these items in months. The butter especially is a rock-solid deal. Costco has butter for $2.92 a pound as a comparison. I freeze the butter until I need it. I use butter for baking bread and we’ll certainly use this for holiday baking if it’s not gone before then.
Tillamook cheese is our favorite and at $6.99/2-lb block that comes out to $3.50/lb. I love that it includes all the varieties – I was able to get varieties that aren’t normally on sale – like the Pepper Jack for the sale price. For comparision, Costco has Tillamook for cheese for $3.59 – 5.50/lb, but I like prefer the smaller blocks and the price beats Costco. I won’t freeze these (although you can). Many of the expiration dates are into January. I rarely buy shredded cheese because of the fillers – so we will grate this as needed, use it for sandwiches and even cheese platters when we have people over.
STOCKING UP IS KEY TO SAVING. . . One theme you’ll see from this series is we stock up when things are on sale. This doesn’t mean hoarding or over-buying. The key to stocking up smartly is to buy enough to last you until it’s on sale again. Sometimes that’s quarterly, sometimes that’s 2x a year. Sometimes this is limited by grocery store limits (like 5x e-coupons) and sometimes it’s limited by your storage space. By purchase items when they are at rock-bottom prices you can avoid buying them when they are full-price, a key component of making your budget stretch.
Another big expense this week was meat. I buy meat when it’s on sale but usually skip it if it’s not.
MEAT
Pork shoulder roast, 9 lbs x $0.99/lb – $9.04
I think this was an unadvertised sale. Butcher mentioned it to me when I was looking at meat. This went into the freezer and will ultimately be cooked in slow cooker for pork tacos or pulled pork.
Angus Stew Meat, manager markdown, 1.83 lb – $9.35
I almost didn’t buy this one. . . but it’s my birthday this weekend and I love this Beef Salsa Verde recipe. I thought it would be a fun Saturday evening meal with the family for game night. It turned out delicious and was such a treat!
Whole roasting chickens, $0.99/lb – $11.18
Another unadvertised deal, I picked up two whole chickens at $0.99/lb. I can’t resist picking these up when they are under $1.25/lb. It’s such an affordable meal. I always roast two chickens at once to save time/energy.
Oscar Mayer Natural Uncured Salami, manager markdown – $0.80 each
This salami is normally $6.99 a package. It’s marked down to $1.80/package. PLUS as you can see from the blue tag it’s part of the Buy 5, Save $5 promotion – so another $1 comes off at checkout. I purchased five packages at $0.80 each = $4.00. These will be used for sandwiches and snacks (with Tillamook cheese and crackers). These can be frozen.
Home Chef Baked Chicken, manager markdown, 2 packages – $7.92
I rarely see marked down deli chicken at my store so I snagged these up. After I got these home I pulled all the chicken off and weighed it – so I could see what kind of deal I was getting. I ended up pulling off 50 ounces of chicken meat from these two packages – that’s about 3 pounds of meat, which I separated into three (3), 1 lb bags and froze. This will be perfect to add to soups or curries when I make dinner in a hurry. I tossed all the bones into the crockpot and made about a gallon of chicken broth that will go in the freezer, as well. So for about $8 I got three pounds of cooked chicken and a gallon of broth – I’m happy with that!
Hillshire Farm Beef Polska Kielbasa – $2.99 e-coupon x 2 = $5.98
This is a good deal for this – which is normally closer to $5 a package. We have a favorite family recipe with broccoli and mushrooms that we’ll make with these.
Farmland bacon – $4.49, e-coupon
I purchased this because I had found marked down potatoes and I like to use bacon for potato soup. But in hindsight – I should have skipped this one. I had bacon in the freezer (oops) and I prefer finding the higher end bacon on markdown. We’ll still enjoy this and use it for soup – but it’s not my favorite bacon and not the best deal.
PRODUCE
Potatoes, 3 5-lb bags, manager markdown – $6.88 for all three
I was excited to find marked down potatoes. I knew I needed some for the chickens I was going to be roasting and I plan to make a batch of potato soup this week.
Mini Sweet Peppers – $4.99, e-coupon
Great for salads and snacks. Usually $6.99, so not a huge savings.
Mushrooms, about two pounds, manager markdown – $1.49
These will go in my broccoli and mushroom stir fry this week
4 green peppers, manager markdown – $1.49
This comes out to $0.38/pepper. We go through a LOT of peppers in our house. If we aren’t going to use them in a few days I’ll dice them into small pieces and freeze them for when I make egg scrambles.
Peppers and jalapenos, manager markdown – $1.49
I wanted to make salsa this week so I picked this up. It had a variety of peppers in it, plus two bell peppers.
Organic baby arugula –$2.52 manager markdown
Arugula lasts forever in the fridge and it’s our favorite salad green.
Broccoli florets, 2 lb bag – $5.99
For my broccoli and mushroom stir fry this week. Comes out to $2.99/lb, pretty standard price, not great, not terrible.
Cilantro, two bunches – $2.58
For making salsa this week and as a topping for Beef Salsa Verde recipe
Bananas – $0.69/lb = $2.50
Avocados – $0.77 ea x 3
Will use for topping on Beef Salsa Verde recipe
Tomatoes Campari On the Vine – $2.49, e-coupon
Basil, organic, 3 oz – $2.11, manager markdown
Will put on salads, in eggs or eat with tomatoes
Onions, 2 ct – $1.75
Onions were not on sale and were $1.29/lb so I only bought two. I needed them for Beef Salsa Verde recipe and for broccoli and mushroom stir fry
Wholly Guac containers – $2.04 – $2.89, manager markdown
I try to pick these up when I find these marked down. Avocado prices have been all over the board this year and these freeze beautifully. If we are having tacos or it’s game day, we’ll pull these out of the freezer the day before and they work great, taste great!
OTHER ITEMS
Sour Cream x 2 – $1.67 each – $0.50 e-coupon (on one) – $1.42 each
Will use for topping on Beef Salsa Verde recipe and other meals. We use a lot of sour cream.
Cottage cheese – $1.67 – $0.50 ecoupon = $1.17
We eat this as a snack.
Simple Truth 60-Second Spicy Veggie Masala packages – $1.99 each, manager markdown
My husband will love these for lunches.
Raisin Bran – $1.99/box, e-coupon
My kids favorite cereal, so we stocked up. I had a e-coupon for $1/3 and I got $1 off my next order catalina, making my total $7.95 for five boxes or $1.59 a box!
Sabra Hummus – $2.99
We use this for snacks with carrot sticks.
La Victoria Salsa Verde – $3.99, buy one, get one free = $1.99 each
Use for Beef Salsa Verde recipe
La Banderita tortillas – $4.49, buy one, get one free = $2.24 each
Use for Beef Salsa Verde recipe
That’s a summary of what I purchased on this grocery trip. Here I’ve grouped them together so you can see how they come together for meals.
This will be used for Beef Salsa Verde recipe. We will have lots of extra avocado, tortillas, sour cream, cilantro and tomatoes. I made a batch of salsa last night. With the cheese I purchase this week – I could also make quesadillas with tortillas and that deli chicken!
This is the beginning of roast two chickens at once, I just need to add some carrots.
And this will make broccoli and mushroom stir fry, one of my family’s favorite meals. I’ll add a box of pasta (pantry) and parmesan cheese (fridge).
This is a good start to potato soup! I have a crockpot potato soup recipe but have been making it on the stove more lately.
I made a big batch of roasted homemade salsa last night using tomatillos from our farm share box (more on that later) mixed with the peppers, tomatoes from my grocery trip.
SEPTEMBER GROCERY BUDGET
This grocery trip – $160.57
Franz Outlet Bread – $24
Farm share box (weekly) – $32.66
TOTAL COST FOR MONTH – $217.23
Stay tuned for more Feeding My Family posts as I share the types of groceries we are buying, how much we are spending and how we are turning our deals into meals.
What did you buy this week? What meals did you make? Did you save on anything specific?
Suzane says
Those are really good deals on the cheese and butter! I passed on getting some cheese at Wegmans this week because the price keeps going up and decided I needed to wait for a sale or look at Aldi prices! Some grocery items even at my warehouse club have gone up $2-3 more this past year!