$50 a Week

No joke, that's all I spend the majority of the time for groceries in a week. If I go over, I tend to have spent less the week before or will spend less the week after. Right now I do find it easier to go once a week since here in the middle of no where we don't get the nicest of products with the longest expiration dates.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT I'M ONLY FEEDING TWO ADULTS AND ONE BABY WHO JUST PICKS AT FOOD. It it unrealistic to expect to feed a family of 4 on $50 if you're having to buy all your food at the grocery store. It's even more unrealistic if you live in an expensive metro area like NYC.

In my food menu, I plan out what I'm going to bake for snacks and lunches. I plan out everything for the week food wise. Many times we eat leftovers for lunches. When we don't eat leftovers, we enjoy salads, wraps, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and other basics. We are also not big snackers. A hand full of crackers and 2 slices of cheese or a hand full of grapes is about the extent of our snacking most days. And if you're able to garden, do it! We're overrun with zucchini which isn't exactly a dream come true, but hey we have cheap (just for the price of seeds!) veggies to eat every week. No food goes to waste and I make every cent of my $50 count!

Other ways I keep our spending down at the grocery store is by using reusable products. We don't buy sandwich and snack bags for lunches because I bought just a few reusable ones (yep, I'm making etsy WAHMs rich!). We also are switching over to cloth napkins, much to my husband's dismay. We've already been using cloth tissues and using washable mop heads and cleaning rags. And cleaning products? We clean with vinegar and water 99% of the time. As nice as it is to be "green" it's even nicer to save money in the long run!

And the best way to keep cost down at the grocery store? Don't enter the store without a complete grocery list. Then only go down those aisles that have products you need. Only buy what's on your list. So simple, but so many people get side tracked and add unnecessary items.

And now for my receipts! Sorry these are "old" now but I've been working on this post for over a month now and when a vacation gets in the way...well, that's what happens!

Week 1: (yes, seriously that was the only trip to the store I made that week)

Week 2: 

Walmart - (just the underlined part was food)

Commissary -

Last minute invite that we needed to bring something to -

Week 3 - What happens when you let yourself get off course just a tad.

I circled the extra items that I totally didn't need:

That's right if I stayed on track I would have easily stuck to my budget!

When I got home last week, one of the first things I did was make a quick menu and go grocery shopping! Yes, even before I unpacked my suitcase. If you saw what "food" my husband had in the fridge and pantry, you'd run to the store too. I spent $35 to get me through to my normal shopping day of Tuesday.