Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4

Groceries from Save A Lot | RiteAid

It has a whirlwind of weeks this year from traveling, school, work, volunteering weekly, and so much more.  The first few weeks of the year I did the No Grocery Shopping Challenge in order to use up some of the items we had in stock in both our refrigerator, freezers, and pantry.   It really well and we made it a little over 7 weeks which I was thankful for since it was my goal to make it at least a month.  Now that we are starting to get lower on some items I decided it was time to start our regular weekly $40 for 4 grocery budget again.    I even remembered to take pictures this week so I could do the post for you! 🙂

Jake has been in Charleston for some work meetings, so we are looking forward to spending time with him this weekend.  I did manage to get a lot of projects done (just not necessarily things that I planned to do).  Do you ever have weeks like that?  Here is my weekly update on our Groceries $40 for 4.

Save A Lot | RiteAid Groceries:

• $18.45 at Save A Lot | RiteAid for 3 containers Fresh Strawberries (marked down), 1 container Fresh Mushrooms (marked down), 3 Mountain Dew 2 liters, 1 gallon of Milk, 1 box Pillsbury Fudge Brownie Mix, 1 can Canola Cooking Spray, 1 container Cool Whip, 1 bag Sandwich Bread, 1 bag Kiggins Cereal, 2 cans Sliced Pineapple. (Everything I purchased at Save A Lot | RiteAid was either on sale or marked down.  All the produce was marked down as low as 99 cents as you can see from the bright green and orange stickers.)

Groceries from Ingles

Ingles Groceries:

• $24.66 at Ingles for 1 bag English Muffins, 1 container Yogurt (marked down), 1 container Chip Dip (marked down), 1 package Ground Beef (marked down), 1 package Pork (marked down), 1 bag Red Delicious Apples, 1 container Blue Cheese Crumbles, 1 bag Bananas (marked down), 27 packs Wylers Red Koolaide, and 1 bottle Pepsi Next 2 liter (free after coupon).  (Most items were either marked down or on sale with an exception of the blue cheese.  I got the Blue Cheese as a special treat for my man since he was away working all week, couldn’t help spoiling him a little bit! 🙂 )

This week I spent $43.11  on groceries.   I went over on the budget this week, but thankfully it was over by only $3 dollars.   I was happy to get some produce deals and stock back up on a few items we were needing to replenish in our fridge and pantry.  Hopefully next week we can come under budget and March will be a good month for us!

It is my goal to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks!  As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me.  I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too.  The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.

Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances.  Life doesn’t always go as planned.  We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given.  Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life.  A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others.  There is so much more to life than having all the stuff.  We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.