After lots of inquiries about how we feed our family of seven on less than $400 per month, I started showing you exactly what we buy with our grocery spending.
Of course I don’t expect anyone to buy the exact same things as we buy. Food preferences are pretty personal, but hopefully showing you what we buy (and don’t buy) will help you reduce your own grocery budget if that is something you’re trying to do.
If you would rather have me tell you all about May’s grocery haul, check out the video below. For all of the exact prices of what we bought, see the bottom of this post.
Our monthly grocery haul for May was a big one! I still went to the normal three places– Winco, Sprouts, and Sam’s Club– I just bought a lot at each one!
This is my first time ever buying a red cabbage. I didn’t think that I liked red cabbage, but as you may have seen over on Instagram, I tried red cabbage slaw at a ladies night at church because I wanted to be a big girl and try everything. Turns out it was delicious! Now I’m going to try it on my family!
Actually, our kids are turning into really good eaters. Waaaay better than I was at their age. If you have picky eaters who give you a hard time about healthy foods, I recommend checking out Raising Adventurous Eaters, a free one-hour online class for parents. It’s by the teacher of the Kids Cook Real Foods course that I did with my kids a couple of years ago. (In fact they’re asking if we can do it again this summer!)
Okay, back to groceries! For those who are new to the way we do our grocery shopping, let me fill you in.
I start each month our with a big grocery shopping trip where I get most everything that we are in need of for the month. Sometimes that’s the only trip I’ll make for the month, but usually I’ll have a couple of other very small trips later in the month.
Some months I have a smaller big monthly shopping trip because I know that I will be ordering some bulk meat from Zaycon Fresh. I don’t buy meat every month, but when I do get it, I get a lot. Still, I want it to come out of our normal grocery budget.
***UPDATE: Zaycon is having an amazing sale on chicken. You can get a 40-pound box for just $.99/lb with code CHICKEN2018. If you have it in your budget, then I would definitely jump on it! If space (or money) is an issue, split it with a friend! While supplies last– Go get some today! ***
I also factor our Sam’s Club membership into our regular grocery budget. April’s grocery haul was smaller because I knew that I would be paying $45 to renew our membership in April.
In May, I’m not planning to do much other grocery shopping during the month since we only have $40 remaining.
—Okay! Let me show you what we got!—
Winco = $156
- Frozen blueberries (12 oz) $1.78 x 2 = $3.56
- Frozen berry mix (12 oz) $1.78
- Pumpkin seeds $2.38/lb x 1.15 lb = $2.71
- Sunflower seeds $1.54/lb x .88 lb = $1.36
- Parmesan cheese $$3.76/lb x 1.18 lb = $4.44
- Baby carrots (3 lb) $2.98 x 2 = $5.96
- Zucchini $.68/lb x 3.37 lb = $2.29
- Lemons $.38 x 3 = $1.14
- Green onion $.48
- Cucumbers $.48 x 4 = $1.92
- Strawberries $1.48 x 10 = $14.80
- Apples $1.10/lb x 18.5 = $20.45
- Green cabbage $.68/lb x 2.3 lb = $1.58
- Red cabbage $.88/lb x 3.5 lb = $3.08
- Cauliflower head $1.28 x 2 = $2.56
- Brown rice (2 lb) $1.38 x 8 = $11.04
- Flour tortillas $1.28 x = $5.12
- Whole wheat tortillas $1.28 x = $5.12
- Wheat bread $1.58 x 16 = $25.28
- English muffins $.98 x 3 = $2.94
- Bagels (6 ct) $1.48
- Raspberry jam (17 oz) $1.98 x 6 = $11.88
- Peanut butter ( ) $5.73 x 4 = $22.92
- Gummi worms $1.48/lb x .7 lb = $1.03
- Chocolate covered raisins $3.41/lb x .37 lb = $1.26
Sprouts = $36
- Potatoes (5 lb) $.98 x 4 = $3.92
- Celery $1.49
- Cilantro $.50
- Pineapple $.98 x 8 = $7.84
- Green bell peppers $.33 x 3 = $1.00
- Red bell peppers $.50x 2 = $1.00
- Roma tomatoes $.50/ lb x 8.6 lb = $4.30
- Yellow onion $.33/lb x 1.8 lb = $.63
- Avocados $.50 x 4 = $2.00
- Honeycrisp apples $.77/lb x 13 = $10.05
- Apple cider vinegar $3.99
Sam’s Club = $168
- Whole milk $2.65 x 2 = $5.30
- 1% milk $2.20 x 4 = $8.80
- Sour cream (3 lb) $3.89
- Cottage cheese (5 lb) $6.48
- Butter (4 lb) $10.89
- Block cheese (2 lb) $4.74 x 2 = $9.48
- Shredded mozzarella (5 lb) $9.98 x 2 = $19.96
- Spinach (16 oz) $3.79 x 3 = $11.37
- Spring mix (16 oz) $3.79 x 2 = $7.58
- Bananas (3 lb) $1.38 x 8 = $11.04
- String Cheese (48 ct) $7.83 x 2 =$15.66
- Cara Cara oranges (8 lb) $7.48 x 2 = $14.96
- Clementines (5 lb) $5.98
- Pork loin $15.59
- Stew meat $5.13
- Raisins (3.75 lb) $9.98
- Ice cream (5 qt) $5.98
MONTHLY SHOPPING GRAND TOTAL = $360
There you have it! By the second day of the month I spent $360 of our $400 monthly food budget! Wow– That’s 90%!
If you have any food budget or grocery questions for me, I am happy to answer them below!
How about you?
- Would that make you nervous to spend 90% of your monthly food budget by the 2nd day of the month?
- Do you ever buy red cabbage? What do you like to make with it?
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Braised red cabbage is delicious but is a bit time consuming for me to cook just for myself. British recipe here https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/braised-red-cabbage.
Can I ask how you store all your fresh fruit, especially bananas ? I find I have to buy twice a week to be able to eat them in really good condition.
Thanks for the recipe Holly!
I try to store as much produce as I can in the fridge (we have two), except bananas don’t go in the fridge. I think part of it is that we just eat a lot. If 6 of us eat a banana a day, that’s 42 bananas in a week! And often people eat more than one a day.
My next post (should be up tomorrow) goes into more detail on how we buy so much produce without letting it go to waste.
How do you get through all the bananas before they spoil? Do you freeze over ripe ones for bread or smoothies?
Hi Isabella!
If we have ones that are getting spotty, I will either bake with them or freeze them for smoothies or baking, but most often we eat all of the bananas before they’re bad. In May I bought 8 bunches in my monthly shopping instead of 6 because I was hoping to have some left to freeze. Yesterday I made three loaves of banana bread. All of the other bananas were eaten.
My next post (up tomorrow) will explain more about how we buy so much produce without having it go to waste.
Hi,
I’m wondering if you start with a meal plan and shop around that – or are you happier to buy food that you find for a good price and then make meals around the produce? I’d be really interested to see the monthly menu for your family one day, but I imagine that you’re kept pretty busy 🙂 We’re a family of 7 too and there’s not a lot of spare time to go around!
Hi Kerry! I don’t do a complete monthly meal plan. I mostly buy the staples that we are getting low on or things that I need to make the trypical meals that we make. Most of our meals can be made with the same general ingredients (not a lot of specialty ingredients), so that’s what I buy. If I plan to try a new recipe, then of course I’ll have to add any ingredients that are outside of our normal staples.
The trick is that I don’t buy everything every month. One month I may buy enough pasta to last us for three months, then the next month I’ll buy all the baking supplies I need for three months. It’s not an exact science, but it makes the shopping easier to not have to buy everything every month and it’s nice to keep the pantry stocked.
I’ll try to post either a menu or (more likely) a what-we-ate calendar soon! 🙂
I think I’ve read before that you don’t meal plan, could you do a diary of what you served and prepared for a week or month? Super curious! I’m a fellow Californian trying to feed a family on a shrinking food budget!
That’s a great idea Diane! I can definitely do that! 🙂