As my own personal challenge I took it upon myself to show you a real life example of how meal planning and shopping around your grocery store’s sales fliers can help you cut back on your food expenses. To keep it simple, I used the sales flier from only one of the grocery stores around me. Therefore my assumptions are: shopping at one grocery store, meal planning out of what they have on sale and I have meal planned for a family of four (two adults and two children over 6). So here it goes:
Breakfast items:
1 Gallon of milk $2.5 (16 servings)
2 boxes cold cereal $4.5 (16 servings)
1 dozen eggs $0.99 (4 meals)
Sausage links $1.00 (8 onz or 4 servings)
Bread for french toast, plus eggs and milk from above, breakfast day 6
Lunches
1 lb sliced turkey $3.99
8 ounces sliced cheese $2.65
2 loafs of bread $1.98 (ingredients above should make 8 sandwiches or 4 school lunches for children)
1 jar peanut butter (for lunch on the 5th day) $2.00
4 cans progresso soup $4.00 (2 days worth work lunches for adults)
Lunch day 6:
– 1 package beef franks $3.00
-1 6-count bag hotdog buns $1.50
– 2 lbs potatoes $1.18 for potato salad
Dinners
Day one: Shepherd’s pie (makes 6 servings, leftover lunch for adults)
-1 lb ground beef $1.88
-1 bag mixed frozen vegetables $1.00
-Use of second lb of potatoes bought for lunch Day 6
– 1 package gravy mix $0.5
Day two: Chili
-1 lb ground beef $1.88
– 32 ounce can crushed tomatoes $1.50
– 1 lb green peppers $0.99
– 1 16 ounce can red kidney beans $0.75
Day three: Lasagna (makes 6 servings, leftover lunch for adults)
-1 lb ground beef $1.88
-1 8 ounce bag mozzarella $1.80
– 1 15 ounce tub ricotta $2.00
– 1 box lasagna noodles $1.25
– 1 26 ounce jar pasta sauce $1.00
Day four: Chicken quesadillas
-1 bag tortilla wraps $1.45
– 1 16 ounce jar salsa $1.75
– 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts $1.99
– 1 8 ounce bag colby cheese $1.80
Day five: Peanut butter/soy sauce noodles and chicken stir fry (makes 6 meals, leftover lunch for adults)
– 1 lb thin spaghetti $1.00
– 1 lb b/s chicken breasts $1.99
– 1 bag frozen stirfry vegetable mix $1.00
Day six: Chicken mushroom casserole
– 1 lb b/s chicken breast $1.99
– 8 ounces white button mushrooms $1.00
– 1 can condensed cream of mushrooms $1.00
-Rice from your pantry
3 lbs of apples $2.67
3 lbs pears $2.67
Total:$66.03 plus tax
Many things could be different in this example. There are quite a few items that you might be able to find cheaper if you shopped around. But I wanted to prove to those that don’t have time to be driving around hunting for better deals that it could be done if you take your time to plan. I also added quite a few convenience items because I wanted to show a menu that offered busy families time efficiencies.
View here the shopping list I created at the grocery store’s website.
