My grocery budget is $330 each month for a family of four – two adults and two kids.
This frugal budget includes food, toiletries, household items as well as health & beauty products.
Today marks the end of April.
The purpose of these posts is so you can see EXACTLY how our meals happen in this house, plus how we shop for these meals. I hope you find encouragement in seeing real food and normal life, in action together. Some days we get it all done. Most days we don’t. Even life in the Crumbs house isn’t perfect, because just like you, we do the best we can with the resources we have.
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You guys said that you felt like there was too much meal planning and counting crumbs. Ironically, Mr. Crumbs said the same thing (yes, he actually reads what I write, lol) and I was kinda feeling off about seeing the lineup of posts on my editorial calendar at the end of each month… they were different, but yet still felt the same. And that’s just boring!
So I’m trying a new format for my budget accountability posts (counting crumbs) and sharing how our meal plan REALLY played out for the month. As I shared in the weekly newsletter, I’m combining both of these posts and doing one big shebang at the end of each month. I’m hoping that it actually proves to be a bit more helpful for you guys to see the original menu plan, then our shopping, and what we really ate all together in the same post.
Here’s how it’s going to work: You’ll see our original meal plan in bold. Then, underneath each meal you’ll see any changes I made, what specific veggies we ate and any thoughts about the meal. Then I’ll detail out the shopping trips for that week the thoughts I had about those.
Without further ado, here goes April!
Week 1 Meal Plan & What We Really Ate
(S) Whole Roasted Turned Chicken, Roasted Veggie Medley (Leeks, Carrots, Potatoes), Soaked Whole Wheat & Spelt Bread [FAMILY DINNER]
–> As planned.
(M) Summer Squash Pasta
–> As planned.
(T) Steak & Blue Cheese Salad, Fresh Bread [BASEBALL]
–> Swapped for the southwestern chicken salad in week 2. I somehow got confused on which week it was (so early on too – yikes!), but I already had chicken ready from Sunday’s dinner, so I didn’t see the need to cook up beef too.
(W) Cheesey-Mexi Lentil Macaroni [AWANA]
–> Swapped for baked ziti in week 2. See confusion from earlier in the week.
(T) Kale & Quinoa Soup (from the freezer), Fresh Bread [BASEBALL]
–> As planned. Tried the soaked bread recipe from Nourishing Traditions and I think it’s my favorite so far.
(F) Homemade Pizza
–> As planned.
(S) [DINNER WITH FRIENDS]
–> as planned.
Week 1 Shopping
Steak – $30
No, there’s not a new store in our area called “steak.”
Last month, Mr. Crumbs treated the family and bought a rib roast out of his own fun money. It was cheaper to buy it in bulk and cut it into proper portions, so we split both the bill and the meat. He cut off his half for dinner and sliced the rest into rib-eyes, now available for the family’s monthly meal plan. We got eight steaks out of that half roast, making them only $3.75 each in the end.
Costco – $103.82
organic baby kale, 4.39
rainforest blend whole bean coffee, 14.79
organic carrots, 4.79
apple pear 5ct, 3.99
granny smith apples, 6.49
yellow onions, 5.49
biotrue contact solution, 14.99
organic monterey jack cheese, 10.99
organic whole chicken x2, 25.30
This is a pretty standard Costco trip for the beginning of the month. Kale is mostly for smoothies while coffee, onions, carrots, and whole chickens are kitchen staples. These are things I buy every month and can count on when I’m making my meal plans.
Costco had organic apples, but they were VERY expensive – to the tune of 3 times as much as conventional – and I just couldn’t fork over the money knowing we go through a package of these apples just about every week!
Contact solution was on sale so I bought a package, even though we still have some in the closet. Monterey jack cheese is a great all-purpose cheese, but I am going to try a sharp cheddar next time since I saw that the price was comparable. Thank you to those who made the suggestion on this post!
Farmers Market – $18.25
sweet peppers, 3
lettuce, 1.50
beets w/greens, 3
leeks, 2
blood oranges x3 & kumquats, 8.75
The kids picked out two types of beets for our “new” vegetable this week, although we’ve all had beets before. Mr. Crumbs isn’t a huge fan, so it was mostly the kids and I who ate them in smoothies. I used some of the beet greens in the salad, and froze the rest. I plan to use up the rest of the greens in next month’s meal plan.
Leeks were my choice for a “new” vegetable. I roasted half the leeks in the oven when we had the whole chicken and they were pretty good! I ended up using the rest in soups and salads.
Lettuce was for salad night (Tuesday) and the oranges were another “new” item. Have you ever had a kumquat before? They look like miniature oranges – so small that you’d be unsure how to peel them. Fortunately, you don’t! You squeeze them slightly to release the natural oils and then you eat the whole thing. The Boy and I ate nearly the whole bag on the way home. The Girl didn’t care much for them though. Those were a HUGE splurge at $8/lb, so we bought just about 1/2 lb instead.
Dollar Tree – $0.79
I went to this store to scout for a future post and picked up a can of corn for the salad. It totally wasn’t BPA-free, but in my defense, I bought it before I really did any research on it! (At least it wasn’t tomatoes!)
Grocery Outlet – $10.36
cilantro x2, .25
sour cream 8oz x2, .69
tomato, .50
organic cage-free eggs 20ct, 4.99
nitrate-free bacon, 2.99
Cilantro and tomato was for the salad (that I got confused on). Eggs are a staple and bacon was a splurge. It’s a rare occasion that I find a good deal on nitrate-free bacon, so I surprised Mr. Crumbs (plus it was on the menu later in the month too). Sour cream to make homemade ranch for Tuesday’s salad and homemade blue cheese dressings for buffalo chicken pizza the next Friday.
Asian Market – $7
naval oranges
eggplant
bananas
mandarin oranges
I lost the receipt for this purchase, but there’s a very slim chance that our total was over $7. We got naval oranges for smoothies and mandarin oranges for snacking (the kids can peel them without help!). Eggplant was for the summer squash pasta and bananas for snacking and smoothies.
Week 1 Running Total = $170.22
Week 2 Meal Plan & What We Really Ate
(S) Naturally Sweetened Pumpkin Spice Bars (pictured above) [FAMILY DINNER]
–> I had actually made these last week when we hosted family dinner. Due to family illness, didn’t bring a dish to share.
(M) Shrimp Creole w/Extra Veggies over Rice (double portion)
–> As planned.
(T) Southwestern Chicken Salad, Fresh Bread [BASEBALL]
–> Made last week, so did a garden salad using up aging produce in the fridge. Served with salmon and steak, skipped bread.
(W) Baked Ziti [AWANA]
–> Made last week, we all had random leftovers from the fridge (salad and creole)
(T) Tortilla Soup, Fresh Bread [BASEBALL]
–> Swapped with minestrone in week 3. Made soaked bread from NT again.
(F) Homemade Pizza
–> As planned, but had fellowship with friends. We brought homemade dough x3 and sauce for six pizzas.
(S) Tri-Tip Sandwiches: Whole Grain Buns, Homemade BBQ Sauce, Side Salad, Seasonal Veggie
–> As planned. Veggie was roasted potatoes. LOTS leftover.
Week 2 Shopping
Fish – $30
Similar to the “steak” in week one, we scored a deal on fresh salmon. And I mean FRESH. Mr. Crumbs works with a guy who fishes in his free time. He also sells what he can’t eat. He caught a huge salmon that morning from the ocean and sold it to us for $30. We took it to my dad to filet (he’s a chef) and gave him half of the fish since he and my step-mom like salmon so much. We gave the head to my friend Maria as fertilizer for her tomato plants.
We brought home 8 hefty filets of salmon, plus 2 quart bags full of fish guts that I used in my own tomato plants. If I had bought it all from various sources, it would have cost over $80.
Walmart – $7.26
paper lunchbags 50ct, 1
single serve pretzels, 3.78
single serve waters 12ct, 1.88
CRV, .60
There’s only one thing predictable about having a kid in team sports: You will inevitably be in charge of snacks.
The topic of game snacks had me on a soap box for a few weeks, and I plan to share the ordeal with ya’ll next week. Meanwhile, know that the lunch bags, pretzels and waters were all for the super-cute little kids playing t-ball with my son.
Costco – $48.52
clementines, 6.99
organic butter, 6.79
cucumbers, 4.29
granny smith apples, 6.49
power greens, 4.49
fresh mozzarella, 6.99
fage greek yogurt, 6.49
strawberries, 5.99
Got your coffee? There’s lots to this trip. Or at least it feels that way emotionally.
First the easy stuff. Clementines for game snacks, mozzarella for pizza night, Greek yogurt to make my own homemade yogurt (which I did later that day – points to me!) and power greens because I wanted to add some variety to the standard greens we usually eat. This bag included chard, spinach and kale, was the same price and came with the same amount. Win win! We hadn’t quite finished our first bag, but I was using these in salads too.
For the first time in over a year, Costco did not have Kerrygold butter. This was definitely a sad day. I bought organic butter instead, but eating the white-ish butter REALLY made me miss the Kerrygold. I’m hoping stock will be replenished soon because fresh bread doesn’t seem as appealing anymore.
We’re helping out a friend who’s battling a serious illness right now, so the cucumbers, strawberries and partially the power greens were to make nutritionally dense smoothies for her. I wasn’t able to go to the farmer’s market that week, so both the cucumbers and strawberries were conventional. We ate some of these as well, which is why they’re included in this monthly report.
Savemart – $17.23
organic whole milk x2, 6.38
bananas x3, 1.49
A very simple and quick trip for milk. One gallon is for homemade yogurt and the other is for kefir and coffee.
In related news, we’ve officially stopped drinking half & half. There really isn’t a super awesome reason for this, other than we were substituting milk when we ran out of half & half and began to like the taste. Mr. Crumbs suggested we just stick with milk (since we usually have that on hand anyway, and it’s organic) and I said yes. So that’s one less thing we shop for now.
I walked by the produce to see if they had any bananas marked down and I totally lucked out. I bought the three bags they had out and walked away with roughly 15lbs of bananas for just 30¢/lb.
Savemart – $7.48
lettuce, 2.49
organic russet potatoes, 4.99
A super quick trip for more lettuce and potatoes for dinner on Saturday. Apparently, I had forgotten these in my trips earlier in the week!
Week 2 Running Total – $280.71
Week 3 Meal Plan & What We Really Ate
(S) Flourless Banana Custard Cake [FAMILY DINNER]
–> Skipped. Family dinner was cancelled, so we skipped dessert altogether. Mr. Crumbs made a delicious, super simple salad.
(M) Orange Beef over Rice, Seasonal Veggie x2 [PASSION WEEK]
–> As planned. Used up the remaining sweet peppers and celery, plus carrots and broccoli stems.
(T) Taco Night: Beef/Chicken/Lentil (leftovers), Coconut Rice, Mango Salsa, Homemade Red Salsa, Black Bean & Corn Salsa [BASEBALL]
–> Postponed. Plans for the night changed, so Mr. Crumbs had leftovers from Monday. The kids and I cheesey lentil macaroni from week 1.
(W) BLT Salad, Fresh Bread [PASSION WEEK]
–> As planned, plus added mushrooms. This was really good – the bacon was such a treat!
(T) Hearty Minestrone Soup w/Barley, Fresh Bread [BASEBALL]
–> Skipped since we had minestrone last week. Made roasted tomato soup instead, trying a new recipe. Didn’t have time to soak grains, so made rosemary olive oil bread with 4 Tbsp vital wheat gluten, 1 1/4 cup spelt, 1 1/4 cup whole wheat and 1 1/4 cup organic AP flour.
(F) Homemade Pizza [PASSION WEEK]
–> Skipped. We had Passion Week at church, so we swapped with tacos from Tuesday. Made red salsa and coconut rice, skipped mango salsa because I ran out of time.
(S) Buffalo Chicken Wraps on Homemade Tortillas, Side Salad, Seasonal Veggie x2
–> Skipped. Made pizza from previous night and hosted company.
Week 3 Shopping
Savemart – $4.49
orange juice, 2.50
broccoli, 1.99
I didn’t have enough oranges to juice for the orange beef on Monday, so I picked up some orange juice and broccoli to add to the meal. The only other veggie we had was carrots, which just didn’t seem that great on its own.
Savemart – $7.72
avocado, 1.25
whole tomatoes x6, 2
iceberg lettuce, .99
pineapple, 1.99
mushrooms, 1.49
This was a VERY busy week for us and it could have gone a lot better if I had spent some time earlier in the week making sure I had my plans laid out well, but I didn’t, and my haphazard shopping reflects that. I was also getting in the groove of shopping the farmers market on Friday, but it didn’t happen again, so this was my backup plan.
Avocado, tomatoes and lettuce for the BLT salad (half iceberg, half power green mix to boost nutrition). Found marked down mushrooms that I added to several meals (salad for one, and meals for week 4) and a fresh pineapple because it was under $2.
Costco – $72.10
cashews, 14.99
organic butter, 6.79
bananas x2, 1.39
granny smith apples, 6.49
clementines, 6.99
organic frozen blueberries, 9.59
power greens, 4.49
oven dried tomatoes, 8.99
More butter and bananas and power greens to replenish what we had been using. I actually made some banana chocolate chip muffins, and Mr. Crumbs requested chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, so that helps to explain why we went through so much butter and bananas. Other than we really like butter.
The clementines leftover from game snacks were a huge hit, so I bought more for the kids. I didn’t seen any sun-dried tomatoes, so oven-dried is the next best thing. As I mentioned, we’re going through a package of apples a week, so this was to replenish the pantry. Again. Cashews for Mr. Crumbs snacking after a day of bike commuting.
Savemart – $20.02
taco shells, 1.99
tortilla chips, 2
salsa verde, 2.49
organic milk, 6.38
cilantro, .79
limes x2, 1.38
key limes, 4.99
This was a trip specifically for taco night (if you couldn’t guess by the list). I did not have time for homemade corn or flour tortillas, so I bought crunchy shell tacos. Something completely out of character for us, but this is me rolling with life’s punches.
Key lime for Easter dessert – homemade key lime pie. YUM!
Savemart – $4.48
basil plant, 2.99
bananas, 1.49
I planned for just basil, but bought the whole plant when I saw it was the same as the pre-cut bunch. Now we have basil included in our urban garden!
More marked down bananas. Yes, we really eat that many bananas.
Week 3 Running Total – $389.52
I don’t have pictures of these trips, but I do have a shot of the taco shells. Yes, I am human.
Week 4 Meal Plan & What We Really Ate
(S) Dessert, Traditional Veggie & Homemade Bread [FAMILY DINNER/EASTER]
–> Sorta as planned. Made key lime pie and rosemary olive oil rolls (1/3 white, 1/3 wheat, 1/3 spelt flour). Didn’t bring a veggie, but made homemade blue cheese dressing.
(M) Shrimp Creole w/Extra Veggies over Rice (from the freezer)
–> Skipped. First, I didn’t freeze the extras from week 1. We were gifted some extra food that included hummus, so I took that plus leftover beef from Easter, made couscous and tzatziki and pitas and we had a Greek night.
(T) Chopped Asian Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette, Fresh Bread [BASEBALL]
–> Skipped, but not too far off. We were gifted some extra produce and it needed to get eaten or it would spoil. I made a huge garden salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing.
(W) Leftovers a la Veggie Fried Rice [AWANA]
–> As planned. I used the one cup of chicken that I pulled after cooking the carcass in the slow cooker, whipped up the fried rice and loaded on the veggies (still eating the gifted extras). Also added just a bit of leftover orange sauce from week 3 that I froze.
(T) Tomato Basil Soup, Fresh Bread [BASEBALL]
–> Skipped. I was feeling a bit burned out from the busyness of the past couple weeks, so we had grilled cheese sandwiches, leftover salad and broccoli.
(F) Homemade Pizza
–> As planned.
(S) Grilled Veggie Paninis, Side Salad, Seasonal Veggie x2
–> TBD?
Week 4 Shopping
Dollar Tree – $4
Walmart – $3.34
Both of these trips were for supplies for our garden. I found these buckets at Dollar Tree that are really supposed to be filled with ice and serve cold beverages at parties, but I’m going to poke a hole in the bottom and plant yellow squash in them instead. Those were $1 each. Aren’t they colorful?
I also bought two 12qt pails at Walmart to haul water from our bathrooms to the garden. It sounds weird, I know, but I’ll explain the madness very soon!
Other than these two stores, there was no other shopping this week. We were gifted some food the previous weekend, so much of our eating has been making sure that produce didn’t go to waste.
Obviously, tomorrow hasn’t happened yet. I’m not sure what we’ll do for dinner since we already ate panini’s, but there’s plenty of food in the fridge so I have no doubt we’ll be fine. I’ll update the results of that meal next week when I share our meal plan for May.
Total Grocery Spending for April – $396.86
As you can see, I overspent my budget by $67. This is way more than I’ve overspent in a very, very long time.
Right off the bat, the “steak” and “salmon” purchases were definitely not planned for. But at the same time, I couldn’t pass them up. There are still 4 salmon steaks and 2-4 more ribeyes in the freezer though, so those will carry over to next month. I’ll also likely set aside $30 for another fish since that will likely happen again too.
Poor planning got the best of me towards the end of week 2 and week 3. We’re taking on additional responsibilities with my friend who is sick, so there wasn’t nearly as much time as normal to really wrap my head around things going on in the kitchen.
Looking back, there are several items we could have done without:
salsa verde
taco shells
tortilla chips
key limes (should have substituted something more affordable)
blueberries (still haven’t opened them and it’s the end of the month)
second bag of clementines
kumquats and blood oranges
I thought I was in a groove with the farmers market early on, and I found that I was actually spending less on the things we normally buy. Not having that option in weeks 3 and 4 really made an impact in my bottom line.
On the bright side, I still have a fairly full freezer to work with and a well stocked pantry as well.
So what do you think? Do you like the new combined layout of these posts? I’d love to hear your thoughts!!
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