The Real Frugalist Grocery Budget

I added up every grocery trip we’ve made since August 1 because even I thought the number had to be wrong.

Including the infamous $40 chicken nugget, smiley-fry and Cheez-It extravaganza, we’ve spent $493.88 in six weeks.

That’s $82.31 a week to feed five people.

No, there aren’t any secret Sam’s Club orders lurking in the shadows. My last Sam’s trip was July 25. So, let me tell you how I’ve managed it.

This week’s menu is built around:

Garden vegetable quiche

Pulled-pork sandwiches, tater tots and corn on the cob

Chicken and broccoli stir-fried noodles

Meatloaf, scalloped potatoes and beets

We’ll also have a fend-for-yourself night and a leftover night, because I run a home—not an all-inclusive resort. On Sunday, there are only two of us to feed.

The only things I needed to buy specifically for this menu were broccoli and tater tots. Everything else was already in the house.

This is how I plan my menu and grocery shopping: I don’t begin at the store and wander the aisles waiting for dinner to introduce itself.

First, I look at what we already have and build the menu around it.

Then I add whatever basics are running low—milk, cream, butter and things like that.

Then I look at the sales.

Boneless pork chops for $1.99 a pound? Add them to the freezer.

Pork butt for 99¢ a pound? Yes, please.

Potatoes, two bags for $3? Into the cart they go.

Those bargains don’t necessarily become this week’s meals. They become food for future weeks, when I’ll build another menu from what we already have. That’s how the system keeps rolling.

Right now, many of our vegetables are coming from the garden, and our eggs come from the chickens. I buy flour and rice in 25-pound bags, and we still have plenty of both.

My next Sam’s trip will probably be trash bags, dishwasher pods and a pasta stock-up because we’ve nearly wiped that out. I’ll check the rest of the bulk supplies before I go, but I think that’s about it. I normally spend around $120 there every six to eight weeks—not $300 every Saturday because I spotted seventeen snacks and a patio set.

Even if I added an entire $120 Sam’s trip to this six-week total, it would still average only $102.31 a week.

This isn’t about starving, deprivation or serving everyone half a lentil for dinner. It’s about planning meals around what we own, using leftovers, eating what we grow, buying staples in bulk and stocking up when the price is right.

With careful planning, a willingness to make the food and a little ingenuity, we keep our food budget under control.

The alternative is being broke—and no, we will not be doing that.

It’s who I am. It’s what I do.