Our Fall Weekly Grocery Budget of $130 for My Family of 6!

NOVEMBER UPDATE!!!

YOU GUYS!  Aldi has FINALLY teamed up with Instacart.  Not wanting to deal with bagging your own groceries or figuring out the whole quarter-in-cart system is no longer an excuse.  Get Aldi prices PLUS the convenience of having it delivered to your actual house.  Boom!  Use my link or my code AOTTO125143 for $10 off your first order!  (What do I get out of this?  $10 in groceries for myself!)

My last grocery haul post was such a hit, I figured it was time for a Fall version.  The Summer version was full of Summer food that my kids ate for lunches at home like hot dogs (they love hot dogs.  It’s fine.) and tons of fresh fruit.  This one is more on the cold weather, slow cooker side.  I’ve been dreaming it up for a while, but it FINALLY got “cold” here in Virginia.  (I’m doing lots of happy dances about it and enjoying my outdoor runs again!)

As a mom of 4 and entrepreneur, I have become so much more organized than I believed I was made to be.  I am more peaceful and present when I feel in control of our budget and have a dinner game plan every night. Tony and I have big debt-free goals like paying off our house and sending all these hundred kids to college. If that means cutting up celery into sticks for $1 vs paying for pre cut $4 celery, I’m in.  He makes the dollars, I do my part in stretching them.

As I have said before, the only way this is possible is because of Aldi.  (Nope.  Still no sponsorship from them.  I’m just that loyal…. but if you’re reading this and you work for Aldi and you want to pass along my info, I mean….).  I still love and shop at my local Costco and Trader Joe’s, but Aldi is my go-to.  I love how small it is and that I can get everything I need.  Simple and to the point.  Also, I’m dying for Instacart and Aldi to come to my ‘hood…  Before the end of the year is what I’m told!!

Some of the things people asked me were “Will your husband really eat just that for lunch?”  Truthfully, Tony eats a lot of on-the-go protein shakes for lunch at work.  But yes, he will eat anything.  I could make Tony a bowl of cereal for dinner and he would be grateful.  I like to think I’m a great cook, but my husband probably over-inflates me here.  My kids?  They sometimes complain about shrimp or that everything I make is “too spicy”.  (Except my 3yo who dips his French Fries in hot sauce and loves jalepenos)

Another question I got was if we only eat chicken.  I would say we do a lot of chicken because it’s lean protein and just so versatile.  I also like to buy one large package/cut of meat and use it for several meals.

You’ll see in this meal plan I made a Mississippi Pot Roast (a favorite in this house!) which doubles as leftovers for a night or two later in the form of French Dip Sandwiches.  I bought a roast just under 4 lbs.

If you looked closely at this receipt you will see that I purchased over 11 lbs of chicken thighs for under $5.  Fo realz.  I like to plan our meals around what’s on sale or in season.  The chicken thighs were on sale for only 79 cents a pound.  Aldi’s sales all start Wednesday and I happened to shop this week on a Tuesday.  The “sell by” date (note: NOT even the expiration date, just the sell by date) on these chicken thighs was not for two more days, but they were slapping $2 off stickers on them to clear the meat case for their next Wednesday meat sale.  Whenever Aldi starts throwing stickers on their food that means it’s getting close to the sell by date, so either eat it that day or freeze it.  I do both.  I really only needed one fresh chicken pack for this week, but I have even more to freeze now!

I boiled 3/4 of the chicken I bought using this method, and made the chicken thigh and zucchini recipe here (which, btw, is on this week’s menu). This was a hit!  Both meals shown above are in this week’s grocery list and menu — complete with links for the recipes!

Note: This recipe calls for fresh herbs — oregano, rosemary and thyme.  I have fresh rosemary in a planter in my kitchen and I keep dried herbs in my spice drawer and they keep for a long time, so I did not include them in the grocery list.  I’m assuming you have these dried herbs in your spice rack as well.  If not, you would still come in at or around the $130 for the week, as you can see I spent only $124.

The snacks we eat are consistent with the last grocery post I did in June – pretzels, chips and salsa, carrot sticks and peanut butter, etc.  

Also, I can’t stop talking about this — I’m sort of LaCroix obsessed.  It’s a new (in the past year or so) thing.  Tony likes to remind me often that I “used to like free water”.  Whatever.  Anyway, Aldi often carries LaCroix.  At my local store it is $4.29 for a 12-pack.  The Belle Vie Aldi brand is $2.39 per 12-pack.  My store just started selling 6 packs for 99 cents.  I officially have zero guilt about my sparkling water addiction. 

Okay, enough chatting.  Get your hands on the detailed grocery list and meal plan here!

 

As Always,

Anna