My $83 Grocery Haul

Ever wondered what $83 of groceries and toiletries looks like? Well wonder no more! This was my haul for the $5 meal challenge next week (plus a gallon of fresh milk not pictured). My goal was to reduce our usual budgeted amount from $120 down to $75, but somehow I got my math wrong when I withdrew our cash for the week and ended up with $85 in my grocery envelope. That's still $35 less than we usually spend, which adds up to $1,820/year! Not to shabby! P.S. If you want to stick to a certain budgeted amount, USE CASH ONLY! It hurts to let go of those bills rather than swiping a piece of plastic so you think about your purchases more carefully. That's a Dave Ramsey tip and believe you me, it works!

I was able to get some good sales this week that helped my goal along.

• 3lb bags of onions were on sale @ Aldi for $0.69. They're usually $1.69. (I didn't NEED onions this week but I use them ALL the time and couldn't pass up such a good deal, so I got 1 bag)

• Eggs were on sale @ Kwik Trip for $0.99. We've been paying around $1.40's-1.60's

• I found chicken hindquarters (thighs and legs) on sale @ Fareway for $0.69/lb, usually $0.99/lb, so I got 10lbs for $4.90. I know it's not all meat, but I can make chicken broth with the bones so I won't have to buy that for a while. We won't eat all 10lbs this week of course so next week I won't have to buy any chicken!

Other things that helped cut costs;

• I'm using 2 lbs of ground venison we already had in the freezer.

• I skipped the 2 bag of chips I usually buy ($4/wk) in favor of  homemade popcorn.

• We've been spending $9/wk on Kashi granola bars so I'm going to try a homemade recipe this week.

• And I'm going to try a Copy Cat Snapple recipe in exchange for the $4/wk the real stuff costs us.

I have $2 left in my envelope and I think I'll have Matt pick up a couple more bags of onions with it. I use my chop wizard on them, quick freeze and toss them in gallon ziplock bags to pull out anytime I need to cook with them.

I'm definitely going to need to be way more deliberate with my meal planning, like I was this week, but I think I can make this work! *crossing fingers* I'll keep you updated on my quest. :-)