Eating on a Budget: The $30 Weekly Grocery Bill Goal Week 2

I am so proud of us this week, we almost hit our goal by spending $32.50 on groceries! If only I could have made myself buy the $2 over the $4 butter...

I was a little embarrassed to post about last week's budget goal. I only planned for 5 meals and we spent $8 over because of impulse purchases. This week, however, I had a lot of fun planning the meals and provided 7 nights worth of dinners! That $6 bacon I bought last week and didn't use? I incorporated it into 3 meals this week. This is what the budget is all about: plan meals based on what you have in your pantry/refrigerator/freezer to minimize your grocery bill each week.

Notes on This Week:

• That chicken corn chowder I made last week gave us so many leftovers that we had it for lunch 3 days this week! Other days I made sandwiches with leftover lunch meat from the previous week (if you ran out make egg salad or PBJs)
• I was planning on doing a peanut chicken and broccoli dinner for day 3, but we forgot to buy broccoli. Womp womp. So instead of going back to the store and increasing our grocery bill for the week, I just found a different recipe that didn't need broccoli!
• Andrew found a great deal on bone-in chicken thighs: we got 10 for $7! We only used 4 this week so the other 6 went into the freezer for future meals
• we will be eating a lot of potatoes in the future...I got 10lbs for a dollar!

Recipes Made

Day 1: Beer Brats with Cabbage and German Potato Salad

Day 2: Lemon Spaghetti

Day 3: Garlic and Brown Sugar Chicken Thighs with mashed potatoes and summer squash

Day 4: Beer Bratwurst leftovers

Day 5: BLT Chopped Salad

Day 6: Brown Sugar Chicken Thighs Leftovers

Day 7: Potato Crepes with Bacon and Green Onions (Recipe coming soon!)

Groceries for the week:

• Coconut Milk: $1.99 (did not use this week)
• Spaghetti $0.89
• Queso Cheese: $2.59
• 2 Avocados: $2.00
• Baby Spinach: $2.99
• French Bread: $1.69
• Chicken Thighs: $7.08
• Red Cabbage: $3.28
• 2 Ears Corn: $0.99
• Butter (I can't not buy the expensive stuff!): $3.99
• Fresh Bratwurst: $4.00
• Russet Potatoes (on sale 10lbs for a dollar!) $1.00
• Yogurt (bulk): $3.29

Total Amount Spent: $32.50

Food for this week I already had in the pantry:

• Onions
• Garlic
• Parmesan Cheese
• Rice
• Potatoes
• Bacon
• Lemons
• Tomatoes
• Green Onions

Last Note

As I mentioned on last week's budget post, the key to all this is planning your meals based on what you already have on hand. Before I started this budget I would get wrapped up in recipes I found on Pinterest that called for a million different ingredients we didn't have. I'd buy those ingredients then forget what recipe I wanted to make! Now that I'm on this budget, I can still use my favorite recipes from Pinterest but plan on making ones that I don't need to buy much for. I also write down what dinner will be every day so I don't forget my plan. I hope this week has inspired you to plan ahead as well!

And if you missed week 1 of the mega-raging budget, click here!

Happy Budgeting!