$300 $$$ Monthly Food Budget

Meal planning not only lets you organize and plan your nightly meals, it helps keep you within your food budget. How this works for me starts with a few grocery ads. I'll admit up front, there are weeks where I'm spending my grocery money at the Dollar Store. I've been down to 25$ to my name and I have to get a whole week worth of groceries for 6 people.
I've discovered youtube channels with tons of information on how to keep your food budget low. Shopping smart is a big help. And getting smart means doing research. I've spent many Monday nights looking through grocery store circular and mapping out a meal plan.

I feel like, I usually pay 70$ a week for groceries

ALDI

Apples $1.49  bag X2
Grapes $1.58  bag X1
Chicken Thighs $1.29 a pound .. sold in 3lb packages X1
Butternut Squash .99¢ each X2
Coconut oil $3.99 jar X1
Ground Turkey $2.99 package X2
Kings Hawaiian Sweet Rolls $1.79 X2
Frozen Steamable Veggies 85¢ bag X3
Penne Noodles 79¢ box X2
Pasta Sauce 99¢ jar X2
Garden salad in a bag 99¢ X4
Salad Dressing $1.99 bottle X2
Tuna 65¢ per can X5

According to my ALDI flyer, I need to at least bring $42.11 for the above list
I didn't factor in Bananas, lunch meat, whether or not I'll need coffee or other staples by shopping day. Those items were not advertised on the flyer.

You'll see the King Hawaiian Rolls on my list, I consider that a luxury item. I've made a huge ham and cheese sandwich in the over using one package of those. I didn't notice lunchmeat on sale so, I'll look through my freezer for any frozen packages. If I don't find any, I'll know to keep an eye out for prices on lunchmeat and that I've got to restock.

Chicken thighs and ground turkey are easy to prepare. Those are the meats I chose to meal plan with. Again, I'll look through what is at the store when I'm there. I might decide to turn a chicken dish into a beef dish, it's happened before.


Save-a-lot

White rice $1.49 bag
Shrimp frozen $4.99 bag X2
Lunch meat $3.99 1lb bag X2

$19.45 is my total according to this weeks Save-a-lot flyer.

My total would be $61.56 if I bought only the items on my list, before taxes.