New Video! Shopping Tips to Stretch Your Grocery Budget

Shopping Tips to Stretch Your Grocery Budget

A couple of months ago I won a contest on JessicaKnows.com with Libby's Canned Vegetables. They gave me two gift cards. One to purchase groceries for my family and one to purchase groceries to donate to a family in need. I took this opportunity to make a video showing how many groceries you could purchase with a budget of $100 (which was the amount of the gift card). I happen to know a family (actually I'm sure we all know several families) who could really use a leg up so I called them and asked what types of foods they eat and how the mother cooks. This family is a mother and three small children.

This weekend, with this particular family in mind, I put my coupons together along with a meal plan of easy and quick fix meals and took my mother along on a shopping adventure at Walmart. She was my videographer!

My total came to $149 before coupons.
After coupons my total was $119.
We ended up with enough groceries to make 18 complete dinners, along with lots of breakfasts, lunches, and snackfood too! So, with leftovers, this family should have enough groceries to last almost an entire month - they may need to pick up only milk and bread later down the road.

The mom told me that she usually buys some convenience types foods (like breakfast sandwiches you can microwave), and that the kids like mac & cheese, potatoes, green beans, tacos, pizza, and chicken. What we ended up doing is buying some things that would be easy to fix - showing the mother how she can almost as easily make her own breakfast sandwiches and homemade - easy to make pizza rather than frozen. By incorporating some items that require only a little preparation instead of heat and eat items we were able to really stretch the grocery budget and get more for our money. Here's what the family ended up with (this includes ALL ingredients to make the following - including staples like flour, sugar, oil, etc.):

Dinner:
Hotdogs with chips, mac & cheese, or fried potatoes (twice)
Hamburgers with chips, mach and cheese, pickles, and/or fried potatoes (twice)
Hamburger Helper (twice)
Tuna Casserole
Spaghetti
Pizza - cheese or pepperoni (twice)
Chicken and rice bake with green beans
Beefaroni
Chicken with Yellow rice with green beans
Chicken Parmesan with rice or spaghetti noodles
Tuna Salad
Soft Tacos with beef, cheese, and refried beans (twice)
Chicken Quesadillas

Lunches:
Leftovers from dinners
Beanie Weenies (twice)
one round of frozen dinners
Chicken and Rice soup with sandwiches (pb&j, grilled cheese, or ham)
Chicken Noodle soup with sandwiches (pb&j, grilled cheese, or ham)
Sandwiches
Mac and Cheese with raw carrots and ranch

Breakfasts:
ham, egg, and cheese biscuits (three times)
Breakfast burritos eggs, cheese, and sausage (twice)
Cereal (frosted mini wheats, rice krispies, pops, fruit loops)
Granola bars
Scrambled or fried eggs with grits and toast

Snacks and other side items for lunch/dinner:
Crunch and Munch
cookies
chips
cheese puffs
carrots with ranch
corn on the cob (twice)
rolls
canned fruit (four)
potatoes
mac and cheese
sweet tea
kool-aid

Be sure to watch the quick video to learn some easy to implement tips to stretch your grocery dollars!

Thanks to Libby's Canned Vegetables we've helped this family get back to the table and enjoy a quick and easy meal together at home! Visit Libby's website to get more tips on how your family can get back to the table together for meals and to find out just how important it can be for your family to enjoy a meal together at the family table! My favorite finding: Children who eat dinner with their families five or more times a week are more likely to have higher grades in school!)