I was mid-conversation with my grandma today and realized, wait, I need to blog about this. We got on the topic of everything in life becoming so expensive, and she was surprised to hear that I keep a $100 a week grocery budget or at least average pretty darn close to it.
Shopping for budget-friendly food has always been a passion of mine. Back in 2014, I was an extreme couponer… you know the ones on the television shows who filled carts up at the store only to have the total come down to just a few dollars?
Yup, that was me! I had an organized binder full of coupons, I would match them up with the weekly flyers, write out elaborate shopping lists and instructions, and off I would go.
And then something clicked for me. I was starting to make my own cleaning products, purchase reusable items, and replace all my Teflon pans when suddenly it dawned on me: this food I was couponing for was complete shit!
The stores and the big companies were giving us these amazing deals, and there was barely any actual food in them!
I started cutting back my coupon hauls to just beauty items, and eventually those were replaced too. Suddenly, my home was not full of food, which was a very insecure feeling. I was trying to do a weekly shopping trip to Market Basket with everything we would need to eat healthier for a week, and that was adding up to hundreds, even before the big C in 2020.
I knew I had to put my couponer brain to work and come up with a different solution. I introduced Coupon Courtney to Cooking from Scratch Courtney, and off we went on this new journey.
I was hooked on Food Network shows (which, to be fair, some of the programs use cooking shortcuts, and so do I… we are half-assed around here, after all). I was buying cookbooks and studying them like I had a Chem 101 exam. I wanted to know it all. I wanted to do it all.
Slowly, I started stocking up on sale items that were ingredients instead of prepared foods. I would say it took a few years, but eventually we became the dreaded ingredient household. 😆
How My $100 a Week Grocery Budget Actually Works
My grocery routine starts on Friday. Friday is the best day of the week because Shaw’s puts out its new ad. They have an amazing app that allows you to clip coupons for that week’s ad, stack them with your own offers and rewards, and even schedule your groceries for pickup. Seamless.
From Shaw’s, I almost only buy what is on the front page of the ad. Very rarely do I add anything to my order from the rest of the ad. The front page gives you incredible deals, and I will buy as many of those items as they allow. For $5 off your first order, use this link to sign up!
Some weeks this looks like coming home with four bars of the same cheese. Some weeks it’s four boxes of butter. And sometimes I am buying meat in bulk to split up for the freezer.
Now, for the next few weeks, I don’t need to buy those dairy or meat items, and usually I’ve only spent about $30–$40.
So, I’ve got about $60 left to play with. What am I doing with it?
Sometimes I am popping into Shaw’s or Stop & Shop to see what they’ve got for markdowns. If there are 15 packages of grass-fed ground beef for $2.99 each, I am buying all of them. The deep freezer is your friend.
If I don’t find any markdowns, I’m usually grabbing some other pantry staples. ALDI is a great place to stock up on these things. If I want to grab black beans to have for taco night, I am grabbing four. I like to have back stock, and when it’s something like $0.88 apiece, it’s hard not to.
Fun fact: dried beans are even more cost-efficient than canned beans.
Another way I use up some of my weekly spending is with a Thrive Market box. For the snacks we do need, this is always my go-to. They offer a bulk discount, it ships for free, and you earn money towards your next order.
Doing an inventory of your own home before shopping helps tremendously. Your back stock includes rice, beans, a whole chicken, flour, and bars of cheese. I already see three meals.
Shaw’s sale this week is beef, bacon, and marinara. You have a backstock of pasta from a $0.88 sale. Now I am seeing two or more meals.
We already have five meals, and we’re barely breaking the bank because we’ve done all the heavy lifting already.
And this is where the $100 a week average part matters. I don’t walk into a grocery store every week with exactly $100 and buy exactly seven days’ worth of food. Some weeks I might spend $130 because ground beef is ridiculously cheap and I’m stocking the freezer. Another week, I might spend $60 because we already have everything we need. Over time, it averages out to about $100 a week.
The goal isn’t to shop for one week at a time. It’s to use this week’s deals to make next week’s grocery bill cheaper.
Sometimes my weekly grocery delivery from Walmart+ (which I use for any staples I need for that particular week) is only bananas, a carton of almond milk, and a tub of yogurt.
Wild, isn’t it?
I guess if you really look at it, I never stopped couponing. My standards just changed on what I considered a good deal.
I’m not buying 25 bottles of mustard for $0.10 each anymore just because I can. I’m taking that $2.50 and doing better. I’m buying ingredients we’ll actually use, stocking up when the price makes sense, and letting what we already have at home dictate what we eat next.
Coupon Courtney never really went anywhere. She just learned how to cook.
Leave a Reply