Want to learn to only spend $100 on groceries a week? In this post, we share exactly how we eat better, buy necessities for a baby, make quick/easy meals, and include all household supplies, health, and beauty & groceries for just $100 a week.

Learning to spend $100 on groceries a week

Developing and maintaining a frugal lifestyle has helped us be prepared for these current hard economic times. We have worked for years to get our grocery budget under control. We have developed good habits therefore we have not needed to make a lot of adjustments.

Hard times always come and go. Being prepared for the next unforeseen challenge in advance is the best way to ensure that you are ready to handle it. This can help you decrease stress and as always live more joyfully.

The cost of groceries just keeps increasing all of the time. This can be both incredibly frustrating and difficult to afford. So how can you begin to take control of your grocery budget even when grocery costs keep rising?

How we spend $100 on groceries a week

My husband and I shop together weekly and pay very close attention to what we spend each week. Our former grocery budget was $80 a week which we have recognized at this time with the two of us and a baby needed to be increased to $100 a week. We value eating healthy and do not just purchase whatever food is cheapest. I believe that money saved on groceries by choosing the unhealthy options, can easily be spent later on our declining health when we choose to make this sacrifice.

Making the necessary changes to decrease grocery costs

Lifestyle changes might be required to begin saving money on your overall food and beverage purchases. You might need to begin packing a lunch, buy a better or bigger lunchbox, learn to cook, or just start eating at home more. Another great lifestyle change that can prevent overspending on beverages on the go is to pack a small cooler full of drinks to take with you one the go. My uncle used to do this when I was a child and until I was older I never understood how valuable this could be.

So how can you follow our lead and purchase healthy foods on a limited budget?

How I use printable grocery coupons, coupon apps, and rebate apps

Trying to spend $100 on groceries a week can be hard. I wrote a post previously with a great list of online printable and grocery coupons, coupon, and rebate apps to save you money. I use these frequently but never let them determine the items that I purchase unless it is a better deal. Sometimes these can save you a lot of money on your groceries but without paying attention they can also cause you to overspend.

The cashback and rebate apps listed are especially fun to earn cash back on purchases in the form of PayPal money or even retailer gift cards.

Items we purchase at the grocery store

Bread, flour tortillas, tostadas

Milk 1% (half-gallon) and whole (gallon) for our baby

Coffee creamer

Eggs

Cheese slices and bars (never shredded) and cream cheese

Lunchmeat (always natural)

Frozen ground turkey & boneless chicken

Managers specials on any additional meat to freeze

Frozen pizza with simple ingredients (our choice is Home Run Inn)

Fish sticks or chicken nuggets (with healthier ingredients)

tortilla chips and other snacks

Frozen and canned vegetables

Canned beans (refried, black beans, baked beans, and chili beans)

Canned soups and spaghetti rings

Condiments, salsa, sour cream and dressings

Romaine lettuce, salad mix, salad kits

Grape tomatoes, onion, carrots, peppers

Avocado

Bananas, blueberries

Beverages (Tea, juice, and seltzer waters)

Toothpaste, deodorant, soap, shampoo, and conditioner

Cleaning supplies, laundry supplies, paper products

What we never buy

Eating healthy for cheap can be difficult. There are many items that you will need to avoid to accomplish this. We almost always avoid overpriced organic brand names. We avoid soda and expensive beverage purchases to cut our budget further. Other than an occasional purchase we avoid the candy and snack food isles. Alcohol is also a rare purchase for us, we buy a bottle of wine occasionally but overall we do not drink much alcohol.

Several items we never bring home like Hostess snacks, Oscar Meyer sausages, Starbucks pre-made beverages, frozen entrees or TV dinners, cake mixes, and frostings can stretch your waistline, and break your budget.

We always try to bypass certain areas of the store that might present a challenge to our willpower. These would be areas like electronics, home goods, clothing, shoes, toys, and anything we do not need but might entice us to overspend.

Ingredients we avoid may cost us a little more at times

If trying to spend $100 on groceries a week or less seems unhealthy, think again. Overall we try to eliminate these specific ingredients from our diet. While these may slip in occasionally, we are very conscious of these items overall and opt for healthier choices. A lot of your cheaper options have these ingredients, but so do many so-called healthy or diet options. Until we started researching this we never realized how often these ingredients were included in items we were purchasing. Remember Ingredients are listed on food labels by the largest amount first. A helpful article to read on food ingredients, additives, and colors can be found on the FDA website here.

Ingredients we avoid in our food

MSG

Hydrogenated ingredients

High Fructose corn syrup

Added Nitrates, like sodium nitrate

Genetically modified organisms or any modified ingredients

Hydrolyzed ingredients

Artificial sweeteners

Soybean oil

Sodium mentioned multiple times in the ingredient list

Keep in mind that the more ingredients listed on your food labels the higher the chances that it is not as good for you. While it seems a good idea to find one brand and stick with it, double-checking for healthier at a cheaper price can save you more.

Successful strategies for trimming your grocery budget

1. Eat before you shop

2. Make a weekly menu

3. Make a shopping list

4. Set a budget and stick to it

5. Gather coupons and/or download coupons to apps

6. Scan receipts after shopping on your rebate apps

7. Develop a plan on what stores to shop at

8. Buy certain items in bulk but only what you need (record a month of use)

9. Plan your eating out if you will be doing this ( this will help you trim both grocery and eating out budgets)

10. Don’t spend time browsing items you shouldn’t be buying

11. Generic vs name brand - don’t be afraid to try a generic brand but if the generic is not what you want do not buy it or you will most likely not use it

12. Beware of the super-food trap - not everything listed as super-food is better for you than some less expensive and basic items. We found this helpful article about which "super-foods" are worth it. Check it out here

13. Organic can be great but not everything organic is necessary and organic can cost you far more

14. Gluten-free is necessary for many because of allergies and health issues but can be expensive and unnecessary if you are not struggling with these related health issues

15. Eat smaller portions and meal prep. Meal Prep can help stretch your budget, cut down on food waste, and be so much better for your health.

16. Avoid expensive meat purchases. Look for the best deals on meat like manager specials that can be frozen. Try meatless meals or even add a can of black beans to your taco meat to stretch it further.

What stores do we shop?

We may not go to all of these stores weekly but these are stores we tend to visit at least monthly. We suggest finding stores that work for you and your budget and rotating them in a way that helps you save more. This list is our current favorites.

Aldi

Meijer

Kroger

Wal-Mart

Costco

Fresh Thyme

Dollar tree

The Fresh Market

Is Aldi cheap and good?

Aldi's food is typically very good quality food at a much cheaper price. Aldi's generic brand items are as good as any store brand items and in my opinion sometimes even better. Often we can buy almost half of our weekly groceries for around $30. Milk, eggs, sour cream, cheese slices, lunch meat, canned goods, frozen ground turkey, and even spinach arugula salad mix are inexpensive yet high quality. Sometimes their "Aldi Finds" section will have name-brand items at great prices.

I purchase a lot of items from Aldi and even buy the majority of our baby products at Aldi. I recommend Aldi's baby products. You can read more about my experience with Aldi's baby products in this post I wrote previously.

Coupon shopping at Meijer

What is Meijer? It is a supercenter store similar to Wal-Mart located only in the Midwest. Meijer has a great coupon app called MPerks. This coupon app has made a huge impact on our budget when shopping at Meijer. We have received many free item coupons and great coupons for baby products that make them super cheap or even free. If you fill prescriptions at Meijer you can also earn money back or discounts on gas at their gas station. You can also earn money back after each shopping trip if you hit a certain dollar amount within a given time. When you do a lot of grocery shopping each month at Meijer, this is fairly easy to earn.

Lately, Meijer has sent us coupons in the mail specific to our purchases made. These are coupons for items we frequently buy helping us to save more on what we purchase. They also accept manufacturer coupons for most items.

Our trips to Meijer are typically to purchase items that are not available at other places or we know are a better deal. Because of the good variety of items available it is easier to find healthier, cheaper options in decent sizes. Depending on the week the amount spent here varies, although Meijer is one of our main stops throughout the month. We purchase our bread, tortillas (in a bulk pack), frozen items, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and even the occasional automotive supply here.

How Costco saves us money

We do not do our major shopping only at Costco. We limit our trips to once or twice a month and always shop for specific items. Often Costco's Kirkland brand offers better deals and is just as good as the major brands. Our typical purchases include paper products, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, beverages, snacks, cheese, bulk meats, apple sauce/veggie pouches for our daughter. La Croix waters are a favorite of mine and Costco sells these cheap in a large amount so I buy them here. We try to limit our Costco trips to $20 - $50 maximum to stay on budget. If you are not careful buying in bulk will not save you money but will just cause you to overspend.

Costco has many baby products that are a great deal from their Kirkland brand and even some well-known name brands. I wrote a post you can check out about my experience with Costco baby products. Where I share some of the baby items I recommend at Costco, and why they are great finds.

Is Fresh Thyme expensive?

Fresh Thyme is not always cheap but has some great weekly specials, especially on produce. Buying produce that lasts a week or even longer is hard to do at some stores but we find their vegetables and fruits last longer and are relatively inexpensive. The quality is worth the additional few cents sometimes when it comes to buying produce. I find the best deals on produce at our store are located by the front and on special stands. Fresh Thyme can be overpriced on certain items, but a quick trip to Fresh Thyme can save you money too.

We usually spend less than $25 per week on the following items Bananas, Romaine lettuce, onion, garlic, carrots, peppers, blueberries, melons, apples, peaches. As long as you avoid new expensive "super-foods" and stick to the basic healthy choices you can save money and get the freshest produce.

Stretch your budget at Dollar Tree

Dollar Tree is one of the occasional stores that I visit to help stretch our budget. The Items I purchase at Dollar Tree vary based on what they have in stock and these come and go. I always check certain sections of the store such as groceries, beverages, paper products, cleaning supplies, and health and beauty for the best deals.

Some of the best deals I have found at Dollar Tree are name brand Pesto, salad dressings, paper products, dish soap, cleaning supplies, beauty products, and even pregnancy tests. I have been told by my physician previously that their pregnancy tests in her opinion are just as good as many other big-name brands.

Dollar Tree also sells baby products which can save you a lot of money. Some of my favorite baby products that I have purchased there are Paw Patrol hand and face wipes 25 ct pack, Nasal Saline for babies, 3 packs of little swimmers diapers to use during the summer, baby wipes, socks, and even bibs.

The Fresh Market and why I love this store?

Fresh Market is a store that although overpriced on some items offers some very different finds. I love the variety and the quality at Fresh Market but would never do all of my shopping at this store. Why? Because Fresh Market is very pricey on a lot of items. I do go to Fresh Market for specific deals including the Little Big Meal which I prefer over getting takeout from a restaurant. I love the weekly meal deal to feed 4 people for $20 - $25, we often stretch this into 2 meals for a family of two adults and a baby. You can find decent deals on spices sometimes and hard-to-find ingredients may often be located here.

As much as I enjoy browsing this store and love their bakery and deli, I have to watch my spending if I shop here. If you are looking to have a fancy meal at home they can help you do that easily and cheaper than a restaurant.

Keep it simple, quick, and healthy

Be creative with simple meals. When trying to spend $100 on groceries a week making your own meals from scratch is better. Pinterest has a lot of great recipes that I recommend to help you make simple easy meals with few ingredients. Just do a search with the type of meal you are looking for a tons of options will be at your fingertips in minutes.

Use what you already have. Go through the pantry and get creative with the available ingredients and try something new. Planning a weekly menu is a great way to stretch what is already in your pantry.

If you are blessed by receiving food from others such as fresh produce from their garden don't be afraid to accept these graciously. This can help you only spend $100 on groceries a week. If you can't use them all immediately why not freeze them. Many fruits and vegetables can be safely frozen and used in your cooking later. If you have more leftover produce or food items than you can use why not share them with friends or family. For example, my sister received more bread than she could use and generously shared it with us. We just happen to have naan bread, a little pesto, pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella, and a few minutes in the over you have delicious pizzas.

Living joyfully on a budget does not have to be a struggle. When you begin to gain control over areas of overspending you will find life less stressful. It may take a few months to make this work for you but it can be done. We did it and we know that you can too, so don't give up.

SPEND $100 ON GROCERIES A WEEK