We’re a Family of 4 in New Jersey — Here’s How We Spent Only $72 on Groceries for the Week

• Name: Alex
• Location: Westfield, NJ
• Number of people in household: 4 (including spouse and two children, ages 13 and 8)
• Age: 48
• Occupation: Retired financial services executive turned stay-at-home dad; spouse works for a community college as Director of Honors Program
• Where you shopped: Acme, Kings, Lidl, ShopRite, Stop & Shop, and Target
• Weekly food budget: I average $75 per week, with an annual budget of $3,900 for groceries and $200 per month ($2,400 per year) for dining out. 
• Amount spent: $70.64

I am fortunate to have several different grocery store chains within three miles of my home. I shopped at six stores this week: Acme, Target, and ShopRite (all clustered together within two blocks of each other), plus Lidl, Kings, and Stop & Shop, which are along the main artery. I got all of my shopping done in two-and-a-half hours.

Lidl has the everyday best prices (especially for staple items), but a more limited selection. ShopRite and Stop & Shop have great weekly sales and promotions. I will go to the other stores opportunistically, if there are good deals (such as Acme’s periodic free items) and/or if I happen to be near them. I have also found that Target has the best everyday price on gallons of milk. (It’s not a Super Target, though, so the overall grocery selection is limited.)

I don’t force myself to stick to a weekly budget, as long as my annual spend is in line. From week to week, I might spend more to take advantage of deals and stock up or if I’m prepping for a holiday; sometimes I spend less if I don’t see anything extra worth buying. 

Every Thursday, I receive the weekly circulars, which I use to identify sales and good deals. I shop every week, so I have a good sense of prices in general, but I also keep track of everything I’ve bought for the last few years on a spreadsheet. I refer to that list to confirm if an item is near or even below average in price — especially for “seasonal” buys, like a Thanksgiving turkey or corned beef come St. Patrick’s Day. 

I make my list of what I want to buy at each store and map out my route. I usually shop on Friday mornings, but will sometimes add an additional store over the coming days depending on need and if I happen to be nearby.

I try to stock up on shelf-stable ingredients — dry pasta, rice, and canned goods — when they go on sale. ShopRite often runs a “Can Can” sale in January, which is a good time to pick up things I can use throughout the year. I also shop the clearance racks and look for clearance tags at all of the stores. (Acme and Stop & Shop have the best clearance items.) Sometimes I can get great deals on meat, produce, and dry goods that way. I have one standard-size refrigerator, so I do need to temper my enthusiasm for frozen items, especially if I’m currently storing a turkey or prime rib roast in the freezer leading up to the holidays.

I plan meals based on what is on sale that week and what I already have at home. For the most part, to come up with the main entrée each day, I will use fresh produce and meat that I bought on sale that week or meat that I previously purchased and froze. I pair that with ingredients from the pantry or freezer. I very rarely go shopping for specific ingredients that are not already on sale that week. 

My wife and I share cooking duties, with me taking weekday dinners, while she cooks on the weekends. We each have certain meals that we are better at cooking, so there’s a bit of variety throughout the week. We also tend to do takeout pizza once a week due to after-school and after-work activities. (I usually use a gift card purchased at a discount at the local grocery store or drug store.) We will sometimes go out to eat on weekends as well. 

Another way we keep our costs low is to mostly drink water — especially when we go out to eat. The kids actually prefer water over sweet and fizzy drinks, but will occasionally have lemonade. My wife and I will make coffee at home each morning, and I will have juice or soda at home, usually on the weekends.

• 2 apple ciders (1/2 gallons), $1.98
• 4 boxes pasta (16 ounces), $3.56
• 3 ice cream (1.5 quarts), $5.82 (on clearance!)
• 6 poppy seed bagels, $1.99

Total: $13.35

• Skim milk (1 gallon), $3.19
• Basket coffee filters (200 count), $1.99

Total: $5.26 (includes sales tax and reusable bag discount) 

• 3 bunches asparagus, $3.50
• 2.36 pounds beef bottom round roast, $5.52 (meal deal promotion!)
• 5 pounds russet potatoes, $2.49
• 1 pound carrots, $0.99
• Yellow onion, $0.58
• Organic beef broth, $1.99

Total: $15.07

• 8 Hass avocados, $5.52
• 6 bananas, $0.84
• 3 butter croissants, $1.47
• White bread, $0.99
• 3.53 pounds boneless pork loin, $7.02
• 2 packs sliced cheese, $3.00
• 5 packs of cookies/crackers, $9.00

Total: $27.84

• Yogurt, $0.29 (coupon)
• Bagel, $0.09 (coupon)
• 5 bananas, $0.20 (coupon)

Total: $0.58 (includes $3.20-off in coupons)

• 3.03 pounds 80% lean ground beef, $9.06
• 20 ounces cubed butternut squash, FREE (paid with Go Rewards points)

Total: $9.06

Even though we have a pretty active Saturday, we manage to eat all three meals at home. First, we have a quick breakfast of toasted bagels with butter.

Then after returning home from our kids’ morning activities, we make grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. We complement this with two cans of Campbell’s Chunky Italian-Style Wedding Soup from the pantry that I had bought a few weeks ago and a tomato and avocado salad, using a tomato from our garden and an avocado I purchased.

After we return home from some local fall activities, my spouse makes roasted pork loin, asparagus, and butternut squash. She also makes some mashed potatoes on the stovetop using potato flakes, which are a staple we keep in the pantry. 

We end the night with salted caramel ice cream topped with Magic Shell for dessert.

We have a busy Sunday as well, with church in the morning and sports activities in the afternoon. We have some time before church, so I make pancakes from a mix and heat up some frozen sausage, which I bought a while back.

After church, there’s an event in the church gym that includes some snacks. We have coffee cake and mini muffins before doing a little shopping and heading home. 

We have a quick lunch of hot dogs (bought a few weeks ago and cooked in the air fryer) with some of the leftover butternut squash. There was some chocolate and candy at the fencing tournament my older daughter participates in, so that’s our afternoon snack.

We get home in the late afternoon, and my wife makes tacos for dinner. She uses a pound of ground beef, along with a taco shell kit I bought a few weeks ago. For toppings, we have avocados, homegrown tomatoes, a bit of lettuce, shredded cheese, and canned black beans. We also have rice to go with the black beans. The rice and black beans came from our pantry, while I had lettuce and shredded cheese in the refrigerator that I purchased the previous week.

We eat mini ice cream bars and scoops of salted caramel ice cream for dessert.

It’s back to work and school for everybody, so back to quick breakfasts and bagged lunches for most of us. For breakfast we eat two more of the poppyseed bagels toasted with butter, while the kids each have a frozen toaster pastry that I bought a few weeks ago. 

We pack leftovers and Nutella sandwiches and ham-and-cheese sandwiches for lunch. I’m at home, so I make myself a bowl of sausage and cauliflower ramen, combining some of the leftovers with instant ramen from the pantry.

For dinner, I make meatloaf along with roasted asparagus and thin potato wedges. I used a pound of ground beef, along with a pound of ground turkey I bought a few weeks ago. For dessert, I have some Kozy Shack tapioca pudding I bought a few weeks ago, while the kids have some more of the salted caramel ice cream.

Tuesday is usually another busy work and school day. We have some late-afternoon sports activities, so I usually take this opportunity to order pizza for the kids and pick it up after their activities end.

First in the morning, we finish off the last of the poppyseed bagels (toasted, with butter). and toaster pastries. 

For lunch, the kids took Chobani Flips yogurts (which I bought a few weeks ago) to school. My wife makes a meatloaf sandwich to bring to the office, while I eat leftover hot dogs. 

We’re having a bit of a later dinner after the sports activities, so the kids have more snacks to eat when they get home from school: potato chips, honey roasted peanuts, homemade pumpkin seeds, a Kinder Joy egg, and Hot Pockets, all of which were from our pantry or freezer. On the way to the activity, we stop at Wendy’s for free Junior Frostys using coupons from the Boo Books I bought for $1. (The Boo Books each come with six coupons — five for free Junior Frostys and one for a Kids’ Meal for $1.99. We have been using a few coupons each week.)

For dinner, we bake Italian sausage and roast zucchini in the oven and pair that with spaghetti and pasta sauce (all previously purchased and stored in our pantry, refrigerator, and freezer). I also pick up a large one-topping Domino’s pizza on the way to get the kids from their sports activity. Finally for dessert, we had three Dove raspberry sorbet bars and one Helados Mexico strawberry bar. 

The kids are always excited about leftover pizza. They eat some for breakfast and lunch. In addition, my wife and I have Frosted Mini Wheat cereal from the pantry for breakfast. 

Then for lunch, I use the leftover meatloaf to make a sandwich, and my wife makes another tomato and avocado salad.

For dinner, I make chicken and broccoli stir-fry with rice. I used about one-and-a-half pounds of boneless chicken thighs and roughly the same amount of broccoli (from the freezer and refrigerator, respectively). Then we have bowls of salted caramel ice cream for dessert.

It’s Halloween. I plan on making something quick and flexible for dinner, so it’s on the table once the kids are done trick-or-treating, which could be at any point after it starts to get dark. I decide on pot roast because I could cook it in the oven throughout the day at a low temperature, and just have it warming until we are ready to eat it.

First, for breakfast we have Pop-Tarts and cereal, both from the pantry. 

Then for lunch I make grilled cheese sandwiches for me and my daughter (she comes home to change for her school Halloween parade). My wife takes some leftovers to work, and my older daughter bought lunch at school.

For dinner, we have pot roast with carrots and potatoes. I also steam broccoli from the refrigerator and make mashed potatoes from flakes. The kids have plenty of Halloween candy as their dessert.

On the last weekday, we once again have quick breakfasts of cereal and one Pop-Tarts toaster pastry. 

For lunch, most of us have leftovers and sandwiches. My younger daughter has her weekly Friday chicken tenders school lunch. When the kids get home from school, we have Twix ice cream bars, which I purchased a few weeks ago for a snack.

For dinner, I make smothered pork chops with baby bella mushrooms and roasted asparagus along with a pot of rice to go with the pork chops sauce. We go to the middle school play after dinner, and the kids have more Halloween candy as their dessert.

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