See How a Massachusetts Family of 4 Spends $200 on Groceries Every Week (After “Scouring” for Deals)

• Name: Martha
• Location: Boston, Massachusetts 
• Number of people in household: 4 (two adults, two children)
• Age: 37
• Occupation: Writer and photographer (me), professor (my husband)
• Where you shopped: Wegmans, Walmart, Village Market (neighborhood grocer), Fornax Bread Company (local bakery), and Roslindale Fish Market
• Weekly food budget: $175
• Amount spent: $199.99

My family and I just moved to Boston this summer, so we’re still in the process of getting our bearings, exploring new grocery store options, and adjusting to the change in pricing for many of our staples (Boston was recently listed among the top 10 most expensive cities to live in the United States). Thankfully, we have countless options to scope out, and we’re having fun with the transition from small-town Pennsylvania life to being in the heart of a major metro area! 

For the moment, our go-tos are as follows: Wegmans for fresh produce and hard-to-find specialty items; Village Market, our local grocery store for great prices on meats and other last-minute needs; our corner bakery, Fornax, for fresh bread; Roslindale Fish Market; and we use our WalMart+ membership for free delivery perks (the closest store to us is a 45-minute drive) and to pick up many of our weekly staples (milk, eggs, dairy products, and other pantry needs). 

While our weekly grocery budget was $150 when we lived in PA, I’ve bumped that up to $175 here in Boston. This week we went over this by about $25, but as we hosted a friend for dinner one night and a family member for the weekend, I still take it as a win!

As I create my grocery list for the week, I keep a few things in mind. 

• Shop our pantry first. Especially as we navigate higher grocery prices with the transition to Boston, I’ve tried to go through our pantry before visiting the store to see what we already have. I also prioritize keeping it stocked with items I know we’ll use on a regular basis. 
• Buy in-season when possible. I buy at least two to three seasonal fruits for snacks throughout the week. Now that we’re done with the majority of our long-haul trips for the summer (one of which was the move), we’re cutting back a bit on the packaged snacks that we relied on to get through long car rides with our kiddos — but there’s still a fair amount of graham cracker consumption happening with two under the age of 5. 
• Buy favorites in bulk — especially when on sale. One of the first things I did here in Boston was to scour our grocery circulars to see where we could find the best-priced family packs of our favorites (Wegman’s for chicken thighs, our neighbor grocer for ground meats). I then separate them into zip-top bags for future meals. You’ll find leftover bulk tortellini, chicken nuggets, frozen berries, portions of frozen soups or broths and, of course, baked goods that we’ve made double batches of (muffins, quick breads, and even sourdough boules are often stuffed in there to be reheated and enjoyed later). I’ll also make a point to stock up if I see canned goods or other packaged items on sale (this past week I found a two-for-one mozzarella sale and snagged the family pack, knowing we would use it again). 
• Make a list. The worst thing for our budget is when we go “off list” for an item, or head to the store without a plan. Sticking to a list of only the ingredients we’ll need has saved us from countless impulse purchases, allowing us more wiggle room in our budget to eat out with friends or splurge for a fun occasion, like a birthday or hosting a party. It’s a little less fun than meandering aimlessly through grocery aisles, but it helps keep us on track!

Because we keep breakfasts and lunches fairly simple, meal planning for us is largely dinner-focused. I keep a running “bucket list” of seasonal meals that I’m excited about (either classic favorites or new ideas to try). This summer, for example, I’m trying to recreate a gazpacho from one of our favorite restaurants from our grad-school days, and also looking forward to lots of zucchini- and tomato-forward meals, along with “toast” dinners and pasta salads. 

Beyond these foods we look forward to all year, I also have a meal plan inspiration list on my phone that I keep organized by category (pasta, vegetarian, beef/pork, fish, etc.) if I need to just throw something together during the week. To simplify our meal planning further, I’ll choose three or four recipes in a week and make double batches of each. This cuts our prep/cook time in half! 

It’s summertime, and a lot of our recipes this week rely on fresh produce that don’t necessarily save well after being prepped (hello, fresh tomatoes). This time of year I tend to do a little more prep and cooking work daily, but I try to keep it low-intensity — especially when it’s hot and we don’t want the oven on for long (or at all).

Breakfasts aren’t usually elaborate unless it’s a special occasion. We typically make eggs, oatmeal, toast, and English muffins, etc. before heading out the door to work/school for the day. I’ll often make a loaf of fresh bread, granola, or a batch of muffins at the start of the week so everyone still has other options too. 

Lunches are generally either leftovers, sandwiches (like egg or tuna salad), salads with extra produce from the week or “mezze platters” (hummus with veggies and pita bread).

While I love my phone lists to track ideas long-term, when it comes time to actually put together the week’s meal plan, I’m truly old-school with pen and paper. I like being able to scratch things off, move things around, and otherwise annotate the list until it feels like a fit for the week. I’ve used notebooks and journals in the past (and have been known to download a template or two), but it’s generally just done with a piece of printer paper or whatever scrap paper is on hand. 

• 1% lowfat milk, $2.89
• Sambal chili paste, $3.49
• Mini chocolate chips, $2.99
• Ground pork (1 pound), $5.59
• Serrano ham (1/3 pound), $8.00
• Fresh mozzarella (32 ounces), $7.29
• Frozen raw, peeled, and deveined medium shrimp, $12.99
• Green onions (1 bunch), $1.19
• Hydroponic basil, $3.99
• Organic seedless cucumber, $2.99
• Carrots (1 pound), $1.49
• Lemons (2), $1.58
• Hass avocado (2), $2.58
• Tomato on the vine (3.59 pounds), $7.14
• Red cabbage (2.47 pounds), $2.45
• Yellow squash (2.26 pounds), $3.82
• Red peppers (0.8 pounds), $2.79

• Razz cranberry sparkling water (2 packs), $7.44
• Wild-caught crunchy breaded fish sticks, $5.48
• American cheese (1 pound), $2.48
• Unsalted butter (1 pound), $3.98
• Zero-sugar lemonade (59 ounces), $2.44
• Unsweetened organic soy milk (half-gallon), $3.86
• Dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets (32 ounces), $7.27
• Sweet cream-flavored coffee creamer (1 quart), $4.98

• Batard, $5.64
• Baguette, $5.08
• Pastries (4), $15.79 

• Salmon (1.01 pounds), $16.15 
• Broccoli (1.24 pounds), $4.32

• Peaches (1.25 pounds), $3.73
• Canola oil, $4.99
• Eggs (1 dozen), $4.49
• Milk, $4.99
• Lemonade, $3.49 
• Tomatoes, $3.79
• Red onion, $1.99
• Cilantro, $1.99
• Baguette, $3.79
• Chickpeas (2 cans), $3.98

This week is slightly irregular for us because I have a heavier-than-normal workload, and we’re also hosting a couple of nights. With this in mind, I meal plan on Saturday so that we can grocery shop and schedule our other deliveries for Sunday. I keep things fairly simple for the days we host (Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) so we can scale up or down as plans shift. 

This morning, my husband makes the kiddos breakfast (waffles) while I go for a run and then takes them out to the playground while I get to work. I have toast and eggs with coffee while writing and take a break to make a batch of muffins for us to have throughout the week: banana (from the fridge where I’ll stick them if they’re going brown) and chocolate chip. I bake on a fairly regular basis, and next week I’ll need to restock my flour and some other staples; I make a note of that on our running grocery list.  

Lunch for the kiddos is fish sticks (Jesse and I eat leftovers from the night before), and tonight’s dinner recipe — spicy ground pork and zucchini stir-fry — is a favorite that I’ll make often in the summer when zucchini is easy to find and in season; it’s especially satisfying if we’re craving some of the flavors and textures of takeout. The sambal oelek and fresh ginger in the recipe pack a punch, and there are enough varied ingredients (rice, meat, veggies) that even our 4-year-old can make a plate that isn’t “too spicy.” It’s going to be a hot week here in Boston and tonight is no exception, so after we finish dinner we pop downstairs to enjoy some evening breezes and have dessert (Popsicles from the freezer) on our porch. 

Today we’re navigating a heat advisory, so the oven will be off for the day. 

In the morning after we have muffins for breakfast, I head around the corner to Fornax, our neighborhood bakery, to grab a loaf of bread for dinner later today. While I bake quite a bit of bread in the fall and winter, I love being next to a bakery — especially in the summer months so we can still have fresh bread without turning the oven to 500ºF in the apartment. 

While I’m working, everyone else visits the splash pad to cool off in the morning, and then it’s lunch time for the kiddos (chicken nuggets and watermelon). 

I took advantage of the “cooler” morning temperatures to do some meal prep for later, including grilling the bread for our bruschetta toasts later tonight and making a batch of egg salad to use in lunch sandwiches throughout the week (Jesse and I snack on this for lunch while the kids are napping). 

Come dinnertime, all that’s left to do is plate the jamón, slice cheese, and spoon the tomato basil topping over the pre-made toasts

We have a busy rush to get out the door this morning for little brother’s doctor’s appointment, so after a quick breakfast of frozen waffles, toast, and eggs for us all, we head out the door (with an extra graham cracker tucked in the diaper bag and a granola bar, leftover from a recent road trip, for me). 

Lunch is leftovers for everyone: Jesse and I both had the remaining Caprese ingredients from the fridge, along with the leftover egg salad on English muffins, and the kiddos had PB&Js. 

We hoped to have a fun outing to the Boston Public Market today (it’s on our exploring bucket list as we get settled in), but after the doctor’s appointment runs long we decide to push that to next week. Thankfully we have a local fish market that we love, so I walk around the corner to grab salmon and some broccoli for tonight.

Dinner is a lemon salmon recipe that’s cooked en papillote which removes some of the guesswork for me as we get dinner prepped with kiddos running around our little kitchen. It helps it come out perfectly cooked every time (knock on wood!), and I always add lemon and whatever herbs I have at home. We’ve been dipping in to some other rice varieties (we eat a lot of rice throughout the year), so this week we’ve added a wild rice blend to the mix.

The kiddos have fish sticks as a backup, but we’re trying to continually expose them to the foods we eat as well while still offering foods on the table that we know they’ll enjoy. Some nights it looks like having a fun kiddo version of what we’ve prepared (i.e., less spicy or cut into shapes) and others it’s something as easy as hummus and tortilla with veggies and fruit. 

Today is a busy writing morning for me, so after Jesse and the kiddos have breakfast (toast for him, waffles for them) and head out the door, I snack on a bowl of yogurt and homemade granola at my desk while answering emails. 

We all have leftovers and sandwiches for lunch. Jesse has the last of the egg salad, while our 4-year-old requests a “Bluey sandwich” inspired by the cartoon’s “favorite” snack: a cheese and jam sandwich, and I have a PB&J while I finish up work and emails.

I’m going salsa dancing with a friend from grad school tonight. She works in our neighborhood, so she’s also joining us for dinner before we go out! This afternoon I prep a tortilla de patatas (with onion!) from pantry items for dinner. I’m trying to rebrand it as an “Atohallan omlette” for our Frozen-loving 4-year-old, but it’s a tough sell for her and she mostly snacks on the toasts and peaches when dinner comes. I’ll keep trying, though; she fully accepts pearl couscous as “Arendelle rice” after I told her it’s the only thing Princess Anna serves at her banquets. 

After prepping the tortillas, I also pick up another loaf of bread for goat cheese tartines (the goat cheese was an impulse purchase last week) and make a carrot and cabbage salad. Our youngest flat-out refuses it all and eats peanut butter toasts and yogurt (but I manage to get him to try some carrots from the salad). 

This morning is another early writing day, so it’s banana chocolate chip muffins for breakfast for us all (with lots of coffee for me), and then a bit of a scramble to get out the door. This afternoon, I’m doing a quick overnight visit to see my parents in New York and attend my little sister’s gallery opening with my youngest sister and parents. My husband and kiddos will hold down the fort and get things ready for my other sister who is visiting us this weekend! 

For lunch, the kiddos have another round of chicken nuggets with some sliced cucumber, peppers, and peaches, and Jesse has leftover tortilla and toast. Dinner is the remaining pork and zucchini stir-fry leftovers for the three of them. I’m running slightly behind schedule, so I grab a couple of granola bars and a sliced peach for my drive, and after attending my sister’s gallery show, raid my parents’ refrigerator for their leftovers (chicken with rice and strawberry shortcake). 

My youngest sister arrives back in Boston before I do, and has breakfast (waffles and the remainder of the leftover tortilla) with the kiddos and Jesse. As I’m heading out the door at 5:30 a.m. in New York, my parents give me a bagel and coffee for the road, which is completely consumed before I reach the Mass Pike. 

After I’ve unpacked, we go out to grab a couple of items for our dinner that night (I forgot to buy a red onion for the gazpacho, and we ended up using more tomatoes than anticipated for our bruschetta toasts earlier this week). We stop at the farmers market first (I love to grab one or two things there when I can — the produce is beautiful), but strike out; it’s too early in the season for red onions. 

We snack on tamales from a vendor at the market (my sister treats) and then stop by The Village Market on the way home to grab what we need. I also pick up a couple of cans of chickpeas and another loaf of bread to round out the meal. We pop by Fornax to select some pastries to celebrate my sister’s visit (and her birthday, which was earlier in the week). While we were out, Jesse and the kiddos had a lunch of PB&J sandwiches and the last of the peaches from earlier in the week. 

Dinner is a new gazpacho recipe that I stumbled across in an attempt to recreate my favorite soup from an old neighborhood restaurant when we lived in New York. It’s another hot day, so the fact that this comes together using only a blender is perfect! 

I toss together some spiced chickpeas and bring out the rest of the mozzarella cheese we have from earlier in the week. It’s the perfect end to this summer day. 

Dessert is Fornax pastries accompanied by choruses of “Happy Birthday!” 

We’re getting down to the last of our groceries today, but have more than enough in the pantry to pull together some blueberry muffins while the coffee is brewing. I scramble the rest of the eggs with some cheese and we all sit down to breakfast before my sister, my daughter, and I head out to the movies. 

We make it home in time for lunch (leftovers with grilled cheese sandwiches) and naps for the kiddos, and before long we’re getting ready to head out again (this time to a neighbor gathering down the street that we were invited to last week). We say our goodbyes to my sister before she heads back to New York, and enjoy a couple of hours getting to know our new neighbors over pizza, watermelon (provided by our neighbors), and Popsicles (brought by us from our freezer!). 

At Kitchn we believe setting a food budget for you and your family is an essential part in getting your financial life in order. Don’t know where to start? We have a guide for that. Want to share your Grocery Diary with Kitchn? See how here.