Hack your budget back!  Join me as I try to reclaim my grocery budget.  Post your shopping trip, tips for saving in the kitchen, or how you keep your grocery budget in check so we can all help each other!

My goal to hack my budget back is to spend $200 a week out of pocket on food and household goods.  My household is 11 people, but Baby J doesn’t eat much so I’ll call it 10- about $20 per person per week.  I’m putting in approximate prices, too.

Well, this week we had some chicken drama.  The $25 chickens I bought last week were rotten, so I took them back.  I thought it was a fluke, so I got new chickens.  When I pulled them out to cook, they were STANK-Y!  So I returned them.  I think our Costco has some issues.  I’ve been a member since October and had to return meat three times so I’m going back to buying my meat at Whole Foods.

If your Costco does NOT have issues, you can get chickens even cheaper- $1.75/lb. for Coleman organic hens.  Just buy a case.  You don’t have to call ahead and order it, just ask at the meat counter.  A case is about 65 lbs.

ANYWAY, I’m up $25 since I returned the chickens.  So, I bought some junky food for Hubs at his request. And then ate some of it myself.

My budget was $225, and I spent $216.  I have $9 to roll over to next week.

Whole Foods $65
8 antibiotic/hormone free chickens $60
Chicken salad “snackable”, my dinner $5

HEB $90 Their fancy, spiral cut brown sugar fully cooked hams are all marked down to .99 a pound this week! The “sell by” is in February, but I bought a couple to stock the freezer.  Make a ham and eat for a week!

10 boxes Smart Taste spaghetti $10
3 bags (7 oz.) alphabet noodles $.75
2 boxes instant oatmeal packs (for food storage) $2.50
4 lbs. dry pinto beans $3.10
2 tubs 8 oz. lunchmeat FREE w/coupon
2 1/2# smoked sausage $12.60
Nitrate free bacon, 12 oz. $3.80
1 qt. organic beef broth $2
4 spiral sliced half hams (39 lbs. total) $38.75
50 ct. quart storage bags  $2.50
4 bottles dishsoap $4
Toilet paper (12 rolls, 1000 sheets) $7.50
Zote laundry soap $1

Kroger $27.50
(Hubs made this trip, as you can see from the purchases.  I would never, ever buy Buffalo Lays, yech. And holy moly I just looked at the receipt- junk food is pricey!  Now you know all his vices. Except the black beans were for me.)

Lays Potato chips, $3
Bakery Cookies $2.80
Oreos $3 (he must have hidden these at work, I never saw them.)
1 can black beans $1
2 bottle soda $3.40
Frozen tator tots $4.50
2 loaves bread $3
Sausage $4
Sour Cream $1.60
$1 to the food bank

99 Ranch Market (Asian store) $18.50
2 bunches celery $1.40
4 lbs. onions $1.90
9 lbs. organic apples, $9
6 cucumbers $2
3 lbs. tomatoes $2
4 pkg enoki mushrooms $2.30

Costco $15
40 oz. tortilla chips $3.60
Frozen eggrolls $7.80
1 qt. Promised Land whipping cream $3.50

WIC- 4 boxes cereal, 1 gallon milk, clementines, 2 avocados, 1 bunch green onions.

Are you hacking away at your grocery budget?  If you posted your recipe, menu, budget, or a frugal kitchen tip, come link up!  Just link back to me from your site, and if you have a great tip in your archives, link it too!

Tagged as: budget challenge, food budget, hack budget back, menu plan