I mentioned in passing on our Facebook page that I hadn’t been shopping for 6 weeks. Well the truth is, we were out of town quite a bit this summer (thus not eating as much food at home)… so it was a little misleading. We typically hit the grocery store every 4 weeks or so.
But after inquiries from lots of curious readers and friends, I thought I would share some details anyway!
When we moved to our farmhouse in the sticks 7 years ago, it was a bit of shock in many ways. I’ve never lived in the country (though I did grow up in a small town), and there were soooo many new experiences! In fact, that’s when I started this blog to document all of it!
Anyway… Nick and I went from living in a duplex RIGHT NEXT to a grocery store, to living 20 miles from civilization.
When we were newlyweds living in our duplex, I was still learning to be domestic and wifish, and hadn’t quite figured out the whole meal-planning concept. We would both come home from work, look at each other, and say ‘what should we have for dinner?!’ …then we would proceed to walk 10 feet to the grocery store to buy whatever items we needed to make that dish.
#facepalm
So you can see how being a bonafide country-wifey would be a little bit of a transition. No more last minute dinner decisions, no more impulsive trips to the store, no more craving anything that isn’t already in our pantry. NO MORE PIZZA DELIVERY. (tearful emoji)
I know living 20 miles from the nearest grocery store doesn’t necessarily require scaling back to once-a-month grocery trips … but between the distance and our monthly budget strategy, it just evolved into what it is!
First and foremost, I shop at Aldi. If you’re not familiar, it’s a grocery store that does things a little differently. Their items are quality… but much cheaper than other grocery stores. There are several ways that they’re able to keep their costs low and provide their shoppers in amazing value. Instead of going into detail, I’m just going to link you to my friend Ally’s (Ally’s Sweet and Savory Eats) post where she goes into great detail about Aldi and what makes it special HERE.
This is most certainly not an advertisement for Aldi BTW. They have no clue who I am! I just love shopping there and love how much moolah we save by doing so. There are Aldi stores in most states, and in many other countries as well! (Store locator here)
SO! Let’s get down and dirty with the details.
We pretty much have a rotation of meals that we stick with, so this means I buy basically the same items every time I shop. I do my best to try 1 new recipe each month, so I make sure to add any items that aren’t part of our typical staple items.
Without giving you a full list of exactly what I buy (because that really wouldn’t be helpful since everyone has different staples), I’m going to highlight some specific food groups to share how we handle those…
(NOTE: we are a family of 5, one of which primarily eats pureed fruits/veggies and baby formula… and we spend approx $300 / month)
1) PRODUCE… Firstly, I would normally have a garden to take advantage of this time of year, but this year it just didn’t happen, no apologies. That said, I buy both fresh and frozen versions. When our fresh produce runs out, we break out the frozen stuff! Bags of frozen peas, broccoli, corn, carrots, etc… their frozen at the height of their freshness, so they’re surprisingly yummy!
Frozen fruit is a little less appetizing, because it has a definitely squishy quality after being thawed. This just means we add it to oatmeal, muffins, etc instead of eating it like finger food the way we do with fresh fruits.
I often dice up things like onions, bell peppers, celery, rhubarb, etc and freeze them in ziplock baggies. This not only makes our produce last longer, but it makes throwing together meals so much easier because that chopping prep is already done!
As an example, here’s a list of the produce I bought this last trip to the store:
FRESH:
- Bag of oranges
- Bag of apples
- 4 avocados
- 6 peaches
- Bundle of bananas
- 2 cucumbers
- 3 bags of baby carrots (the extra cost for baby carrots vs full-size carrots is worth it to us for the convenience)
- 5 med tomatoes
- Bag of onions
- Bag of potatoes
FROZEN:
- 4 bags frozen blueberries
- 4 bags frozen strawberries
- 4 bags frozen peaches
- 6 bags frozen peas
- 4 bags frozen broccoli
- 4 bags frozen corn
- 8 bags frozen mixed veggies
2) BREAD: we eat sandwiches a lot for lunches, so we go through what seems like a lot of bread. I buy 7 loaves each month. When I get home from the store, one goes in the fridge, and the other 6 go in the deep freeze. When we’re getting down to the end of a loaf, I grab a frozen loaf and set it on the counter. It’s usually thawed in a half a day. You can also pop it in the microwave on defrost for 2-3 minutes. Surprisingly, thawed bread is still super soft and fresh-tasting. I think if you left it in the freezer longer than a month, it might start to get some freezer burn and seem a little more dry after being thawed.
3) MILK: we’re going through a phase where we don’t go through as much milk lately since the twins are passed milk in sippy cups, and Cypress is still on formula. 2-3 gallons typically lasts the whole month for us. And did you know you can freeze milk? I buy half gallons to freeze, drink a 1/2 cup so it’s not completely full (to account for expansion), put the cap on tight, and throw it in the freezer! Thawing milk takes a little more planning since it takes about 2 days to thaw. But once you start to pay attention and learn you family’s milk-consumption habits (LOL), you’ll get a feel for estimating when to take milk out of the freezer in order for it to be thawed in time before you run out. You can always run some hot water over your frozen gallon to thaw it faster if you’re in a pinch.
4) MEAT: We mostly stick with ground beef and chicken… and 10 lbs of each usually covers us for the whole month. I buy two 5lb bags of frozen boneless chicken breasts, and two 5lb chubs of ground beef that I cut into half pound chunks and throw in the freezer
5) EGGS: We eat a lot of eggs because they’re cheap, yummy, and fairly nutritious (unless you have high cholesterol, which we don’t. Yet). We go through about 6 dozen eggs in a month, and they stay good in the fridge for the full 4 weeks. For more info on keeping eggs and how to know if they’re still good this is a great reference.
Now lastly, I want to talk about meal planning. I’m a free-spirit, non-planning type of person, so the idea of planning which meals I want to make/eat on which days (even for just a week at a time), makes me feel itchy and twitchy. NO THANKS.
Who am I to tell myself that 4 days from now I’m going to feel like making Chicken Parmesan for my family? 4 days from now might be a really hard day, or I might have a headache, or I MIGHT JUST NOT FEEL LIKE PREPARING A FANCY MEAL that day. I like having the freedom to make that decision on a daily basis.
And this is my strategy:
As I’m putting groceries away after my monthly visit to the store, I write down meals that we have the ingredients to on a white board. Then, as we make the meals, we simply wipe it off the board with our finger! This give us the opportunity to leave a certain meal on there if we still have the ingredients to make it again. For example, we typically have spaghetti and pizza about once a week.
As you can see, half of the white board is for meals that we can choose from, and the other half is for things that we’re running out of. We’ve been using this system for 6 years, and it is SO HANDY.
If I’m not sure what to make for dinner on a certain night, I consult my list! Or, when Nick gets home from work, and I say ‘what do ya want for supper?’ and he says ‘what are my options?’ …I just have him consult THE LIST.
And if I have a certain produce item I need to use up, or some leftover meat from a previous meal I need to incorporate, I can choose a meal from the list accordingly!
And when we get down to the nubbins toward the end of the month, I’m forced to get creative with meals. It’s kinda fun to challenge myself to make something yummy with only a few ingredients. And another good thing about eating ourselves down to just about nothing is that it’s easy to clean the fridge when there barely anything in it!
I know different strategies work better for different people. And some of you have the good fortune of being planners. Ironically, I’m organized, but NOT a planner. I call myself an organized free-spirit. HAHA! So this is just me showing you what works for us.
All of this is not to make you think we don’t occasionally have a month where we need to stop at the store for an extra gallon of milk or loaf of bread if we run out early. We’re not super strict and ridiculous about the whole thing. We just go with the flow.
I know there will be lots of questions, so feel free to leave those in the comments and I’ll be happy to answer them! I’m sure we all have different meals in our rotation, and opinions and organic/non-organic, GMOs, gluten intolerances or other food allergies in our families, so let’s not get to opinionated or defensive! Let’s start a light-hearted dialogue about what works and doesn’t work for us, and share different ideas for grocery shopping and meal planning! 🙂
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Hello hello friends! Things have been wild as we've been navigating the holiday season, schedules,…
This helps SO much!!! I’m not a planning type and my husband and I usually just have
– Chicken and rice
– Pizza
– Mac and cheese
So I’ve been in a grocery rut. This is a huge game changer!
This is amazing. Seriously. I need to start doing this..Thanks for sharing this post.
My family is 5 people: me, my husband, 15 year old son, 11 year old daughter, and my disabled mother. What do you do about snacks? I work full time and I am not home to police who eats what after the kids get off the school bus/my mom sit home all day and eats (too much really) Thanks!
my 15 year old son thinks that there is nothing to eat if you cant grab it out of a box or the freezer…i make pband J ahead of time for him and stick in the fridge..its all on what your family likes..i can spend $300 a month when my son is in school..during the summer its me my husband and my 2yr old and 15 yr old and he eats me out of house and home..so in the summer there are alot of snacking and the cost goes to about $450..yeah IKR..but he isnt your normal 15 yr old..he works out and he is huge..weighing 175 lbs of muscle and mouth..lol..his shoulders are soooooo wideand just bulk muscle..but yeah feeding that..lots of eggs and milk..
Hi Bethany, I love your article and I love how your fridge is so bare at the end of the shopping cycle. That made me laugh because I did the same thing after Christmas. I challenged myself to pantry/deep freezer eating only for 2 weeks and our fridge and freezer are now pretty empty. I found a can of “heart of palms”…try to make a meal out of that! It turned into a so-so dip! My next challenge is the monthly grocery shopping challenge. We’re about 60 miles from the nearest town and I used to do the trip 2-4 times a month. I’m so sick of it now that winter is in full “bloom” up here in the mountains. I’m dreaming of only revving up the car once a month now. I have to do some research on what I can freeze and what I can “can” with my water bath canner, I think a pressure canner would come in handy here. I have to remember toiletries and pet supplies too. It will be an adjustment because I’m the type who needs to have every meal planned or I get all weird inside…but life is about new challenges right? Thanks for the motivation!
You can do it! And it will make your life SO MUCH EASIER! There’s a small adjustment, but believe me… it’s just as hard to adjust back. This month we’re trying to eat less sugar, so my meal planning is all jacked up. So I decided to go grocery shopping twice this month instead of once… and it’s SO WEIRD AND CONFUSING! Like I forgot how to shop for just 2 weeks. 😉
I found your blog by looking for table refinishing ideas and found this article as well. Love the ideas!
Questions for you. What are homebakes, crunchy mac and chicken rolls? Also, can you freeze cheese?
Hi Ann! YES you can freeze cheese! I’ve never frozen blocks of cheese, but I freeze shredded cheese all the time! As for the meals you asked about… Chicken Rolls are chunks of chicken and shredded cheese rolled up in flattened Pillsbury Biscuits with cream of chicken soup dumped on and baked. It’s a cheater meal that I make on nights when I JUST CAN’T EVEN.
I shared the recipe for Crunchy Mac here: https://realitydaydream.com/cheesy-cruncheroni-casserole/
Nice! I’ll be making the Mac dish this week. I might try the Chicken Rolls but maybe with the crescent rolls, since I tend to like those better.
Thanks for the ideas!
So SMART! I’m going to try that. Thank you!!
So, I only skimmed this thus far and saw a few pics~you may already know, but just in case…If you you store sour cream, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc upside down, it will last way past expiration. I was blessed with this insight several years ago, and it is time-proven. Hope this can help a few people.
Thay’s GENIUS! I’ve never heard of that tip. Definitely going to give it a try. Thanks for sharing!!
Why is that? That sounds too good to be true, but I’m willing to try it!
Might be due to the air/gases not being able to escape as easily by rising out the weak spots in the lid
Love this post! Welcome to country living… deep freezers necessary! I love shopping at Aldi but would love to reduce my trips (also about 20 miles) to once a month! I had never thought about freezing milk! Will definitely try that! Do you have any tricks for keeping lettuce? We eat salad a lot and I buy it at least every other week!
Lettuce is one of those things I’m not sure what to do with. Luckily we don’t eat many salads… but we do like it on sandwiches and tacos. So we usually onlt have it for the first week or so, and then we’re SOL for the rest of the month. Let me know if you figure out a lettuce trick!!
One trick that keeps lettuce fresh longer is to take it out of the plastic store wrapper and put it in a Ziploc bag… I’ve had it last up to four weeks this way! Hope it works for you!
I wash and chop lettuce (romaine and iceberg), cabbage, radishes, and carrots. Then I put it all in a big plastic bowl with a tight fitting lid. I place 2 pieces of paper towel over the salad, cover with lid, and place in fridge. I replace the paper towel at least weekly. I’ve gotten salad mix to last a month by doing it this way.
I WISH we had a Costco. The nearest one is over an hour away. The savings might be worth it… especially if it was just a once-a-month trip, but the convenience factor wins out. Haha! If they opened a COstco or Sams Club nearby, I would love it!
I’ve never heard of Aldi, I’ll have to see if there is one in my state but I don’t think so. I just wondered if you had or ever go to Costco? It seems with you only shopping once a month (jealous) that Costco would be good for you. I just thought when you said like 4 backs frozen fruit I just thought they have great big bags of it. Also it’s very hard for me because it’s just me, my husband and my son and my husband is health nut and eats like the same thing every day/night and my son is super picky and kind of cooks his own thing so I feel like we are all eating separate things… 🙁
My mind is BLOWN! Lol. I have 9 & 5yr old boys & a 2yr old girl and I kid you not, we probably spend $200-$300 bi-weekly if not WEEKLY on groceries! Considering the fact that my family owns a bakery so all our baked goods are free and my husband hunts (mostly deer meat) & we tend to buy half a cow once a year or so (total farming family, ?) for steaks, ground beef etc, our grocery bills are still ridiculously high. Sigh, I’m definitely having grocery bill envy right about now.
Don’t feel bad Chandra! The simple fact that you have BOYS speaks volumes. 🙂 I grew up with 5 brothers and just remember the volume of food that was consumed at each meal. If you didn’t make it to the dinner table fast enough, there wouldn’t be anything left! LOL! Plus, there are tons of other variables that go into grocery costs… including geographic location and the types of meals that you cook. Don’t beat yourself up! 😉
I love the whiteboard idea. We have a little one that is magnetic that i keep directly on the fridge, and use that to keep track of what leftovers are inside or what produce needs to be used thisverysecond before it spoils. It helps cut down on what we have to toss out so much!
Yay I’m glad I’m not the only one that uses this strategy. I’m glad to hear it works for others too! 😉
I love the white board idea, too! There is a section in my planner (Simplified Planner if you’re curious) for your nightly dinner plan. I’m not too bad at the weekly planning but like you said, some nights you just don’t want whatever you planned for! I started writing my dinner plans on little post-its that I could move around my calendar so that I wasn’t constantly crossing it out and moving it. Works really well but I love the idea of using the white board to keep track of the options. Genius!
We don’t have formula figured into our $300 food budget… but we probably should. LOL! After all, it IS food for the little miss. We should probably reevaluate. 🙂
NO judgements for the struggling to plan meals in the midst of lesson plans… I’m the same way!
My mind was swimming with how you were getting groceries AND formula for that price haha! My goal for tomorrow is to go through and “plan” out meals with what we have. I discovered this morning I haven’t been to a grocery store other than Aldi and our local hometown foods for over a month…my bank account is even happier!
Yeah… since we can’t buy formula at Aldi, it just gets purchased with our household items at Target or Walmart, so that’s why. 🙂
Mmmmm… cowboy quesadillas is one of Nick’s favorites! I brown a half pound hamburger with a small diced onion. The drain the fat and add a half jar of spaghetti sauce and a tiny can of green chilis. I use this as filling for quesadillas… brushed with olive oil on the outsides and baked till golden brown. 🙂 Oh! And DON’T FORGET THE CHEESE! Shredded cheese (any kind!) between the filling and the tortilla on both sides to keep everything sticking together! 😉
You’re sooooo welcome! I think that it’ll make meal planning (or lack-thereof) so much easier! 😉
jumping on the ALDI love train….
Ours is currently being remodeled (long over due) and the selection is just horrible since they have no working freezers or any place to store anything. Can’t wait until they’re back in full swing! I often caution people though, just like the dollar store, just because you can find it there doesn’t make it “cheaper”. Soda 12 pks are often $4-6 at Aldi around here, where you can find them on sale at any major chain for $3-4 on a regular basis.
I do have one thing about their produce, I feel that it expires a little sooner than something I might get at the grocery store. It’s a good/bad thing….good in that it forces me to add more fruits/veggies to every meal to use them up, bad because I feel like I never have enough to get me through the week. It could very well just be when/what I’m purchasing…just something I’ve pondered often.
That makes total sense. We don’t ever buy soda, but I believe you! It’s always good to check prices! As for their produce, the only thing I’ve noticed is that the potatoes don’t last long. I have to make sure I use them in the first week or two!
Do you put your potatoes in the fridge? Since I have started doing that they last for a very long time. I also find with the fresh produce at our Aldi that it is very hit and miss. This winter it was really good but since summer came it has been horrible.
Hmmmm in the fridge huh?! I’m gonna give it a try!
potatoes keep best in a dark dry place. fridge is good, but put them in a paper bag to extend their length.
Ooo thanks for this tip Dana! That makes sense!
I LOVE Aldi too! I can get a FULL basket for about $50-$60 when I normally would have spent over $100 on the same basket full somewhere else! 🙂 I find they’re cheapest on canned fruits & veggies, and produce.
I have the SAME issue with the produce. . . for example, with fruit, I need to go ahead and wash and cut it that day or the next day. I find that it lasts longer if I spritz or rinse it with a white vinegar mix too… and that way I’m killing any germs at the same time! 😉
White vinegar… interesting! I’ll have to give that a try!!
Thank-you Bethany for such a great post! 🙂
Thanks Aliiii!
I tried posting a comment from my phone earlier, but my phone froze so hopefully this isn’t a duplicate. I shop at Aldi’s as well. Loving it more and more. I haven’t really explored their meats too much. The frozen chicken you buy, is it in the deep freezer section? Is it good or just ok? I normally purchase frozen chicken breast in a bag in a bag from our local big store chain and it’s $10.00 a bag. Used to be $5 a year ago. Need to find a good alterative.
Crystal, I’m glad you were able to comment this time! No duplicate comment. 🙂
I buy 5 lb bags of boneless skinless chicken breasts at Aldi. I don’t remember the exact price, but I know it’s cheaper than Walmart. I wish I could remember the price! I’m terrible!
There’s a big outbreak of an avian flu that’s taking out millions of domestic poultry. It doesn’t transmit to humans (as of now) but we will likely be feeling it in chicken prices for awhile yet 🙁
This looks awesome! I never know what to make for dinner. Great idea! What are cowboy quesadillas?
Oooh, I love the “list of meals we have ingredients for” list. Hubby and I, well, let’s just say that meal planning isn’t our strong suit (especially since baby arrived). I think that having a list of the things you have specifically purchased the ingredients for would be really helpful for us. Thanks for the info!
My goal when school starts is to have my meals planned out weekly….it’s amazing how I can lesson plan for 3 different classes but struggle to plan for a week of meals! Aldi is my new BFF! Do you purchase your formula with your $300 grocery budget?
I don’t know if I’ve ever commented on any blog before, but I just have to say that the white board list system just blew my mind and I am implementing it IMMEDIATELY. Best idea ever!
LOL! Well I feel so honored to be your first ever blog comment! Yes the white board is such a lifesaver. There have been a couple times that I didn’t bother with it after getting groceries… and I was SO LOST that month. 🙂
You totally should! The first couple months are hard because you’re getting a feeling of what things your family goes through faster than others. But it’s soooo worth it! And I think we save a lot of money this way too. 🙂
Great post and I wholeheartedly agree about Aldi’s. Have shopped there ever since the boys were little and they consistently keep their reputation because of all of the things you have mentioned here. Plus I have never found an Aldi’s employee that was not over the top pleasant. That matters in my book as well.
Pleasant employees matter soooo much to me too! I love that it has the feel of a small-ish family owned business. Everybody is just so friendly!
I figure out what works in the crockpot and place the ingredients in a freezer bag together and freeze it. Just pop it out of the freezer and dump in pot and leave it to cook. Works every time!
I love this… I need to do more crockpot/freezer meals.
I used to go to Aldi but haven’t been in awhile. I really need to go back there. I do a lot of our shopping at BJ’s and go weekly which is such a pain! When you mentioned before about going once/month I told my husband I SOOOO wish I could do that but trying to figure out how in the world I do that when my family goes through 3 gallons of milk/week O.o I am also not a dinner planner cause I never know what I’m hungry for but I cook a lot of the same meals so why not plan that way! Need to start a list and get me a board like yours!
I LOVE Aldi! I don’t think people realize that their food is just as good- if not better- than name brand stuff. I buy 80% of my groceries at Aldi. I’ll be at a chain grocery store sometimes and refuse to buy something because it’s waaaay cheaper at Aldi. They keep bringing in more and more items to keep up with big grocery stores.
I agree! And I love that they have more and more organic items and produce specifically. I was pretty intimidated to start shopping there at first… because of how they do things a little differently, but I’m so glad I got over that! 😉
This is ah-mazing. Seriously. I need to start doing this.
When you thaw your bread, does it get mushy?
My bread is so soft and fresh after being thawed. Not mushy at all. I’m not sure what the secret is!
I have a million questions I feel the same as you I just can’t plan meals like that and need to do something that works better and this may be it!!! What kind of sandwiches do you eat? Do you freeze cold cuts? Can you start posting recipes? Can you just clone yourself and have her come take care of our family?!!
Lol Kenz! I’m not sure about the cloning… but you’re super sweet.
For sandwich lunches, we have anything from lunchmeat to PBJ to grilled cheese. Anything goes! I don’t freeze lunch meat because it stays fresh for about 3 weeks, and that last week we just go without. 🙂
I’m a little nervous to be posting recipes (thought I’ve shared a few) because I’m most definitely no food blogger, and feel that I have a lot to learn in the kitchen myself. But if there seems to be lots of interest, I can start posting some of our fave recipes. 🙂