If you’re smart about it – a hell of a lot! We just got back from grocery shopping and in only two different stops wound up spending about $400. Shock to the wallet? Yeah, a little bit! After about an hour of meat processing and reflection (come on – we get a little excited about saving money. give us a break) we decided that people just need to see this.
So, how did we do? Here’s what we got (I don’t really think you’re ready for this):
- 3 lbs frozen cheese tortellini
- 5 lbs sliced american cheese
- 6 lbs frozen broccoli florets (no stems, bitches!!)
- 5 lbs breaded frozen chicken patties (because we have kids and need SOME sort of convenience foods)
- 3 lbs bacon
- 5 lbs pork sausage
- 10 lbs ground beef
- 20 lb pork butt
- 40 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (that is not a typo)
- 60 ct frozen waffles
- 2.5 lbs Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal
- 2.5 lbs Rice Krispies
- 1 lb Honey Smacks
- 1.5 lbs Crunchy Raisin Bran
- 2.5 lbs marshmallows
- 5 lbs pasta shells
- 5 lbs rainbow rotini
- 6 lbs pineapple tidbits
- 6 lbs canned corn
- 6 lbs diced tomatoes
- 6 lbs sliced pears
- 6 lbs tomato sauce
- 12 lbs mandarin oranges
- 24 pkg sandwich buns
- 20 ct 6″ flour tortillas
- 1/2 gal Sweet Chili sauce
- 24oz Frank’s Red Hot
- 24oz Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 pack of Club crackers
- Deli foil sheets (I don’t even know how many)
- 250 ct quart freezer bags
But, wait, there’s more!
- 2 gal milk
- Big Hershey Chocolate Caramel coffee creamer
- Sour cream (the big one)
- 3 packs 6-ct big/flaky refrigerated crescent rolls
- 7 cans Progresso soup
- 5 4-ct yogurts
- 5 ct frozen bread dough (5 loaves)
- 3 lbs butter
- 3 lbs yellow cake mix
- 30 gallons worth of drink mix
- 10 lbs sugar
- 6 spiral mac&cheese
- Family size Velveeta Shells & Cheese (Dylan’s request)
- 2 jars mushrooms
- 24oz Ranch dressing
- 2 6-ct plain bagels
- 2 4-ct pita pockets
- Apricot-Pineapple Preserves
- 2 Past-a-Roni white shells
- 2 Lemon Pepper Chicken Helper
- Almond Extract
- 24 ct Powerades
- Random Goya Mango nectar
- …and a frozen sweet potato pie
I’m exhausted now (and Bryan’s hands are frozen). And I’m really looking forward to only making minimal trips to the grocery store for the next couple of months. Because, yes, we do eat fresh fruit and vegetables, too. Now it’s on to a weekend of baking, cooking and reorganize to get ready for the week.
Wow, I am really impressed. I recently (much to my horror) walked out of wally-world with 5 or 6 bags of groceries for almost $200. NOT GOOD! I would love to know how you got all of this for that price.
That’s what happens to us every time we’re in the main chain grocery store! This time around it was a combination of GFS and Walmart for us. Now, I really, really don’t like Walmart. But we’re trying to feed anywhere from 5-7 people on a regular basis – the prices are just too good there. We can’t avoid it. We’re also lucky enough to have an extra full-size freezer in our basement so we can buy in bulk without issue. It takes a little extra time, and a whole lot of freezer bags, but we split all our quantities up and buy about 6-8 weeks worth of staples in one shot. When we buy the restaurant size cans at GFS I take what I need at the moment and break the rest up in freezer bags (usually about 6 portions).
Thanks for the tips! I have two growing boys and need to get my spending in check. Have a great day!