Recently, my husband and I have been eating a lot more meat in our meals, which, not surprisingly, means that our grocery bills have increased in cost. For the past several weeks, the bottom line on our grocery receipts has been a good $15 – 25 over-budget. Instead of just accepting this new higher cost, we’ve gotten creative with our meal planning and shopping habits. But, before I discuss our recent money-saving tactics, here’s what was in this week’s cart:
- Bananas (NuVal score: 91)
- Eggs (NuVal score: 33)
- Rib eye steak (NuVal score: 30)
- Tomatoes (NuVal score: 93)
- Broccoli (NuVal score: 100)
- Red Bell Pepper (NuVal score: 96)
- Raspberries (NuVal score: 100)
- Tribe Roasted Garlic Hummus (NuVal score: 44)
- Nature’s Path Homestyle Frozen Waffles (NuVal score: 23)
- Onion (NuVal score: 93)
- Carrots (NuVal score: 99)
- Teddie Super Chunky Peanut Butter (NuVal score: 38)
- Cheddar Potato Popchips (NuVal score: 12)
- Mango (NuVal score: 93)
- 93% Lean Ground Beef (NuVal score: 30)
- Brussels sprouts (NuVal score: 94)
- Wallaby Organic Yogurt
- Sweet potatoes (NuVal score: 96)
- Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup (NuVal score: 24)
- Arugula (NuVal score: 82)
Trade
Sadly, I didn’t have any great trade-ups this week, but I had a trade-down, which I think is an interesting one to note since it’s an easy mistake to make, especially when you’re trying to get in and out of the grocery store.
In the past, I’ve purchased Nature’s Path Flax Plus Organic Waffles, which score a 38 on the NuVal scale– one the highest scoring waffles we’ve scored so far! I guess I wasn’t paying attention to my purchases at the grocery store because I bought Nature’s Path Homestyle Frozen Waffles, which only score a 23. Oops! Lesson learned!
Save
My “trades” weren’t all that impressive this week, but my “saves” were!
I organized my coupons and used a bunch of them to save almost $12 off our shopping this week!
I meal planned and included a crockpot recipe, which is almost always a cost-effective meal idea with lots of leftovers.
I took advantage of in-store sales and stocked up on our favorite products that I know we’ll eat. The Wallaby Greek yogurts were $1 each. I just had to stock up on them!
And, the best part about all of these saves: we came in right on budget. The first time in weeks! Hooray!
For more money-saving grocery shopping tips, check out this post. Happy shopping!
Developed by an independent panel of nutrition and medical experts, the 
The Husband and I have made the decision to up the grocery budget to $350 starting next month (previously at $300). He’s a meat eater and I’m a vegetarian, but I’ve been eating eggs, which means we can go through a lot of them and that has actually been driving up our bill – not to mention prices of food have just been going up!
I LOVE sunbutter. However, I have a pretty bad peanut butter problem, too.
None of the stores in my area sell barney Butter so I’d love to try it!
my favorite nut butter IS almond butter. I just love the smooth taste of it and it makes me feel good to eat real good food.
[...] week, I mentioned how difficult it has been for my husband and me to stick to our grocery budget because of the amount of meat we now consume in our diet. Man, meat is expensive! We love buying [...]