Feed your family Cheap Week 1 FREE Shopping list and Ideas for saving additional

I shopped at Food Lion and Kroger.  For convenience I rounded prices ending in .99 up to the next dollar.  

5 lbs chicken breast                                                                                                                         10.00

Rice32 ounces                                                                                                                                   1.28

Baguette Loaf for garlic bread and subs                                                                                                 (2)3.00

Lunch meat for subs                                                                                                                       4.69

Lettuce – 2 heads..one now, one later in week                                                                                  2.00 (99cents each bought one now)

Tomato – for salads, salsa and subs                                                                                         2.13

Cucumber                                                                                                                                           .50

Bread                                                                                                                                                      1.50

Tortilla shells                                                                                                                                      1.75

Bag of potatoes                                                                                                                                 3.00

Turkey or veg burgers                                                                                                                    5.00

Burger buns                                                                                                                                       1.00

Mayo  (I have this but it’s 1.75)

Corn on cob                                                                                                                                        2.00 for 5 ears

Ham steak                                                                                                                                           3.50

Broccoli                                                                                                                                                 1.59

Carrots                                                                                                                                                                 .99

Green beans                                                                                                                                      1.00

Tomato sauce                                                                                                                                    .75

Tomato paste                                                                                                                                    .75

Diced tomatoes                                                                                                                                1.25

Onion 2 large onions                                                                                                                       1.31

Pineapple                                                                                                                                            3.00

Rice crispies                                                                                                                                        2.50

Bag of marshmellows                                                                                                                       .75

Box of brownie mix                                                                                                                         1.38

Eggs                                                                                                                                                       1.59

Strawberries                                                                                                                                      2.00

Bananas                                                                                                                                               1.40  seven bananas

Frozen fruit for smoothies                                                                                                          4.00

Pancake mix (I don’t make these from scratch but you could if you wanted)        2.00

Ice cream                                                                                                                                             2.00

Milk                                                                                                                                                       1.60

   Total 70.22

Leftovers at end of week:

This is week 1 and I will have some leftover rice and some leftover chicken plus leftover tortilla shells for next week.

Pantry items:

 I currently have butter for the corn, peanut butter and mayo plus Italian spices for the spaghetti sauce. I also have half of a bag of shredded mozzarella cheese for make your own pizza lunches.   I also have a bottle of salad dressing that I paid $1 for in the pantry that we will use for salads.   If you have not purchased the pantry items, you will need to pick those up this week.   

Leftovers:

Once I make Hawaiian chicken, the leftover pineapple is free for snacking.  

Depending on the night, I cook for 2 teenaged boys and one small girl, or one teenaged boy and one small girl (plus hubby and myself).   We are not milk drinkers, so I buy a small container of milk for cereal. 

Hints:

I cube or slice all my chicken because I found that there is less waste and the chicken cooks faster.

What could I have done to make it cheaper?  Ragu spaghetti sauce was on sale for. 1.57 this week, which is cheaper than homemade.  I prefer homemade because I don’t add sugar and Ragu does.  I could have substituted subs for blt’s.  Bacon was cheaper than sub meat and could be served on our cheaper loaf bread.   Hamburgers here are pretty expensive.  I could change this meal out for a cheaper meal, but we prefer the variety even if it is a little more expensive.    Instead of buying an entire pineapple for $3.00 I could have bought a can of pineapple for 1.00, but there is salt added to canned pineapple and we prefer fresh.    Finally, smoothies are expensive.  If I cut those out and replace them with other options, we could save about $2.00 more.   A container of oatmeal cost about 1.50 and lasts for weeks.

Not cheap enough?  Check out my extremely low budget here  Emergency Low Food Budget

Or go back to the original list here Feed Your Family on $70