The $25 haul

For those who know me relatively well, you know I am a thrifty person. If it's not a necessity or it's not on sale, chances are I'm not buying it! Currently our household is in a really strict budgetary situation - we're planning a move in a few weeks, the hubby is part of a start-up which means sometimes there are no paychecks, and currently those two things are coinciding. So now our spending on groceries has come to a DRAMATIC halt. Thankfully, I've seen this done before!

Cue the blog Poor Girl Eats Well and her $25 shopping cart. I used to study these late at night when I was first out of college (not that we were quite there yet, but learning how to be thrifty was important to me). She will eat for a week on $25. Now, our situation is not quite this dire and I certainly don't want to lead anyone to think that it is (especially since I know my mom reads this blog. Hi mom!) - not only am I thrifty, but I am a bit of a pack-rat when it comes to food. We currently have a deep-freeze filled with frozen proteins, veggies, and quick meals (thank you Trader Joe's). Our shopping needs primarily fill the need for fresh fruits/veggies and snacking sides for our lunches.

So without further ado, here is my very first-ever $25 shopping cart. It took a pretty good amount of research to find out what sales were happening at which stores, but I think I got a pretty good amount of food!

I will preface this by saying that a good amount of this food is meant for my husband to eat - because he works from home a lot of the time, he needs foods that tend toward the convenient side of things. So the pizza rolls, ramen, queso burrito, goldfish, corn nuts and cereal are actually for him. The Cheetos are 100% mine - they are my guilty pleasure on my quest for healthier eating. I am totally okay with this choice ;)

The cans of veggies were $.25 at Albertson's, the brownies were for a potluck ($.75), bananas were $1, apples and oranges were 3/$1, eggs were on sale for $1.99 and the tuna pack was $1. There are a few simple-meal items in here like spaghetti  and a can of red sauce (we have meatballs in the freezer), and macaroni and cheese for the nights I have class and the hubs needs an easy meal. The only item not pictured is a 12-pack of seltzer water. 

If I plan things correctly, we should go through most of this food this week (we're already 2/3 of the way through the eggs! We eat a lot of eggs....) I can keep up my weekly quest for cheap eating, and the goal is that by the time we move we will have gone through most of our freezer stash! I wondered why I don't shop this way more often, and the answer is.....it's really time consuming and I am not buying the quality of food that I would prefer (the eggs aren't cage free and I am REALLY unhappy about that). But for now, this will do just fine and it's what we need to save for our move!