**This month I am challenging myself to shop primarily at Aldi, in order to see if it can help reign in my ever-expanding monthly grocery budget. The rules are that I can only spend $300 at Aldi for the month of July and $50 at other stores (Aldi does not carry everything I need, so allowances have to be made!)
Baby carrots $.99
Hot sauce $.85
Bag of plums $1.98 (great price)
Cabbage $1.29
Shredded cheese $1.99
Grape juice $2.39
Crystal lite $1.65
Celery $1.29
Chicken breasts $1.79/lb
Cilantro $.79
Smoked sausage $2.29
Sour cream $.99
Sandwich meat $2.49
Tortilla chips $.89 (good price)
Whipping cream $1.69
Block cheese $1.69
Low carb bread $1.79
Almond milk $1.89 (good price)
Milk $1.18 (good price)
Romaine lettuce $1.99
Chocolate chips $1.69 (good price)
Meat Tenderizer $.99
Total spent at Aldi: $62 (so that’s $193 spent this month and $107 left)
**I forgot to take pictures but I bought 2 bags of Gluten-free chicken nuggets at Walmart for $10. Earlier in the week, I bought smoked sausage, diet cokes, and a block of cheese at the Dollar General for $10 also.
Total spent at other stores: $20 ($59 for the month…yikes I am already over by $9!!)
Here are some meals that we had this week:
Mozzarella meatloaf, broccoli and cheese, and buttered steamed carrots
Burritos
Hamburgers and zucchini fries
Grilled chicken salads
Grilled smoked sausage, grilled chicken tenders, and riced cauliflower
**Thoughts on the challenge:
So far, I think that shopping primarily at Aldi is a low fuss means to lower my monthly grocery budget. I am still averaging around $80 per week for the month on groceries, so that is still $40 less per week than I have been spending in previous months. **It is a little annoying to limit my spending at other grocery stores to $50 for the month, because apparently we are pickier than I thought:)
The Thrifty Educator 
You may find that you need to use more at other stores, and less at Aldi. Or not. It will be interesting to see. I love to put challenges in front of myself just to see how I do or not do. I’ve put one out there for the next few weeks for myself, but want to see if it’s do-able before I go public with it:). For me, it’s just trying this and that to see what will work. I lowered my grocery money a few more dollars per week, but I’m not sure if I went too far. Time will tell, but so far, so good.
I know there are those out there in this world who can lower their budget to unbelievably low amounts–but my goal is to see how much I can lower it while still maintaining a level of comfort that we can live with around here. That’s different for many families, I think. When you add special needs kids who will only eat a few foods, and a gluten-free lifestyle, I’ve noticed that we use more grocery money that some others do. I’ve also noticed that our “large” budget is much lower than some people’s “reduced” budget.
One thing that keeps ours down is all the produce at this time of year that is available to me for free or very cheap–garden, my sister, my mom, etc. So, I usually try to have a lower-spend month or two this time of year.
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I am finding not everything is cheaper at Aldi, but most things are at least equivalent to the sale pricing of other stores. I think shopping at multiple stores is the cheapest way to shop…I just hate going into more than one store!
I have realized that we can never have a super low food budget either, because we like to eat low carb and that is not cheap, so we minimize our food costs by eating at home.
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