Can you guys believe it's already been ONE MONTH since we started this budget adventure?!
I can't.
It went by so fast. And to be honest, a lot of that I (firmly) believe is because this has been kind of...
FUN.
Wait, what?! Planning, prepping, and budgeting is fun? Maybe it's just me, but I really enjoyed this first month on this budget. I liked feeling super prepared and walking into the store with a PLAN.
I even downloaded the Walmart & Walmart grocery apps and did you know they have a store MAP? #helpful
We even had to buy laundry detergent this month, which by the way, THIS is my favorite detergent for my ultra sensitive skin without breaking the bank.
When we ran out of laundry detergent, not going to lie, I slightly panicked. I immediately thought, "okay.. our first REAL consumable (*note consumables come out of your grocery budget) how am I going to budget this in?!"
But, we did it! I just made sure to add it first to my Walmart Grocery cart online then worked from there.
ANYWAY.
This month we strictly shopped at Walmart stores. AKA either the Walmart store or the Neighborhood Market Walmart in our area.
Which did we like more?
Not 100% sure. We did find the ease and emptiness of the Neighborhood Market to be a major plus, however the amount of options at the regular Walmart was really nice as well.
So I suppose it didn't really matter that much in the end where we shopped as long as it was any Walmart.
Alright, so great, now you know where we shopped, but what did we shop for?
So glad you asked!
I decided to put together my (well our) favorite meals from this month.
Not only are they delicious, but they were really cheap because we had a lot of the ingredients already!
If I can add a link to the direct recipe, I will. If I can't, the recipe will be written for you below :) And I'll add the total price for the recipe including ALL ingredients, aside from pantry staples like salt and pepper, olive oil, peanut butter etc.
Let's get started!
This recipe was SO easy and SO delicious. We opted to use a BBQ Sauce we had on hand instead of making our own. We bought 2 bags of shredded carrots to save time, but you could definitely save even more money and buy carrots and shred them yourself :) The original recipe calls for 1 red onion, so I put 1 bag of carrots and 1/2 of an onion on individual baking sheets and followed the recipe as written. We already had some freezer bread (yay for stocking up!), and topped the sandwiches with pickles (not in the original recipe, but we had on hand) and shredded cabbage.
You HAVE to try this recipe. Trust me.
Recipe cost: $12.85
(included pickles which are NOT in the recipe)
This recipe was THE BEST addition to our meal planning. I'll be totally honest, it isn't the HEALTHIEST thing in the world, but add a salad or sneak some veggies in with your meat and you'll feel a little less guilty ;) I used these noodles, this sauce, ground turkey, and ricotta instead of cottage cheese. It makes SO much food, we were able to get a dinner, lunch, and an additional dinner out of this meal. Talk about getting your money's worth! I prepped this meal at least 4-5 days ahead of time and had it on hand for whenever life got slightly busy :)
You won't be disappointed with this recipe.
Recipe cost: $18.44
(The total does not include eggs because egg prices vary greatly, depending on what your preference is)
3. Brinner aka Breakfast for Dinner
Alright, so technically there isn't a specific recipe for this. It's whatever you want it to be or have on hand! But the times we made breakfast for dinner we made french toast, eggs, protein pancakes, or açaà bowls. So this price will vary a lot. HOWEVER, I'd recommend making french toast and eggs! More than likely you have bread on hand (make sure to budget in an extra loaf or two to keep in the freezer!) and eggs! French toast is super easy and can be elevated with simple ingredients like cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, pumpkin spice seasonings, then topping it with bananas/fruit, pecans/nuts, agave/maple syrup. Or one of my favorite tricks, heating up some frozen blueberries or raspberries in the microwave/stove and making your own no sugar added fruit syrup!
Recipe Cost: Under $10
(depends on bread and egg choice and any toppings you may want to add)
I LOVED the simplicity of this recipe - toss it in the crockpot in the afternoon and have dinner (and lunch and dinner again!) ready without even trying. It is absolutely delicious. The recipe says it'll take about 6 hours on High, however my crockpot must get extra hot because it only took about 4! I used these beans, these sausages (I used 2 packs!), and had rice on hand already so that was awesome! I'll include cost of rice in the recipe cost just for reference.
Recipe Cost: $15.49
5. Vegan Pecan Apple Chickpea Salad Wraps (or Salads!)
When I made this recipe, I had to modify some things...because I wanted to save even more money! ;) And even after I modified things, it easily became one of my favorites. It's so easy.. seriously guys. So. Freaking. Easy. Here's what I did to modify the recipe to suit ingredients in my pantry.
- Peanut butter in place of tahini
- Pepitas (pumpkin seeds) in place of pecans *I only used these because I had these on hand, however pecans are cheaper so if purchasing ingredients I'd go for the pecans to save on cost :)
- Dried cranberries in place of dried cherries
- Gala apples in place of Honeycrisp (because saving more money!)
- Flat Out Wraps in place of Spinach Tortillas (because that's all the store had)
- Kale in place of spinach (because again, this is what I had in my fridge and I prefer kale any day)
For the rest of the ingredients, I purchased whatever I didn't have on hand already :) But for everything (using my substitutions above):
Recipe Cost: $19.54
Okay guys, if you noticed, everything was UNDER $20 and ALL of the recipes make more than one serving.
The recipes all made plenty for me and Zach. And we had leftovers. If we saw a recipe and felt we needed to double it, we did.
But, let's say we didn't double any of the recipes, the total grocery cost is:
$76.32
Let that sink in.. just for a minute. And you still have plenty of money left over to buy EXTRA items. This is the time to stock up on things you need or might want to have in the future, like extra meat, bread, pasta, sauce, frozen veggies, fruit, veggie broth, or purchase some bulk items, etc.
When you plan properly, you leave plenty of wiggle room.
Welp, that's it! I really hope this helped convince you that it totally can be done if you've been on the fence about this budget working!) Trust me, the extra money makes the planning, preparation, and work so worth it.
Happy shopping!!
P.S. Missed out on the free printables? No worries, I gotchu! Get them at this post here!