My 2-Week Grocery Budget Savings Breakdown -

How’s your grocery budget looking? I’ve finally mastered the art of shopping for groceries every 2 weeks, so I’m sharing my latest shopping trip and my 2-week grocery budget savings breakdown!

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Since I’ve been budgeting seriously over the last 2 years, I tried shopping just once every 2 weeks a couple of times in the past, but honestly, I just wasn’t very good at it back then.

It always started out well, and I’d have my grocery list budgeted down to the penny in order to use the whole amount I’d earmarked for groceries.

But somehow it seemed like I always forgot some important things, and I’d have to go back to the store anyway. Which would end up costing us more since I’d already spent the allotted amount.

But I’ve finally gotten the hang of it! So I’m breaking down my latest shopping trip so I can highlight the ways that it’s working.

I made stops at 3 stores, and I’m sharing the reasons why I go to each place, plus the breakdown of savings at each store.

So c’mon, let’s dive into this grocery budget savings breakdown!

Sam’s Club

We shop at Sam’s quite often, but we don’t always get a lot. One thing we always buy there is canned chicken breast. Once in a while, I use it to make something for supper, but 95% of the time we’re buying for our pug!

Our Squishy Pug will be 16 years old in a few weeks, and my husband and I truly believe she wouldn’t still be here if we weren’t feeding her homemade food. She had issues with bloating, skin irritation, and bad allergies, and now all of that has cleared up.

Using my recipe for her food, she goes through 3 12.5-ounce cans of chicken every 5 or 6 days, so getting 6-packs of canned chicken breast at Sam’s is our best value.

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I also got buns to make baked ham and Swiss sandwiches, and Sam’s carries a 12-pack of larger size Hawaiian buns for under $3. That’s a great deal!

I picked up some bottles of esomeprazole at Sam’s too. It was my first time buying it there, and it’s an amazing value!

My doctor prescribed me 40mg per day, but since you can buy this medicine over the counter in 20mg pills, my insurance refused to cover the 40mg capsules. So I have to buy double the amount of pills since the doctor wanted my dosage twice as strong.

Each bottle contains 14 capsules, and at Walmart, it costs $12 for a 2-bottle pack. But at Sam’s, it was $13 for a 3-bottle pack! Suffice to say, I’m getting them at Sam’s from now on.

Total spent: $46.12

Aldi

I love Aldi. Everything flies off the shelves on the weekends though, but the best time I’ve found to go is on Sunday afternoons. Everyone’s made their mad dash on Saturday to stock up for another week, so the stores have to restock, and then on Sunday afternoons, the shelves are full again.

That’s my theory at least. Lol. Hey, it makes sense.

The downside to Aldi is that it’s pretty cramped. But, like I was saying, the crowds seem to have thinned out some on Sundays.

I like to get fruit at Aldi because, honestly, that’s the only way we can afford it. I’m not a big fan of their vegetable selection because, at least in this area, their veg always looks really sad and sometimes even smells. But the fruit has always been great quality.

Here are some of my favorite values:

A 2 lb. bag of frozen seasoned French fries for $1.75
2 lbs. of frozen tater tots for $1.65
1 gallon of 2% milk for $2.60
A dozen large eggs for 78 cents
Sandwich bread for 85 cents
Canned veg for 49 cents each

Aldi has amazing prices, but they don’t have everything we need. We never know what special items they might have in stock though (like Old Spice deodorant this time), so we make sure to make it our first stop so we can fill in the gaps at Walmart afterward.

Total spent: $58.34

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Walmart Neighborhood Market

The Wally is my go-to, not gonna lie. They have nearly everything we need, and Aldi just isn’t in the most convenient location for us, unfortunately. So if we’re crunched for time or just don’t have the energy, we’ll just get everything at Walmart.

But even when we do go to Aldi, there are some things they just don’t have, or some things we do pass up and get at Walmart instead.

I’ve gotten toilet paper and paper towels at Aldi before, and they’re pretty good, I’d definitely buy them again. But since then I’ve found that Scott toilet paper lasts longer for us, and it’s the same price at Walmart as the Aldi brand.

We get Sparkle brand paper towels which are also the same price as Aldi’s counterpart, and I just like Sparkle better.

Going back to the Squishy Pug and her homemade diet, we need a pound of brown rice for each batch of food I make for her, and our Aldi doesn’t carry any. I’ve only seen basmati or jasmine rice, and that won’t work for the puggy.

Here are some of the pricer items we bought this shopping trip, but things that will last a while:

Disinfectant wipes at $2.98
Resolve Pet Stain spray at $4.94
Flour tortillas at $3.58
Red potatoes at $4.47
Hungry Jack syrup at $2.84
Doritos at $2.50

The flour tortillas surprised me. Especially because I also got corn tortillas and they were only $1.78. We don’t buy them often though, but even so, it was worth it because I used them to make 20 breakfasts!

The red potatoes were called for in a couple of recipes, but I think now that both recipes would be just as good using cheaper russet potatoes.

There’s a local brand of syrup that I like better and is better-priced, but we have a small microwave and the Hungry Jack brand was the only container short enough to fit in our microwave.

I used to try refilling the container, but it’s so hard not to make a big, sticky mess. And truth be told, I think it’s best to get a new container after so many times of zapping the same plastic bottle in the microwave over and over.

And the Doritos. We got nacho cheese Doritos for a specific recipe, and they really do just taste better for that meal. Any other time, just to have chips with sandwiches, etc., I would totally go with either Aldi’s brand or Great Value.

One of my best values at Walmart is Ajax liquid dish soap. When I started budgeting 2 years ago, it took a short time to get used to anything but Dawn, but now I wouldn’t go back. It works just as well and is only $1.87 for 28 ounces. I only have to buy it 4-5 times a year.

I ended up passing by Aldi’s $2.00 8-ounce cheddar blocks. I needed 16 ounces, and Walmart sells a 16-ounce block, which Aldi doesn’t. So I saved 50 cents by getting the bigger block at Walmart.

Total spent: $81.92

Total spent for 2 weeks’ worth of groceries and household items: $186.38

Small additional costs

To make this grocery budget savings breakdown comprehensive, we do have a few small side expenses throughout the 2-week period. It’s usually just an extra bunch of bananas plus a sweet potato to make more food for the Happy Golden Pug. That would add around $2.50 which would bring the total for 2 weeks to $188.88.

And that averages out to $94.44 per week.

IMPORTANT NOTE: All these totals include sales tax! We live on a strict budget, so sales tax has to be included in the total that we’re prepared to spend.

2 weeks’ worth of savings

Before I started doing 2 weeks’ worth of groceries and household items at a time, we were spending up to $120 per week. That means I’m saving $25 more PER WEEK.

That’s $100 of savings per month, just by shopping for 2 weeks at a time!

Bonus savings!

I’m a big believer in savings apps. Find out how to make money with my favorite savings apps here!

I’ve found 3 apps that are most beneficial to me lately, but my top favs are always changing so it’s good to keep your eye on several of them to find out which ones work best for you.

This post may contain affiliate links. Anything I earn helps maintain this site at no added cost to you. I’m grateful for your support!

Here are the ones I tend to get the most out of, and the rebates I earned from this shopping trip:

points earned: 700 points (625 of these were at Aldi!)
Checkout 51: 1 entry for a chance to win $500
Ibotta: $3.70 ($3.50 of this was from purchases at Walmart)

Obviously, Ibotta usually works the best for me. I used to get a lot of money back with Checkout 51, but right now, it’s Ibotta. I earn points from Fetch Rewards also, but it takes me a while to earn enough to cash in the points since we have a small family.

Shopkick is another app I like, but since I buy very few name brands, it’s not the best fit for me. However, it is great for turning on your Bluetooth and collecting points that way. (I never remember to do that!)

All in all, I hope you’ve enjoyed my 2-week grocery budget savings breakdown! I wasn’t sure I could pull it off since I’d failed more than once before, but I realized the key is in having a meal plan!

Wanna see how I created this specific shopping list on a budget? Check out my 2-week meal plan of frugal breakfasts, lunches, and suppers that I used to build this shopping list here!

Free 5-Day Surefire Money Makeover Challenge

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My 2-Week Grocery Budget Savings Breakdown

Sam’s Club

Aldi

Walmart Neighborhood Market