The "goal" here is to spend one hundred dollars or less on a weekly/biweekly food budget. If you live in today's economy then you know how nearly impossible this is to achieve. Read along to find out if that happens this week!
By Jasmine Smith Published: March 1, 2023
Hey, 90's babies. Are you doing okay? Specifically, mid-90s babies... more specifically, people who are experiencing their first round of inflation WHILE now having to pay bills. Yes, I'm asking you. You good?
If you said yes...
It's no secret that the price of everything under the sun is steadily increasing. This wouldn't be a problem if wages were steadily increasing, but we should all know how this works by now. Gas prices, food prices, and plane tickets have been fluctuating severely over the past few years. Plus, it's super easy to fall into a pattern of going grocery shopping and then not feeling like cooking or not knowing what to make with the ingredients you bought. Then you spend the week going out to eat, and/or Doordashing, and the next thing you know you've spent the same amount you did on groceries. However, the groceries have since passed away in your beloved refrigerator. What a shame.
It's a terrible way to get stuck in a cycle of spending money that you don't need to spend. One day I decided to finely comb over three months of bank statements to see how much I spent on groceries and Doordash. Let's just say I wanted to faint, scream and cry. The takeaway, however, was that I absolutely needed to make a change. Thus, the $100 Grocery List was born.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with trying to spend only $100 a week on groceries, but I figured that since I'm going to commit to these weekly challenges I may as well document it along the way. So stay tuned, and keep reading to find out where I got my groceries, how much I spent & what recipes I plan to make from my ingredients.
The Recipes
IMPORTANT NOTE: The key to success here is to already have some staple items in your pantry and fridge. This way when you do your weekly shopping you are more so just restocking, and this can help you spend less & save more. This means you might have to start out with one big grocery haul before you can graduate to a $100 list!
Really quick, I would like to point out that I used to put celery in my tuna (even though I hated it) because that's just what the ancestors said was right. Then one day, my good friend Daisha was raving about her tuna recipe. So much so, I wanted to try it! Now when she gave me the recipe and I saw she used cucumber instead of celery at first I was like hmm... she was also pregnant at the time so I assumed it was a pregnancy craving. I tried it, and y'all...
I'm never looking back!!! It's soooo tasty & refreshing. The cucumber still adds the crunch the celery would, only it does not taste like battery acid (if you couldn't tell, I do not like celery). Please try it because I am obsessed. If you hate it, you're the problem. And it turns out it wasn't even a pregnancy craving, it was a typo LOL. Shoutout to you Daish. 💕
Make sure you save these templates for future reference! You can also switch out any of the ingredients to perfect these recipes to your own liking. Comment down below which recipes you'd like to see in my next article!
The Grocery Stores
Joe Randazzo's Fruit & Vegetable Market
Listen, my mans Joe is definitely for the people. Joe cares. Joe wants us to eat quality foods at extremely affordable prices. (Now, if only the other Joe felt that way about these food prices and student loans. I mean, WHY do you have to spend a check on eggs now...). It's important to note that fresh fruit/veggie markets are going to be the key to staying below $100 for your spending. Everyone isn't going to have a Randazzo's, but the good news is you should be able to find a market in your area that caters to the same items for the same prices.
The four tomatoes I got from this haul came out to $1.50, whilst those very same tomatoes are $3.19 at your major retail stores like Target and Kroger. Now, don't get ya girl wrong, I am the first and the last to be caught grocery shopping at Target. The key is to only need select items from those stores though. If you stick with me, you'll see how to navigate the waters. I have one or two cheat codes for y'all. All of my fruits and vegetables listed in the very first picture above were purchased for a whopping $25. That's only a quarter of the budget, with half of the list down. Woo!
Trader Joe's
I'm starting to notice a theme here. Men named Joe working in the food industry just seem to care. I love shopping at Trader Joe's for multiple reasons, I could go on & on forevz. This one is tricky though because one false move and you have now spent $263 in 30 minutes. You walk out of the store in a daze, confused by what you've done but you're also thrilled. You try to feel ashamed but you don't. Not really, anyway. It's because you know you're going home with the goods. So please, PLEASE... approach with caution. You are required to make a list and stick with it when you go in here. They honestly need a warning sign on the door!
Trader Joe's has quality items I can trust. It may seem like spending $100 a week on food is a lot, but ask yourself how much you're spending on takeout if your money isn't going toward groceries. Better yet, ask yourself how much you're spending on food if you are grocery shopping and ordering takeout on a weekly basis. So I decided I don't mind spending more on my groceries if it means I am purchasing quality goods that I can have faith in. Plus, they have normal-sized chicken, and y'all know how black people feel about chicken that's too big. The challenge now? Actually using the ingredients and making the food once I get home. Don't get me wrong, I love cooking but I don't particularly feel like doing it every day.
Since I am purchasing all the fruits and vegetables from the market this opens up more money in the budget to buy the things I don't necessarily need, but absolutely want. Take the photos pictured above for example. Wine & flowers always just seem to make their way into my shopping cart. I didn't choose this life, it chose me. Luckily for us, a bouquet of roses costs $9.99 and Trader Joe's has a $3 wine section if you aren't trying to spend too much on miscellaneous items.
The other key to spending $100 or less on your weekly groceries is to plan what meals you will be eating. I used to be the type of grocery shopper who would just buy everything I felt I needed, no list, just vibes. Then I would get home and realize that nothing made sense as a cohesive meal. This can especially happen if you choose a store like Trader Joe's. They have so many specialty items that if you don't go in with a plan you will end up eating a medley of butter chicken, three-layer hummus dip, apple pie blossoms, & hashbrowns for dinner.
If you pre-plan what you want for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that week you will have everything you need AND an actual plan to execute! Half the battle is done, now you just need to make your meals. And don't fret if you're the type of person who likes to switch up your meals after a day or two. Based on the ingredients you purchase it is very likely you'll be able to use several other meal ideas for the items you bought!
Enough chit-chat, the rest of the grocery list & what I spent can be found here:
1 bag of frozen chicken wings $9.99
Uncured Turkey Bacon $3.99
Natural Ground Turkey meat (2) $4.69 per pack
Solid White Albacore Tuna (4) $1.99/5 oz.
*1 bag of frozen grilled chicken strips $8.98
1 dozen of eggs (brown) $3.99
Chicken stock $1.99
Vegan mayo $4.99 (it was really good, but I won't be buying $5 mayo again... LOL)
*Sweet relish $2.69
Cranberry juice $3.39
*Orange juice (large) $6.79
Fruit frenzy bars $2.99
*Rice cakes (apple cinnamon, caramel) $3.39 per pack
Roses $9.99
*If there is an asterisk next to an item that means I had to grab it from Target.
In total, I spent a whopping $105.52 on my first attempt to only spend $100. Not too bad. I would have made it too if it wouldn't have been for the meddling flowers that made their way into my shopping cart! Now, this list may look different for you and your family. You may not live in a single-person household, and I understand that. Your budget may have to change based on how many mouths you are feeding, but the structure will always remain the same: weekly menu planning + grocery lists + food prep = happy health & happy pockets!
Let's see if we can keep this going! Comment down below what recipes you want me to try next week, or any food-based articles you would like to see in the near future. I am open to suggestions. 😊
i’m shook on the $5 vegan mayo. ours be $9 🫣