February Grocery Budget Challenge

I am not sure how you guys’ grocery shop, but in the past, I used to just shop with my eyes, shop with my belly and shop how I knew. I never had a system in place at all. This $20 grocery and meal challenge has allowed me to correct what I call bad behaviours when it comes to spending money on food. I sometimes (doesn’t always work out this way) plan my trips according to the proteins and fruits I want and I also plan based on what I want to consume in the month.

This month I did 4 trips total, I was mostly focused on protein, so I went to Seasons Food Mart and Walmart. I often choose these two supermarkets because 1. At Seasons I can get the best bang for my buck when it comes to salmon or other types of fish and 2. Walmart is the only place SO FAR (I’m searching lol) that I am able to get a decent sized bag of shrimp for $10 (10.97) or less but the prices have been fluctuating to as high as $13.97. So when that happens I purchase the shrimp that is $10.97 no matter the size of the shrimp.

I also need to add I am not a fancy food eater lol, meaning I like what I like and eat what I like, and buy what I like lol then add a little razzle dazzle in the mix every now and then. My first trip of the month was at Seasons. It was salmon with broccoli corn, plantain, and sweet potatoes with teriyaki sauce. Very simple yet yummy meal.

_{^{Salmon with veggies and sweet potato}}

For my next trip I visited Walmart, this trip was a struggle because I couldn’t afford any fresh vegetables which I love. I had to settle on frozen veggies which were pricy as well. I made a quick “stir fry” my way lol and the protein for this trip was shrimp. I was able to grab 2 single potatoes yup 2 lol (I love potatoes so getting only 2 broke my heart). I also managed to purchase olive oil which I can never do because of the price but getting my bag of shrimp made it worth it in the end lol. Honestly speaking it was not my favourite meal because of the frozen veggies but it was delicious.

_{^{Shrimp with potatoes and veggies}}

Since Walmart was the main store of choice, I decided to grab items for Chow Mein. I’m just putting this out there, this is by no means an authentic chow mein lol, this is chow mein on a budget lol. Noodles, shrimp and veggies lol. I was able to get garlic for seasoning (garlic is my thing now lol) with soy sauce, shrimp, chow mien noodles and stir fry frozen veggies. The soy sauce really sold me on the look and taste of my meal. It was a super fine dark soy sauce which is rich (strong, so a little goes a long way). Although I am not a fan of frozen veggies like I said, they did what was needed for this meal. The meal was yummy and very filling.

_{^{Shrimp Chow Mein}}

Whenever to do my grocery shopping, I plan for fruits as a part of my breakfast. I need fruits, I cannot go a month without eating fruits I don’t care lol. Fruit shopping is a little tricky for me because what I want to eat isn’t always at a reasonable price, so I adjust as I shop around. When I purchase fruits, I tend to get fruits that I can make a fruit salad with, this allows the fruit to last longer than single serving fruits like apples. This is often hard for me because I love strawberries, pineapples and blueberries and they are very costly and not often able to get them. I also go between getting cereal, yogurt, and eggs for breakfast because lets face it I can’t afford them all at the same time during these trips. For this trip I was able to get 1 mango, 1 kiwi, 1 orange, 1 pineapple, eggs, bananas, condensed milk and cereal. I got condensed milk because I can add water to it and eat my cereal. Yup, it’s that type of party lol.

_{^{Cereal & banana | Fruit salad with hard boiled eggs}}

With the cost of food on the rise everything is being affected. They are raising the prices, shrinking the packaging and sometimes the quality is affected. February was an ok month shopping wise, I didn’t get the fruits I actually wanted but I got pinapple so it’s a win lol. Yes I love pineapples that much. I hope you enjoyed looking back on the meals I was able to create in February.

Check out my grocery budget playlist for this meals and more!