April Grocery Budget Challenge

April was another month I spent the $100 allotted for my groceries and the trip did not disappoint. I visited Walmart, Seasons Food Mart, and No Frills supermarket this time around. Navigating the ever-changing prices has been tough, but I find myself becoming better at grocery shopping as I go. Protein and fruits are important in my grocery shopping; everything else is fluff lol. Trust me when I say everything is fluff because I may want something but end up with a different outcome since inflation takes a toll.

My first trip for the month was at Walmart. I wanted to make a shrimp pasta with flavor, not just salt and pepper lol. I mean salt and pepper are good but sometimes I need the added spice! I was able to purchase grape tomatoes, rosemary, garlic, broccoli (because broccoli is life lol), spaghettini pasta, and a bag of shrimp. Like I said in the past, I am usually able to get a decent bag of shrimp from Walmart for around $10. This was a yummy meal and quick to make. I spent $19.39 on ingredients to make this meal. I was able to get multiple servings from this meal but ultimately your serving portions really depends on how much or how little you eat.

^{_{Shrimp Pasta}}

While at Walmart I was able to grab items for breakfast. Honestly, I tend to double up my shopping trips at Walmart as sometimes I can get a few good things for my breakfast like cereal and yogurt. This trip was no different. If you know me then you know pineapple is life and I was able to grab me a delicious pineapple, some bananas, an orange, a kiwi, a mango, cereal, and my fav full fat Greek yogurt. Like always I made myself a quick fruit salad to go with my cereal and yogurt. It’s quick and simple. I eat as breakfast but also as snacks which is perfect for a person like me. The ingredients for this trip cost me $19.81.

_{^{Ingredients for breakfast}}

So, as you know, I visit Seasons Food Mart to get salmon as I can get reasonably sized salmon for a decent price. I mean sometimes I can get a salmon tail for $8.00 and sometimes I can get salmon steaks for about $11. It all depends on the day and price, like I said it’s always a surprise when I got shopping lol. This trip like many others lol I was able to grab 1 carrot, 4 different types of sweet potatoes (because sweet potatoes are LIFE lol), a 5pk of corn, a zucchini, and a lemon. All basic ingredients but since I have salt and pepper at home, I was not worried lol. I basically cooked all my veggies in a post and seared the salmon in its own oil with salt and pepper. The ingredients for this trip cost me $18.75.

_{^{Salmon with veggies}}

This month I decided to grab a different type of fish and I settled on King fish, it’s really one of my favs so I decided to take a chance and grab some. I went to Seasons Food Mart and was able to grab some King Fish for $10.47. The only problem I had was getting oi, because sure I can cook and eat King Fish anyhow, I want to, but I wanted it fried lol yup it’s the only way! Along with the King Fish, I grabbed a carrot. Some garlic and sweet potatoes with peanut oil (it’s a very good frying oil if you don’t have any allergies) The meal was quick and easy to make and very delicious. The ingredients for this trip cost me $19.73.

_{^{King Fish with sweet potatoes and veggies}}

My final trip for the month was at No Frills, I tend to only visit this store occasionally because I sometimes can’t get the things I need because of the outrageous prices. This trip was a little different for me, because I really had to do a lot of manual labour to create the meal. I wanted bread, so I had to make the bread from scratch and the meal I had was egg salad with toast and a tomato sandwich with cheese. That’s 2 meal ideas but because of the ingredients I had, there were so many other possibilities for meals you just have to use your imagination. I was able to get mayo, yeast, 12 eggs, a 5lbs bag of flour, 2 bananas (because fruit is a must lol) and cheese. This doubled as breakfast and lunch and to be honest I often ate it as lunch or dinner. Since I already had salt at home, it enhanced my bread, so basically bread was made with flour, water, yeast, and salt, (mayo could be added to dough for added flavour since mayo contains oils and eggs). I was able to make a simple egg salad, with my toasted baked bread (the video shows step by step) and a tomato cheese sandwich. It was an obsession for me honestly. Tomato isn’t something I really enjoyed/grew up eating so having it with salt and pepper made me realize just how much I enjoy it. This grocery trip cost me 19.96. I was able to make multiple breads, I had hard boiled eggs, I had melted cheese sandwiches I honestly had fun with this trip.

_{^{Eggs salad with toast, tomato and banana with Tomato/cheese toast with hard boied eggs and banana.}}

Since starting these $20 grocery challenges, I have noticed my eating has gotten healthier unintentionally lol but intentionally because I can only purchase what I can afford. It has it struggles some months, but this month was fun and delicious. I spent a total of $97.64 for my April $20 grocery challenge.

If you want to see more you can check out my grocery budget playlist below.