May Grocery Budget Challenge

It’s a brand-new month for a new $20 grocery challenge and May was another easy month shopping-wise. I was able to get the protein of my choice and got a little creative when it came to breakfast. This month, I did not have a lot of fruit options, but I was able to grab myself some fruits I like. I visited Walmart, Seasons Food Mart, and No Frills supermarket for this month’s challenge.

My first trip was Walmart, I wanted to get items to make a Shepherd’s pie for dinner, but with shrimp, lol. I call it a shrimp’s pie, lol. This was a bit of a challenge, as I had to step outside of what I know to use and purchase items I could afford to create the meal I really wanted. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. I was able to get a 5lb bag of potatoes, a bag of shrimp (you know, shrimp is sometimes life, lol), a small block of cheese, some taco seasoning, and a can of coconut cream. I’ll be honest, I never made potatoes with coconut milk before, and now I can never go back, lol. It’s the best tasting thing ever. If you like coconut milk, then you won’t mind the flavor. The ingredients for this meal cost $19.68.

_{^{Shrimp’s Pie}}

While at Walmart, I grabbed some ingredients for another dinner option. This was a little tough because the focus was PINEAPPLE, lol. Yup, not shrimp, not broccoli, but pineapple, lol. It was a fruit that I really wanted to have, so I decided I had to create a meal with pineapples so I would be able to have that fruit for the month. I was able to buy a bag of quinoa, a bag of shrimp, a decent-sized pineapple (yup, that’s important because sometimes these pineapples are tiny, honestly), 1 zucchini, 1 corn, 1 tomato, and 1 pack of rosemary. I cooked the quinoa separately and cooked everything else in one pot. Yup, I like to keep it simple because I don’t want to spend 5 hours in the kitchen on food, lol. The ingredients for this trip cost me $19.80.

_{^{Quinoa with pineapple shrimp and veggies}}

As you know I visit Seasons Food Mart to grab my salmon because yes salmon is absolutely life lol. For this trip like many others at this store I only thought about the protein, I pick up every other ingredient as I shop. This trip I was able to get salmon tail, which cost me $15.38. Yup this is why I can’t really plan a meal at this store because the prices of the fish go up and down. I also grabbed a few variations of sweet potatoes, a red skin potato, lemon, and broccoli. It was a simple dish because I baked the salmon and cooked all my potatoes together and steamed my broccoli. This trip cost me $19.84.

_{^{Salmon with sweet potatoes and broccoli}}

While at Seasons I grab some more salmon because the more salmon I have for the month the better I’ll be. This month the salmon was a little on the pricy side because this trip like the last the salmon cost $15.10 and that really eats into my entire $20 so it can become hard when that’s more than half the budget. I was able to grab 2 potatoes, a carrot, a 3-pk of garlic and bean sprouts. I steamed the carrot, broccoli, and bean sprouts together, and baked the salmon with the potatoes. It really was a light and healthy meal that took about 20 minutes top to prepare. This trip cost me $19.82.

_{^{Salmon with potatoes and veggies}}

My final trip for May ended at No Frills supermarket, this was my sole breakfast trip, and it did not disappoint. This trip required a little more patience and imagination. I wanted to make breakfast muffins or pancakes for breakfast, yes, it’s easy to by the premade items, however I opted to making everything from scratch. Yes, it takes more time, but I have multi-use items. This trip I purchased flour, 2 bananas, strawberries, a small carton of cream, a packet of baking powder (I did not know they sold single packets until now), small packets for sugar (this I was really shocked it) and 12 eggs. With these ingredients you can make many different things such as loaf cakes, muffins, pancakes, fritters, and these can all be eaten for breakfast. I made butter from scratch and was able to use left over buttermilk for other uses. I made strawberry banana muffins with eggs for breakfast, but the possibilities were endless for sure as I had baking powder and sugar that were flavoured with vanilla. I was not mad at this trip. This trip cost me $19.90 on ingredients.

_{^{Strawberry banana muffines with eggs}}

As inflation continues to rise, I am trying to find new and creative ways to buy and prepare my meals. My food waste has reduced significantly since I have started my challenge and that’s a good thing for me. Everything has a use, and nothing goes to waste. For the month of May I spent a total of $99.04 on my $20 challenge and considering the items I purchase I was happy with the meals I was able to eat throughout the month.

Check out my grocery challenge playlist for more videos