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Start of the $27 Grocery Challenge! Resources | Recipes | Shopping List

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Today is the start of the $27 Grocery Budget Challenge!

$27 grocery budget challenge series. An experiment in stretching an incredibly tight grocery budget.

Many of you wanted a healthier version of the $27 Challenge, so I worked hard on trying to make that happen this year. I incorporated your suggestions to create a newer, improved version for this year’s challenge. Before I get into the meat of this post, I want to list a couple of resources I’ve created for this series.

I’ve created a printable shopping list {Download Here} in order to make it easier for those of you that decide you’d like to do something similar to my meal plan this week.

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2014 $27 Grocery Budget Challenge Printable Shopping ListI also have a Recipes and Adaptations Page that you can refer to each day for recipes that I’ve used within the challenge, and adaptations I’ve made to make recipes from other bloggers challenge-friendly.

I’ve also created two recipes specifically for this series and links to those recipes can be found on that page as well. But I’ll list them here as well in case you want to take a peek now.

Recipes and Adaptations Page
Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe
20 Minute Black Beans Recipe

What the $27 Grocery Budget Challenge Is

– A meal plan that feeds two adults.

– I’m tempted to call this an emergency meal plan, but I’m not sure that’s quite accurate. This is an option to feed yourself if you find yourself in a financial hardship and you have very few options left for a short period of time. Think: car broke down and I have less than $30 left for food for the week.

– This is as much an experiment in frugality as it is a challenge. It’s not a challenge in the sense of “I’m challenging you to take this challenge!” but more of a challenge in feeding ourselves creatively with a very limited budget. Because this is me pushing myself in terms of creativity, meal planning and in trying new things (I had carrot fries, guys, to me fries come in the form of potatoes!), I’ll be honest with you if I make a mistake or if I’m still hungry. If you do decide to do this challenge out of necessity, I don’t want you to find yourself hungry after you’ve spent your last $30 because I painted a dreamy picture of what my week was like.

What it Isn’t

– It will not feed more than two people. So please do not attempt this with a family using the exact meal plan I used without raising the budget. I designed this meal plan to only feed my husband and myself.

– An all inclusive meal plan. I tried my very best to provide you with everything needed if you do decide to follow the challenge like I did. I tried to make it more organized than last year’s challenge because I realized it wasn’t very user-friendly. But there are still some gaps you may have to fill in yourself.

– This is more of a disclaimer, but this doesn’t have the seal of approval of any kind of professional in terms of nutrition. Actually, my readers have been the biggest push in me learning about how to eat healthily, so I’m still learning those ropes myself. It’s just me, a frugal girl, trying to see what I can do with a limited budget. It’s not the best way, or the only way, it’s just my way.

Self-Imposed Rules for the Challenge

I set these rules for myself to even out the playing field in order to make this as close to the original budget as possible for everyone. I realize there will be some price differences between what you buy and what I buy, so limiting myself to these rules should create a more accurate picture of the cost.

– No coupons. I know that not allowing myself to use coupons in last year’s challenge ruffled a few feathers. In fact, I was all for using coupons this year, but ultimately decided against it. This is simply for the sake of accuracy with pricing. Coupons are time-sensitive, so odds are you wouldn’t be able to get the same deal I did if you’re reading this series two months from now.

– Limited use of items in my kitchen. I tried to limit the use of ingredients that weren’t in the original shopping list for this challenge, again, for the sake of accuracy. Things like spices and common ingredients like garlic are something I’ve allowed myself to use freely. If I do deviate from my meal plan using other items in my kitchen, I’ll tell you.

– Stick to the budget. Once the original budget is spent, I won’t allow myself additional trips to the grocery store.

Okay, that sort of felt like I was reading you a very long and quickly spoken list of warnings at the end of a pharmaceutical commercial on TV! Now that we have all of that out of the way… let’s get onto what you’re really here to see.

Shopping List:

$27 grocery budget challenge series. An experiment in stretching an incredibly tight grocery budget.

I split up my shopping between three different stores. I did most of my shopping at Aldi’s with additional stops at Target and Publix to snag a few deals.

Publix:

  • 1 lb. Green Beans: $1.29
  • 1 lb. Yellow Squash: $1.33

Aldi:

  • Fresh, 6.5 lb Whole Chicken: $6.22
  • Whole Grain Thin Spaghetti: $0.89
  • 2 lb. Bag Brown Rice: $1.19
  • 3 lbs. Bananas: $1.29
  • 2 lbs. Sweet Onions: $1.59
  • Cucumber: $0.59
  • Lemon: $0.35
  • Dozen Eggs: $1.29
  • 2 lbs. Carrots: $1.29
  • 1 lb. Frozen Peas: $0.89

Target:

  • Canned Green Chilles: $0.72
  • Sesame Seeds: $0.79
  • 1 lb. Dried Black Beans: $1.52
  • Lettuce: $1.79
  • Oats: $1.94
  • Lime: $0.39
  • Cream: $2.24

Total Cost: $27.60

So it’s a few cents over $27. But it’s still pretty close!

I’m excited to share the meals we’ll have on each day of the challenge, as well as sharing any struggles we’re having or mistakes I’ve made (day one has a bumpy start!)

You’ll be able to find all posts in the 2014 $27 Grocery Budget Challenge on the first tab in the navigation menu.

Day one is already up on the blog, so be sure to check it out! {Click here for Day One}

$27 grocery budget challenge series. An experiment in stretching an incredibly tight grocery budget.

Be sure to follow me on instagram for updates on this series.

And if you use a recipe from the challenge or are doing the challenge as well, use the hashtag #27DollarChallenge so I can find your photos!

Instagram

Links to all Posts in the 2014 Challenge:

Intro and Shopping List: Current Post

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

Day Six

Day Seven

Wrap Up


16 Comments

« Recipes: 2014 $27 Grocery Budget Challenge
Day One | $27 Grocery Budget Challenge »

Comments

  1. Barb @ A Life in Balance says

    December 15, 2014 at 10:54 am

    I’d love to modify this for our family of 7. I pinned this to my weekly menu planning board to help me in 2015.

    Reply
    • Jazmin Rode says

      December 16, 2014 at 3:29 pm

      Thank you, Barb!

      Reply
      • Kendall says

        March 18, 2017 at 1:43 pm

        Is there a menu/recipes guide you made for how you used all the groceries you bought?

        Reply
        • Jazmin Rode says

          March 21, 2017 at 1:50 pm

          There’s no specific guide, but all meals that were prepared are documented on each day of the challenge. There’s also a recipe adaptations page for any specific recipes I either created specifically for the challenge or were adapted to fit the shopping list. https://savorandsavvy.com/27dollarchallenge-recipes

          Reply
  2. Melissa says

    December 16, 2014 at 11:33 am

    Jazmin did you use coupons to get the most food for your money? I was just curious. i am going to start using them if there are any for what i buy. i usually buy the store brands because they are almost always cheaper than the name brand with a coupon.

    Reply
    • Jazmin Rode says

      December 16, 2014 at 3:22 pm

      I didn’t use coupons just so I could keep the true cost as close to $27 as possible. But I DEFINITELY encourage anyone doing something similar to this to go for the coupons. They can really increase your buying power!

      Reply
  3. Kara says

    December 19, 2014 at 3:11 pm

    While my family of 4 won’t be participating in the $27 challenge, I think it’s great, especially your transparency about it. Just found your blog and wanted to let you know I’m so glad I popped on in! With 2 weeks of Xmas break with the kids looming ahead of us, I plan to try some of the ‘make yourself’ recipes. Great blog with great info for all of us looking to stretch those precious dollars.

    Reply
    • Jazmin Rode says

      December 21, 2014 at 3:40 pm

      Thanks so much, Kara!

      Reply
  4. kayti says

    March 14, 2015 at 3:08 am

    i found this very helpful, even though nearly every item costs twice as much here.
    thanks for the example!

    Reply
  5. CHelsea says

    April 5, 2015 at 5:15 pm

    I really appreciate you making this! As a college student with budgetary constraints, I’ve had myself on a $25 weekly grocery budget. It was extremely boring – basically chicken & sautéed veggies with an over easy egg or put in an omelette. Needless to say it got very boring very quickly eating that 2 meals a day pretty much every day for the whole quarter.

    Thank you again! I look forward to trying out this plan 🙂

    Reply
  6. CHelsea says

    April 5, 2015 at 5:16 pm

    I really appreciate you making this! As a college student with budgetary constraints, I’ve had myself on a $25 weekly grocery budget. It was extremely boring – basically chicken & sautéed veggies with an over easy egg or put in an omelette. Needless to say it got very boring very quickly eating that 2 meals a day pretty much every day for the whole quarter.

    Thank you again! I look forward to trying out this plan now. Since your plan feeds two, maybe I’ll even have some extra money to spare! 😀 I’m so excited aha

    Reply
    • Jazmin Rode says

      April 6, 2015 at 6:51 pm

      Kudos to you for sticking to such a tight budget, Chelsea! It sounds like you did it the healthy way too! 😀 I hope you have a little extra since the meal plan I did that week did feed two of us. 😀

      Reply
  7. Michelle says

    November 15, 2015 at 12:41 pm

    I took your list to one of our cheaper grocery stores here in Kelowna, BC and I priced everything out. It would cost at least $50 or more for these ingredients. We don’t have the cheap grocery prices the US has. A whole chicken is at least $10-12 depending on where you get it. Eggs are $3.59 a dozen. It’s fine that you guys can do it.

    Reply
    • Jazmin Rode says

      November 15, 2015 at 12:48 pm

      I’m so sorry it won’t work out to the same price in your area!

      Reply
  8. Kimmi says

    January 26, 2016 at 2:32 pm

    Great idea! I thought about applying this for my mother who lives on her own, but on a very fixed income. It’s too bad you couldn’t increase your budget by a couple of dollars, say $30, and included the flour and yeast to make that bread. I make bread every week with just flour, water, yeast and salt. I keep the dough in the fridge and hack off pieces for dinner rolls, baguettes, even pizza with leftover bits of veggies. Add a bit of sugar and some oil, and you’ve got amazing burger buns, white bread or soft dinner rolls.

    Reply
  9. Arlene says

    February 19, 2016 at 8:05 am

    I so admire your for this and last year’s post on frugal eating. I admire you for taking responsibility for your finances instead of blaming everyone and everything else in the world. Thank you for being so inspirational. And thank you for not having any annoying pop-up ads.

    I am positive that you’d enjoy the Tightwad Gazette books, available, I’m sure,, from your local library or through your local library’s inter-library loan system. Best regards and carry on! Arlene

    Reply
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Hi! My name is Ginny and I am excited to share our favorite time saving recipes, organizational printables, frugality tips and our love of travel hacking.

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