My Budget Grocery Haul – April 12, 2025

This week I’m continuing to find marked downs in the meat department as well as stocking up on sales for foods we normally buy. Check out my budget grocery haul from this week.

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This week we did a fairly large stock up on things. Bryan made a stop at Costco Business, I ran to both ALDI and Ralphs.

Costco Business

For those who don’t know, Costco Business Center is like the old school Price Club. Restaurants are their target customer, but anyone with a Costco membership can shop there.

CB is our regular stop now that our local Costco is tearing up half the parking lot to build another gas station. Very annoying since I’d really like to get some rotisserie chicken but can never find a parking spot.

Bryan and the kids and I share a Reusable Grocery List on the iPhone reminders app. We all add to the list and then he and the college kids usually stop on their way home from campus.

Here’s what they got this week:

• frozen salmon – I prefer salmon, B likes mahi mahi, the kids like tilapia. We cook it about once a week. ($31.79)
• sparkling apple cider for Sunday Dinner ($2.50 a bottle plus $0.20 CRV)
• plain Greek yogurt that we use in lots of ways ($6.89/giant tub)
• black olives – I’m picky and find that Lindsay is the best brand and Costco has the best price ($12.99/8 cans)
• olive oil and avocado oil – These are the only oils I cook with ($22.99 to $24.99)
• Peets coffee – B’s preferred type of coffee ($9/lb)
• pizza cheese – since they serve pizzerias, CB has the best mozzarella for a great price! ($24.78 for 10 pounds)
• half ham so I can make a slow cooker ham this weekend ($13.28)
• pork tenderloin – I’m going to make grilled pork tenderloin for Easter ($17.58/4 tenderloins)
• honey ($12.59 for three bears)
• salt ($3.39)
• Wild Planet canned tuna – they didn’t have what we normally get so we got fewer cans – ($15.99/6 cans)
• mini hummus packets – these are convenient for the kids to pack ($7.89/30)

This stop cost $273. I didn’t include the napkins in my grocery tallies.

ALDI

I am not going to itemize this because I don’t have a digital receipt to copy and paste. Sorry.

ALDI is generally the cheapest place in town for most things we buy. I typically load up on produce, most dairy products, plastics, and canned beans. I also threw in a couple baguettes because we ate through this week’s bake pretty quickly.

I ended up spending $79.

Ralphs

Shopping at Ralphs is a huge source of dopamine for me. I’ll confess to that. Finding good deals is my drug of choice. 😉

I scan the sale on Wednesday and clip coupons and make my list in their app. Then I usually shop some morning between 7:30-8. The sweet spot of when the marked downs are first available moves a bit based on who’s working.

This particular day the meat manager was not working so his guys were sleeping. Just saying. I usually hit the meat department first to get first pick. This week, I ended up swinging back by after I shopped the rest of store and found more markdowns.

Lately, ground beef has been priced really well!

• ground beef marked down plus digital coupon $5.88/2 pounds – I made Easy Chili Cheese Burritos for Bryan’s work and Quick Meat Sauce for Pasta.
• prosciutto $3.63 marked down – to the freezer for a later date
• chuck roasts $3.59/lb marked down – Chuck Roast in the Slow Cooker for dinner tonight.
• Italian sausage $3.99/19 oz on sale – to the freezer for a later date

There were a few sales and marked downs in the dairy department

• buttermilk – $2.89 – we use this in baking and to make Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dip
• half and half – $3.99 – for coffee and baking
• nuts pods – $3.65 each with digital coupons – for coffee
• burrito tortillas – $6.99 full price – They were out of the kind I normally buy.
• protein waffles – $3.49 on sale
• Land O Lakes butter with olive oil – $3.74 after sales and digital coupons – This assuages my concerns over high cholesterol
• bananas – $0.69 full price – I have never had a good experience with bananas from ALDI or Costco. They always stay green!

Then there were a variety of digital deal items, including:

• frozen potatoes – $3.49/bag digital deal
• Brawny towels – $4.61/pkg digital deal plus digital coupon
• Oreos – $4.49 digital deal for parties and travel days
• Oscar Mayer lunchmeat $3.99 digital deal

• crackers $4.49/party size
• canned beans $2/can
• caramel syrup $3.99 digital coupon
• pasta sauces $1.79 to $2.09 – it’s so easy and convenient, but I only buy varieties without added sugar
• dill relish $1.79

I ended up spending $179 for this full cart from Ralphs. According to their “regular prices,” this haul would have cost $300.

It would seem like we shelled out a lot on groceries this week which is true, $531. Last week I spent $262. That brings our monthly total to $793.

Seeing as the month is half over, we have a holiday coming up, and our grocery budget is currently in the $1500 range, I’m not concerned.

Ways to Save on Groceries