My Budget Grocery Haul – April 5, 2025

Ever wonder what the person ahead of you in the checkout line is buying — and why? Here’s my grocery haul this week.

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One of my first official blog posts back in 2008 looked a lot like this. Different house, same table. Groceries were expensive back then, even though they were less than they are now.

I thought it would be fun to bring back an old school Grocery Geek post, my recession version of a grocery haul, a budget grocery haul, to be precise.

Today when I loaded it all on the table, I asked how much he thought it cost. He thought right, but only in 2008 money. Back then, this Ralphs grocery haul might have cost about $150.

Got any guesses how much it did cost? Here’s what I bought:

I paid full price for the bananas because seriously when do bananas ever go on sale? And who really cares?

If you do, they were 69 cents/pound.

The rest of my produce purchases were on digital deal, sale, or clearance.

• Boxed lettuce because I’m lazy and like the convenience – $2.08 to $2.63 marked down
• mushrooms – $2.94/lb marked down
• campari tomatoes – $2.49 digital deal
• roma tomatoes – $0.99/lb on sale
• xl avocados – $2.49/ea digital deal
• cuties – $3.99/3-lb bag on sale
• sandwich bread – $1.75 marked down

There were loads of sales and clearance items in the meat and dairy. The only thing I paid full price for was the milk at $3.99/gallon.

Whenever I see cheese at $3.50/pound or less, I stock up on the limit. I don’t need a reason because with seven people in the house, we eat cheese. I don’t spend more than this target price, with the exception of fancy cheeses, like the swiss.

I also stock up on meats that I know we will use on a regular basis, like pepperoni that we use in weekly grilled pizza, diced ham for this ham egg bake, breakfast sausage for this sausage egg bake, and pancetta that I like to use instead of bacon on this potato pizza.

I always keep some cake mixes on hand for Game Night Snacks. I’m sad to see that they’ve reduced the size of the cake mix. Shrinkflators!

And while I love homemade pancakes, I did grab a few boxes of mix because eggs and flour are so expensive.

• Fage yogurt – $5.99 on sale
• chobani yogurt – $2.49 digital deal
• Kroger cheese – $3.49 digital deal
• Sargento sliced cheese – $2.49 buy 5 deal
• pepperoni – $1.08 on clearance
• diced ham – $1.08 on clearance
• pancetta – $3.69 on clearance
• turkey sausage – $2.09 on clearance
• natural deli turkey – $3.29 digital deal
• cake mix – $1.19 on sale
• pancake mix – $1.99 on digital deal

I don’t typically buy a lot of pantry staples at Ralphs, usually just items we can’t get at ALDI where those items tend to be the cheapest. However, these were good deals and/or not at ALDI.

I only buy bagged pasta because I’ve had issues with bugs in the boxed kind. ALDI doesn’t have a lot of options. While I typically make my own Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce, I will stock up on “no sugar added” jarred kind when it’s under $2/jar.

The cereal is for my son, so he’ll be reimbursing me for it. We normally buy sparkling water at Costco Business, but this was FREE with a digital coupon from Ralphs.

• pasta – $1.25 on sale
• Ragu no sugar added – $1.79/24 oz when you buy five
• seltzer – FREE plus $0.60 CRV
• Kashi Go – $3.99/box

Hiding in that picture is a small bottle of dried basil that I paid a ridiculous $3.69 for. Normally, I would get a jumbo carton, but I haven’t been anywhere recently where they sell them, so we’re making do on that count.

The meat department is where I really cleaned up. I’ve found that the more expensive things get, the less people buy so the more the store marks down.

I ran this theory by the meat manager this morning and he agreed.

I buy whatever’s under $5/lb for beef or $4/lb for pork, turkey, or chicken and either cook it that day or stash it in the freezer.

I have never tried the Randall Farms Fiesta Taco Kit, but $5.25/3 pounds of meat works out to be a killer deal, $1.75/pound to be exact, so I figured we’d try it and see.

• beef rib roast – $4.78/lb marked down
• tri-tip steaks – $4.19/lb marked down
• fiesta taco kit – $5.25/3 lbs marked down
• ground turkey – $3.99/lb on sale
• ground beef ranged $3.73 – $4.12/lb marked down
• angus patties – $5.04/lb marked down
• Kobe burgers $$4.05/lb marked down
• spicy turkey sausage – $3.15/19.5 oz marked down

So the grand total of this Ralphs grocery haul was $250. Before all the coupons and discounts applied, it was $340.

It’s not 2008 prices, but I’ll take it!

Before anyone asks, yes, I did get eggs, just not at Ralphs. The last time egg prices went bonkers, Sprouts was my go-to for affordable eggs. When this whole thing started, I told the kids we’d have eggs as long as I could find them for $5/dozen.

Blessings to Sprouts for selling 18-packs for $6.69! This works out to $4.46/dozen. You’re allowed to buy two packages. I bought two last week and another two this week.

And we’re spending them carefully.

Tips for Saving on Groceries