Walmart is a grocery store that is available to most people. While I don't usually shop at Walmart, I thought I would try it this week, to show you an example of what you can get to feed two people for $50 and the process that I use to shop. I went to Winco after shopping at Walmart and checked their prices. Winco prices are marked in red.
First, I get a rough idea of what I want to make for this week. I looked at Walmart prices online to see what might fit into my budget.
Breakfast:
1.30 for 5 bananas (same)
2.24 for a pkg. of 6 applesauce cups (1.68)
1.98 for Great Value pancake mix (2.18)
2.86 for a gallon of milk
1.67 for Great Value Toasted O's (2.02 for a larger size)
1.94 Great Value Peanut Butter for Protein (1.78)
Estimated Total $11.99 for breakfasts - note this is too much food for the week. I could easily skip either the pancake mix or the cereal and also buy a 1/2 gallon of milk instead of a gallon. But, I wanted some variety. The next week I would probably buy some yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, etc. to add to the leftover food from this week for breakfast. I could also buy something else like oatmeal. Remember, this is just an example. There are so many choices you could pick that may suit you better.
Lunch:
2.84 for 2 loaves of Great Value Wheat Bread (1.42 each). This makes about 22 sandwiches which is way more than what we need. We can use the extra bread for grilled cheese or just freeze it for the next week, or have extra sandwich stuff on hand if we are hungry and want more than one sandwich. (1.39 each)
1.94 Great Value Peanut Butter (1.78)
3.74 Great Value Strawberry Jam - I could have bought a smaller jar, but the price per ounce was better for this and we can use it on pancakes or sandwiches in the future. (2.48 for smaller size)
3.12 Great Value Sliced Turkey - turkey is cheaper than ham, so turkey it is. This package can make 8 sandwiches of 2 ounces of meat each. (couldn't find anything as cheap)
2.24 Great Value Sliced cheese - 12 slices. Can have cheese on each turkey sandwich plus 4 slices left for something else. (3.68 - 4.62)
Estimated Total $13.88 for lunches, but there is extra food here as well.
Dinner: Green Enchilada Soup, Bean and cheese burritos, Creamy Green Chili Enchiladas
1.36 Great Value Green chilies - divide between soup and enchiladas (didn't have this size store brand)
1.97 Great Value Sour Cream 16 ounces - will have extra. (1.97)
1.36 for Two cans of Great Value cream of chicken soup at 68 cents each (.88 each)
2.00 for two cans of Great value Refried Beans at 1.00 each (.99)
2.12 for Great Value small fajita tortillas (name brand for 1.98)
3.97 for a cold rotisserie chicken - for enchiladas and for soup. May also have extra chicken (5.98)
.96 for Great Value canned tomatoes (.85)
.86 for Great Value pinto beans (.85)
.86 for Great Value Black Beans (.85)
.86 for Great Value white beans (.85)
.72 for bullion cubes
2.24 for shredded cheese (2.18)
Estimated Total for Dinners: $19.28
Grand total: 11.99 Breakfasts, 13.88 Lunches, 19.28 Dinners = 45.15
I still have 4.85 left to spend. I will get 5 pounds of carrots for 3.88 and a package of frozen green beans for 98 cents (1.08) for a total of 4.76.
The Estimated Grand Total is $49.91.
When I got to Walmart to shop, there were a few items that were more expensive than I had planned and a couple that were less. They also didn't have a few items, so I had to make substitutions. I had to make some adjustments at the store. I added up all the new costs of the meals, which ended up costing $13.26 for Breakfasts, $11.45 for lunches, and $19.05 for dinners, and a grand total of $43.76. I then spent 6.18 on a bag of carrots, a couple of packages of frozen veggies, and some applesauce which I couldn't find earlier in the store. That made the total money spent to be $49.94.
Swaps I could make to save money: Take off the bread and the tortillas and buy flour to make my own: 2.84 bread and 2.12 small fajita tortillas cost 4.96 and 5 pounds of flour is 2.38. This is a savings of 2.58.
Just buy one peanut butter instead of two and save 1.94
Buy smaller sizes of jelly, sour cream, and milk, even though the prices aren't as good per ounce: Spend 1.72 instead of 2.86 for milk, spend 1.24 instead of 1.97 for sour cream, and spend 2.48 instead of 3.74 for strawberry jam. This saves a total of 1.14 on the milk, 73 cents on the sour cream, and 1.26 on the jelly, or 3.13 for all three. With the extra money, you could buy instead some iced oatmeal or a few other varieties of cookies for around 2.00 and more frozen veggies for 98 cents. If you wanted some more variety, you could buy a 32-ounce carton of yogurt for 2.76 and still be in your budget.
The jam actually cost less than expected, but the milk was a lot more so I had to get a half gallon.
You could buy dry pinto beans instead of buying canned refried beans or the canned beans in the soup. That would save you a couple of dollars but would take much more time to prepare. You could just use pinto beans in the soup instead of all three kinds of beans, if you use dry beans, and save even more money.
There are always options. This food only needs to last a week, but it doesn't really matter what your choices are as long as you stay within your budget and try to make balanced meals.
Things worked out fine at Walmart, but since I didn't know the store very well, it took a little longer to find things. After checking at Smith's, another grocery store in town, I realized that Walmart really does have the best prices on their store brands for most pantry items. Walmart doesn't have as good of variety as Smith's in both pantry items and produce, and Smith's has regular marked-down items in the produce department, so Smith's may be better to shop if you buy a lot of produce like we do. Smith's has better prices on fresh meat because of their sales, but Walmart did have better prices on store-brand lunchmeat. Smith's did have some cheaper prices than the Walmart store brands if you buy other brands, but I used the Kroger store brand prices to compare with Walmart when I first started. I was curious about Winco, so I checked their prices the next day, which are marked in red above. There, now you have the information to make a better decision about whether Walmart is the place for you to shop or not.
