With grocery prices soaring and the supply chain falling, families are struggling to keep food on the table and stock their pantries at the same time.
Many, in fact, believe that the must choose between hearty, full meals each week and having a full pantry.
This is not true.
I’ll show you how I purchased just $10 of basic supplies, added $22 of additional ingredients, and fed my family for an entire week.
In addition to this, I even added twenty cans of vegetables to my long-term emergency food pantry and still stayed within a total weekly food budget of $50.
The aim of this month’s challenge is to use left over from my food budget to purchase on-sale canned goods to fill gaps in my long-term emergency pantry.
To prove that it’s still possible to feed a family for an entire week for as little at $50, during the month of February I am presenting this February Grocery Challenge.
In week 1 of this challenge, I focused on how how to maximize your savings with markdowns and sale items. In week 2 of the challenge, I showed readers how to use two or three main ingredients that you purchased at a really low price to feed to stretch your weekly menu plan. Trust me, your family won’t feel bored or like they are eating the same thing every single night of the week.
To see this grocery haul and hear more strategies on how to stretch these ingredients to feed your family on a budget, watch the video, above.
This Week’s Grocery Haul

My first stop was Kroger, where I primarily bought items which were on sale. Although there were virtually no markdowns to be found in the store, I did find a quart of high-quality chocolate oat milk, which I plan to use to make plant-based ice cream this week.
The total bill was, $9.28.
Heading across town to HyVee, I grabbed canned vegetables which were on sale for 50¢ each. My bill was $10.10.
The big, beautiful butternut squash was a gift from my friend, Marie, who grows them. Getting produce at zero cost is incredibly helpful when your goal is to feed your family on a tight budget.
Using my grocery haul as the backbone of my weekly menu plan, I fed my family breakfast, lunch, and dinner for seven days for less than $50.
This Week’s Menu Plan
Breakfast


Breakfast is simple in our home. Generally, we offer a choice of oatmeal or cream of wheat, both of which we purchase in large bulk bags.
If you want a change, spicy vegan breakfast sausage is super easy and incredibly inexpensive to make. It freezes beautifully. I had four patties in the freezer. We used them for supper, but they make an equally delicious and welcome, grab-and-go meal for breakfast.
Main Dishes



- Barbecue Lentil Sandwich Filling
- Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpea Curry
- Veggie Potpie
- Vegan Hummus Quesadillas
Side Dishes and Salads
The nice thing about sides and salads is that you can often combine the leftovers and create and entire smorgasbord meal once or even twice a week.
This method cuts way down on food waste, and allows each family member to sample the dishes that they like most.



- 5 Ingredient Refried Beans
- Crispy Roasted Chickpeas
- Caesar Pasta Salad (Vegan)
- Hummus
- Caesar Dressing
- Homemade Tortillas
Soup



During cold weather, there is nothing that makes you remember what it feels like to sit in your mother’s kitchen after a day in the snow, like a bowl of warm soup.
These soups are creamy, filling, and taste amazing.
Dessert
It was Valentine’s Day on Monday. Although I didn’t get this dessert made on the exact day, I did create a special dessert later in the week which had homemade chocolate oat milk ice cream layered over a base of vanilla cookies (which we bought from our favorite ethnic food store in week 1 of this challenge for just 33¢ per package).
Total Cost of This Menu
What’s on your menu?
I’d love for you to share your weekly, money-saving menu plans in the comments section.
Our money saving menu for this week:
Black bean tostadas
Pineapple fried rice
Shepard’s pie
Carrot dogs and dorritos–under the median recipe
Bbq soy curl sandwiches
Lentil soup and rolls–under the median recipe
Waffles, hasbrowns and sausage patties. Sausage recipe from under the median.
Thanks for all the great ideas Hope and Larry!
I love your menu plan! I might steal that “breakfast for dinner” idea for next week. There’s something very comforting about doing that every once in a while.
I have been watching your YouTube videos for a while now, but had never visited your website. I am happy to inform you that I just love it. You guys are really helping me to take control of my budget and my progress in the process of adjusting to a better frugal life. Thank you so very much.
We are so glad to hear that we’ve been helpful to you. We’re glad to have you as part of the Under the Median family.
So glad I checked out your menus this week. I bought Butternut Squash last night but could not find my recipe for the soup. I will be using your recipe tomorrow. Thanks so much for sharing.
You are very welcome. It’s one of our favorite soups.
I was able to get a dozen extra large eggs, a bag of hamburger buns & a bag of shredded cheddar cheese from Randall’s this week for free! They have amazing digital coupons. They had bananas on sale for $0.29 a pound. They also had Libby’s can vegetables on sale (limit 6) 3/$1.
Oh my gosh! What a great haul! And the price was certainly right. Congrats. That price on the canned goods is amazing. I found them for 50¢ a can recently and did a happy dance.
Hi Hope! Love your information and videos. Do you designate certain meals for lunches or do you do have it all cooked in the fridge and ready to grab by preference or maybe eat leftovers for lunch? Thanks!
I tend to cook about 4 hours on Saturday, making as much as I can from the menu plan. I generally get enough cooked for 4 days or so. I mix and match as the week goes on. Some things last longer than I think they will. I wind up cooking an hour or so on two other days throughout the week. This method works pretty well – without items languishing in the fridge and going bad before we can eat them.
We will be trying some of your meal idea’s as we are trying to save money not only to get debt free but also to get a house. we are from the UK. you do have a lot of good idea’s.
So happy to have you with us. We’re delighted that you’ve found the menu plans helpful.
I can’t for the life of me figure out how to download the free pantry workbook. Help!
Alyssa, no worries. Here’s the link to sign up for the pantry stock up workbook. https://underthemedian.com/pantry-stock-up/