Growing up I watched my mom literally budget to save every penny she could at the grocery store. Sometimes we didn’t have the fanciest food and very rarely did we have pre-made foods. But, since she was an amazing cook she could make the humblest of ingredients taste good- and feed a crowd as well.
With inflation prices getting a little higher each day the weekly shop has gotten mighty expensive in some areas. Factor in other issues -like special diets to stick to- and you’ll have an even harder time saving at the grocery. So it’s no wonder that there’s been a revival of some of the the old “thrifty housewife” type shopping guides lately. And some of them are pretty darn good!
Jenn Lueke of the Instagram and YouTube handles Jenna Eats Goood has been making videos that feature recipes for wholesome dinners for a week for 2 people. And, her cost each week? Around $75! For many of us that would be hard to achieve for even 1 person, let alone 2!
The real kicker is that her meals are often often low-carb and always contain plenty of proteins and veggies. She often does her shopping at Trader Joe’s and then posts her grocery list.
An example shopping list includes chicken breasts, Italian chicken sausage, ground chicken, frozen shrimp, chickpeas, nuts, and mushrooms for the proteins. For the veggies there’s cauliflower rice, kale, carrots, peppers, onion, broccoli, cucumbers, and sweet potatoes.
From there she shares individual recipes on her channels one at a time. Lueke relies on ingredient prep to make her recipes work for her. She chops up her veggies at the beginning of the week so that combining them in recipes later on is easy and quick.
When talking about grocery costs it certainly helps if you don’t rely on prepared foods as they can eat up your budget (so to speak) quite quickly. By doing meal planning and “mise en place” style prep the temptation to get takeout or to buy ready-meals is reduced since all you have to do is throw together the ingredients.
What’s missing from her grocery list are breakfast foods and some common carb-heavy staples like bread or rice. Also there are no snacks from this shopping trip, however her recipes do often make enough for leftovers, which could be eaten for snacks or lunches later in the week.
See what you think of her chicken sausage sheet pan veggie dinner in the video below. Do you think you could eat well on just $37.50 person per week for dinners?