The Grocery Diaries | Chelsey's Under $1000 April Challenge — Intro

Come with me on a month-long journey into the weeds of my grocery spending

Welcome to the first installment of The Grocery Diaries!

Ever since I started living on my own in college, I have tried to be wise with my money when it comes to spending on food. Unlike a water bill or a mortgage, groceries are a variable expense—without intention, you can spend more than you plan to really easily.

When Christian and I got married in 2009, I tried to spend less than $200 a month on groceries. For the most part, we stuck to that. We were motivated to stick to our budget because I got pregnant very quickly after we got married and we really wanted to pay off Christian’s student loans before the baby came. Once our first son was born, I stayed home, which cut our income in half, necessitating keeping a very small and simple budget.

The USDA puts out a monthly cost of food report, and in the month we got married, the report says the “thriftiest” monthly cost for a household like ours (based on gender/age) was about $320.¹

It’s now 2025, and no one needs me to tell them that food prices have gone up. Using our current household, the USDA now says the monthly cost on their “Thrifty” plan is about $1,500. Our usual grocery budget (including toiletries and household items like toilet paper) is $1200, so we already beat the USDA’s total. But in an attempt to challenge myself and also highlight how I grocery shop, I’m setting our budget this month at $1000.

Notes and Nuances

🔹Our family consists of two adults approaching 40; a 15 year old boy; an almost 14 year old boy; an almost 8 year old girl; and a 5 year old boy. We also have a dog, but his food is in a different category.

🔹This budget does not include eating out. We do take the kids out on one-on-one dates each month, but our budget for the family eating out together is very small and basically only used for emergencies.

🔹The stores that I can easily go to are Walmart, Aldi, Kroger, and Publix, and I also have a Costco membership.

🔹I do use coupons, but only digital ones in the Kroger and Publix store apps.

🔹I use the website Southern Savers to find the best deals and coupons (full disclosure: I’m an independent contractor with Southern Savers, but I don’t get anything out of you using their website—it’s all free!).

🔹We get most of our meat from a local butcher, and I’ll include how much I spend on that as well.

Apps that Help Me Save Money

There are three main apps that I use on an almost daily basis that you’ll hear me mentioning throughout the month.

📱 I use YNAB (You Need a Budget) to plan our grocery budget and track my spending. I also enter in each receipt manually after I go to the store, even though the program will sync up with my bank account.

• 🔗 referral link — we both get a free month, but you also get 34 days free when you sign up

📱 I use Plan to Eat to plan my meals and generate a grocery list.

• 🔗referral link — get 20% off your first annual subscription and I get a 20% commission; the first month is a free trial

📱 I scan all my receipts with Fetch Rewards.

• 🔗 referral link — get 2,000 points when you scan your first receipt, and I’ll get 4,000

How I’ll Format the Posts

Each week I’ll share the following:

• 🛒 Grocery Haul

• 🗂 Breakdown by Store & Date

• 💡 Spending by Category

• 🔥 Best Deals of the Week

• 🍽️ What We Ate This Week

• 💰 Running Total for April

• 📝 Notes & Reflections

At the end of the month, I’ll do a wrap up with all the calculations you could ever want, and probably many that you don’t care about.

Chelsey, Why Are You Doing This?

Because I am a grocery budget nerd, I love reading other people share what they spend on groceries and what they’re buying. This may not apply to you, and if so, that’s OK—just skip the rest of these posts this month and stick to the book roundups or more personal essays. I know from past experience that many of my readers are moms who are in charge of the food in their homes, so I hope this can be helpful and encouraging to them. I also know that many people don’t even have a grocery budget or track their spending at all, so I’m hoping this micro-examination of our spending might encourage you to set a goal for a month and see if you can beat it.

I’m also hoping this keeps me accountable. Whenever I’ve tried to do this in the past, I usually lose steam after the first week. Knowing I have to report back into the void will, I hope, keep me on track.

If you have any questions or thoughts about this, please let me know! I want to be helpful and I’d love to know how I can encourage you.

1. You can see the monthly food reports for the last gazillion years here: USDA Cost of Food Monthly Reports