My username is amyleighwarren.
As far as my grocery budget, I do most of my grocery shopping at Aldi and just supplement with Wal-Mart (for things you can't get at Aldi.) I do things like buying a whole chicken (for about $3) and cutting it up myself or roasting it whole vs. spending $5 on 4 chicken breasts. A roast chicken serves as dinner and then there's enough leftover for chicken salad at lunch the next day.
I went shopping today after printing off the sparkpeople grocery list (for the upcoming two weeks). It was 3 columns long on my notebook paper and I was scared how much it was going to cost. I went to Aldi first and got about 3/4 of it for $68 and then got the rest at Wal-Mart for $55. So it was less than $130 and I don't have to think about the meals. (I also got some extras for the girls included in those totals.) If you have an Aldi in you town, I highly recommend shopping there. Yes, you have to pay for your cart and bags (or collect boxes), but it ends up saving me about $40 every two weeks.
The meal plans on sparkpeople are very produce heavy and include very few processed foods, lots of whole wheat, etc. I think it will be fun to try for a while considering its not that much more expensive than our "not so good" meals. BTW, I picked the no red meat plan.
