What $108 Bought for a Family of 7 (Real Grocery Haul)

What we bought for $108

This shop wasn’t about buying everything – it was about topping up what we needed and using what we already had at home.

Here’s a snapshot of what we picked up:
• Pantry top-ups – Tea, Chips, Coffee, Sugar, Weet-Bix, Crackers, Chocolate Spread
• Fresh Produce – Avocado
• Dairy Items – Sour Cream, Butter & Milk
• A few essentials for lunches and dinners.

The key: We didn’t start from zero.

The System Behind it

One thing people often ask is

“How is that enough for a family of 7?”

And the answer is simple – we don’t shop from scratch every week.

Here is what we do instead:

We use our Pantry

We always have basics on hand like: 
• Flour
• Milk Powder
• Rice
• Couscous
• Pasta
• Sugar
• Baking Basics (Yeast, baking powder ect)

This means we can: 
• Bake our own bread
• Make snacks
• Stretch meals further

We use our freezer

We build meals around what we already have:
• Frozen Veggies
• Bulk Buys (ie. meat, sour cream, ect)
• Leftover meals

We plan before we shop

We don’t just go shopping and “see what looks good”
We:
• Plan meals first
• Check what we already have
• Only buy what we actually need

How did we stretch our groceries

We make a lot of everyday ingredients from scratch using what we already have.

When I made school snacks last week, I baked a big batch of carrot cake. I had everything except cream-cheese – so I makde it myself using powdered milk.

I bake bread most days, and we keep breakfasts simple – cerial, smoothies, or meusli. Sometimes I make a batch of waffles and freeze them for easy mornings.

If we’re running low on milk, I’ll make powdered milk instead. Sometimes I mix it with fresh milk if I know it’ll be used quickly.

This is where the real savings happen – using what you already have and making simple swaps instead of buying more.

Why this works

This approach helps us:

• Avoid extra trips to the store
• Stop impulse spending
• Make the most of what we already have
• Keep our weekly grocery budget under control.

This wasn’t a “Full Shop” – and that’s the point.  Trying to buy everything every week is where budgets blow out. Instead of doing this, we build our pantry over time, use what we have, and top up as needed.