Our grocery budget

Julia wondered how Cliff and I get by on $70 a week for groceries.  
Of course, this time of year we're eating a lot of stuff from the garden.  That helps immensely.  In winter we eat a lot of soups, stews and casseroles, using either the beef from the freezer or chicken.  I buy those ten-pound bags of chicken leg quarters and try not to think about how those chickens were treated before they were killed.  Don't even GO there.  I also have lots of bean-and-rice dishes that are good for the body and also filling and tasty.  
If only I hadn't just carried out my trash, I would list everything I bought today.  I did go sixty cents over my $70 budget today, but last week I got by for $50.  So I'm not feeling too bad about sixty cents.  
I do make a list and stick to it fairly well.  Things I remember that were on my list... and I think this pretty well covers it:  
2 pounds Eight O'clock Coffee (with a dollar-off coupon)
coffee creamer
big bag of Mini-spooners (cheap version of spoon-size shredded wheat)
Cheerios
1 dozen eggs
1 quart milk (my cow is dry)
1 quart buttermilk
3 pounds American cheese (I refuse to buy "cheese product")
4 bananas
5 apples (for Cliff, for the lunch he takes to work)
1 Secret deodorant 
1 loaf of bread
1 gallon of the cheap vanilla ice cream
a package of 3 balls for Iris ($2.50) 
cheap brand of Ranch dressing for me
Thousand Island dressing for Cliff
a zipper plastic case to keep my Damn-Ramsey envelopes in
1 bag animal crackers (I hate them, but Cliff likes them for a snack)
1 package of iced sugar cookies Walmart marked down to $1.60
1 64 oz container of antibacterial liquid soap, Equate brand
Walmart's version of Crystal Lite.
3 cans tuna:  1 Chicken-of-the-sea, 1 Bumble Bee, and one of Walmart's brand; the latter was 49 cents as opposed to 75 cents for the highest brand.  I'm going to see if we can tell a difference.


You don't see any vegetables there because we have tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, potatoes, onions, sweet corn, cabbage and okra from the (not-that-big) garden right now.  We're eating peaches from our tree, and strawberries from the freezer.  


And now, I have a confession to make:  Because Cliff carries a generous portion of his weekly earnings in his pocket, and because I have a weakness for certain things, we splurged after we were done shopping.  When he's retired, we won't be doing this often; but right now, I say "Eat, drink, and be merry!"  
So we spent $13 at Pizza Hut followed by $5 at McDonald's for two Mocha Frappes.  
If you haven't checked out the links on my sidebar, be sure and check out Five Dollar Dinners and Hillbilly Housewife.  Harvesters is a program for anyone, no matter what their income.  Once Cliff retires, we may be taking advantage of that program; for now, we donate to them every once in a while.