What Does $25 Worth Of Groceries At Walmart Look Like?
Is Walmart a good place to get cheap groceries? Absolutely. But there are few things you should know if you want to get the best deals on food. Start here if you want to start saving more money on groceries.
Consumers are in a David vs. Goliath situation when it comes to grocery shopping these days.
Grocery prices continue to rise. Inflation and shrinkflation are adding to the problem. And most people’s salaries are not increasing.
You’re spending more than ever for groceries.
What are you doing about it?
Is Walmart Cheap For Groceries?
I usually recommend ALDI as a great place to shop to save money on groceries. And it is.
But I often forget about Walmart as a great place to get cheap groceries.
I recently went to Walmart to try out a $25 grocery challenge: My goal was to get as much decently healthy food as possible for $25.
Here’s what I found.
I Got All Of This Food For $25 At Walmart
How much can you get at Walmart for $25? Quite a bit! I set out with a goal of getting the most food for the least amount of money. This is what I got:
- Hummus: $2.47
- Hash browns: $1.76
- Frozen stir fry vegetables: $2.33
- Breakfast sausage: $2.76
- Turkey ham: $4.58
- Peanut butter: $1.72
- Pasta: $.82
- Green pepper: $.78
- Cucumber: $.72
- Baby carrots: $.98
- Bread: $1.00
- 1/2 dozen eggs: $1.53
- Yogurt: $1.82
- Corn flakes: $1.43
- Bananas: $1.36
- Total: $24.28
Remember: No two grocery carts are going to look the same. And there is no one-size-fits-all meal plan that will satisfy every individual or family.
But there are certain food items that give you more bang for your buck. Building your meals around those always-affordable items can help you save significant money over time.
What To Make With These Groceries
I got a good combination of food that can be combined in different ways to make different meals. This may require more groceries/ingredients (after all, I only had a $25 budget), but if you have a well stocked kitchen you probably have what you need to make the following meals:
- Ham and green pepper omelette
- Ham sandwiches
- Hash browns with green pepper and ham
- Loaded hash browns
- Basic stir fry (add meat and rice)
- Hummus and carrots for dipping
- Pasta salad with ham, sliced carrots, and green pepper
- Cornflakes with bananas
- Yogurt topped with cornflakes
- Toast with peanut butter and sliced bananas
Tips For Getting Cheap Groceries At Walmart
Walmart’s prices are often among the lowest for the products it sells. Buying online is often cheaper, but buying groceries online may come with shipping costs, delivery fees, and other expenses. This is one reason why I prefer shopping for groceries in-store.
Here are some tips for getting the cheapest groceries at Walmart:
- Great Value products: Walmart’s store brand, Great Value, is often the cheapest in the store. Most of the products I bought were the Great Value brand.
- Hunt around: For this challenge, I spent about an hour searching for the best deals on food in Walmart’s aisles. I found the cheapest and most versatile vegetable options (baby carrots, green pepper, frozen hash browns, and stir fry vegetables) and versatile meats (frozen breakfast sausage and turkey ham (cheaper than regular ham)), and some other great deals (like a $1.43 box of corn flakes).
Your grocery cart may not look like mine, but you can use these tips as a starting point for getting cheap groceries at Walmart. There are countless ways to save money on food, and shopping for groceries at Walmart is just one of them!
What Are The Cheapest Recipes?
If you’re looking for cheap recipes, you’re in luck. I’ve posted 500+ cheap recipes here on Cheap Recipe Blog.
But some recipes are cheaper than others. Here is my list of 38+ cheapest recipes on Cheap Recipe Blog, all of which are less than $1.00 per serving.
Love this post! Don’t like Walmart as a company, and probably won’t shop there, but you make a great point about shopping around for versatile, inexpensive items that can be prepared in different ways!
Yes! You don’t have to shop at Walmart to get good deals on groceries. These same items at another grocery store would probably be quite budget-friendly as well. Thanks for your comment!
Love this type of comparison. My question is what is the cost of pre-made patties vs the tube of sausage? Regular carrots vs buying ready made? I tried explaining to someone recently that every price shown under a product actually tell you the cost per ounce. Dollar Tree, now dollar & a quarter, has Campbell soup in a larger size than Wally who sells theirs for $1.78. I watch every nickel as I don’t have a lot to choose from without making a 60 mile round trip so we make do with a step down Kroger’s called Rulers and a local small grocery that everything in the store is .35 to .75 higher than Wally.
Great points, Margi! Analyzing cost per ounce is a great way to determine if you’re really getting the cheapest version of a food item.
In this case, they only had organic regular carrots which were more expensive. And the frozen sausage happened to be cheaper. Thanks for your comment!
Love your comments, Haley! Thanks
Barb Oerter
Thank you Barb!
I love your selection of items. You can make tons of varieties with these.