We built a week of groceries around a daily food budget of $6.0484. Multiply that by seven days and you get $42.3388, so the most the week can cost is $42.33. The plan covers about 2,126 kcal a day. The question was whether it holds up when someone stands at a register with a real receipt.
Here is what we found and what it took.
The result
We priced 20 items. Food counts at the whole package. Coffee, oil, salt and spices count at the share the week actually uses.
| | Total | |---|---| | Budgeted total | $36.59 | | Budget ceiling | $42.33 | | Under budget by | $5.74 | | Full receipt total (every package at full price) | $50.56 |
Nothing had to be swapped out. The plan came in under budget as written.
Why there are two totals
The register does not care what your week uses. It charges for the whole jar, bag and bottle.
The gap between the two totals is $13.97. That is the unused part of the coffee ($4.13 of $6.68), the oil ($3.36 of $3.64), the salt ($0.66) and the spice jars ($5.83 of $6.20). It stays in your pantry for next week.
We show both numbers on purpose. If we only showed the lower one, someone would shop, see $50.56 on the receipt, and think the plan was wrong. Both are true. They answer different questions.
What we locked down
We made three decisions so the numbers could not drift.
**One store.** We chose H-E-B in Deer Park, store 715. It was also the cheapest store that carried all 20 items: Walmart came to $52.65 and Kroger to $55.96 at whole-package prices. Aldi did not have chicken, oats, salt or pepper. The plan is now built for store 715 no matter what the others charge.
**One figure.** The daily figure is locked at $6.0484, as published on 2026-10-09. A refresh to $6.1023 is still pending, and we did not want a pending update to quietly move a challenge already under way. The build holds the figure as a fixed value and never re-reads it. The lock date is printed on the plan and on the receipt card.
**Shares, not guesses.** The week uses 4.2 ounces of an 11 ounce bag of coffee. That is 38% of the bag, or $2.55.
Two lines we corrected
The price sheet we started from had two lines that would not match what the register rings.
The chicken leg quarters were listed at $3.81, which is 3 lb at $1.27. But that store sells them only as a pack averaging 3.9 lb, at $4.95. The week eats 2.4 lb. We used $4.95, because that is what you pay.
The coffee was listed as a 12 ounce bag. The real bag is 11 ounces, so we figured the share on the real size.
The other staples were used as listed: peanut butter at 18 oz, frozen vegetables at 16 oz, the 32 oz rice, and loose russets at 3 lb for $0.79. We also checked that each week's amount fits inside its package.
What is next
Shop day is Saturday, October 17, at store 715. The plan is to photograph the whole receipt. We built a receipt card with the planned totals in one column and a blank column for the real ones. If the register disagrees with the plan, we will say so.
What you can take from this
If you budget for anything you buy in packages, price it twice: once for what you use, and once for what the register charges. Then check the pack sizes before you trust a per-pound price. A price that looks right on a sheet can be wrong at the shelf if the store only sells one size.
Fixing a single source and a single figure up front also saves arguments later. The same habit applies to a marketing budget. Decide what number you are measuring against, write it down with a date, and do not let it move halfway through.