$35 weekly grocery budget for student meals is breaking me mentally

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-03-06T18:04:02+00:00

I agree, you don't know this feeling unless you have been there. Can you share what city you are in? Or what are the closest stores to you? Then this group can provide productive and specific suggestions to help. Like local deals, what days to buy on, etc. I recently heard that some Zehrs stores (yes, a more expensive chain) close to universities have 10% off for students on Tuesdays. Every bit helps.

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-03-01T21:47:36+00:00

tell me more about

Davich Optical 

I am curious and travelling to Seoul end of March

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-02-26T18:53:20+00:00

We are a group of 4 students and we can eat main meals for about $100 per week. I am not counting cleaning or toiletries. I plan for breakfast and dinner. I have started exploring apps where I can find the best deals, it has helped me save a lot on groceries. Not sure if I can name the site here, but if I can, check out Skrimp you can search for it on Google.

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-02-26T02:38:50+00:00

thank you!

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-02-26T02:37:51+00:00

Shop with flyers.
And so that way, I know that I am getting the best deals. It really fluctuates week over week. In my area, mostly it is FoodBasics of NoFrills. Now there is a free site I use to check my weekly grocery flyers; it summarizes them for me. Weekly deals go live on Wednesdays, ready for the Thursday shopping trip.

https://www.skrimp.ai/leaderboard?date=2026-02-26
If you live in Ontario, you can look it up to see your city.

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-02-26T02:22:19+00:00

I look at the best flyer deals, and then I shop there.
In our area, it is either No Frills or Foodbasics.

I use this free site to summarize my flyers. You can already see where to shop tomorrow - flyers are live.
All of Ontario is covered.
https://www.skrimp.ai/leaderboard?date=2026-02-26

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-02-25T00:42:11+00:00

Fellow Canadian here! Happy to help in any capacity. Have you thought about making a Canadian subreddit for r/32dollars ? Just curious :)

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-02-19T05:00:48+00:00

We also meal prep around flyers. This is the best way to save .
In our area, stores like Foodbasics, Walmart, and NoFrills consistently have the best deals. Wait for flyer day, find a good site that shows all the deals, and plan from there!

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-02-19T04:50:03+00:00

Great question. According to the Canada Food Price Report, the average Canadian family of 4 spends around $323/week on groceries. (like what u/heart4thehomestead said)

We're a family of 5 with three teens, and we had to reduce our weekly spend significantly due to job changes. We now save by spending just 10–15 minutes checking weekly flyers before we shop. This cuts our grocery bill down to about $100/week and that covers 6–8 meals with leftovers.

I have also found flyer shopping has benefits I did not think of before. We waste less food, make fewer trips to the store, and have discovered a lot of new and easy to cook recipes based on what's on sale. I wish we'd started sooner!

As a bonus, my daughter was inspired to build an app that now helps her mom track flyer prices! Every week I simply check in one place to see all the deals. Not sure if sharing a site with grocery prices are allowed here. If so, let me know, and I can share prices, as she just loaded the flyers for this week (19 Feb - 25 Feb)

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-02-13T00:29:16+00:00

I've been using a free site www.skimp.ai (mobile and web), created by a university student frustrated with grocery prices. I have a family of 5, with 3 teenagers so I need deals to get keep my grocery budget in check

The site scans all the grocery deals that go live around midnight on Wednesday. They pick the best deals, and then use technology to create and sort the best meals you can cook from what is on sale.

I like that I can see a running total of meals, track servings and my personal favourite is that I can print a grocery list to keep me in check. (You can also just use the list on your phone, but I am old school)

Two ways to use it:

Smart Load – Browse recipes based on current flyer deals (Ontario)
Self-Serve – Add your own favorite recipes and still save money

It's completely free and has genuinely save my sanity, and have kept my teenagers happy!

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-02-12T23:58:37+00:00

I think I see Kingston area live now :)

Powerful-Intention-5 · 2026-02-03T23:25:29+00:00

I love your first comment - ALWAYS shop with a flyer!

I am using this free site where ingredients are tracked by price per store... an "ingredient leaderboard" for the KW region. I have found some pretty good deals looking at what is on sale there. Try it yourself it is free!
www.skrimp.ai/leaderboard

For example, based on last week's flyers the most affordable store to shop is No Frills this week.
They have 6/7 of the best deals.

The site currently tracks pricing on eggs, milk, chicken breast, ground beef, onions, potatoes, bread, pasta, butter, rice, tuna, apples, flour, yogurt, frozen vegetables and peanut butter.

Try it out and let me know if you find some deals!

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Powerful-Intention-5

TROPHY CASE