Dollar Tree: How To Spend Just $21 a Week on Grocery Shopping

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Anyone who eats knows that food prices have been rising steadily over the past few years and even as inflation cooled, grocery bills continued to climb.

According to the Census Bureau, the average family spends $270 per week at the supermarket, but for the TikTok influencer known as Dollar Tree Dinners, $21 is all it takes to eat for seven days.

She went into the dollar store armed only with a $20 bill, a $1 bill and a $5 coupon and came out with a week’s worth of food. 

What She Bought

She headed to the dollar store on a Saturday because that’s the only day her coupon was good and purchased the following items:

• A two-pound bag of flour: $1.25
• Instant mashed potato flakes: $2.75
• One pound of dried beans: $1
• A two-pound bag of white rice: $1.65
• One jar of chicken bullion powder: $2.50
• A half-gallon of milk: $2.70
• Margarine: $1.50
• A dozen eggs: $3.75
• Bologna: $1.50
• Hot dogs: $1.75
• Two bags of mixed vegetables: $3
• A loaf of sandwich bread: $1.50
• One bag of potato chips: $1

Total: $25.85 ($20.85 with the $5 coupon)

What She Ate

Here’s how the TikTok influencer turned $21 into a week’s worth of food.

Day 1:

• Breakfast: Skipped breakfast to shop for ingredients at the dollar store. 
• Lunch: Bologna sandwich with potato chips.
• Dinner: Gnocchi soup. She made a small portion of instant mashed potatoes with milk and margarine and mixed it with flour and one egg to make a dough, which she then cut into small squares. Separately, she heated margarine, flour, milk, chicken bouillon and corn from the mixed vegetables and spices, then added her gnocchi squares and cooked them until they floated.

Day 2:

• Breakfast: A breakfast sandwich made with one fried egg and two fried bologna slices between two slices of bread.
• Lunch: Reheated leftover gnocchi soup.
• Dinner: Fried pupusa created from refried beans wrapped in tortillas made from flour and water.

Day 3:

• Breakfast: Huevos rancheros made from leftover tortillas and refried beans with a fried egg.
• Lunch: Last of the leftover gnocchi soup.
• Dinner: Fried rice cooked with diced hot dogs, mixed vegetables, two scrambled eggs and chicken bullion.

Day 4:

• Breakfast: Fried bologna and egg breakfast sandwich.
• Lunch: Leftover fried rice.
• Dinner: Boiled and fried pierogies made from water and flour for the dough and heavily spiced instant mashed potatoes for the filling.

Day 5:

• Breakfast: Beans and sliced hot dogs sauteed and served with a fried egg.
• Lunch: Bologna sandwich with potato chips.
• Dinner: Pasta made from flour, salt and water boiled into a soup with mixed vegetables, flour, chicken bullion and margarine.

Day 6:

• Breakfast: Fried potato pancakes made from instant mashed potatoes, one egg and flour.
• Lunch: White rice with leftover hot dog and bean mixture.
• Dinner: Pan-fried chimichangas made from flour tortillas with refried beans, chicken bullion and seasoning for the filling.

Day 7:

• Breakfast: Leftover potato pancakes.
• Lunch: Peruvian tacu-tacu made from leftover cooked beans and white rice mixed into a paste and fried, served with a fried egg on top.
• Dinner: Pasta made from flour, egg and water, formed into dough and cut with a scissor into small pieces into boiling water and then fried in margarine with spices and chicken bullion.

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