how to shop when you're broke and have a family

Do you have food banks in your area?

Chicken thighs are usually cheaper and are tasty...take the skin off and it's not bad calorie wise.

Looks like you have a Big Lots in your area, they have pretty heavily discounted canned goods. You just have to check the expiration dates.

Do you grow your own food at all?

There was a while that I really needed to pinch the pennies in regards to food shopping. In fact, my food allowance was about $20-25/week, except for the "meat week", which I'll explain below. Albeit, it was only for my husband (at the time) and myself but I'm just hoping I can help with some of my experiences.

-I ALWAYS would shop the flyers from the local grocery stores.
-I would generally buy meat in bulk 1 time a month freezing them into the portions that we would use. I would usually by the cheap cuts, like chicken quarter, finding a bunch of ways to prepare them.
-One of the stores I would frequent would batch fruits and veggies that were slightly bruised selling a HUGE discounts......sometimes pennies for what it was worth.
-Buy items that can be used a number of ways......like pasta, rice, chicken, beef, etc.

I know that some of the ideas are just simple but I did want to try to help.

I second the motion to switch to oatmeal from boxed cereals. Sounds like you are making healthy choices but cheerieos, mini wheats, raisin bran etc. are crazy expensive compared to oatmeal. As the previous poster suggested, add things to your oatmeal to make it more interesting. Brown sugar, raisins, maple syrup, apples, peaches, blueberries etc. If your family misses the crunch maybe you could make your own granola too. It's not as hard as it sounds.

I've shopped at walmart before to grocery shop and can usually get out of most grocery stores spending about $115 on weekly groceries including some frozen quick foods for the hubby to take to work for his lunches. I try to bargain shop, I look at the circulars and see what's on sale and base a weekly menu off them. I buy chicken breasts and section out a serving for each person in freezer bags, ground turkey and section out 1/2 a pound in separate freezer bags (use half for spaghetti, half for meatball sandwiches). I buy veggies (zucchini, onion, potatoes, mushrooms, spinach), fruit (bananas, strawberries, grapes), rice, pasta, canned crushed tomatoes, canned stewed tomatoes, salsa, kids lunchables are normally a dollar a piece, and I get those to pack in my daughter's lunches, shredded cheeses (for addition to salads or for pasta bakes, omelettes), natural lightly salted popcorn, wheat sub bread, extra virgin olive oil, eggs, turkey sausage crumbles (and only use one serving per batch of scrambled eggs for the family.. goes a lot further and flavors eggs wonderfully) almond milk, both vanilla and chocolate (easier for kids to willingly drink) and waters. We don't do juices, or sodas in our house... strictly water or almond milk and almond milk is only allowed twice a day.

My favorite recipes are:

Breakfast: Turkey sausage/cheese/spinach omelettes (2 eggs, 1/4 serving of turkey sausage, 1/4 cup of spinach, and 1/4 cup of shredded cheese.

lunch: (school at this time, so she typically eats a lunchable with almond milk. and hubby eats a cheap lean cuisine frozen meal, I eat a few servings of spinach with light ranch or a serving of fruit)

after school snack: fruit or popcorn with cold water.

dinner: Spinach side salad with light ranch dressing (or dressing of their liking), Zucchini boats (zucchini split in half, spoon out just a bit of the center to make room for filling of ground turkey, homemade spaghetti sauce using canned crushed tomatoes with garlic paste, chopped onion, and italian seasoning, topped with mozz cheese. (can add turkey or low sodium pepperoni for the little ones)

(This is just one of our typical meal days)