Meal Planning on a Budget

Everyone is watching their pennies right? I know we are. Recently, I made it my mission to cut down our grocery bill. We were so used to just buying what we wanted when we wanted that it was getting out of hand. Then, I'd find myself throwing away SO much food. Seriously, it pains me to throw away good, clean food. UGH. Changes had to be made. So, last month I started recording our grocery  bills. The biggest change was our breakfast/lunches which I slimmed down and bought in bulk. No more, 'oh maybe I'll have bell peppers, how many should I buy...hmm... let's just throw 4 in the basket'. NO. Now if bell peppers (insert food name) is not on the list... I don't buy it. Simple right?!

Step 1: Meal Plan

Each Sunday (or Monday if I'm lazy), I will right out a detailed plan for myself and for all of our dinners. Chris doesn't eat breakfast or snacks so I really on need to worry about lunches and dinner for my love. Me on the other hand... I like to EAT...like ALL THE TIME. So, I plan out breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Here is a sample of my meal plan for last week.

First put in your activities, then plan around them so you won't be caught off guard. 

Tip #1 - Breakfast/Lunch Batch Cooking

Breakfast for the next four days. YUM-O.

Plan similar or the same breakfast and lunches for each day of your week. This helps take the guess work out of 'what's for breakfast/lunch' and I don't know about you, but I'm not much of a good thinker at breakfast and lunches I just want the fastest thing. Having it all pre-made and in the refrigerator ready to go will help you stay on track for your clean eating goals and will also prevent "I'm STARVING" bad decisions. I have four Pyrex dishes that I use for each breakfast/lunch, which means I make four days worth of meals ahead of time. I find that this is about the life span of keeping the meal fresh so this timing works for me. Really its 5 days, bc I will make that day's meal while I'm making them.

Tip #2- Make 2+ Dinners Vegetarian

Each week, I will pressure cooker (or you could slow cooker) beans for us to eat. Every week is a new bean type (Black Eyed, Red Bean, White Bean, Lentils) to keep it fresh. We actually LOVE beans and they are so easy to make with huge taste/yumminess payoff. Plus, one pot will last us two meals. SCORE. Pair with rice and a salad/veggie and you've got your protein, carb and veggie in one easy meal. Fast and inexpensive and yummy. My kind of meal.

Step 2: Grocery Shop

Salad bases for the next four days. All set.

If you plan your meals out ahead of time, you have ALL the food right there on a neat list that you need to buy. DON'T buy anything additional that is not on that meal plan. This will help you stay on plan as well as on budget. Two important things we're after.

I usually do a Costco/Sam's run twice a month and a regular grocery store run twice a week or so. There is no reason you can't get away with doing one grocery store run a week, just buy everything on the list. :)

So here is how my week will play out:

• Breakfasts $2.01 to $2.45 (Parfaits- alternating fruit toppings) for 7 days = $15.83
• Yogurt- 6 oz a day = 42 oz 
• Chibani Greek Yogurt at Sam's $4.98 for 38 oz (Buy 3 for 2 weeks) 
• $0.83 per serving (6 servings in one container)
• Quakers Oatmeal at Costco $7.98 for 120 servings
• $0.07 per serving
• Frozen Fruit (Mango Mix $8.88 for 64oz & Cherries $9.28 48oz)
• $1.55 per serving (cherries) for 6 servings per bag
• $1.11 per serving (mango/pineapple) for 8 servings per bag
• Lunch $2.22 (Salads) for 7 days = $15.54
• Garden mix from Sam's or Costco $3.98 for 16 oz or 7 servings
• $0.57 per serving
• Cherry tomatoes from Sam's/Costco $5.98 for 32oz or 5 servings
• $1.20 per serving
• Healthy Ranch Dressing
• Tofu from Costco $14.99 for 14 packs of 12oz
• 1 week of Dressing needs two packs of tofu
• $0.30 per serving
• Spices already in kitchen. Estimating high end of cost. 
• $0.15 per serving

Got to spend my morning with this sweet nugget.
He watched cartoons, I made my meals.

For all of my breakfasts and lunches, I will spend $31.37 before tax. Not too bad! In a future post, I will talk dinners on a budget in detail, so look out for that post to come. 

If this is interesting to you, facebook or email me and we can chat. We learn this and more in the monthly challenge groups I run. If you're interested in joining, I would LOVE to hear from you. (jennifergunnell@gmail.com or fb: Jen Gunnell)

I'm always learning and building as each day/week comes. Would love to hear your suggestions/comments on how to improve or clarify. 

Lots of healthy love!!!