[ budget ] :: one week of meals on the cheap!

Over the past year The Hubs and I have had two main goals: be healthier and watch our spending. But it's hard to eat healthy on a budget. Especially when you have a Hubs that eats like a bear, and some nights you'd rather just not cook at all.

I've been wanting to do a post like this for a while to show that it is possible to eat well while being frugal. This plan is for two adults that like to eat and covers all of our food - breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks - every day. I included pictures from each day so you can get an idea of how much we are eating and what these meals look like! Links for each recipe are included, and a shopping list, too!

The weekend is a smorgasborg of fridge-food - we usually have a fair amount of food leftover. This week, we had extra salad greens, apples, broccoli, rice, and other snacks. I didn't include this in our meal plan, but on Saturday/Sunday we had popcorn and Hershey's Special Dark chocolate (we watched movies) and had goat cheese and crackers that were leftover appetizers that we bought for a party. Here is what our typical meals look like! 

Breakfasts:

Eggs and steamed kale/spinach sprinkled with Parmesan (kind of like a "deconstructed omelet") with juice and coffee.

 Lunches:

 

Turkey sandwiches with either baby kale or spinach, spread with whole-grain mustard. We like a serving of fruit or veggies on the side and Greek yogurt (I sprinkled mine with some leftover pumpkin seeds).

Saturday brunch - turkey sausage, eggs, and a simple baby kale and strawberry salad. Our "dressing of the week" was Champagne Vinaigrette.

Snacks:

Our favorite cheap snacks - chips and salsa are always on hand, and we can devour some carrots and hummus.

 We like to have 2 snacks per day - one is usually a serving (or two) of fruit in the mid-morning. If we're still hungry later in the day, we'll have another apple or a banana. The Hubs likes to have an apple with peanut butter when he gets home from work.

Dinners:

Chili Soup over Rice

Right: Breakfast for Dinner - two eggs over medium, wilted kale (about 2 cups per person), turkey sausage, and strawberries. Yum! Left: Chili Soup over Rice - this stuff is so yummy and is really great as lunch leftovers!

Kale Pasta Bowl and Tomato, Chicken, and Rice Soup

Left: Kale Pasta Bowl - I am obsessed with this recipe and it is a ton of food. Our plates look quite full of pasta, but there is a good amount of kale under it all! Right: Tomato, Chicken, and Rice Soup - this is comfort food for me, and this recipe goes a long way. It's really delicious leftover since it gets thicker over time. Served alongside a leafy green salad, it makes a filling but healthy meal.

Shredded BBQ Chicken, Rice, and Broccoli

How easy is this - bake some chicken breasts (35 minutes on 350 degrees) or throw them in the slow cooker (4 hours on HIGH), shred them before serving and toss with BBQ sauce. We had this along with some wild rice (I had it in the pantry already, but brown rice will work fine) and plain steamed broccoli. Can you tell that this is my favorite veggie? It was really good all kind of mixed together - this would make a great rice bowl!

So how much did this week of meals cost me? Well, I had a lot of the ingredients in my pantry and freezer already, and got some of the other items on sale or with coupons. It is so important to buy produce and meat when they are on sale and freeze or save them for later. I spent a Grand Total of $31.03 on groceries for this menu. I went to Aldi and got the majority of my items for less than I could get at other grocery stores. I already had most of the pantry items and had meat in my freezer.

Just in case you don't have everything you need, I priced out the ingredients for you. If you shop the lowest prices available to you (without buying anything gross looking), you would spend approximately $70.00 at the store, assuming you had the rice, pasta, etc on hand. Still not bad, right?!

So, here's some math: 7 days of meals X 5 meals/snacks per day X 2 adults = 70 meals. Using my amazing powers of frugality, that works out to be an average of $0.45 per meal/snack. If you were to go and buy all of these items, it comes to an average of $0.86 per meal/snack. Of course, some meals are more expensive (like the BBQ chicken) and some snacks are super cheap (like the bananas).

If you try out the meal plan, let me know how it goes! Change things up a bit to suit your lifestyle and diet...and yes, I am aware that we eat a ton of rice. Happy cooking! :)

- Maggie White