I’m going to get back to sharing my meal plans because it is one of my biggest money saving methods! I went from spending hundreds and hundreds (sometimes over $1000) of dollars a month on food at the grocery store as well as going out to eat. To spending just a couple hundred dollars a month total to feed both of us all our meals as well as purchasing food for my cats and dog as well. So if you are looking for a way to save hundreds of dollars a month, you should plan your meals!
Related Post – My process for Meal Planning
I’m hoping these posts can give you some new recipe ideas as well as an idea of how much a meal plan can cost per week. Click on a recipe below to go to the website I found them on. You can also check out my Pinterest page for the pins of these recipes.
This week we are making:
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas
At the grocery store, I needed the following:
- Chicken Breasts (I buy multiple packages and freeze them so I always have it on hand, so this is 16 chicken breasts) $34.05
- Yellow and orange bell peppers $3.00
- Avocados (to eat with breakfast) $2.97
- Pears $3.07
- Cilantro $.69
- Blueberries $3.75
- Apples $2.27
- Lemons and Limes $6
- Onions $1.56
- Bananas $1.40
- Tomato Paste $.79
- Pasta $1.79
- Bread $3.49
Total = $66.77
As you can see, chicken was the most expensive thing we bought, but that chicken will feed us for at least a month (if not more). So for a weekly cost, this was a little high for us, but that’s ok because the chicken will last a while.
Although $66.77 may sound a bit expensive, that is all the food we will need for the entire week (breakfast, lunch and dinner for two people). Also of note here is that I do not shop to spend the least amount of money I can, I do however look at sales on what I need in a given week and shop accordingly at different stores if it will save me money. You can eat much cheaper than this if you try but you probably won’t get to choose your recipes as freely and you may sacrifice nutrition for the price.
All of these meals are easy to make after working a long day. They won’t take hours and hours and none of the ingredients are difficult to find. I found a jar of alfredo sauce in our cupboard which is what prompted me to choose the alfredo bake. I try to use ingredients that I have on hand whenever possible.
If you don’t want to find the recipes yourself, you should try $5 Meal Plan – it does the work for you.
Have you tried to do meal planning? What is holding you back?
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