Meal Planning is the simplest thing you can do each week to save lots of money! I want to provide my meal plans for free so others can eat healthier and learn to plan their own meals to save money.
Are you new to meal planning? Check out my post that tells you exactly the steps I follow to plan my meals. Too lazy to find recipes and make the shopping list? That’s ok too – $5 Meal Plan is the way to go. It does the work for you.
Related Post: How I Meal Plan every Week
Here are the recipes we are making this week:
- Honey Chipotle BBQ Chicken
- Carnitas Enchiladas (no recipe, I just mix up what we have and what we feel like. This week we have leftover carnitas from last week so I’m putting them into enchiladas)
- Cajun Sausage Pasta
- French Dip Sandwiches
My grocery store shopping list:
- Yogurt (x10) – $10.00
- Tortillas (2 packs) – $4.58
- French Rolls – $2.99
- French onion soup – $3.34
- Enchilada Sauce (x2) – $3.76
- Salsa (x2) – $5.99
- Cheezit Snack Mix (one of my weaknesses) – $2.99
- Penne Pasta – $1.00
- Milk – $2.19
- Ginger Beer (not for cooking, but I did purchase it, so I am including it) – $4.99
- Apples – $8.67
- Blackberries (x4) – $3.08
- Tomatoes – $1.50
- Blueberries – $1.50
- Avocados (x6) – $5.28
- Lemons – $4.00
- Limes – $3.00
- Clementines – $1.98
- Bananas – $0.67
- BBQ Kettle Chips (another weakness x2) – $1.98
- Cajun Sausage – $5.19
- Sirloin Roast – $14.44
- Cookie Dough ice cream – $3.19
- Pina Colada fruit bars – $1.99
Total $99.59
That’s $49.79 per person for all our meals this week! We spent a bit more this week because we bought a roast as well as some added treats. If you can resist buying extra “treats” your wallet and your waistline will thank you! Notice we spent $15.44 on unnecessary purchases (sweets, snacks and ginger beer). None of these things improve our nutrition, nor our physical well-being. So next week, I will keep myself in check at the grocery store.
Meal planning and not eating out can save you so much money! You can also pick recipes that have less expensive ingredients if you want to save even more. Use $5 meal plan if you don’t have the time or patience to plan out meals like I do.
Don’t forget to pack your own lunch for work as well as make coffee and breakfast before you leave home. You’ll save so much money if you don’t buy food and drinks outside of what you make at home. This easily adds up to hundreds of dollars of savings every month!
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