But, on Tuesday, lol. I am kind of consolidating several topics into one weekly post that has to do with budgeting, pantry challenges, budget meals, meal planning, and prepping. I will try my best to always post these on Monday.
This particular meal plan actually began this past Saturday and will end on Friday. So, even though I will do the post on Monday, a few days may have gone by. The purpose of these posts is to help you find ways to plan meals for your family while sticking to a budget. We budget our food because of several reasons, to save money, avoid food waste, and just be reasonable with what we need and don’t need. Our weekly budget for 3 adults, and sometimes we have family or friends for dinner, is 100 dollars per week. We have had to adjust it a few times since I first started last fall, due to inflation. This is only for food and does not include other household items in the budget.
Here are some tips that help me to stay on budget.
- Shop with grocery pickup instead of going into the store. I was doing this all the time, but sometimes I get annoyed with their choices of fresh food, so now I am back in the store.
- I know you have heard this one before, shop the sales, and shop in season. While I agree with this, I don’t always do this. Just because hot dogs are buy one get one free does not mean we should be eating hot dogs all week. If your goal is to eat somewhat healthy and stay on a budget, it may be a little bit harder.
- Buy what you know your family will eat. Don’t buy something just because it is a good deal and then you throw it away because no one really wants it.
- Yes, beans are more affordable than meat. But, are you going to eat them? No one in my house will consistently eat beans several days a week. Yes, we would be starving if we had to. So, they are not more affordable in my house. They are just going to go to waste.
- Make a list and stick to it, even if there is a good sale.
- Shop your pantry first and try to find new recipes or ways to use items that maybe are not the favorites of the house.
- Even if you don’t need to spend your budget each week, 100 dollars for me, do it anyway and have a stocked pantry for when you can’t have that money that week.
- Skip the junk food. I know I love potato chips too, but with some simple prep work, you can have fruit and veggies all cut up and ready to snack on. Plus, fruit and veggies, for the most part, are cheaper than potato chips and other snack items. Don’t worry we eat processed foods too, though I do try very hard to limit them. You will read more about that in the menu plan.
- Buy family packs of meats and then split them up into smaller portions. One portion per person per bag. Learn what proper portions are. It will save you a lot of money.
- Don’t take children or spouses shopping with you. Just trust me.
You will see my full Walmart grocery haul. I don’t always shop at Walmart but I do find they have the best prices right now for my area. I live in Florida, so your prices may be more or less. I will share the cost of each dinner meal for the night. I don’t meal plan breakfast or lunch. No one generally eats breakfast, but there are always options for it. Lunch is a salad, sandwich, or soup. Last Summer I did some posts on pantry kits for hurricane prep or any disaster. I had to use one today, so it didn’t expire. I will be doing more of those soon, as hurricane season is coming fast. The prices below do not include condiments, butter, oil, etc. They are pennies on the dollar and I am not going to figure that out.
Some of the items in the meal plan I already had on hand. So, I will share the price from the Walmart app that I set up my grocery pickup on. This week I only spent 91 dollars, but last week I went over by 20 dollars, so I tried to even it out. See #10 above. I do not drink soda and I feel it is a big waste of money. See #10 above, lol.
We almost always have some kind of fresh fruit, salad fixings, and canned or frozen veggies.
Saturday: pizza. On the eves that I work, even though my husband is a fabulous cook, they often want frozen pizza. One pizza feeds them both and sometimes I come home to a piece saved for me. Cost of this meal $3.98 I do not like most frozen pizzas, but this one is OK. So, that is definitely a budget meal. They can add fruit or salad if they want to, but they won’t, lol.
Sunday: Hot dogs on a bun with Cesar salad. Ok this one is a little more expensive, but I was at work and I don’t really eat hot dogs, so there were hot dogs for lunch the next day too. This meal is right around 10 dollars for all of the items. We buy the family-size Cesar Salad kit at WM and it feeds all 3 of us, plus some leftovers for the next day.
Monday: I worked the opposite shift this day, so I was pooped. We had an easy ravioli with sauce and garlic bread. Ravioli was 4.27 which is a shame of a price, it used to be so much more affordable, with sauce at 2.24, and garlic bread at 2.24. You could choose a less expensive sauce, and Dollar Tree has garlic bread for 1.25. The total for our meal was 8.75 But, there were again leftovers to have for lunch today.
Tuesday: Today, is my first day off of the week, so we will eat a properly cooked meal. Chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. The green beans need to be used up before they expire. We used to always buy chicken breast, but I have switched to chicken thighs because they cost less and they don’t dry out as easily when cooking. I very much prefer free-range chicken and or organic. But, it does not fit in a budget right now. I buy the family pack which will range from 11-15 dollars and I split them up into smaller bags with proper portion sizes for each of us. Then I stick them in the freezer. I can get 5 meals out of that price range, which is very economical. So, even if I go with the higher price of 15 dollars for the full pack divided into 5 packs, that is 3 dollars worth of chicken for this meal. My daughter loves the Idahoan instant mashed potatoes, and you know what they are easier too. They have gone up too. I used to get them for 99 cents, but now they are 1.44 The can of green beans is 50 cents. So, the total for this meal is 4.94, and as you can see this real meal is less than the ravioli or hot dog meals. I might even throw on some gravy if I have it on hand.
Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner. I love breakfast for dinner. It is not the healthiest option but it is splendid. I always have a banana, orange, or apple on hand. Pancakes, sausage patties, and fruit for those that will eat it, so me. The pancake mix is 1.98 because I buy the Great Value brand, the sausage patties were 2.76 and I buy bananas in bunches, but according to the app they are 27 cents each. So, we will go with that. I will probably eat an orange, as well. One orange is 88 cents. Those pancakes we have had for three meals now, so that is an awesome deal. This meal will cost 5.89 a little bit more if my husband decides he wants fruit. Technically, less because the pancake mix is for more than one meal, but you get the idea.
Thursday: Chicken and rice bake with broccoli. I have not exactly decided how I want to make this yet, so the price is an estimate for the main ingredients. I already have cheese on hand and I buy it in a block and shred it myself. There may or may not be a condensed soup involved. The chicken, just like above is from my bulk chicken pack so 3 dollars, brown rice is 7 cents per serving and I make 6 servings so a whopping 42 cents, and the broccoli I buy frozen at 98 cents. This meal will cost you a whopping 4.05! Again, a homecooked meal is much cheaper than processed food items.
Friday: I work again, so another frozen pizza at 3.98
That will round out the week. We are having family over the weekend and we bought an extra turkey at Thanksgiving when they were at rock bottom price. We need to use that up before it gets too hot to run the oven. So, Saturday will be Thanksgiving in March.
Where I currently work, they feed me. It is not always a healthy option for me, so I always have fruit and a sandwich with me just in case they don’t have a salad or other option I may like and find acceptable. My husband brown bags it for lunch. You will see in the grocery haul, I allow for some snack items. Everybody can pick a reasonably priced item. But, once it is gone it is gone for the week. You will see not all of the items that I purchased this week were eaten. That is because I have items I need to use up in my fridge, freezer, and pantry. We very often eat the Cesar Salad, mentioned above as a whole meal, especially during the hot months. At 4.98 and it feeds all 3 of us, it is a good deal.
Tomorrow starts Kidney Awareness month, my favorite month to share, and I will be looking for new information to share.
Living Life With CKD 