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Looking for cheap meal ideas? Here’s what our family of 5 has been eating on a $200/mo. grocery budget. Lots of frugal recipes!
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Sometimes I get in a severe rut with my meal planning and start to feel like I’m just making the same thing over and over and over. My family never complains, which is kind of them, but I get tired of the lack of variety.
That’s when I head to Pinterest(click the link to follow me!)and start looking through the delicious recipes that I’ve saved there to get some inspiration. And really, it’s amazing how quickly I can find new ideas to add to the menu!
On this menu I tried 3 new recipes: Chicken Supreme Pasta Bake, Broccoli Cheese Soup and Loaded Baked Potato & Chicken Casserole. They were all tasty, but we especially enjoyed the Loaded Baked Potato & Chicken Casserole.
Ifyou are new to these menu plans of mine, it’s probably helpful to know a couple of things first:
- Our family of five consists of two adults with fairly big appetites, a 7 ½-year-old boy, a 4-year-old girl and a 2-year-old girl.
- I buy lots of fruits and veggies in bulk from local farmers/orchards in the summer and then freeze or can them. This is not only much cheaper it is also healthier too. But that is why if you look at my Weekly Spending Summaries you won’t always see lots of produce.
- I have a stockpile. My cupboards are full from previous shopping and here’s why. When I can get pasta for free with coupons, I buy as much as I have coupons for.If I’m able to get flour for $0.50/bag like I did last fall, I’ll buy half a dozen and put them in the freezer to use as needed. I do this as much as my budget allows, on as many items as I can and as a result save lots of money. Then when I go to plan menus, I simply plan our meals around what I already have in my cupboards and freezer, as much as possible.Obviously, I still might have to buy a few things at regular price here and there, but by stocking up when the price is at rock bottom I save a lot.
- I cook almost totally from scratch.That means when I make a cake, I rarely use a cake mix.I make my own bread totally from scratch. I rarely use pre-packaged sauces. I make my own cream soupsand pie crusts. Making your own food is typically less expensive and healthier too.
- We rarely snack.By eating “heavy” food like granola at breakfast we don’t get hungry until lunchtime. And the same goes for the afternoon. Our lunches are big enough that we usually are fine until dinner time. When we do need a snack, I try to keep it mostly healthy by offering fruit, nuts or maybe No Bake Energy Bites. We don’t always do it perfectly though, and sometimes end up having chips or cookies instead.
- Our breakfasts consist of Homemade Granola or Baked Oatmeal, the occasional bought cereal that I was able to get for $0.50/box and sometimes some fruit too. I know that might seem awfully boring to some of you, but we actually all really enjoy it and prefer it over other breakfast food. I also have a homemade iced latte, homemade frappeor some other fun beverage every morning. It’s just one of the little things that I do to add a bit of sunshine to my days!
Below you will find our lunches and dinners. If we ate something other than our usual breakfast, I’ll note that too.Monday through Friday, the lunches are just for the two youngest and me. Our son gets lunch at school and my husband takes a packed lunch with him to work.His lunch typically consists of sandwiches, fruit, homemade yogurt and sometimes random leftovers too.
Get myFREE $50 Aldi Meal Plan here!It has 7 easy dinners for a family of 5.
Cheap Meal Ideas
WEEK 1
Sunday
- Chicken Supreme Pasta Bake; Chocolate Eclair Cake (used homemade vanilla pudding instead of instant and Real Whipped Cream instead of Cool Whip)
– We had a carry-in at our church and this is what I took. - Homemade Toasted Tuna Salad Sandwiches made with 100% Whole Wheat Bread; Homemade Popcorn; Easy Frozen Fruit Smoothies
Monday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Clementines; Frozen Blueberries
- Rice & Bean Wraps (rice/beans/diced tomatoes/seasonings with sour cream); Green Beans; Homemade Applesauce; Leftover Chocolate Eclair Cake
Tuesday
- Leftover Rice & Bean Wraps; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Clementines; Frozen Peaches (I preserved)
- French Onion Soup(my recipe is similar to this) using my Classic French Bread for the bread part; Lettuce Salad; Homemade Applesauce; Random Candy that we accumulated from I don’t know where 🙂
Wednesday
- Leftover French Onion Soup; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Clementines; Frozen Blueberries
- Easy Vegetable Beef Soup; Lettuce Salad; Cheese; Homemade Applesauce; Frosted Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Thursday
- Meat/Cheese/Lettuce Sandwiches made with 100% Whole Wheat Bread; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Clementines; Home Canned Peaches
-
BreakfastWraps(eggs/bacon/cheese/salsa/sour cream in tortillas); Frozen Fruit Slush; Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies (from the freezer)
– My parents were here and ate dinner with us.
Friday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Clementines; Home Canned Peaches
- Dr. Oetker Pizza; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing; Homemade Applesauce; Leftover Frosted Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
– I recently got the pizzas free thanks to coupons and sales, so instead of making pizza from scratch like I usually do, I enjoyed a little break. 🙂
Saturday
- Eggs; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Clementines; Frozen Blueberries
- BBQ Chicken Salad; Homemade Applesauce; Leftover Frosted Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
WEEK 2
Sunday
- Spent the day with some family– I took a salad
Monday
- Eggs in a Nest made with 100% Whole Wheat Bread (basically an egg fried in bread); Easy Homemade Yogurt; Clementines; Bananas
- Loaded Baked Potato & Chicken Casserole; Peas; Ice Cream bars (got recently with coupons very inexpensively)
– The casserole was a new recipe for me and we thought it was tasty. Instead of using heavy cream, I simply used milk and it worked just fine and was cheaper!
Tuesday
- Leftover Loaded Baked Potato & Chicken Casserole; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Bananas; Home Canned Peaches
- Broccoli Cheese Soup; 100% Whole Wheat Bread with Homemade Strawberry Jam; Homemade Applesauce; Healthy Double Chocolate Muffins
Wednesday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Clementines; Frozen Blueberries
- Breakfast Sandwiches (Bacon/Egg/Cheese/SauteedMushrooms on Bagels); Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing; Homemade Applesauce
Thursday
- Meat/Cheese/Lettuce Sandwiches made with 100% Whole Wheat Bread; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Blueberries; Home Canned Peaches
- Quick Ham & Bean Soup; Lettuce Salad; Healthy Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
Friday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Bananas; Frozen Blueberries
- Homemade Chicken Alfredo Pizza (used homemade Alfredo sauce and homemade pizza crust and topped with chicken, sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions); Lettuce Salad; Homemade Applesauce
– This homemade pizza crust recipe is awesome! Not only does it need no time to rise, you can have it ready to go in the oven in 30 minutes! And it’s really tasty too. The only thing I do differently is pre-bake the crust a bit before putting on the toppings.
Saturday
- We helped some friends move several hours away and so ate lunch with them and dinner at a restaurant
Other frugal living posts that you might enjoy:
- A Frugal Mom’s 25 Favorite Easy Ways to Save
- 14 Super Easy Time Saving Tips for Busy Homemakers
- What to Buy at Aldi: My 30 Frugal Favorites
- 35 Foods to Make From Scratch to Save Money
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Reader Interactions
Comments
Nicole
These menus seem to be 2 meals a day? kids need more than that. I am not convinced they only spend this much per week…
Reply
ThriftyFrugalMom
Hi Nicole! Actually we eat three meals a day. 🙂 If you read the paragraphs above the actual menu part you’ll see what we eat for breakfasts as well as how I make our $200 a month grocery budget work. I know $200 a month doesn’t seem like a lot but honestly, with having a stockpile, using coupons and buying in bulk as well as doing a lot of my own canning it is fairly easy to do. More recently we upped our budget to $225 just because our kids are older and eating more and I started realizing we were going to be needing more wiggle room. If you spend more than $200 a month, please don’t feel bad! I don’t think everyone needs to or even should follow our budget!
Reply
Marla
Youre a genious! Your recipes look so easy and tasty! What other. Meats do you use in addition to chicken and fish?
Do you send out newsletters about your new recipes and ways to save. At the grocery?Reply
ThriftyFrugalMom
hanks for your kind words, Marla! As you observed, we eat a lot of chicken, mostly because it’s typically the least expensive meat that I can buy. Plus it’s super versatile and healthy too. I also occasionally with add in fish since Aldi has the frozen fillets for such a reasonable price. And then I add in ground beef or ground turkey whenever I can find it cheap and the same with bacon, sausage and ham. Really, we typically have a decent variety, but it depends a lot on what’s been on sale lately.
I love buying a big ham when they are cheap over the holidays and then I cook it up and cut it into bite sized pieces and freeze it in small portions (typically 1 to 2 cups). This gives me a nice supply of ham to use in soups or other dishes too. I do the same with turkeys over Thanksgiving.
Yes, I do send out newsletters semi-regularly. I try to share my new posts in the newsletter as well as other tips and ideas that I think my audience of busy, frugally minded moms might find helpful. You can sign up here if you are interested!
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