Real Food and Money Saving Family Meal Planning

Plan

Based on some feedback, I am going to try to break down a cost per meal this week and see if that is helpful at all. You can see last week’s healthy dinner ideas and meal plan here.

Breakfast:

We start breakfast with a yogurt for each girl. I mix in a liquid DHA supplement (affiliate link)as well as a powder form of a probiotic(affiliate link).
Then the kids get to alternate days that they choose what is for breakfast. This week since we were off of school, I made eggs one morning and pancakes another morning! Yummy! I just don’t normally have time for that.

Lunches (I almost always serve lunch with fruit and something crunchy, ie., chips, pretzels, etc.):

Turkey Sandwiches
- $1.96 per serving – $7.82 for all 4 of us
  - 6 slices of Nature’s Own Whole Wheat bread ($0.72 total)
  - 7 slices of turkey ($2.92 total)
  - 3 slices organic American cheese ($0.87 total)
  - 1oz sharp cheddar cheese ($0.19 total)
  - 2 slices organic Kirkland whole wheat bread ($0.36 total)
  - Organic Grapes ($1.76 total)
  - various chips or pretzel slims ($1 total)
  - Not included – small amounts of mustard and mayonnaise
Bean & Cheese Quesadilla
- $1.16 per serving – $4.64 for all 4 of us
  - 4 tortillas ($1.28 total)
  - Organic Refried Beans – about 1/3 of can ($0.36 total)
  - Kirkland Mexican Shredded Cheese – we call it sprinkle cheese 🙂 – ($0.50 total)
  - various chips or pretzel slims ($1 total)
  - Organic Strawberries – ($1.50 total)
Chicken Nuggets
- $1.72 per serving – $5.16 for 3 of us
  - Chicken Nuggets – ($2.66 total)
  - various chips or pretzel slims ($1 total)
  - Organic Strawberries – ($1.50 total)
Potstickers
- $1.33 per serving – $4.00 for 3 of us
  - Potstickers – ($2.75 total)
  - various chips or pretzel slims ($0.50 total)
  - Watermelon – ($0.75 total)
PB&J
Bean & Cheese Quesadilla
- $1.04 per serving – $4.14 for all 4 of us
  - 4 tortillas ($1.28 total)
  - Organic Refried Beans – about 1/3 of can ($0.36 total)
  - Kirkland Mexican Shredded Cheese – we call it sprinkle cheese 🙂 – ($0.50 total)
  - various chips or pretzel slims ($1 total)
  - Watermelon – ($1 total)
Macaroni & Cheese – We didn’t get to these since we had so many leftovers. We ate those for lunch one day instead.

Snacks:

Nothing new here this week. Just our usual stuff!

Dinners:

Leftovers
Leftovers
Out
Hamburgers, Tator Tots, & Baked Beans (this dinner had 1 serving leftover)
- $ 2.76 per serving – $11.04 for 4 servings
  - Organic Ground Beef – ($5.99)
  - Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns – ($1)
  - Organic Tomato – ($0.79)
  - Tator Tots – ($1)
  - Organic Baked Beans – ($1.49)
  - Organic American Cheese – ($0.58)
  - Sharp Cheddar Cheese – ($0.19)
  - Not included – small amounts of lettuce, mayo, mustard, ketchup
Pumpkin’s Dinner this week – Shake it Up Chicken Nuggets with Zucchini Coins (this dinner had 2+ servings left over)
- $ 3.42 per serving – $10.26 for 3 servings (not really since we had 2+ servings leftover)
  - Chicken Breast – ($5.93)
  - Stuffing Mix – ($1.99)
  - Zucchini – ($0.59)
  - Tator Tots – ($1)
  - Parmesan Cheese – ($0.75)
  - Not included – small amounts of ranch dressing and buttermilk)
Super Stuffed Tortillas with Rice (in Freezer from prior week)
- $?
  - 4 tortillas ($1.28 total)
  - Super Stuffed Tortilla filling – already in freezer from prior meal ($0 – Total)
  - Kirkland Mexican Shredded Cheese – we call it sprinkle cheese 🙂 – ($0.50 total)
  - Arborio Rice with salsa mixed in (not sure of cost, bought rice a while ago so don’t know price)
Baked Potatoes with Salad (had extra potatoes left but not used in a school project…so they become dinner!)
- $?
  - not sure of cost because I don’t have receipt for potatoes, but they were bought last week and not all used for a school project. Added things already in fridge to make them yummy!

Total Cost:

Trader Joe’s – $112.03 34% Organic 66% Natural
Target – $7.21 0 % Organic 66%Natural
Costco – $ 19.59 66% Organic 33%Natural
I did use my grocery budget this week to buy additional things with my food money(the $ for these items are not included above, such as: deodorant, Ecover delicate wash(affiliate link), etc.
I was a little short this week because I went over in the past and am saving some food money to pay for a 40th birthday party for me! :-), so I added a little from selling something on craigslist, but I still ended up $3 over where I wanted to be budget wise this week. Boo!

Tip:

Food/Budget Tip:
- If you need to, shut down the kitchen(like I did this week) to eat up all those leftovers. I really don’t like to see food wasted, which works really well to save money. We somehow ended up with quite a few leftovers. Between our eating out twice and Mr. Tbringing home leftovers while eating out on the job last week. We had quite a bit of food on the bottom shelf of the fridge. So, I shut down the kitchen and decided no more cooking until it was gone. Made it for 3 meals this week. Free food if you are willing to eat leftovers (which I know not everyone is willing to do). Here’s what we had –
  - 2 Meatballs
  - 1/2 recipe of baked ziti
  - pizza from eating out
  - chicken from eating out
  - 1/2 recipe of easy as pie spaghetti bake
  - Macaroni & Cheese

Verdict:

What Worked
- Things went well this week. We didn’t run out of anything!

What didn’t work
- Nothing didn’t work this week.

Until next week, follow me on Facebook for even more great ideas and fun.

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