Budget Friendly Meal Plan Week 16

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Some weeks I’m just not in the mood for cooking, in times like that I find cooking once and eating twice is a really good solution. This week I have a really full schedule so I knew that I wasn’t going to have time to do a lot of cooking. You’ll find this weeks meal plan is all about cooking once and eating twice.

Here’s what our meal plan looks like this week:

Budget Friendly Meal Planning

Monday
Ham & Cheese Sliders – served with crowd pleaser potatoes, using leftovers from Sunday’s Easter dinner and pineapple slices.

Serves 4 – 4 sliders per person
Cost Cutting Tips:
- Instead of purchasing slider rolls that are already made, you can make them yourself for a fraction of the price. I actually prefer the flavor of the homemade version, there’s just something about fresh made bread that is so appealing.
- Use the leftover ham from Easter dinner.
- Purchase the cheese from the deli department, it’s actually a cheaper option, especially if you can get it on sale, because you can buy exactly what you need.
- It’s pineapple season so you should be able to purchase fresh pineapple fairly cheap.

Tuesday (Featured Recipe)
Texas Tamale Pie by Yellow Rose Life – served with a tossed salad.

Serves 8 – save leftovers for Thursday’s dinner
Cost Cutting Tips:
- Instead of purchasing lean ground beef, try this little trick for reducing fat in ground beef, It’s a much cheaper option.
- Make your own enchilada sauce using tomato sauce and a few spices. It’s cheaper to make and you are in control of how spicy it is.
- Using self-rising cornmeal is a cheaper option than purchasing the packaged cornbread mix.
- Instead of purchasing two different kinds of cheese for this dish use the Mexican blend. Purchasing one type is cheaper than buying two different kinds.
- Don’t buy the bags of salad. Instead buy salad ingredients separately, it’s cheaper and you’ll get more for your money.
- Make your own salad dressing, it’s cheaper and tastes better. Bonus, you only have to make what you’ll use so no more wasted space in the refrigerator.

Wednesday
Scalloped Potatoes and Ham – served with green beans and biscuits.

Serves 8 – save leftovers for Friday’s dinner
Cost Cutting Tips:
- If you have a fully stocked pantry the only thing you need to purchased to make the scalloped potatoes is ham. And if you have leftover ham from Easter dinner you won’t even need to purchase that.
- Instead of purchasing prepared biscuits, try making biscuits from scratch. They’re cheaper, more delicious and super simple.

Thursday
Leftovers – Texas tamale pie and tossed salad.

Friday
Leftovers – scalloped potatoes and ham, green beans and biscuits.

Saturday
Manwiches – served with chips and dill pickle spears.

Serves 4
Cost Cutting Tips:
- Make your own manwich sauce, it’s cheaper, has better flavor and you control the ingredients.

Sunday
Oven Roasted Chicken – served with roasted potatoes, roasted carrots, biscuits and for dessert strawberry cheesecake bars by CincyShopper.

Serves 8

Download – Week 16: Menu & Shopping List

Budget Friendly Tips

✔ Keep a well stocked pantry, it is an essential part to feeding a family on a small budget. Plus it’s comforting knowing that there is always something at home to cook.

✔ Stock up when prices are at there lowest. Sales usually go in a 3 month cycle, so if you see an item at it’s rock bottom price, buy enough to use between now and the next sale.

✔ Another way to keep your grocery bill low is by using coupons for the items that you need. I rarely plan my menu around coupons that are available, I find that I end up spending more. Instead I create my menu first and then look for coupons that will lower the bill.

Time Saving Tips

✔ Do your grocery shopping online, you’ll save so much time because someone else does the shopping for you. It also allows you more flexibility for staying on budget, you don’t check out until your total is just right. Use my Walmart Grocery Pickup link and get $10 off your first order of $50 or more.

✔ Spending some time meal planning can make your life so much easier. It’ll save you time and money, improve your nutrition, it’ll make cooking more manageable and it will give you more control over what you put on the table.

✔ A simple way to save yourself some time in the kitchen is by prepping your food for the week. This can be done by simply washing your fruits, chopping your vegetables or portioning the food for each meal. It’s up to you how much you want to do to save yourself sometime later in the week.

About Our Meal Plan

✔ Our menus are designed to feed a family of four, two adults and two teenage boys. It can also feed two adults and 3-4 young children.

✔ Many of the meals included in our meal plan are budget friendly to begin with, however we do offer tips that will reduce the grocery bill even further.

✔ Our family eats a pretty simple meal for breakfast and lunch, like cereal or sandwiches and sometimes leftovers. We don’t make to much of a fuss over it.

✔ Sunday dinner is our biggest meal of the week, that’s when all of the family gets together, so we tend to spend a little more money and include dessert. I try to make enough for leftovers during the week.