Why You’ll Love Meal Planning on a Budget

Not only does meal planning on a budget reduce food costs over time, it also reduces food waste. So it’s like guilty-free eating all the time. I’m sure you might say “Yeah I want nutritious meals every day.” But you might just want really good food without your food expenses standing as tall as the Eiffel Tower hello.

Even if you aren’t at the stage where whole foods, organic, non-GMO, etc etc matter to you, food is still expensive. But so is fast food.

So let’s cover some benefits of meal planning on a budget, effective strategies to stretch that budget on out girl! And then some practical tips to creating your own budget-friendly meal plan that actually works for you.

Benefits of Meal Planning on a Budget

Whether you’re working off weekly meal plans or monthly, meal planning is not just about saving money. It’s so much more because it’s a great way to make smart choices that benefit your health, your wallet, and the environment.

When you start putting in intentional effort & thought into what you’re eating, you can:

• Reduce food waste (because you’ll only buy & use what you need. This is the best way to make sure things disappear before they spoil too!)
• Save time and stress. Nobody has time to be going back & forth on what to make for dinner every day. But meal planning is my favorite way to know exactly what to cook each day. No more indecision or frustration. And no more being like “I forgot to take out some chicken!” (Although that still could happen every now & again ahahah).
• Enjoy healthy meals by including more fruits, vegetables, nuts or seeds & whole grains into your diet. You don’t need some fad diet either because any plan you put together can be a healthy meal plan. Like forreal. You’re thinking & saying in advance I want to save a lot of money & eat this, this, this & this. But I bet you aren’t saying I’ll have sundaes for breakfast everyday this week, fried chicken & greasy burgers everyday for lunch. And then I’ll binge on chips & bon bons for dinner every night. Nahh. I don’t think anyone plans to do that.
• Stick to the food budget you have for your grocery bill. Whether that includes eating out too or not, planning ahead is one of the best tips to avoid impulse purchases. It really just makes the most of what you have in your pantry. Like they used to do back in the day you know?

5 Strategies for Meal Planning on a Budget

1. Set a realistic food budget.

Key word realistic. The figure may (or may not) be what you want it to be. It is what it is though.
Setting this number in play is a great time to take a look at your monthly expenses. See how much you can afford to spend on groceries each week or month. Doesn’t have to be a ton of money, but you may very well do better with less money going towards this than that.

What budget sticks will depend heavily on what you routinely eat. If that’s king crab & caviar, then you’re gonna need a lil extra money to sustain that lifestyle. But even if your every day food options come with a bunch of regulated labels like non-GMO or Vegan/Paleo-friendly & all that, it’s gonna run you.

If your preference is classic, but delicious ingredients like shrimp with garlic, black beans & chili powder you’ll be fine. A budget meal plan can be delicious without spending lots of money. There’s a couple of things you can do. Find some new recipes to fall in love with that become your favorite recipes. Or consider generic brands over name brands. 

2. Plan your meals based on what’s on sale.

This is after you’ve considered what meals you can make from your our stash of things on hand of course!

Even that leftover chili can go onto a menu plan for the following week hello. I’ve done it on purpose before. If you must go to your local grocery store – and yeah girl, lemme tell you. You get your kitchen pumping like a well-oiled machine & you won’t necessarily have to go to the store as much.

But if you do, look at their weekly sales flyer online first. That’s the easiest way to get a good idea of whether you can stay in budget or not. Looking at that ad, find what’s on sale or what’s in season. (Usually what’s on sale is “in-season” because they have an oversupply & need to get rid of it.)

3. Use affordable staple ingredients.

Listen, pantry staples are essential to really great food and a ton of quick meal ideas in the kitchen. But they are excellent for saving money in the kitchen. If you’re trying to meal plan on a budget, you have to identify the pantry staples you need in your kitchen first.

Stock up on foods like rice, beans, pasta, and canned tomatoes, which are inexpensive, versatile & typically last a long time (when stored properly). The great thing about a well-stocked pantry is you’ll likely never go hungry. And as grocery prices continue to rise, you won’t have to spend much money as you draw on your reserves here. You shouldn’t just use these staples. You should also be storing them away for later.

4. Make the most of leftovers.

Batch cooking. It takes some of the food you already were going to eat & stores it in a way that’s incredibly convenient for those days that are just really inconvenient ahahha And at no extra cost!

When you make a meal that comes with 3-4 leftover servings, you’ve put 2-3 meals or days into your food bank. So cook large(r) batches of meals and freeze individual portions for later use., You can also plan meals that make it easy to repurpose leftovers into new dishes later. 

5. Shop with a list.

Maybe it sounds like “Duhhh”, but how often do you say “I’ll remember,” or think “I’ll make a note on my phone when I have 3 other things that make it worth my while”? Now’s a good time to make a shopping list so you stick to it. But also so as you sit to write your own meal plan, you’ll know what’s missing right off the bat.

Budget-Friendly Meal Ideas

There’s an insane number of budget-friendly meal ideas. I mean, really. From slow cooker meals to cheap meal plans & more – the possibilities are endless. Here’s some affordable yet delicious meal ideas to inspire your next week’s worth of meals:

• Breakfast: Overnight oats with fresh fruit, scrambled eggs with spinach & cheese, golden toast with peanut butter and banana. And I truly mean that perfectly crisped, golden buttery piece of toast.
• Lunch: Now lunches around my way tend to be leftovers from the previous night’s meal. But if you need more variety or just want to cook more things, try these. Vegetable stir-fry with brown rice, black bean and corn salad with avocado, chickpea salad sandwiches (or the classic tuna fish) on some good whole wheat bread that you really like or even a pita pocket.
• Dinner: One-pot pasta with marinara sauce and vegetables, chili con carne with southern baked sweet cornbread, baked chicken thighs with roasted sweet potatoes and green beans (my kids LOVE green beans!)
• Snacks: Hard-boiled eggs with a lil sprinkling of your favorite spice blend. Or maybe eggs pickled with your favorite brine. Yogurt with honey and granola, carrot (or any other veggie sticks) with hummus, apple slices with peanut butter. Good ole’ crackers & cheese.

Tips for Maximizing Savings at the Grocery Store

1. Shop the sales (which usually change weekly so don’t count on this week’s price being the same at the end of the month.
2. Use coupons or customer rewards/loyalty bonus points to get the best deals on your favorite products. Not saying at all you need to be an extreme couponer but if you do that & it works cool.
3. Buy in bulk things you use the most. Doesn’t have to be huge quantities. You can build up some stock over time. Just put food like rice, beans, pasta, oils & sauces at the top of your list & buy 1-2 extra when you have the funds & the opportunity at the store. This is going to save you money in the long run.
4. Choose generic or store-brand over name brands. There’s usually not a great difference in quality or quantity, but there’s often a difference in the price.
5. Compare prices & unit costs to find the best of the best value for your money. Unit prices are the tag price divided by the package size (for example. $3.99 for a 24oz of spaghetti sauce would be ~$0.17/ounce). 
6. Consider shopping at discount stores, international markets, local farms or farmers’ markets for additional savings. (Be willing to barter or negotiate too at a farm/market. You never know what you might be able to come up with!)

Conclusion

Meal planning on a budget might be a new skill for you to pick up. But it’s a simple and effective way to save money, preload some easy dinners into your hectic future & possibly even change your eating habits altogether (for the better!)

True, it might take some creativity, but with a little searching you’ll find every sort of meal plan under the sun out there. Forreal. From an Aldi meal plan to a budget meal prep plan designed to put more fresh produce on your table.

So instead of having chips & sour cream, you can enjoy some extra chicken you snagged on sale in a chicken tortilla soup you made in the crock pot. Then again….that might just be the chips & sour cream in disguise! Ahahahah 

You’ve got this lovely!

🌱 Start Small. Start Now. Start where you are with what you have. The rest will follow. 🌱