Groceries are expensive, plain & simple. So I’m sharing my plan to tackle to grocery budget this week while having a busy week where I know being in the kitchen during dinner time could be hard but the savings plus knowing my family is eating homecooked meals is worth a little extra work. Here’s how I’m making 7 nights of dinner for under $75 for our family of 4 this week!! Many times I’ll make extras also to cover lunches since we work from home & homeschool, so meals are constantly being made around here!
Meal Plan for Week
- Sunday – Baked chicken breasts, broccoli & focaccia
- Monday – Bowls (chicken)
- Tuesday – Tacos (ground chicken, refried beans, taco shells, toppings)
- Wednesday – Bowls (ground beef)
- Thursday – Beef & shells
- Friday – Chili & cornbread
- Saturday – Breakfast for dinner (sausage, eggs, pancakes)
Dinner notes:
- Bowls night = Chipotle but way cheaper. A bed of lettuce, black beans, cilantro lime rice, chicken or ground meat plus any toppings your heart desires. I load everything up on the counter & everyone can make their bowls as they like & then we just pop each bowl in the microwave (these are the nights we usually aren’t home at the same time for dinner so bowls work great).
- There aren’t many fruits or veggies since we eat those raw more throughout the day. Each dinner has cut raw veggies (cucumbers, peppers, carrots, snap peas) offered, I prep at the beginning of the week.
- Our fruits/veggies rotate with what is on sale (on sale = in season usually)
Sunday Prep for the week
- Cook all ground meat & store in separate containers for the week
- Bake chicken breasts, store in a container for the week
- Make a batch of Mom’s Green Rice (cilantro lime rice) for bowls
- Chop lettuce, store in baggie with paper towel to keep crisp
- Open & rinse 3 cans of black beans, store in fridge to use during week
Receipts – I “shopped” through HEB & ALDI to compare the differences in prices (which surprisingly wasn’t much of a difference in these household staples), I chose a generic store brand since that’s what I usually choose for most items. I added everything to my cart for grocery pickup & here’s what the totals looked like (none of the stores had stellar deals on meat that would have me bending my menu to use those meats).
Grocery list for the week
- Chicken breast (4-5 lbs)
- Ground beef (2 lbs)
- Ground chicken (2 lbs)
- Jasmine rice
- Cilantro
- Limes (4)
- Lettuce head
- Broccoli
- Tomatoes
- Cucumbers
- Snap peas
- Carrots
- Bell peppers
- Cheese (I buy a block to shred myself)
- Refried canned beans 2x
- Canned Black beans 4x
- Canned Kidney beans
- Canned Great northern beans
- Canned Crushed tomatoes
- Canned Tomato paste
- Can tomato sauce
- Pasta shells
- Dozen eggs
- Breakfast sausage
- Jiffy cornbread
- Beef broth
Pantry staples/already have:
- Olive oil
- Flour
- Water
- Salt/pepper/favorite seasonings
- Salsa
- Chili seasonings
- Pancake mix
- Syrup
- Butter
- Yeast
- Heavy cream