It’s no small feat trying to feed your own family on a finances, especially while you continue to need to experience tasty, wholesome dishes. Over the beyond 5 years, I’ve determined myself getting ready meals for quite a number organization sizes, from just my husband and me to an navy of young adults. But instead of the grocery invoice skyrocketing, I’ve discovered a few genuinely excellent budgeting tricks alongside the way to make certain our money is going as a ways as viable at the same time as still setting exact food at the table.

Here are my top tips for getting the maximum bang for your dollar, plus how I manipulate to feed 4 humans dinner whilst only spending $50 on groceries in per week.

How to Save on Weekly Groceries

  1. Shop your refrigerator, pantry, and freezer first. When creating a meal plan, many people work from what they want to eat (or what they’re used to consuming) and create a weekly plan. To store cash, I usually paintings backward and notice what I already have so I can use that up at the side of any new groceries I need to buy. Is that dairy going to expire quickly? Let’s use the milk to make Broccoli Cheddar Soup. Don’t have frozen broccoli? Use anything frozen veggies you have got. Whatever is for your pantry and freezer is cash you have already spent so don’t waste it!
  2. Keep versatile fundamentals in the pantry. These are my pantry move-to’s: dried pasta, pasta sauce, canned tuna, and boxed mac and cheese.
  3. Maximize freezer space. I preserve frozen vegetables, frozen fruit, chicken stock (I make my own from leftover roast chicken and vegetable scraps so I by no means buy it), and floor red meat in there to pull out as needed to stretch food.
  4. Make a meal plan. This is a lot less difficult in theory than in exercise however I’ve located it’s the quality way to maintain a finances below manipulate. When you know what you’ll make for dinner, you avoid final-minute take-out or even worse, the 6 p.M. Grocery shop run when you are hungry and become over buying.
  5. Buy the ingredients you use the maximum in bulk, but ONLY if they’re non-perishable or have a protracted shelf existence. It’s very easy to get tempted with the aid of the large quantities at Costco however if it’s a clean or perishable meals and also you don’t get through it earlier than it goes terrible, otherwise you truly get uninterested in eating it, then you’re wasting money and you would possibly have been better off with spending a little bit extra on some thing which you finish.
  6. Repurpose your leftovers. Palate fatigue, i.E. Not wanting to devour the equal issue again and again, is a actual thing. Instead of tossing your leftovers, make them into a extraordinary meal. For example, when you have leftover protein, like hen or steak, use it to make a sandwich or hen salad for lunch the next day. Leftover greens? Stir them into ramen or make a vegetable soup. Leftover mashed potatoes are brilliant for two times-baked potatoes, quiche, or shepherd’s pie.
    Customers store the frozen foods aisle at Trader Joe’s grocery shop.

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My Seven-Day Dinner Meal Plan With $50 Groceries

Planning out your food so that you use all the elements, each uncooked and cooked, plus pantry staples and frozen items way you could make every week’s really worth of dinners for around $50 in groceries. Note: every meal fee listed out is approximate

Sunday: Roast Chicken, Potatoes, and Green Beans
Meal Cost: $10

There isn’t any better deal than the $five roast chicken from Costco. For the potatoes and inexperienced beans, I stick with Trader Joe’s, which has fantastic nice and costs on sparkling fruit and vegetables like potatoes ($3.99 for a 3-pound bag) and green beans ($1.99 for 1.5-pounds, frozen). I didn’t even burn up all of the potatoes and green beans, so I’ll be able to have those another night time for every other meal. Meal prep tip: make fowl stock from the leftover fowl bones to apply for dinner on Friday.

Monday: Chicken and Broccoli Cheesy Spaghetti
Meal Cost: $7

Using leftover bird from ultimate night, I shredded the chicken and stirred it right into a pot with a jar of pasta sauce and frozen broccoli to serve over pasta—crowned with cheese. You could also use a jar of Alfredo sauce here. The spaghetti ($0.99), sauce ($1.Ninety nine), and frozen broccoli ($three.29) are all from Trader Joe’s too but the costs are virtually similar at Walmart.

I get shredded cheese from Costco for $15.Ninety nine for five pounds, but you may use it for a month so it’s honestly best $four/week. You’ll also be the usage of it for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night dinners—because there’s no such thing as too much cheese.

Tuesday: Chicken Fried Rice
Meal Cost: Approximately $three

Yes, you examine that effectively, $3 for this fried rice dinner this night. That’s due to the fact I used frozen Vegetable Fried Rice ($2.99) from Trader Joe’s and delivered within the remaining leftover shredded bird and some greater frozen inexperienced beans and broccoli. I constantly have soy sauce and Sriracha in my fridge so to compensate for the extra components, I added some greater sauce. You can also scramble or fry an egg and positioned it on pinnacle for some greater protein. We very own chickens so we always have numerous eggs, but, proudly owning chickens doesn’t always mean you’ll keep money on eggs considering that you continue to should feed the chickens!

Wednesday: Chili
Meal Cost: Approximately $7

Using floor beef from Trader Joe’s ($4.99), cans of beans ($zero.85), tomatoes ($0.Ninety nine), and tomato sauce ($zero.Ninety nine) from Target, I made a hearty and clean red meat chili. I had the spices known as for within the recipe (chili powder and garlic) however gave it even extra flavor via adding a few cumin, cayenne, and a can of chopped inexperienced chiles I observed in my pantry. This is a truly exact manner to deplete any shredded cheese, bitter cream or yogurt, and onion you would possibly have lying round, too.

Thursday: Chili Dogs
Meal Cost: Approximately $6

Hot canine buns are a scouse borrow at Target so the usage of leftover chili from closing night, warm dogs ($3.Ninety nine), and warm dog buns ($1.49), we made chili puppies. I delivered savour from our fridge however genuinely some of these want to be served with are napkins.

Friday: Bacon and Potato Soup
Meal Cost: Approximately $9

Using the remaining potatoes and hen broth from earlier inside the week, whip up a batch of this splendid-filling Sir Francis Bacon and Potato Soup the usage of bacon from Trader Joe’s ($6.49), onion, carrot, and celery offered in bulk at Costco (you’ll have also used a number of these to make your stock), and leftover shredded cheese from your cheesy spaghetti on Tuesday night.

Saturday: Homemade Mac and Cheese
Meal Cost: Approximately $8

We located that the nice deal for dairy is from your close by grocery store. This is due to the fact dairy, specially milk, is heavy to move so it’s most inexpensive to get it from a local source. My neighborhood grocery keep is Hannaford, where a gallon of milk is $2.Fifty nine. Using milk and your shredded cheese from Costco and any kind of pasta you have got to your pantry (or $zero.99 from Trader Joe’s), you could make homemade mac and cheese. I usually throw in a can of tuna and a few frozen peas too for added protein and veggies, though use what you have got!