Six Day Meal Plan For Only $49.35

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Six-Day Meal Plan For Only $49.35

Cutting your grocery budget is a must for some people.

It was for us. That is why I love this six-day meal plan that is only $49.35.

My husband and I were married in 2010, and a couple years later, our daughters were born. Since then, I have always worked from home. Although my paycheck helps out a bit, it’s nowhere near what it would be if both of us were working full-time jobs outside the home.

This means I have to be diligent when cutting corners with our finances. 

I can’t tell you how many times I have sat at the kitchen table, bills scattered everywhere, my excel worksheet open, and tears pouring down my face.

How can we do this? How can we make ends meet this month? I have cried to my husband a few times. 

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When you are a stay-at-home parent, one of your concerns is how to live on a lesser paycheck. Having a six-day meal plan can help.

You have your reasons for staying home. But that doesn’t make it is easy.

Because it’s not. 

It takes a lot of work and planning. But it is possible.

Maybe you are like me and trying to figure out how you can just cut corners a little bit. What can you shave down to help your family gain financial stability?

Groceries.

We have one grocery store in our little town, Kroger.

I do love Kroger.

I love their points for gas, and I love their digital coupons. But I can’t get out of Kroger without spending at least $200 or more on our weekly grocery budget. So I would leave feeling defeated. Sometimes I even cried in my car because we had only dollars left after buying groceries and paying our bills that week.

We are a family of six. My husband takes his lunch to work, and our kids eat a lot.

I needed to figure something out. 

The next town over has an Aldi. We shopped at Aldi when we lived in that town, and I wasn’t working.

I made the decision that I would try it out again. My husband and I wanted to see if the drive was worth it.

The following week, I walked out of Aldi with the same amount of groceries I would get at Kroger. Including the groceries on this six-day meal plan.

But I had spent $100 less than I usually would.

I realized it would be possible to cut our weekly budget down to $100 or less if I made the drive to Aldi.

It would be worth it.

Occasionally, I shop our local Kroger when I’m in a pinch or need something I can’t find at Aldi.

We do our bulk grocery shopping at Aldi, and week after week, I’m able to put my dreams into reality and keep our family budget under $100.

This takes work.

 It takes planning. 

Having a $100 a week grocery budget for a family of four may seem unrealistic. But it is possible.

For 2022 my husband and I set goals to knock out as much debt as possible. Which means I needed to take my Aldi meal planning a little more seriously.

Each week, I will be sharing with you our weekly dinner menu from Aldi to hold ourselves accountable and give you ideas! 

Please keep in mind these meals are not fancy. They are regular meals that do not require a whole lot of ingredients. I have one picky eater; she won’t eat hardly anything that looks weird or different to her. So I try to stick with everyday family-friendly meals that she is used to.

If you have never shopped at Aldi, but you want to give it a shot, take a look at my 8 best tips to remember when you first start shopping at Aldi. 

Before I delve into our meal plan for this week, I have a few essential tips for planning our weekly budget.

Here is how I consistently keep our grocery bill at $100 or less and feed four mouths (or more!) a week.

I first look at what we have.

What meat do we have leftover to incorporate into our meal plan for the week? 

Do we have any vegetables or potatoes that need to be used?

For example, last week, we grilled out. We ended up having half a bag of hamburgers left over. So I decided to put hamburgers on the menu this week and save us the price of one meat for our week.

When I know what we have in our pantry and what needs to be used up, I can sit down and focus on our meal plan for the week. 

I also look at Aldi’s ad page (you can view it online here) to see what is on sale for the week.

This also helps me build our dinner menu.

I don’t go heavy on the snacks.

I allow my kids to pick out one snack item a piece each week. We typically have leftover snacks, such as fruit snacks or animal crackers, that we carry over to the following week.

I recently started using Ibotta to receive cashback on my grocery shopping.

You can use it at many grocery stores and retailers. You scan your grocery receipt in the app, and it’ll register what they have in their system that you can receive cashback on. It’s pretty easy and quick. Just remember your receipt 🙂

I am excited to try it out for Christmas shopping this year!

You can sign up for free here. 

You can also sign up for Ebates here and earn cashback as well.

I sometimes set aside one day a week to eat leftovers.

We eat leftovers for lunch often. When I married my husband, I was not a leftover person. But living on a smaller income has forced us to eat what we have available, including leftovers. They really aren’t that bad. So if you are not a leftover person, try it out anyway. You may find certain foods are better leftover.

One other thing I try to do is prepare meals that will require the same ingredients. You will see what I mean below.

This week when we went grocery shopping, it was cold and rainy.

I wore the wrong shoes and stepped in a massive puddle before shopping. This forced me to walk through the store with soaking wet, cold feet.

I was miserable. 

But Miss B and I made it through with only spending $91!

I was ecstatic.

I wanted to do a happy dance right there in the store. I’m sure the cashier thought I was nuts with my goofy grin when she handed me my receipt.

Our six-day meal plan came out to total $49.39!

Our total for the entire Aldi trip was $91. $8 of that $91 was for our fur babies’ food. We also bought snacks for the week, a couple items for lunches for my girls, and lunch items for my husband to take to work.

Here is one of our six-day meal plans on a budget.

Day 1: Quesadillas

tortillas – $1.45

hamburger – $3.75

taco seasoning – $0.35

shredded cheese – $2.59

Day 2: Hamburgers

Hamburger patties (we had these leftovers, but they are typical $10.79 at Aldi for a 3-pound bag)

Hamburger buns – $0.85

Baked Beans – $1.55

We also have leftover veggies I will probably throw in. These are $1 or less at Aldi for the frozen bags. 

Day 3: Chicken and Dumplings

These are not the handmade chicken and dumplings (which I would prefer. there was nothing like my great grandma’s chicken and dumplings.) But I am not great at making my own dumplings, so these have to do for me.

Bag of frozen chicken tenders – $5.99

Can of biscuits – $1.35

2 cans of chicken broth – $0.55

Cream of chicken – $0.55

Cream of mushroom – $0.55

Bag of frozen peas – $0.89

Day 4: Stuffed Peppers

Green Peppers – $2.55

(I split the peppers up and use three for stuffed peppers, we do half peppers and three peppers for fajitas the next day.) 

Multi-colored peppers – $3.65

hamburger – $3.55

2 cans tomato sauce (you can also use a can of tomato soup) – $0.35 each

shredded cheese (1 bag is big enough for our entire family, so we only needed to purchase 1) 

Day 5: Fajitas

Tortillas (I purchased one bag already)

Peppers (already purchased)

one onion (got this at Walmart for 0.79 cents. Our local Aldi does not sell Onions individually, and we don’t need 5 onions) 

shredded cheese. (already bought)

bag of chicken (already purchased)

see how I made 2 meals with the same ingredients there? 😉

Day 6: Frozen Pizza – $6.39

(I know it’s not really a meal. But we do pizza and movie night on Friday nights.) 

We either order from Pizza Hut, or we eat a frozen pizza. My girls love it, and I enjoy this family tradition as well!

Are you ready to venture to Aldi for the first time? Then, check out these tips for shopping at Aldi!

There you have it, there’s our cheap and easy six-day meal plan from Aldi!

What would you put on a six-day meal plan?

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