My $53.91 Five-Day Meal Plan

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Saving money means finding different ways to cut corners in your budget.

That often starts with cutting your grocery bill, sometimes half, and creating a meal plan.

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I am a stay-at-home (work-from-home) mommy. Our income stream is not what it would be if I worked outside the home at a full-time job.

We are okay with it.

The choices we make as parents typically have good reasons behind them. But this doesn’t mean our choices are any easier to make.

Being a stay-at-home mom means finding creative and clever ways to save money.

I save money on my grocery bill by shopping at Aldi.

If you have never shopped at Aldi or would like my best tips when shopping at this grocery store, be sure to read tips for when you start shopping at Aldi!

Related Read: My $49.35 Meal Plan.

It’s no big secret that feeding a family is EXPENSIVE.

How do you do it when you’re on a low budget?

My husband and I have a grocery budget of $100. We shop mostly at Aldi. We get a few household essentials at Dollar Tree. And then whatever we can’t find or if there is a certain brand we need for certain items (Laundry Detergent!), we shop at Kroger. But the majority of our items come from Aldi.

Shopping at Aldi for food is how I ensure we stay under our grocery budget 98% of the time.

I’ll be transparent.

Sometimes staying under is a struggle. Learning to plan in a way that ensures I am not feeding my family the same meals every week but still staying under our budget takes quite a bit of hard work and planning. But we have already started seeing improvement in our finances, making the planning and hard work 100% worth it!

This week I made our dinner meal plan for a family of 4 come out to $53.91.

Update: We are now a family of six. However, the tips in the post are still ones I practice for my grocery shopping weekly!

You can do it too!

Please take note: these meal plans are assuming you have the essential pantry items already (seasonings, milk, butter, etc.)

I also want to include that these meals are simple, family-friendly meals. I have a daughter who will not eat anything new. And another daughter who doesn’t like to eat meals in general. I try to keep the meals I plan kid friendly because I am not a fan of buying expensive ingredients, cooking elaborate meals, and then throwing them away because my kids don’t touch them!

Maybe I will cook complex meals one day, but today is not that day :).

Here are other ways we consistently stick to our grocery budget.

• First, look at what we have. Do we have meat left over to incorporate into our meal plan for the week? Or do we have any vegetables left that need to be used?

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

• I don’t go heavy on the snacks. We allow our kids to pick out one snack item a piece each week.

• I recently started using Ibotta to receive cash back 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 cash back on. It’s pretty easy and quick. Just remember your receipt! You can sign up for free here. I also use Ebates. You can sign up for Ebates here and earn cash back as well.

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

• I will see if I can use the same ingredients for more than one meal.

This week’s five-day dinner meal plan for a family of four:

Tacos -Tacos are my absolute favorite food! I have a sign in my home that says All You Need Is Love And Tacos, ha! If I could eat them every day, I would. My husband isn’t a huge fan but tolerates my taco obsession.

• hamburger meat – $3.75
• taco seasoning – $0.35
• hard taco shells – $0.99
• soft taco shells – $1.65
• tomatoes – $1.35 an Ib
• shredded cheese – $2.59
• lettuce – $2.19

I typically grab a can of refried beans to have with our tacos. This week I forgot for some reason. But a can of refried beans is around $0.89 at Aldi.

I usually make a fiesta salad as well.

• corn – $0.55
• black beans – $0.79
• diced tomatoes with green chilis – $0.75

Spaghetti- I have a taco obsession. My husband has a spaghetti obsession. I could take it or leave it. So I typically plan these two meals in the same week, so we both win 🙂

• two jars of spaghetti sauce – $1.65 each
• spaghetti noodles (we already had these in the pantry, but a box is $1.89)
• hamburger meat – $3.75
• garlic bread – $2.09

Pork Loin, Salad, and rolls

• pre-mix salad – $2.99 (we like the salad that comes with the dressing and extras. It’s a little more, but a normal bag of salad costs $0.99)
• crescent rolls – $0.99
• pork loin – $5.38

Breaded Baked Chicken and Vegetables

• bag of chicken – $5.99
• two bags of frozen vegetable mix – $0.89 each
• bread crumbs – $0.99

Chili

• hamburger meat – $3.75
• chili seasoning – $0.45
• tomato juice – $1.55
• 2 cans of chili beans – $0.79 each
• 2 cans of kidney beans – $0.79

I grew up eating chili that did not have noodles in them. So naturally, that is the type of chili I make. We visited a friend a couple of months ago who served our kiddos noodles with their chili. Miss B loved it! So, of course, she asks now for me to make elbow macaroni noodles with chili (her favorite food). We had a box on hand. But if you don’t have elbow macaroni on hand and would like to use it with your chili a box at Aldi typically costs around $2.09. We also eat crackers and cheese with our chili. These were items we also had on hand.

There you have it!

I hope you found a meal you can use! Check out my $49.35 six-day meal plan and 8 important tips to remember the first time you shop at Aldi.

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