I swear to God, I have never saved so much money as I did when I started meal planning. And I still do, every single week! Planning out your meals, whether it’s on a weekly basis or on a monthly basis is going to save you a lot of money, I can guarantee it! Want to know how? Click here to read my first post all about meal planning. And if you’re committed to trying it out, then read below and leave me a comment about your experience!

For the coming week, I’ve chosen the following meals:

Penne with Rosé Sauce and Salad

Slow Cooker Curry

Homemade Pizza

Tex Mex Casserole (Oh She Glows)

Stuffed Potatoes & Pan Fried Tilapia

Pad Thai with Shrimp

Macaroni & “Hamburg”

After choosing 7 meals, I start making a list of all the ingredients I will need for those recipes, and then make a note of which ones I need to buy (indicated in bold)

• Butter
• Garlic
• Onion x2
• Tomato Sauce x2
• Cream
• Parmesan
• Penne
• Sweet Potato
• Broccoli
• Chickpeas
• Diced Tomatoes x2
• Coconut Milk
• Quinoa
• Ginger
• Tumeric
• Tamari / Soya Sauce
• Chili Flakes
• Active Dry Yeast
• Olive Oil
• Flour
• Sugar
• Pizza Sauce
• Topping = leftover veggies from other meals*
• Cheese
• Chili Powder
• Cumin
• Paprika
• Cayenne
• Coriander
• Red Pepper
• Orange Pepper
• Corn
• Black Beans
• Rice
• Tortilla Chips
• Potatoes
• Sour Cream
• Ranch
• Garlic Powder
• Instant Noodles
• Sesame Oil
• Rice Vinegar
• Sriracha
• Peanut Butter
• Honey
• Carrot
• Eggs
• Chopped Peanuts
• Macaroni
• Tomato Soup
• Yves Veggie Ground Hamburg

This list might seem a little long, but if you keep your cupboards stocked – or if you do stock piling like me – the cost to make these meals is very low! Here’s what my grocery list looks like:

• Cream
• Red Pepper
• Orange Pepper
• Tortilla Chips
• Instant Noodles
• Eggs

I may add one or two fruits or vegetables as extra snacks, but we still have half a crate of tangerines from last week and lots of grapes so we probably don’t need anything extra this week.

Do you want to know how much we spent?

A grand total of:

$27.03 (Including 4 bottles of juice that were on sale!!)

That is a whopping $73 less than I normally budget for every week!! And you know what’s great? You can do it too! Leave me a comment below with your favourite part about meal planning, or even better, your biggest challenge when it comes to meal planning.

 

Frugally yours,

Carmen from Tiny Adventures

 

If you need help with meal planning, you can view the services I offer by clicking here.

Services // Meal Planning Sessions