Dinner Archives - I Heart Frugal

How To Create a $40 Meal Plan Your Family Will Love

Plan your meals for two weeks for under $40! Your family and budget will thank you! — $40 Meal Plan Your Family Will Love

This is my third round of bi-weekly dinner meal planning! However, this time it comes with a twist! Why? A fellow frugal friend needed help. She had to find a way to feed herself and her husband for two weeks, but the kicker was she only had $35 for food. Realizing the need for low-cost meal planning, my “$40 Meal Planning Your Family Will Love” was born.

Inspired by her situation, I wondered how many others out there could use low-cost meal planning. So my challenge for this round is to keep your grocery bill around $40. Hopefully, you have some items on hand and you will spend even less, but if you do not, you will come out right around $41.

This list is a dinner meal plan so let’s see how well we can do. Be sure to read until the end and click the printable grocery list to save you time and money! My shopping for this meal plan was mostly done at Kroger.

Keep in mind, if you are saving money on your groceries, you will be able to put money away for other important areas of your budget such as an emergency fund, savings account, or retirement fund.

Cutting your food costs is one of the easiest ways to put extra money in your pocket. Not to mention, my $40 meal plan will save your sanity because you will not be rushing around your kitchen, like a crazy person, trying to throw something together when your kids are hungry. This is not a fun situation for anyone!

10 Outstanding Ways to Save on Dining Out

Learn how to save money on eating out at restaurants.

Great food, ambiance, company, conversation…Who doesn’t like a good night out? Dining out with the family is a wonderful experience. The chef in your house gets a break and you can enjoy the company of loved ones. Yet, dining out can also be expensive and wreak havoc on your budget.

It would be fun to eat out often; however, it is not always sustainable financially. Nonetheless, there are sensible ways to eat out at restaurants for the occasional treat.

However, I do not recommend dining out often if you are on a budget. Yet going out once or twice a month using the tips listed below, will give you a fun endeavor and won’t break the bank. So pack up the kids and hit the town!

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February 18, 2017 by Sarah | Comments Off

Meal Planning, Save Money

What is a Split-Meat Meal? Eating on a Budget – Spaghetti & Tacos

SPLIT MEAT MEALS – Eating on a Budget

Split Meat meals – Spaghetti & Tacos

What is a split meal? Do you often cook dinners on a budget? If so, my split-meat meal idea is perfect for you! Make your spaghetti and tacos this week, using only one package of meat!

Split meat meals are great for families trying to save money on food and stay healthy. You are using half the meat for both meals and filling yourself up with other items such as vegetables or bread.

I started my split meals when my husband was buying our ground turkey from Costco. The packages of meat were bigger, so I would make two meals out of one meat pack! My two go-to meals for splitting are spaghetti and tacos! (Although you could do Chili and add extra veggies)

So my split meal is just that! I split the meat and drum up two meals with one meat package and meal prep.

This works best for a family of four with younger kids. My kids are ages six and four and do not mind if their spaghetti sauce or tacos don’t have as much meat. Plus if you start this when they are young, then they are used to eating their meals with less meat as they grow.

November 26, 2016 by Sarah | Comments Off