Last week I posted about my $50 a week grocery budget and got a lot of positive feedback, so today I’m back with week two. Here’s my second meal plan and grocery list on a $50 weekly grocery budget.
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Hey friends!
Last week I posted about my $50 a week grocery budget and got a lot of positive feedback, so today I’m back with week two!
I’ve been working really hard to stick to this month’s total grocery budget of $200 and so far I’m right on track! I may not post weeks three and four here on the blog because I don’t want to be repetitious but I’ll be sure to post on social media (Facebook and Instagram) or update you in my weekly email if I was able to keep to my budget or not!
Some quick notes from last week:
Keep in mind that when I say grocery budget I truly mean just that. This does not include any paper products or anything like that. We budget those types of items separately.
To simplify my meal planning, I mainly plan for dinners and just keep some basic items on hand for breakfasts and lunches. (For help with your meal planning/grocery shopping, check out this post and snag my free grocery list printable!)
Note: I put an asterisk by items on the menu that we already had in the pantry or freezer. Obviously if you are starting completely from scratch you would have to spend a bit more than $50 to buy some of the basics.
Here’s week two’s menu with my $50 a week grocery budget! (Check out the menu for week one here.)
Week Two Menu on a $50 Weekly Grocery Budget
Breakfast options:
Cold cereal, Eggs, *Oatmeal, *Pancakes, English muffins
Lunch options:
Quesadillas, Leftovers, *PB & J sandwiches, Salad with chicken
Snack options: *Pretzels, Apples
Dinners:
For our dinners this week we already had some basics on hand such as cooked rice in the freezer, pasta in the pantry, lettuce in the fridge, etc. Also, I only planned for six dinners because we went out to eat one evening for our anniversary!
- Teriyaki Chicken, rice, broccoli
- Baked Salsa Chicken, salad
- Sausage Pasta
- Baked Potatoes with Turkey Bacon (the bacon was leftover from last week), green beans, fruit salad
- Sausage with Potatoes & Veggies (I follow this recipe for the seasonings but then add whatever potatoes/veggies I have on hand along with about half or less the amount of sausage that the recipe calls for)
- Southwest Salad
I feel like it’s important to mention here that we don’t always stick right to my meal plan – I might change which days we have which meals, or we may have something else easy that was in the pantry or freezer, or my husband may decide to randomly treat us to takeout (I love it when that happens!) 😉
BUT, even if we don’t stick perfectly to my meal plan, at least I made one and knew exactly what to buy at the grocery store. This keeps me from blowing my $50 a week grocery budget by running back to the store every other day for items I forgot I would need!
Grocery List
This week I bought a lot of fruits and veggies – you’ll see that they make up a big part of my list. This goes to show you that you CAN eat healthy on a budget!
I did most of my shopping at Aldi. If you don’t have one near you, check out this Kroger grocery budget post!
Aldi:
Chicken breasts – $8.16 ($1.89/lb)
Milk – $1.77
Eggs – $1.38
Cheddar cheese (16 oz. shredded) – $2.49
Orange juice – $1.99
English muffins – $0.49
Cereal – $1.39
Apples (3 lbs) – $3.89
Grapes – $2.51
Strawberries (2) – $1.98
Applesauce – $1.89
Broccoli – $1.39
Potatoes (5 lbs) – $2.39
Avocado – $0.59
Grape tomatoes – $2.09
Frozen green beans – $0.79
Tortilla chips – $0.89
= $36.08
Walmart:
Smoked turkey sausage – $2.78
Green beans (2) – $2.54
Bananas – $0.86
= $6.18
Grand Total = $42.26 (I’m under budget because I already had a few things on hand such as the turkey bacon as I noted above)
Thanks for stopping by the blog today! If you love the idea of meal planning and want to make it more of a habit, be sure to check out my Meal Planner and Recipe Binder, on sale for a limited time for just 5 bucks!
Check out some of my other meal plans + grocery lists here: $50 Week One // $50 Week Three (low-carb) // $50 Week Four (no oven) // $60 Week One // $60 Week Two // $65 Meal Plan // $75 Meal Plan // $80 Meal Plan // 5 Meals for $40 // $120 Two-Week Meal Plan
If you’re looking for more meal ideas, enter your email below to subscribe to my weekly emails where I always share my family’s meal plan for the week!
I love all of the ideas and the cost you have supplied. I’ve saved some of your recipes and can’t wait to try them. I appreciate the budget friendly aspect of them 🙂
Thanks Hannah! I really hope you find it helpful!
Thank you for the inspiration! I’ve been trying to reduce our grocery budget and it isn’t always easy! I love reading how you are doing it!
You’re so welcome! I totally understand, it’s not always easy!!
Great ideas here, I hate grocery shopping just because we always end up spending too much money. Thanks for sharing your tips
It always adds up fast, doesn’t it?!
We’ve managed to get our grocery bill down quite a bit by meal planning for an entire week. We make all of our meals on Sunday and put them in individual containers to make clean up a breeze! We’ve cut out cereals and sandwiches because we found they just weren’t filling and we’d end up snacking an hour later. We’ve saved a ton by intentional meal planning!
Wow that’s impressive! Doing meal prep work ahead of time is one thing that I would like to do better at. Sounds like you have an awesome system down!
Having the price for each item is super helpful, thanks! Especially since I shop a lot at Aldi. I love that your meal plan is simple and healthy. I’m going to try a similar budget when I go grocery shopping this week.
Oh good I’m so glad it’s helpful Maegan!
I like reading your meal plans and getting ideas of more meals to do. I tend to get stuck in a rut 😛
Yeah I get stuck in a rut a lot too!!
I would love to able to spend this way, but I love cooking different things and trying new recipes! Makes it hard to save money 🙂 I shop at Lidl, though, which really helps keep costs low. They also have this amazing place in Germany where you can get a giant box of fruits or veggies for 3 Euro! You can’t choose what’s in it, but it goes a long way! I think potatoes are also an inexpensive and healthy option that you can do so much with. Thanks for sharing your tips!
This is so helpful! I’m so excited to be by an Aldi again. They have such amazing deals.
Yes, Aldi is amazing!
Don’t mention anything about drinks or snacks. Not sure if fruits is your snacks. Your comment, please. Thank you.
Because this is a menu with a pretty small budget the only snacks are pretzels and apples. I did not budget for drinks other than milk and water.
My grocery list for 2 a week is no less than $100 usd, I meal planned but SCalifornia is very . I coupon , look for deals etc.
We are not overweight by far, we exercised , but seems that your meals are very skinny.
Thank you
Aldi has been tantalizing us here in the Florida Panhandle for more than a year now. First we were promised one store and now they’re talking about two. Enough with the press releases, Aldi. Get the things built and open the dang doors!!
Oh my! Look how the prices have changed. Curious if you are still sticking to this budget? Also, do your kids eat lunch at school or do you make their lunch? For a family of 5 we spend $100-$125 a week. That includes food for home and school lunches for 2 kids. I feel like we do pretty good, but there is always ways to improve it. Thanks for the post!
Oof they sure have! I should update this post and see if I could still keep it close to 50. My kids are currently homeschooled so they have all their meals here, but as a family of six now we spend more like 75 a week at this point. Thanks for your comment!