Need some meal planning ideas? Here’s what our family enjoyed recently! Lots of tasty, easy recipes!
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As I was typing up my menu plan, I realized that it could look like I really slave away in the kitchen every day! And while I do make most of our meals from scratch here at home, I really often don’t spend a ton of time in the kitchen. For one thing, a lot of the time, I keep our meals very simple.
Take our lunches for instance. Half of them this time were meat and cheese sandwiches. Now I’m not a huge sandwich fan, but my husband and kids love them. So I’ve decided that I can deal with sandwiches (and have actually figured out ways to make them so that I kind of think they are good) if that means that they are happy and my life is simplified!
Another trick that I use is to make extra of things and then freeze them for use later. For example, I regularly cook up extra chicken, ground beef or bacon and then have it in the freezer to pull out for a meal whenever I need it. It saves me time on food prep and means I wash the dishes only once since I cook it all up at one time!
The Classic French Bread that we had Thursday night of the first week? I had actually made a batch of it several weeks ago and put the one loaf in the freezer. This week when I saw that the Shakshuska goes well with crusty bread, I was able to simply pull that loaf out of the freezer instead of needing to make or buy some.
By working smart and doing time-saving things like this, you can make your own meals at home without spending a ton of time doing it!
If you are new to these menu plans of mine, it’s probably helpful to know a couple of things first:
- Our family of five consists of two adults with fairly big appetites, a 7-year-old boy, a 3 ½-year-old girl and an 18-month-old girl.
- I buy lots of fruits and veggies in bulk from local farmers/orchards in the summer and then freeze or can them. This is not only much cheaper it is also healthier too.
- I have a stockpile. My cupboards are full from previous shopping and here’s why. When I can get pasta for free with coupons, I buy as much as I have coupons for. If I’m able to get flour for $0.50/bag like I did last fall, I’ll buy half a dozen and put them in the freezer to use as needed. I do this as much as my budget allows, on as many items as I can and as a result save lots of money. Then when I go to plan menus, I simply plan our meals around what I already have in my cupboards and freezer, as much as possible. Obviously, I still might have to buy a few things at regular price here and there, but by stocking up when the price is at rock bottom I save a lot.
- I cook almost totally from scratch. That means when I make a cake, I rarely use a cake mix. (Why should I when this yummy chocolate cake takes all of 5 minutes to mix up?) I make my own bread totally from scratch. I almost never use pre-packaged sauces. I make my own cream soups and pie crusts and lots and lots of other things. Making your own food is almost always less expensive and healthier too!
- We rarely snack. By eating “heavy” food like granola at breakfast we don’t get hungry until lunchtime. And the same goes for the afternoon. Our lunches are big enough that we usually are fine until dinner time. When we do need a snack, I try to keep it mostly healthy by offering fruit, nuts or maybe No Bake Energy Bites. We don’t always do it perfectly though, and sometimes end up having chips or cookies instead.
- Our breakfasts consist of Easy Homemade Granola or Baked Oatmeal, the occasional bought cereal that I was able to get for $0.50/box and sometimes some fruit too. I know that might seem awfully boring to some of you, but we actually all really enjoy it and prefer it over other breakfast food. I also have a homemade iced latte, homemade frappe or some other fun beverage every morning. It’s just one of the little things that I do to make my morning routine a bit easier and more fun!
Below you will find our lunches and dinners. (If we ate something other than our usual breakfast, I’ll note that too.)
Since it’s summer vacation, all three children are home for lunches right now and since my husband is currently only working 1 to 2 days a week, he joins us most of the time too.
The days that he goes to work, he takes a packed lunch with him that typically consists of sandwiches, fruit, homemade yogurt and sometimes random leftovers too.
Meal Planning Ideas
WEEK 1
Sunday
- Hot Dogs/Rolls/ Toppings; Potato Chips; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Peaches (I preserved)
– This was our son’s 7th birthday, so we took a picnic lunch to the park and spent the afternoon - Refried Bean & Cheese Quesadillas (used homemade Refried Beans); Easy Frozen Fruit Smoothies; Homemade Popcorn
Monday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Bananas; Frozen Blueberries
- Hamburger Zucchini Quiche; Green Beans; Homemade Applesauce
Tuesday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Bread; Potato Chips; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Home Canned Peaches; Frozen Blueberries
- Bought Pizza; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing; Homemade Applesauce; Homemade Robot Birthday Cake; Potato Chips; Turkey Hill All Natural Ice Cream
– After dinner, we had about 7 other people join us for a birthday party for our 7 yr. old. The pizza we had at dinner was part of my birthday gift. My husband kept asking me what to get me and I told him the only thing I could really think of was that he buy dinner for us several evenings to give me a break. Right now, extra time feels invaluable to me, so while it may sound strange, it really was the thing I wanted most! This was one of those nights that I “cashed” in on the gift!
Wednesday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Bread; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Home Canned Peaches; Frozen Blueberries
- Creamy Crockpot Mexican Chicken; Green Beans; Homemade Applesauce; Leftover Birthday Cake; Turkey Hill All Natural Ice Cream
– My parents were here for the day and ate with us.
Thursday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Blueberries; Grapes
- Shakshuka; Classic French Bread; Lettuce Salad; Homemade Applesauce; Leftover Birthday Cake with Crushed Strawberries
– My husband is studying Hebrew and into all things related to Jewish culture, so when I saw this recipe for Shakshuka, I knew I had to try it. It was quite tasty and while different than the food we normally eat, we all liked it! I did cut way back on the cumin though because my family isn’t into super spicy food.
Friday
- Fresh Corn on the Cob; Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Home Canned Peaches
- Invited to our neighbors for a cookout. We took 4 dozen fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and potato chips.
Saturday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Bread; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Home Canned Peaches; Frozen Blueberries
– I was doing errands and ended up getting my free birthday burger from Ruby Tuesday for my lunch! - Fresh Corn on the Cob; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing; Various Leftovers
WEEK 2
Sunday
- Invited away for lunch
- Invited to a last minute picnic supper with friends. We took potato chips.
Monday
- Leftover Creamy Crockpot Mexican Chicken; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Grapes; Bananas
- Hamburger Zucchini Quiche; Fresh Corn on the Cob; Homemade Applesauce; Leftover Birthday Cake
Tuesday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Bread; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Blueberries; Grapes
- One Pan Chicken and Rice; Green Beans; Homemade Applesauce; Turkey Hill Ice Cream
Wednesday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Bread; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Peaches (I preserved); Grapes
- Salsa Ranch Chicken Wraps; Lettuce Salad; Homemade Applesauce; Ice Cream Bars (got for free recently with coupons)
Thursday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Bread; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Peaches (I preserved); Grapes
- Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup; Cheese & Crackers; Brown Sugar Baked Peaches
Friday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Peaches
- Breakfast Sandwiches (Bacon/Egg/Cheese/Tomatoes on English Muffins); Lettuce Salad; Fresh Peaches
Saturday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Bread; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Home Canned Peaches; Frozen Blueberries
- BBQ Chicken Salad; Homemade Peach Cobbler; Turkey Hill All Natural Ice Cream
– We love this hearty chicken salad! Definitely a favorite here.
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Lisa Musser
That’s a great post. Thanks for sharing how you do it. $200 is really good for a family of 5. I would like to start couponing but we live in a small town with very few stores in the area to choose from.
ThriftyFrugalMom
Thanks, Lisa, for your encouragement! Yes, living in a small town makes it much harder to coupon, that’s for sure. I know I’m kind of spoiled with where we live. For instance, I have 4 CVS stores, 3 Rite Aids, 3 Giant grocery stores, 2 Weis Markets as well as several other stores all within 10 minutes of me.
Rachel
This is great! This is actually identical to our budget for a family of 4 and I admit I do struggle sometimes. I will try to put some of these into practice!
ThriftyFrugalMom
Yes, a $200 budget takes a lot of creativity at times! I definitely couldn’t do it if I didn’t coupon a lot. Glad this could give you some new ideas!