Need inspiration and ideas of what to feed your family? Here’s my most recent menu plan for our family of six. It includes lots of great recipes and cheap meal ideas!
If you are new to my budget menu plans, it might be helpful to know a few things first:
Our family of six consists of two adults, an 11-year-old boy, a 7 ½-year-old girl, a 5 ½-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy. All of our kids have hearty appetites and tend to eat more than many kids their age.
Having a stockpile saves me money. If an item that we use goes on sale, especially if it’s a particularly good sale, whenever possible I try to stock up.
Sometimes the saving seems small- it may only be $0.25 an item. But doing that with multiple things does add up rather quickly! Then when I plan my menus, I first look at what I have in my cupboards, fridge and freezer and try to plan as many meals around that as possible.
I use my freezer a lot. I freeze so many foods to extend their shelf life- everything from cottage cheese to zucchini to onions! Another thing I like to do is cook up extra meat, rice and even things like soup and then freeze them to save time later. Both of these things help save me time and money too.
I cook almost totally from scratch. That means when I a cake, I make it from scratch. I rarely use pre-packaged sauces. I make my own cream soups, homemade Bisquick and pie crusts. Making my own food is typically less expensive and healthier too.
We rarely snack. By eating hearty 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 Homemade Granola or Baked Oatmeal, the occasional bought cereal and sometimes some fruit too. I know that might seem awfully boring to some of you, but the simplicity of it works well for us. I also have a homemade iced coffee, homemade frappe or some other fun beverage like Warm Vanilla Custard every afternoon.
A little side note: I occasionally get asked why I only do two weeks for these menu plans instead of four weeks. To be honest, it’s mainly for my own convenience. Keeping track of everything we eat gets to be a little tedious. So only doing it for two weeks helps me not get bogged down with it.
It also is a bit time-consuming to type these menu plans up and add all the links etc. So again, doing just two weeks helps keep it more manageable for me. The good news is that I have 45+ budget menus already on my site, so if you want more ideas or inspiration for a full four weeks, there are plenty available!
BUDGET MENU PLAN FOR A FAMILY OF 6
WEEK ONE
Sunday
- Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup; Cheese; Carrot Sticks
- Homemade Grilled Tuna Salad Sandwiches; Easy Fruit Smoothie; Homemade Popcorn
Monday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Yogurt; Grapes; Apples
- Curry Chicken and Rice Soup; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch Dressing; Homemade Chocolate Brownies
Tuesday
- Refried Bean and Cheese Quesadilla (used my homemade refried beans); Yogurt; Apples; Clementines
- Skillet Lasagna; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch Dressing; Leftover Homemade Chocolate Brownies
Wednesday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Yogurt; Bananas; Clementines
- Country Potato Soup; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch Dressing; Pumpkin Crunch Cake
Thursday
- Zucchini Fritters; Yogurt; Frozen Blueberries; Canned Peaches
– I can’t find a recipe quite like mine for the Zucchini Fritters, but if you Google you’ll find lots of recipes that are somewhat similar that you’ll probably enjoy as much as we do these. - Cream Cheese Potato Soup with Ham; Lettuce Salad with Store-Bought Dressing and Homemade Ranch Dressing; Leftover Pumpkin Crunch Cake
Friday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Yogurt; Frozen Blueberries; Canned Peaches
- Various Leftovers; Green Beans; Store-Bought Cookies
Saturday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Yogurt; bananas; clementines
- Speedy Spanish Rice & Ground Beef Skillet; Peas; The Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars
WEEK TWO
Sunday
- Various Leftovers
- Cheese; Carrot Sticks; Clementines; Popcorn; Apple Goodie (my recipe is similar to this one) with Ice Cream
– The popcorn and apple goodie were shared with some friends that we invited over for the evening.
Monday
- Easy Pepperoni Pizza Quesadillas; Yogurt; Canned Peaches; Frozen Blueberries
- Easy Ground Beef and Rice Skillet; Lettuce Salad with Store-Bought Dressing and Homemade Ranch Dressing; Doughnuts
Tuesday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Yogurt; Bananas; Frozen Raspberries (we grew)
- Chicken Nuggets; Baked Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes; Peas
Wednesday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Yogurt; Bananas; Frozen Blueberries
- BBQ Chicken served over rice; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch Dressing; Apple Cinnamon Crumb Bars
Thursday
- Zucchini Fritters; Yogurt; Clementines; Canned Peaches
– I can’t find a recipe quite like mine for the Zucchini Fritters, but if you Google you’ll find lots of recipes that are somewhat similar that you’ll probably enjoy as much as we do these. - Creamy Sausage and Pasta Soup; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch Dressing; Leftover Apple Cinnamon Crumb Bars
Friday
- Refried Bean and Cheese Quesadilla (used my homemade refried beans); Yogurt; Canned Peaches; Grapes
- Cheeseburger Casserole; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch Dressing; Crumbly Pumpkin Bread
Saturday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Yogurt; Grapes; Frozen Blueberries
- Sausage, Lentil and Rice Skillet Meal; Green Beans; Leftover Crumbly Pumpkin Bread
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