Looking for easy, budget friendly meal ideas? Here’s the frugal two week menu plan that our family of six has enjoyed recently! Lots of great menu inspiration!
If you read my menu plans regularly and are observant, you might notice something a little different going on for Sunday lunches.
We go to church Sunday morning and often don’t get back till 12:30/1:00. I don’t have an oven with time bake at our current house which meant that most Sundays, we were coming home from church and then trying to quickly make lunch.
It always felt like such a drag, even though we stuck with super simple recipes.
So I recently decided to try something new and started to make sure I have leftovers available for Sunday lunch! Now we just come home from church, heat up any leftovers that need to be heated and rather quickly have lunch on the table! We love it!
In fact, sometimes if I want leftovers for Saturday to make meals easy on that day too, I’ll intentionally double a recipe just so we have enough leftovers for both days.
So much of making menu planning work comes down to figuring out how to make it work for you and your needs. And I love it when I actually can figure out easy ways to do that!
New to my budget friendly menu plans?
It might be helpful to know a few things before reading further.
- The size and ages of our family.
Our family of six consists of two adults, a 12-year-old boy, an 8 ½-year-old girl, a 6 ½-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy. All of our kids have hearty appetites and tend to be big eaters. - 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 our 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. - We eat simple, filling breakfasts.
Typically we have either Homemade Granola or Baked Oatmeal, and occasionally some bought cereal and 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 a two weeks menu plan 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!
Get my FREE $50 Aldi Meal Plan here! It has 7 easy dinners for a family of 5.
WEEK ONE
Sunday
- Various Leftovers; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch; Bought Cookies
- Homemade Grilled Tuna Salad Sandwiches; Easy Fruit Smoothie; Homemade Popcorn
Monday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Organic Yogurt; Bananas; Mandarin Oranges
- Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala; Rice; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch; Homemade Chocolate Brownies
– I subbed whole milk for the heavy whipping cream in the Tikka Masala to make it more budget-friendly. It was still very tasty!
Tuesday
- Zucchini Fritters; Organic Yogurt; Frozen Blueberries; Bananas
– 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. - French Onion Soup (my recipe is similar to this one); Lettuce Salad; Leftover Chocolate Brownies
Wednesday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Potato Chips; Organic Yogurt; Canned Peaches; Mandarin Oranges
- Instant Pot Pot Roast, Potatoes and Carrots; Green Beans; Bought Cookies
– We rarely have roast because it tends to be more pricey than things like ground beef or chicken. But I found some roast beef reduced because it was close to the sell-by date and happily bought it!
Thursday
- Super Easy Pepperoni Pizza Quesadillas; Organic Yogurt; Bananas; Apples
- Simple Roasted Butternut Squash; Bought Chicken Nuggets; Green Beans; Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Friday
- Hummus/Carrots/Tortilla Chips; Cheese; Organic Yogurt; Apples; Frozen Blueberries
- Creamy Italian Sausage and Pasta Soup; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch; Leftover Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Saturday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Organic Yogurt; Bananas; Apples
- Various Leftovers; Peas; Fresh Apple Coffee Cake (the recipe that I used is similar to this one)
WEEK TWO
Sunday
- Leftover Italian Sausage and Pasta Soup; Green Beans; Leftover Fresh Apple Coffee Cake
- White Pizza Grilled Cheese Sandwiches; Homemade Popcorn; Easy Fruit Smoothies
Monday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Organic Yogurt; Canned Peaches; Apples
- One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese; Green Beans; Leftover Fresh Apple Coffee Cake
Tuesday
- Refried Bean and Cheese Quesadilla (used my homemade refried beans); Organic Yogurt; Bananas; Apples
- Sausage Gravy and Homemade Biscuits; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch Dressing
Wednesday
- Super Easy Pepperoni Pizza Quesadillas; Organic Yogurt; Bananas; Apples
- Homemade Breakfast Sandwiches (leftover Homemade Biscuits, eggs, cheese, bacon); Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch Dressing; Bought Cookies
Thursday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Organic Yogurt; Canned Peaches; Apples
- Speedy Spanish Rice and Ground Beef Skillet; Green Beans; Homemade Vanilla Pudding
Friday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Organic Yogurt; Frozen Blueberries; Apples
- Cream Cheese Chicken Soup; Lettuce Salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing and bought salad dressing; Leftover Homemade Vanilla Pudding
Saturday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches; Organic Yogurt; Frozen Blueberries; Grapes
- Easy Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing and Homemade Ranch Dressing; The Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars
– I subbed whole milk for the heavy whipping cream in the soup to make it more budget-friendly.
Emily
Yay biscuits! I don’t remember you posting that before! ? They are a staple here in Alabama.
Lydia Beiler
You are right, Emily. I’ve never posted about them before. 🙂 Can you believe that I’ve never made homemade biscuits until now? I guess I just am not southern enough! Ha. I’ve made drop biscuits and rolls before but never true biscuits. And I have no idea why! They’re so easy and so delicious. This recipe is definitely going to be a staple for us!
Jenn
I enjoy reading your posts but I have to ask, why do you call it “Mexican Dressing”? There is nothing Mexican about it. In fact, that is the same recipe that the grocery store sells called “Sweet Vidalia Onion.”
Lydia Beiler
You know, Jenn, I’ve had quite a lot of people ask that over the years since I first shared that recipe! And to be honest, I called it Mexican Dressing because that was just what we always called it. But there really is nothing Mexican about which does make it a bit odd and now I wonder why it got that name in the first place! I’m planning to redo that post and update the photos soon and I’m considering renaming the recipe to be a bit more clear on what it actually is!