5 Easy Steps To Meal Planning On A Budget

Meal planning doesn’t have to be difficult. When you are starting out, it can seem overwhelming. I’m going to walk you through 5 easy steps to get you started. Make sure before you start that you set your budget. There will be some weeks that you will have to tweak your dinners because it isn’t budget-friendly.

This step is crucial. Sit down, think of all the dinners you cook, and write them down. When I did this step, I easily came up with 50 dinners off the top of my head. After I wrote them down, I took it a step further and sorted them by the meat. What I mean by that is I separated them by chicken, beef, pork, and other.

Way back in 2020. I know it wasn’t that far back, but man, doesn’t it kind of feel like it? I bought this robot vacuum. I had wanted one for a long time, and I got this one during a Black Friday sale. I wasn’t going to spend hundreds of dollars on one for my first one. I am still using this one over 2 years later. The great thing is it doesn’t have any trouble going from carpet to tile in our den/dining room. And, of course, being an 80’s kid, I named it Rosie. Now if I can figure out how to get it to do laundry. For those that don’t get the reference, Rosie was the maid robot from The Jetsons. 

Check out the sales ad for the grocery store you want to shop at. You want to check what meat is on sale first since it is generally what costs the most. Then you can see what sides are on sale. For example, if the chicken is on sale, you would get that and then pick a couple of chicken dinners for that week.

Now that you have written down all your dinners, picked how many nights you are cooking, and looked at the sales ad. You are ready to pick your dinners. Here’s a free printable to help you out.