This post may contain affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products and services I use and love. Thanks for supporting The Little Frugal House!
Looking for an easy meal plan for the week ahead? In this post, I’m sharing our simple weekly meal plan on a budget.
Meal planning can help you eat at home more, spend less on food, and enjoy more time with your family. But, sometimes it’s hard to come up with a meal plan for the week.
I wanted to share our simple menu for the week to help you make your own meal plan.
If you want to learn more about meal planning, check out this beginner meal planning post.
Meal Plan for the Week
I’ll show you how I make an easy meal plan and our meal plan for the week.
How I make a meal plan:
First, I look in our fridge, cabinets, and freezer to see what we already have on hand to make meals with. I’ll add those meals to our menu first.
Then, I look at a list of favorite meals I have to add in the rest of the meals.
This is super easy to make – just list out your family’s favorite meals and/or meals you want to try. I like to organize these meals into different meat categories, to mix things up. And it’s easier to find a meal for the meat you have.
After I have all my meals listed, I make my grocery list based on just that meal plan. What groceries do I need to make these meals?
I’m trying to stick to a $75/ week grocery budget this year, so this helps me keep the list small and within budget. If I don’t have a lot on my list, I will look at the sale ad and add any great deals I find that I know we will use/eat.
I also leave a little room in the budget for any markdowns I see while I’m at the store.
So, that’s what my meal planning process looks like. It’s not complicated at all. I like to make our meal plan on Friday for the week ahead and get our groceries on Fridays, too, so I can start the week prepared.
Our Meal Plan for the Week:
Here is our simple meal plan for this week:
Follow me on Instagram to see what we make each night and my grocery store hauls!
Saturday:
Steak, baked potato, salad, bread
I found a marked down NY strip steak for about $5 last week, so I had that in the freezer. We had a lot of potatoes we needed to eat. I also found marked down salad mix and had some marked down Cheesecake Factory style bread in the freezer.
We split the steak between the two of us, and enjoyed a fancy steak dinner at home for less than $8 total. It was so good!
Sunday:
Fried Chicken with Biscuits and Gravy, Salad
I had been wanting to try this meal, and I figured a lazy Sunday was the perfect time to try it!
We had chicken in the freezer, so I just grabbed some refrigerated biscuits, and we had marked down salad mix.
Monday:
Chicken Alfredo Bake, peas
This is a new recipe that I have been loving! And it’s so easy!
Grill diced chicken, boil penne pasta, and then mix both with a jar of alredo sauce. Pour into a greased casserole pan and top with shredded Italian style cheese and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.
Tuesday:
Burgers and fries
We have some ground beef and hamburger buns in the freezer. I just use a small stovetop griddler to make burgers for the 2 of us.
And my new air fryer is so nice for yummy fries!
Wednesday:
Spaghetti, garlic bread
I made a big batch of spaghetti sauce last week, so we have that in the freezer. This is such an easy weeknight meal!
Thursday:
Tacos, chips and salsa
Tacos are so easy and nice for a quick weeknight meal! You can make this even quicker by making a double batch of taco meat, and freezing half for another meal. Then, just heat up the meat and dinner is ready.
Friday:
Italian grilled chicken, fried potatoes, green beans
This is such a yummy and easy chicken meal. I marinate chicken tenders in Italian dressing and grill them in a skillet until done.
We will use up more of the potatoes and some green beans from the freezer.
And that’s our super easy meal plan for the week! We don’t eat very fancy meals, but we do eat good and we save a lot of money by eating at home.
A few tips:
When you get ready to make your meal plan for the week, look at the food you already have on hand. Make as many meals from that food as you can to save on groceries.
Have a list of your family’s favorite meals to look at when making your meal plan. This will help you from feeling like you make the same things every week, and give you ideas as you make your menu.
Keep the meals simple, especially during the week. Don’t plan any complicated meals for nights you know you will be busy. If you want to try new recipes, aim to make those on the weekends.
Related Post: 21 Cheap Dinner Ideas
Make freezer meals to have ready to go, so you don’t have to cook from scratch every night.
Stock up on food when you see a great sale. Keep plenty of meat in your freezer, and grab things when you see them at their lowest price. Just make sure it’s food your family likes to eat.
See a great deal on frozen pizza or a frozen meal your family loves? Grab some and keep them tucked away for nights when your meal plan fails or you don’t have time to cook. You’ll still be able to eat at home and save money.
Related Post: Easy Monthly Meal Plan
Want someone to make a meal plan for you?
If you don’t have time to make a meal plan, or just wish someone else would come up with great meals and a ready to go meal plan for you, you are in luck!
My friend, Tiffany, from Eat at Home, has the best meal planning service!
And it’s affordable – pay just a little to get meal plans made for you, saving you time, and saving you money by allowing you to easily eat at home.
You get access to 4 meal plans each week in both a large and small family size, all the recipes, the ready to go meal plan, and a color coded shopping list. She makes it so easy to eat at home and save money.
You can check out her amazing meal plans here!
I hope this helps you make your meal plan for the week, so you can eat at home more and save money on food!
You can save so much just by eating at home, and planning meals can help you save time and money!
You might also enjoy…
