How I Create A FRUGAL & HEALTHY Meal Plan 🌟 The CHEAPEST HEALTHY Foods at the Store #mealplan #meal

I don't know if I'm the only one that feels like I deserve a medal after I go through the grocery store and find everything that I need it is definitely nap time getting food on the table for your family every day is hard and it's difficult and you're doing it and I'm really proud of you hey y' welcome back to homade simple if we've not met before I'm Lori I'm really glad that you're here today because I want to talk to you about a stepbystep guide to helping you create a very familyfriendly and budget friendly meal plan I know that as the channel grows the demographics of the channel are changing just a little bit and I know that there are several younger people who are watching the channel that may have absolutely no idea about how to begin making a meal plan for your family and also how to do it in a way that's going to help you be able to save more money on your budget week by week it's really important to start with the basics and understand ingredients and ingredient cost and what might be the best thing to add to your meal plan and what might really hinder you from reaching your financial goals if you implement and add things into your meal plan that are really expensive that can really cause you significant problems down the road so today I wanted to take you along with my process of creating a weekly meal plan that's going to help feed my family good nourishing meals but also try to keep the cost as as minimal as possible I have $50 here that's going to be the amount that I'm going to try to spend this week at the grocery store for our meals for Monday through Sunday so I'm going to talk with you about the ways that I'm going to plan out my meals the things that I try to think about the things that I try to focus on and some of the things that I really try to avoid if at all possible to make sure that I'm able to meet those goals so we have a lot to talk about to today let's get started the first thing that I try to do is think about my week and the things that I have going on that might impact meal times and might impact the time that I have to make the meal each evening so like this week is a pretty busy week on the front end I don't really have anything going on on at the end of the week so that will be really helpful for me to know at the beginning on Monday I'm definitely going to have to have something that's either easy to prepare quickly or I can throw into the crockpot without any trouble in the morning and then the crockpot can do all of the work knowing what's going on in your week ahead of time and sort of planning your meal plan around that is really going to be helpful that's going to help me know how many easy crock pot meals I need to have on my meal plan and also maybe if I have a get together that I need to take a meal for or something else that's going to affect the groceries that I need to purchase I need to make sure and have that in mind at the very beginning of the process the next thing I need to do is head to my pantry and see what kind of things are already readily available that I can Source from my refrigerator freezer and Pantry without having to spend extra money this week I just spent a lot of time cleaning cleaning out my pantry which is a perfect place to start if you are beginning your meal plan I know that a lot of the things that we have are going to vary from Pantry to pantry and you may have a very stocked up healthy nourishing Pantry already and then others may have an empty Pantry that needs to be restocked but going through your resources and knowing what you have in your pantry is a really good second step in creating a Frugal but nutritious meal plan the third thing that I like to do is just to take a look through my recipe books this is a book that my mom made for me when I got married I use it as a really good resource to have some good easy meals I have also added some recipes throughout the years and this is one of the best resources that I have I have also created my own handwritten cookbook I like to use it a lot I keep it over here usually it's going to be open to a recipe that I use a lot but this is also going to be part of my plan looking through these cookbooks if I still need a little bit of help I have picked up a couple of new cookbooks recently and I can take a minute and look through them this is a really good cookbook if you don't have this Prairie Homestead cookbook I would highly recommend it especially if you like to make homemade foods that are not really difficult don't have a ton of ingredients I would highly recommend this I will link it down in the description box so that you can check it out for yourself but I really get a lot of use out of this cookbook you can see that it has been very loved and is very used so having cookbooks and good resources in your kitchen is really helpful if you don't have very many cookbooks and you haven't begun stockpiling recipes for your family yet using your phone and going on to Pinterest is a really good place to start YouTube has a lot of good meal prep ideas as well there's several good channels that I will link down in the description box as well that will really help you feed your family on a minimal budget as well as a couple of playlists that I have compiled for you I will link those down in the description box below as well so you have tons of resources and now is the time to begin using those resources so that you can create the best meal plan for your family on as little of a budget as possible my family got me this planner and I have really enjoyed it what I really like about it is it has a place for each meal each day of the week it's got a place for some notes for me to remember that I might forget throughout the week if it wasn't here and also it's got a removable grocery list so it's perforated right here I can write the groceries that I need in order to finish compiling all of the ingredients for the meal plan and everything is just easily kept in one place I really like this meal planner I will link one down below that will help you to create your own meal plan it might not be exactly like this one haven't been able to find this one on Amazon in a while but I will definitely link one that is very similar let me show you how I like to use mine I start by writing the things that I already know so a lot of times our breakfasts are already taken care of usually we will have oatmeal or scrambled eggs I can go ahead and write that down in the different days and normally there's not a lot that I need to do for breakfast I have most everything that I need for most of these meals but I do know that there are a couple of things that I need to pick up that I have run out of or we need to replenish so as I go along I try to think of all of the ingredients for a particular meal and go and check in the pantry and the refrigerator and freezer to see if I have those items available and if I don't have those ingredients I go ahead and add them to my list as I go along lunch is also another thing where I try to keep things very simple and normally what we have is either sandwiches or leftovers and I try to keep lunch and breakfast very simplistic and put most of my focus on the meals I'm just going to go through and write a couple of ideas down for lunches and then I'm going to move on to the meat of my meal plan which is always going to be dinner on Sunday I do try to have a nicer meal if it's at all possible sometimes we just end up eating sandwiches or leftovers Sunday as well but I know that I have a pork roast in my freezer and I also know that I have green beans in my pantry so this is going to be a zeroc cost meal for this week so I'll go ahead and put it in there and that will ensure that we have a plan for those ingredients that I already have so in my freezer I just looked and noted that there was a whole container of chicken probably about 3 pounds of chicken there was that pork roast that I have scheduled for Sunday and there were several packages of kilosa sausage all of that was there from when the tornado was here and all of our food was moved to the freezer instead of the refrigerator trying to preserve it fortunately Ely everything stayed cold enough that we didn't lose a lot of food except in the outside freezer and refrigerator so I'm not going to go out there and check anything there all of that has to be thrown away but we do have a lot of resources available there in the Deep Freeze that's going to allow me to be able to save money this week on my meal plan I know that you may not have that stockpile and I don't always have it either but as we go along through throughout the year and in different weeks whenever we find things that might be on sale or we have a little extra in the budget that's a great way to use those resources to stockpile some extra food for weeks when we're really running low on cash and need to spend as minimal amount of money as possible on the groceries so that's sort of where I am this week I have a lot of extra resources available to me in my pantry and in my freezer but I'm going to talk to you you about ways to implement a very frugal meal plan even if you don't have any resources available at all so this is a really good foundation for the meals that we're going to have this week so I know that I have plenty of meat and shouldn't have to buy any meat at all and that's really going to be helpful but when we get to the store I'm going to talk to you a little bit about good healthy meals that you can make with inexpensive protein ingredients right now I'm just going to try to think about what I know how to make using these ingredients and then we'll go to the store and buy the extra ingredients that I do not have on hand and have to pick up from the grocery store [Music] okay I have all of my menu planned out and ready to go got my grocery list here also I'm going to ask my family before I go to the store if there's anything that they might need for me to add to this list and then we're ready to head to the grocery store to get the few items that I do need to finish having all of my ingredients now deciding what grocery store to go to does play a big role in how inexpensively you can feed your family I have a lot of different choices here where I live I can go to the very local family-owned grocery store and that store is usually for last minute things that I have forgotten to add to my grocery list I try not to go there on a regular basis because the prices are not competitive at all and their produce is really not up to par with the other options that I have available so I do not normally use them as a as my first go-to I have Aldi as well as Walmart and I have a Costco and a Sam's Membership I got both of those very inexpensively and I use those on a regular basis but certainly if I only have a few ingredients to purchase I'm not going to spend my time going over there and battling all of the crowds to go to Costco or Sams when I just need a couple of things to get me by this week we have a lot going on at the beginning of this month and so I don't want to go and stockpile a lot of ingredients when I'm really going to be busy and I'm not going to have a lot of time to devote to using them so I just want to keep my meal plan very simple and that's a really important part of this this meal planning process I find usually Aldi is the best place for me to go to get the most bang for my dollar at the grocery store Walmart comes in a very close second and then another Regional grocery store like we have wind Dixie and Publix here in Alabama those are really not good choices unless you can only shop on their sale ads and get the things that are really inexpensive and then walk out without buying any impulse purchases so I'm going to go to ALDI and check off all of these items on my grocery list at Aldi that will be the most cost effective and time efficient option for me and my family okay here we are at Aldi I need to get several items that I did not have in my pantry or freezer for our weekly meal plan and while I'm here I wanted to take the time to talk to y'all about some of the really Frugal friendly nutritious items that you can find at the grocery store that will really pack the most nutritional punch for the dollar that we spend and when we're talking about a Frugal meal plan for our family that's really what we want to focus on we want to focus on high nutrition and low cost and I know that that's really difficult and I know that it takes a lot of extra effort and a lot of brain power to do that I'm next week going to share with y'all a very frugal meal plan that I have created for my family this week I'm going to go through through the steps of making those meals and showing you what I do at home to try to save as much money as I can so stay tuned for next week's video I'm going to have an in-depth detailed meal plan for you I'm going to try to keep it under $50 nowadays there's really no telling about how much it's going to end up costing but it should be at least less than $10 a day that you can feed your family good nutritious foods for at least $70 to $100 a week I know that's difficult and I know that it's going to take some extra effort but we can do it so today I want to go in the store and talk about some of the items that are really going to be helpful for you to add to your pantry your freezer and your refrigerator to be able to store up good healthy nutritious food that's also not going to break the bank when you do it having a good stockpile is really important we'll talk about that again later but for now we're just going to go through through the aisles at Aldi and talk about some of the nutritious food items that we can buy for as little money as possible where am I go to put my groceries [Music] no you ready to [Music] go you got everything yeah you ready I'm ready yes ma'am m in most stores you're going to begin pretty close to the produce section and that is really a good place for us to start for a budget friendly nutritious meal plan as well I really like to focus on fresh fruits and vegetables whenever it's possible and being able to find the really good inexpensive fruits and vegetables available usually in season is going to be the best way to build a really healthy and nutritious meal plan without having to spend a ton of money so let's talk about some of the mus haves in a summer meal plan that's going to help us to fill our menu with very nutritious but also inexpensive ingredients bananas are a great item to put in your buggy when you are looking for nutritious and inexpensive meal ingredients they are so full of healthy antioxidants and vitamins and minerals at such an inexpensive price they really are hard to beat although the price bananas stays pretty stable throughout the year strawberries are an ingredient that really does fluctuate in cost from season to season we are finally getting to a place in Alabama where the strawberries are much more affordable they are really a good option now to add to a Frugal meal plan you can add them to salads have them as a side on any meal and also as a great snacking option and breakfast item and a really good item to pick up in the summer months grapes are another great ingredient to add to your meal plan because of the nutritional value that they add to any meal having a fruit salad having grapes as a snack or again a side dish this is a really good option and during the summer you can find grapes for as low as 99 cents a pound which is a great deal fresh or even frozen spinach is another great option to add to a Frugal meal plan not only is it in expensive but it packs such a huge nutrition punch it is very versatile and is great for a nutritious budget friendly meal plan although lettuce sort of gets a bad wrap as being just a filler ingredient it is really high in folate vitamin A and vitamin K so it's actually a really good ingredient to add to your meal plan carrots are one of the least expensive vegetables that you can find and I really recommend that you add them to your weekly shopping list they are full of beta carotene which is very good for your eyes and your skin they are also very healthy for your heart to reduce cholesterol and to help you keep a healthy weight also they are very good for your digestive system carrots serve as a great opportunity to introduce your children to healthy nutritious ingredients without that major yuck factor at just over a dollar a pound apples are a great part of a healthy budget friendly meal plan they are very high in antioxidants which is going to protect our families from chronic and terrible diseases also they are very high in vitamin C and copper and a lot of other vitamins and minerals that it's hard to find in other places especially not at such a low price point so an apple a day really can keep the doctor away and it also can help you create a very nutritious and budget friendly meal plan sweet potatoes are another very inexpensive but nutritious ingredient to add they not only provide antioxidant protection but also are very good for your gut health as well as being great for our family's immune systems and brain health having sweet potatoes on our plates on a regular basis is going to be very good for our overall health and it's also going to be great for our overall budget I know that a lot of people say potatoes are a terrible food and that you should never eat them but I highly disagree vitamins and minerals and antioxidants are so plentiful in a potato and at0 50 cents or less a pound you really cannot beat the cost effectiveness of this nutritious food not only are they high in antioxidants and vitamins and minerals but they also are really good to help control your sugar levels and also Aid in healthy digestion so don't be afraid to add potatoes to your weekly meal plan and take advantage of all the nutrition and budget benefits avocados are are also a very costeffective and nutritious food ingredient they are very versatile you can use them for any meal breakfast lunch and dinner they are very high in healthy fats antioxidants vitamins and minerals and they can cost as little as 69 cents a piece also check the bags of avocados and see how much they are per fruit they might be an even cheaper option if you're new to avocados give them a try on a piece of toast with a little salt and you will not be sorry the nutritional benefits of tomatoes really cannot be overstated they are so full of vitamins minerals and antioxidants that they are just a total superfood although I would much prefer to have a homegrown tomato especially this time of year when it's really getting close to the time where we can have access to our own homegrown vegetables if you do not have access to a garden in your neighborhood then store-bought tomatoes are still feel a really good source of nutrition at a really inexpensive cost and as the warmer months go along you're going to find them to be even more and more affordable although fresh fruits and vegetables are really important part of a nutritious meal plan vegetables that are not freshly picked and are in a can instead are still really good nutritious options they also lend themselves to be very budget friendly most canned vegetables are packed just a day or two after they've been picked fresh from the farm so they are still very high in nutritional value while keeping those cost super low I really like to stock up on things like crushed tomatoes diced tomatoes cans of green beans and other vegetables that my family will eat you can make so many things with cans of garbanzo beans or chickpeas you can make delicious casseroles using canned vegetables and you can also make a lot of homemade ingredients with a base of a canned vegetable so make sure that you add several canned vegetables on your list on a regular basis to keep the cost as little as possible but still having high nutrition value canned fruits are also a really inexpensive option I like to keep a container of unsweetened applesauce in my pantry it's a really good snack for the kids and you can put it in those little pouches for much less than you can buy the pouches already filled peaches pears and oranges are also really good nutritious options to keep in your pantry and to have as either a side dish or an easy Frugal and nutritious dessert option I like to get the fruit in fruit juice instead of syrup to limit the amount of sugar now let's move to the breakfast aisle which is a place that we can either save or spend a lot of money I like to have oats in my pantry that's what Chris eats every single morning for breakfast not only is oatmeal very healthy but it is also a wonderful budget friendly Choice peanut butter is also a really good ingredient to add to your meal plan it's very versatile it can be used for breakfast lunch and snacks it will really increase the protein of any of those meals and it will do it at a very low cost check the ingredients in each peanut butter to decide which is the best option I like to try to minimize the ingredients list and also choose the one with as little sugar as possible peanut butter is going to be a great choice to add to your meal plan in order to save as much money and add as much nutrition as possible now let's talk a little bit about whole grains and options to add whole grains to our meal plan without adding a lot of cost whole grains are very important part of a well-balanced meal plan and quinoa is one of the best options available it is very rich in nutrient it contains vitamins minerals and antioxidants it's very helpful for Digestive Health and it's also known to lower the risk of coloral cancer so adding quinoa to your meal plan is a really coste effective way to add a huge nutritional boost to your meals also adding rice is another good way to add a significant nutritional value at a very low cost in general brown rice is going to be more nutrient dense than white rice but both are really great options jasmine rice and basmati rice are very affordable options that are easy to cook up and delicious to serve I think dried beans and lentils are one of the least appreciated but most beneficial Foods at the grocery store they are not only an affordable option but also they are very versatile in your meal plan they are perfect for a meat replacement in a meal to up the pro protein and nutritional value at a substantial cost savings my favorites are black beans but you can also find garbanzo beans kidney beans Navy beans lentils all of these are going to be packed with nutrients and at a fraction of the cost of other protein Rich ingredients they're also very beneficial for people who are low in iron and and for people who are seeking to have a Less meat Centric diet while pasta might not be my very favorite nutritious ingredient it is something to keep in mind whenever you're trying to create a nutritious instill Frugal meal plan pasta allows you to have a very good affordable base for many meals pasta is excellent to keep on hand to have in a pinch when you're making cassero or spaghetti and there are options that are more beneficial and nutritious than others the more whole grain you can afford when you're looking at pasta the better it's going to be for your overall nutrition content in a meal but even if you can just afford the least expensive pasta it's going to be beneficial for your digestive system as well as creating a basis for a good filling meal I have discovered chickpea pasta recently and we really like it it is a little bit more expensive than the regular pasta but it packs a huge nutritional punch and is also very high in protein so checking out all of the pasta options available at your stores is going to open up huge possibilities for your budget friendly meal planning you may have noticed that we haven't spent a lot of time looking at processed foods and that is because processed foods are very high in cost and very low in nutrition which is not what we're going for in a Frugal healthy meal plan so you are going to be able to have the most nutritious and affordable meal plan by creating those snack foods and baked goods that your family loves to eat as homade options buying things like flour sugar brown sugar nuts baking powder and spices and keeping them in your pantry on hand is really going to help you to create a very substantial filling meal plan without having to go to a lot of extra expense of course this is going to take time but whenever we talk about nutrition it is a very good valuable use of our time to create healthy foods at home as opposed to Outsourcing that to food manufacturers with as little as $5 to $10 per week you can keep your pantry well stocked with baking Goods that will allow your family to have delicious homemade food that is filling and nutritious oil is another really important staple to be sure to keep on hand I use avocado oil olive oil and coconut oil as my main cooking oils I also like to use butter in a lot of recipes and keeping all four of these on hand really helps to create healthy nutritious meals at a low cost the frozen food section at your grocery store is going to be a great place for you to find lowcost high nutrition items to add to your meal plan things like broccoli corn brussels sprouts asparagus mixed vegetables there are so many wonderful ingredient options to get in the frozen food section and it's one of the lowest cost ways to add fruits and vegetables to your meal plan be sure and don't skip out on the Frozen fruits as well you can really find some great alternatives to the fresh fruit over here in the Frozen Foods we only have a few sections in the grocery store to go but before we go I want to make sure and talk about all of the great nutritional and budget friendly Val values that you can find in the dairy section things like eggs whole milk whole yogurt sour cream cream cheese and block cheese are excellent ingredients to add to your weekly meal plan that are not only very versatile but they are also very high in nutrition the cost of these ingredients are going to vary throughout the year some of them are a lot more stable like butter and sour cream and some of them are very volatile like eggs and milk but no matter what the cost is at your local store you're always going to be able to get a lot of nutrition so the nutritional value that you're getting for almost any dollar that you spend in the dairy section is going to be well worth the expense let's finish up by talking about some of the meat options that are available in the grocery store that will not completely destroy a frugal food budget whenever we're creating our meal plan what we want to do is have as frugal of options as possible while still having good nutrition as the foundation of any meal and sometimes that means that we're going to have meatless meals on a regular basis but sometimes we'll be able to find very frugal options in the meat department that will allow us to have high protein highly satisfying meals without sacrificing our budget things like chicken and pork are some of the least expensive options available in the meat section when I was here at the grocery store this week I found a 10 pound bag of leg quarters for less than $6 but there's also things like porkloin that are regularly less than $2 a pound in my store as well as ground beef that goes a long way for $5 or less so having an open mind of the different meats that are available and creating your meal plan around those items that might be on sale on a particular week is really going to help you reduce the overall cost of your weekly meal plan keeping an open mind and being willing to try different cuts that you haven't tried before is really going to help you to be able to feed your family good nutritious food on the tightest budget possible I don't know if I'm the only one that feels like I deserve a medal after I go through the grocery store and find everything that I need and check out now it's time to load the car and get Lane home it is definitely nap time we did spend more than the $50 I was really hoping to stay under it ended up being $59 59 so I feel like that's pretty good all in all this was a really good trip I got some good nutritious food for our family I hope that all of this information is helpful and encouraging to you I never want to be overwhelming or make you feel like you're doing a bad job because you're not you're doing really good getting food on the table for your family every day is hard and it's difficult and you're doing it and I'm really proud of you thank you so much for watching today if you haven't subscribed to the channel I hope that you will go and do that also give the video a thumbs up and share it with anyone that you think might benefit from this information as well you liking and sharing the videos as well as subscribing really helps the channel to grow and I really appreciate all of your support thank you so much for watching today I hope you have a wonderful week I love you and I will see you again next time by I love you [Music]

Channel: Home Made Simple

Views: 7,685

Keywords: meal planning for the week, healthy meal plan, meal plan, how to meal plan, frugal meal plan, how to create a meal plan, daily meal plan, daily meal plan for all meals, food groups, fruit and vegetable, cookbook, meal, meals, save money, save by meal planning, meal planning made easy, healthy family meals, grocery haul, best meal plan guide, how to save on groceries, save on groceries, tips for eating healthy on a budget, how to meal plan on a budget, home made simple, food

Id: V4zdR39Cu3c

Length: 33min 48sec (2028 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2024