I’ve always wanted to do this thing they call meal plan and to be good at it, but the truth is I have just recently got the hang of it. When I go grocery shopping I want to buy all of the things we like. I mean all of the things. Our budget is so tight that when I would go shopping without intentionally planning our meals, we would spend too much money and things would go to waste. For instance, our daughter would eat fruit for every meal every day if she could so if I saw that there was a deal on strawberries, even though they weren’t on my list, I would put them in the cart. I would get home with several different fruits and not all of it would be eaten because there would just be too much.

This week when I went grocery shopping, I had a plan and I stuck to it. For the first time ever, we stayed within our grocery budget! Who woulda thought?

Today I want to share with you what I have found to work best for our family of five on our tight budget.

We love Food City but they are so dang expensive. There is a Kroger right down the street and I have found that they are the cheapest way to go. They have an app for digital coupons and we usually grab a sales paper each week. Our Kroger card saves us a ton of money on our groceries and on gas at the Kroger gas station.

Our biggest challenge is having enough food to last all five of us all week. I bought a huge bag of cereal yesterday and by the time we all had a bowl this morning, there might be enough for two more bowls of cereal. I have to plan to have a few other (cheap) options available for the remainder of the week. Eggs and toast, .98 cent packs of muffin mix, or homemade pancakes.

This week our breakfast plans look like this:

• I bought one bag of cereal
• A gallon of milk
• Cinnamon raisin English muffins
• Eggs
• 2 packs of muffin mix— which will feed us one morning

I could (and I do) write down which days we will have certain meals. For example– Monday will be cereal, Tuesday will be eggs, Wednesday we will have muffins, and so on. But c’mon, kids can be difficult, especially of the mornings, and sometimes as the day goes on we don’t really want what we had originally planned on for dinner that night. We make adjustments as needed.

Jordan and the boys usually have cereal before they have to leave for work and school, but Klara’s breakfast will look like this this week.

We never buy cereal in a box, simply because it’s expensive and it won’t feed our family all week. Klara had been asking for Repunzel cereal and I always passed it up, but this week I saw that it was on closeout so it was super cheap!

This week our fruits are cutie oranges and Jordan’s favorite apples. Next week I can switch things up by getting bananas and strawberries or blueberries and grapes, etc.

This week’s lunch plans:

Kylan eats lunch in school, but I pack Jordan’s and Koby’s lunch. This week I bought Jordan his favorite brand of soups. He loves bologna sandwiches and Cheez-It Grooves as well. Something we both love are spinach salads so some days I will pack him one of those instead of a sandwich or soup.

Koby usually has a nutella sandwich and some sort of chips or crackers. He is autistic and has very poor eating habits, so his lunch is basically the exact same each day.

I am currently reading The Autism & ADHD Diet and am considering a GFCF diet for our family to better fit Koby’s needs. I will keep you updated with our decision, our pediatrician’s opinions, and whether or not it is suitable for us.

This is what was purchased for Klara and me for lunch this week.

• Tuna and tortillas for tuna wraps
• Fruit
• Grape tomatoes— which are also for dinner
• Skinny Pop popcorn
• Pretzel goldfish
• Pineapple juice and juice boxes

This week’s dinner plans:

• Chicken wraps
• Our all-time favorite tacos
• English muffin pizzas
• Chicken nuggets

What are some of your tips and tricks for staying on budget? We would love to hear them!