50 a Week Food Meal Plans Easy
$50 a week meal plan for a family of four includes a real food menu for breakfast, lunches, and dinners, plus a downloadable shopping list! It's a perfect plan for when money is tight, or use it to increase your savings.
Some people truly believe that the only way to eat healthy real food is to shop at high-end health food grocery stores like Whole Foods or Central Market.
However, this couldn't be further from the truth!
Real food is all around us and whatever the financial hardship you may have, I assure you that it's possible to feed your family real food on a tight budget!
To help you make this possible, I made you a $50 a week meal plan!
For the family who is trying to make healthy food work with a small budget, but aren't sure where to begin, it's exactly what you need! Whether you're saving for something big, working on a smaller income, or overspent in previous weeks and need to scale back, this meal plan can help get you (back) on track!
Here is how this week meal plan can work for you..
- This menu was created to feed the average family of four. If you're feeding more or less people, feel free to halve or double the recipes.
- Snacks and desserts are not included. If you MUST have snacks or desserts, I encourage you to use what you already have on hand.
- Spices (salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning) are not included. Most people have basic spices already, however, you can include them in your budget if you don't. The dollar store sells garlic powder, a salt/pepper combo for $1 and you can make your own Italian seasoning. Alternatively, leave them out of your meals.
- There is a meal planned for every breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but eating leftovers should be a priority. Not eating food you've already paid for and cooked is a waste of money. In order to stay within budget, you can't afford to waste anything.
- This menu is seasonal, for this reason, you have to adjust produce as necessary to fit the season you're in. Don't rule out frozen if it's less expensive.
Note
This menu is 100% real food, but it was not written to include organic, grass-fed, or any other qualities of real food. Of course, these things are great, but they're not required for a real food diet. If your budget is only $50 for the week, these qualities need to be momentarily set aside until your financial situation is more stable.
FAQs
How do I plan meals for a week?
Here's my meal planning process, and I'm also including my best tips to stick to the meal plan. For a sample of how I plan out my entire month of meals, check out this budget-friendly monthly meal plan.
Do you have the recipes?
Most recipes aren't linked because they are either very basic (i.e. peanut butter and jelly) OR the recipe can be found on the container (i.e. oatmeal). I've linked to recipes where they would be helpful. If you like to follow meal plans where every meal has a recipe, I think you would like this meal plan.
What meals can I prepare for the week?
Some of these meals can be prepared ahead of time, for instance, oatmeal, hummus and baked chicken. I recommend cutting fruit and veggies the day of, but sandwiches can be made ahead of time and frozen!
Weekly Meal Plan
Day 1
- (B) Oatmeal with fruit (you can use the slow cooker or the Instant Pot recipe)
- (L) Hummus with fruit and veggie sticks (carrot, apple, celery, and cucumber)
- (D) Baked chicken (it doesn't have to be chicken breast), corn on the cob, baked potatoes
Day 2
- (B) Potato (or sweet potato) and egg hash (or scrambled eggs)
- (L) Tuna salad with homemade crackers
- (D) Savory bacon, onion and greens pasta skillet
Day 3
- (B) Oatmeal with apples
- (L) Peanut butter sandwiches and grapes
- (D) Garden salad topped with chicken and bacon with buttered bread
Day 4
- (B) Oatmeal with fruit
- (L) Hummus with fruit and veggie sticks (carrot, apple, celery, and cucumber)
- (D) Minestrone soup with dinner rolls
Day 5
- (B) Potato and egg hash
- (L) Tuna salad with homemade crackers
- (D) Chicken sandwiches, roasted potato wedges, carrots
Day 6
- (B) Oatmeal with apples
- (L) Peanut butter sandwiches and grapes
- (D) Simple spaghetti (try my 15 minute homemade spaghetti sauce) and garden salad
Day 7
- (B) Oatmeal with fruit
- (L) Egg salad with dinner rolls
- (D) Veggie fried rice (you can also use brown rice)
I wanted to emphasize, if you're craving for dessert, try my homemade yellow cake mix. It's a simple dessert made with pantry staples and it's SO good!
Overall, I was able to buy everything needed for this real food menu for just $49.80 when I shopped my local circulars and Walmart.
It's important to realize, real food doesn't have to be expensive. It doesn't matter how small your grocery budget is – you can do this!!
More Tips for Meal Planning on a Budget
- Eating Real Food on a Budget
- How to Meal Plan and Make it Work
- The Secret to a Healthy Grocery Budget
- How to Make a Frugal Grocery Budget
- 25+ Cheap Healthy Meals (for under $10) | Don't Waste the Crumbs
$50 Weekly Meal Plan
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