Do you struggle with grocery lists and budgeting? Are you coming home from the grocery store with all the food and no idea what to do with it? No worries! I’m sharing my 2-week meal plan of frugal breakfasts, lunches, and suppers with you today!
I haven’t always been the best at shopping for groceries 2 weeks at a time, but I’ve learned the secret to conquering longer stretches of time between shopping trips.
The key? Have a meal plan.
A plan for every single meal for every single day within those 2 weeks. (Or 1 week, or 1 month, whatever amount of time works best for you.)
Sounds pretty simple, right? And yet it can be so challenging sometimes. Here are my frugal meals I did for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for 2 weeks. I hope it gives you some inspiration!
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2 weeks of frugal breakfasts
For breakfasts for this 2-week period, I made breakfast burritos! They take a little time to make because it’s essentially batch cooking, but it’s totally worth it to knock out 20 breakfasts in one fell swoop.
This time I made them with red potatoes, scrambled eggs, and pepper jack cheese. Plus some sauteed onions and a bell pepper from our garden. They’re pretty delish!
I’ve made them in the past with sausage also, but my husband and I aren’t big on sausage, so we opted for something milder this time.
I added more eggs and potatoes to account for the lack of meat, and it turned it well. I would definitely double up on the cheese next time, but they’re still extremely yummy the way they are.
I’m thinking of adding in maybe a strip of bacon to each burrito the next go-around, but that’ll depend on the budget and the meals I have to purchase ingredients for at that time, so we’ll see!
I was planning just to make these burritos for my own breakfasts for weekdays, which would’ve lasted me a month, which is amazing! But my husband decided they sounded good to him too, so we ended up splitting them.
Here’s the recipe if you’re interested. I’ve created my own version over the past couple of years, but this was the recipe I started out with.
These breakfast burritos will last us both 2 weeks, which is still a long time, and they’ll hold out until our next shopping trip too, so they work perfectly for my 2-week grocery budget.
Number of meals made: 20
Total cost: about $10.00
Cost per meal: 50 cents
2 weeks of frugal lunches
I did batch cooking for our lunches for the next week and a half too. Although I don’t think it counts as cooking really, more like assembly. Lol. Seriously, it’s that easy!
Baked ham and Swiss cheese sliders sounded good to me for my lunches, and my husband liked the sound of them too, so that’s what I made for this 2-week period.
They’re basically honey ham lunch meat with slices of Swiss cheese on oversized Hawaiian-style hamburger buns. I just assemble them on a cookie sheet and pour a seasoned butter mixture over top and bake. Easy-peasy!
Full disclosure: There were only 12 sandwiches with this recipe, so between the 2 of us, we’ll have to supplement with other lunches here and there. Which is fine with me so I don’t get burned out on the ham & cheese.
We happened to have several slices of leftover homemade pizza, so my husband is alternating between that and the sandwiches to last him the full 2 weeks.
Plus I’m thinking he might end up with an extra sandwich or 2 since they’re really rich to me. So I’ll probably eat some leftovers from suppers for any of my lunches that I need to cover for the rest of the 2 weeks.
These sandwiches are great to make and stick in the freezer for dinners too! They’re perfect for when things are busy or you just don’t feel like cooking.
Number of meals made: 12
Total cost: $10.84
Cost per meal: around 90 cents
Free 5-Day Surefire Money Makeover Challenge
Struggling with finances and need ways to start cutting costs and seeing savings ASAP? I’ve got the solution! Start my free 5-Day Surefire Money Makeover Challenge here by filling out this form:
2 weeks of frugal suppers
Okay, on to the suppers, which were NOT batched. But they are extremely frugal. Here’s my list of suppers for 2 weeks, in no particular order:
- Taco salad
- Salmon patties and roasted herb potatoes
- Breakfast
- Fish sticks and seasoned fries with tartar sauce
- Shrimp and corn on the cob
- Tater tot casserole
- Chicken nuggets and seasoned fries
- Challenge
- Treat
- Tacos
- Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic toast
- Ham and potatoes
- Breakfast
- Taco salad
- Tuna bakes
- Hamburgers
- Challenge
- Treat
Did you notice that there are 9 listed for each week? That’s because I wanted to make sure to account for lunches on Saturdays and Sundays, which I tend to forget about when I’m making my meal plan, but I did it this time!
Okay, so let’s talk about Challenge and Treat. But first, a quick secret: every week, there are 3 suppers that are always the same—breakfast, challenge, and treat.
Breakfasts for suppers
Breakfast meals vary. It could just be grabbing some cereal, fried eggs and bacon, biscuits and gravy, or scrambled eggs and waffles, etc. The possibilities are practically endless so it doesn’t get boring, and it’s super frugal!
Challenge nights
Challenge nights are basically get-your-own-supper nights. Sometimes we find something in the freezer or pantry to make for the both of us, but other times it’s just opening up a can of soup, having some ramen, a grilled cheese sandwich or PB&J, or that ever-popular bowl of cereal. It can also be a great way to use up any leftovers.
Treat nights
Okay, on to my favorite: treat night! This means we get to splurge and eat out for supper! It’s usually fast food because obviously that’s the most frugal, but if we have a gift card once in a blue moon, we love to do that too.
The best way to get the most out of treat nights is to take advantage of promotions and coupons. Not long ago there was a promotion at one of our favorite sit-down restaurants, and it was for my favorite dish which I order there every time, super exciting!
So I printed out coupons for both myself and my husband, and then we paid for our meals separately so there would be 2 transactions in order to use both coupons. We got shrimp dinners for $5 each. (And we both had leftovers.) That’s impressive right there!
So be sure you’re signed up for emails and texts from your favorite restaurants… you never know when an awesome promotion will pop up!
More regularly, we use coupons for Taco Bueno—if you don’t have Taco Bueno’s in your area, a moment of silence, and may I say I am truly sorry.
But seriously, they have BOGO coupons, plus my favorite: $5 off of $10. That’s a deal right there.
Another go-to is Little Caesar’s. We get the Extra Most Bestest pepperoni pizza and it’s pretty darn good. It’s only $6 for a large pizza with extra cheese and pepperonis. ?
PLUS, if you order online, you can use coupon codes, and they’ve had an active code for a free 2-liter of pop for months now. $6.50 after tax with a free bottle of pop? Can’t beat it. And there’s always enough left over for at least another meal.
FIERCELY FRUGAL: Having the right mindset is your best friend when it comes to creating frugal meal plans. Adopt a “challenge” mentality and brainstorm ways to stay within your budget. Scour your fridge, freezer, and pantry and see what you already have, then add a few ingredients to your shopping list to make use of those things. And always challenge yourself to make each dollar stretch. Try breakfast for supper or getting a cheap pizza one night a week!
2 weeks of frugal meals within budget!
So there you have my 2-week meal plan of frugal breakfasts, lunches, and suppers! If you want to see everything I bought, the prices, and where I shopped for the best deals, check out my 2-week grocery budget savings breakdown here!
Free 5-Day Surefire Money Makeover Challenge
Struggling with finances and need ways to start cutting costs and seeing savings ASAP? I’ve got the solution! Start my free 5-Day Surefire Money Makeover Challenge here by filling out this form:
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