March Budget Family Meal Plan - Week 2

March meal plan, week 2
Total food spend $100.70

Cooking from scratch is cheaper than convenience packs.

It's an age old debate that will probably never be definitively proven across the board. I can give you a number of meal examples that are cheaper to make from scratch and I could probably match that with an equal amount of meals that are not. The biggest downfall in convenience cooking is that it limits you in choices.

When you work primarily with base ingredients rather than premixed packs, you’ll find you have a broader range of meals to build on while spending the same if not less.

A bag of flour becomes a batch of biscuits, a cake, scones, sauce thickener, roux, bread, a crust, a batter….the list goes on. A premixed cake mix, on the other hand, becomes...well...some form of cake, one cake. Sure, you can vary it slightly but ultimately, it's going to make the same sort of thing.

A packet of taco seasoning will give the same flavour, no matter how you use it, where a selection of herbs of spices has unbridled potential.

And, a lasagne is a lasagne whereas its individual ingredients can be So. Much. More.

Buying whole chickens rather than fillets or pieces can work out much cheaper. Even better if you decide to make your own stock as well.

Dinners:

Lunches: ham, shredded chicken, mayo/mustard, lettuce sandwiches. Leftover burritos.

Snacks: apples, grapes, carrot sticks, date and oat balls, fruit scrolls, raspberry coconut biscuits, corn chips.

Breakfast: cereal, oats, toast.

More meal plans: March meal plan week 1
2 weeks of dinners for five budget meal plan #1
                                            budget meal plan #2 
                                            budget meal plan #3 
$200 in 2 weeks - The fresh start/empty pantry challenge