Eating Healthy on a Budget

I’ve gotten this question a few times over the past week: What is the average cost of groceries for the menu plans?

And because I love to use way more words than needed to answer a question, here is a blog with a inside look into my brain. It’s just how I roll.

My hubs and I have been focused on our budget, as I know I have mentioned many times before. I would love to share with you our weekly routine and how we make our lives work with a focus on health and smart finances.

Because we are in the Dave Ramsey fan club (I’m not sure if that’s an official thing, so if it is…then we are not officially in the fan club. I’m just sayin we like the guy.) Our approach is with cash only spending. Similar to diet preferences, we all have our priorities. Money preferences and diet preferences are going to differ from person to person. Totally fine by me, as long as your doing something, right?!

We pull out our cash once a week and use it for groceries, entertainment, etc. Our grocery budget for the two of us is $100 per week. We eat out 0-1 meal per week. And….ahem…because I love math…here is the calculation that just came in my head:

$100/2 people = $50 per person 

21 meals in one week (7 days per week, 3 meals in a day = 21 meals)

$50/21 meals = $2.38 average cost per meal 

And, because our $100 per week also includes snacks, coffee, toiletries, etc….I like to think our “meal cost” is even lower.

Totally got off the topic there. The question was “What is the average cost of groceries for the menu plans?”

Because the dinner menus are what we ate for dinner for a week, you can bet they are budget conscious. I won’t send you to spend more money than I’m willing to spend myself. Eating healthy on a budget is possible. It really is. But something eating healthy and budgeting both have in common: you have to plan ahead!

I spent some time yesterday calculating the average cost of the grocery lists to the my best knowledge. And, granted, depending on where you live and were you are shopping…these costs are going to vary. I took pricing notes at my two favorite stores: Aldi and Sprouts (Sprouts is similar to Trader Joe’s if you are unfamiliar!) 

The average cost of groceries per list was between $64-$76. The meals feed about 2-3 people, depending on who you are feeding. We usually get enough for dinner for the two of us, and I eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. Once again in the name of math:

$64-$76 / 6 meals = $10.67-$12.67 per meal

$10.67-$12.67 / 3 people = $3.56-$4.22 per meal per person

Even better news, these prices are assuming you don’t have things that you may, in fact, already have (ex. salt and pepper, cayenne pepper, jar of chopped garlic, fat-free mayo etc.) This greatly reduces the cost of the week-to-week purchases.

So there you have it.  A closer view into the finances behind the dinner menus. Cheaper than eating out and I know what is going in the pan and can make sure it fits my health needs.

Take a look at what the dinner menus have to offer!