Budget-Friendly Meal Plan Week 1

Below you’ll find the Budget-Friendly Meal Plan for week 1. You’ll find six dinner recipes, three lunch recipes, three breakfast recipes, and two dessert recipes. There are only six dinner recipes so you can have one night a week be “leftover-night” where all the leftovers are used up. I designed this meal plan to have only two lunch recipes so it’s less time in the kitchen prepping and creating for you and the serving sizes should be large enough each lunch will cover TWO-THREE days worth of lunches. We gotta love those leftovers, right? #budgetfriendly at it’s finest! Similar to the lunch recipes, the three breakfast recipes will help save you prep time in the kitchen (instead of a brand new recipe for each morning of the week!) and one recipe will cover two breakfasts. Lastly, we have desserts/snacks! I have included two healthy-ish dessert/snack recipes for you to serve when you need it.

HOW THIS WORKS:

Each recipe you’ll need is listed below. To print the recipe card, simply grab the link and it’ll bring you right to it. There’s a small “print recipe” at the top of each recipe, making it easier to efficiently print all recipes rather than scroll all the way to the bottom of the post!
Print off the printable PDF for the meal plan AND the grocery list.
Check your pantry/fridge/freezer BEFORE you go grocery shopping and make adjustments as needed.

SOME TIPS FOR YOUR MEAL PLAN

Look over the grocery list prior to shopping and check your pantry/fridge/freezer to see if you already have any ingredients listed on the grocery list. Cross them off if you do!
Check the meal plan against your upcoming week’s calendar. Adjust the meal plan to anything you may have coming up that week.
The meal plans have Sundays as ‘Leftover Day’. Any leftovers still in the fridge get served on this day (or any day that you choose to do this on). Have fun with it and serve them in a Smörgåsbord style!
A couple of the recipes say ‘Instant Pot’, but if you don’t have an Instant Pot, don’t worry. Most of them will have stovetop or crockpot instructions as well. If they don’t, it’s pretty easy to convert them, or just drop me a message and I’ll send you easy stovetop instructions!
Below I’ve listed the main dinner recipe, but if you take a closer look at the printable card some of these dishes have ‘sides’. For example, the Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken has broccoli and a baked potato for the side. (Of course, you can adjust this on the menu, but be sure to also adjust the grocery list.)
Trying to be as budget-friendly as possible, a couple of the meals will share the same extra toppings. The Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken and the Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas Tacos will share the cilantro, avocado, and dairy-free mozzarella cheese. And the 30 Minute Turkey Taco Soup and the Gluten-free Pepperoni Pizza Pasta will also have the dairy-free mozzarella cheese! Using up the entire package so nothing goes to waste!